2Si CL AM£eV TRAVELS. 
Josephus, not the ancient writer and historian of that name, but 
a native of Tiberias, contemporary with the late emperor, Gob*! 
stantine the elder, who obtained from that sovereign the rank 
of County and was empowered to build a church to Christ in 
Tiberias, and in Diocmsarea, and in Capernaum, and in other 
cities.” 
The sera of its destruction may be referred to that of the 
city, in the middle of the fourth century, as mentioned by Re« i 
land,* upon the authority of Theophanes.f Phocas describes 
the city as totally mined, without exhibiting a trace of its 
original splendour-! Brocard, Breidenbach, Adricliomius, and 
even William of Tyre (who so often introduces an allusion to 
Sephoury, in mentioning its celebrated fountain,5 are silent as to 
the existence of this magnificent structure; although all of 
them notice the tradition concerning St. Joachim and St. Anne. 
MarinusSauutus,in his brief account of the city, notices the great 
beauty of its fortress,|| but is also silent concerning the temple. 
It is only as we approach nearer to our own times, that these 
stately remains obtain any notice in the writings of travellers 
visiting the Holy Land. Doubdan is perhaps the first person by 
whom they have been mentioned. He passed through Sephoury 
* The reader, after a fruitless examination of the pages of Adrichomius , and his 
predecessors, Breidenbach and Brocard , for an account of this city, may find, in the 
PalaestineotReland, every information, concerning its history, that the most pro¬ 
found erudition, joined to matchless discrimination, diffidence, and judgment, could 
select and concentrate. It is the peculiar characteristic of Reland’s inestimable ac¬ 
count of Palestine, a work derived from the purest original sources, to exhibit, in a 
perspicuous and prominent manner, the rarest and most valuable intelligence. Yet 
even Reland is silent as to the existence of this building; which is the more remark¬ 
able, as it seems obscurely alluded to by these words of Adrichomius, in speaking of 
^epphoris : 14 Videlur quondam cathedralem hakuisse ecclesiam : nam Tijrius , in Cala- 
\ogo Pontificum Stiffraganeorum Antiochenx Ecclesix, inter Episctpatus Selevcicc, Diocce- 
sarearn secundenomina, loco." Vide Adrichom. in Zabulon. iSTuin. 88. p. 142. Theat. 
Terr. Sanct. Colon. 1628. 
| u Anno asrae Christian® 339 destructa est urbs Sepphoris, ob seditionem civium* 
Ita rem narrat Theophanes, p. 33. Tourcp rw hti ot xarct IlaAaicrTivriv ’JouSaroi dv- 
rnpav’-xai ttoXXovs rwv aAAo*0vtov 'EAAnvwv ts xal Eapajfjrwv dvtrAov* stal guitoi <5* 
f?a t y c ym\ (Tra'yyjvn Oedrenus) wo tou arpctTS 'Pcojaai'oov dvnp«0Wav xal h.irokis auTtov 
Atoxaicrapsia ^(pavt'crOn. “ Hoc anno (xxv. Constantin) Judaei in Palaestind res 
novas 'hnoliti sunt , cxcitata seditions ; plurimisque turn Graecorum turn Samaritanorum in¬ 
ter emptis, ip si tandem omnes ab exercitu Romano internecione dcleti sunt , et urbs 
eorum Diocqesarea diruta Relandi Palaestina, lib. iii. de Urb. et Vie. in Nom Sep- 
phor. 
yilptoTMs ouv xara triv UroKenaYSa Icrrlv h Effipcop} irokis rvs FaAiAafas 7ravri} 
aoixos &he5ov AfrJ.avov rvs 7rpamv auTfis fu^aijuovi'aj jp{pafv«cra. “ Privia post 
Ptolemaidem urbs Gaiilaeae Semphori sitacst, prorsus inculta, atque inhahitabilis, ml - 
lumquefere pristinae beatitatis prae se ferl vestigium. Phocas de loc. Palaestinae, X. p. 
10. Leon. Allatii SXMMIKTA. ed. t Bart. Kihus. Colon. 1642. 
§ “Nostri autem qui apud fontem sephorit'anum, de que saepissiman in his 
iractatibus nostris fecimus meniioneni,” ,&c. Willermi Tyrensis Histor. lib, xxii. 
6. 26. 
|j 44 'De Nazareth ad duas leueas est Sephorum, unde beata Anna traxit origineffi 
cmpidum istud habet desuper castrum valde pulchrum: inde Joachim ortus dicitur,” 
Mafini Sannli Secreta Fidtlium Crucis, lib. iii. pars 14. cap. 7. 
