C.ESAREA. 447 
break. Pococke mentions the curious fact of 
the former existence of crocodiles in the river of 
Ccesarea \ Perhaps there has not been, in the 
history of the world, an example of any city, 
that in so short a space of time rose to such 
an extraordinary height of splendor, as did this 
of CcEsarea^ ; or that exhibits a more awful 
contrast to its former magnificence, by the 
present desolate appearance of its ruins. Not 
a single inhabitant remains. Its theatres, once 
resounding with the shouts of multitudes, echo 
no other sound than the nightly cries of animals 
roaming for their prey. Of its gorgeous 
palaces and temples, enriched with the choicest 
works of art, and decorated with the most 
precious marbles, scarcely a trace can be dis- 
cerned ^ Within the space of ten years after 
Ikying the foundation, from an obscure fortress 
it became the most celebrated and flourishing 
city of all Syria. It was named Ccesarea by 
Herod, in honour of Augustus, and dedicated 
by him to that Emperor, in the twenty-eighth 
(l) Pocochc's Observations upon the East, vol. II. p. 58. Land. 1745. 
(3) See the account of it in Josephus. De Antiq. Jud. lih. xv. e. 13. 
(the buildings were all of marble;) lib. xvi. c.d. Colon, IfitJl. 
(3) Herod caused the Tower or' Strata to be completely covereJ with 
white marble, against the arrival of Augustus. 
