The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Geography of Strabo, Vol. III., translated by H. C. Hamilton.

[536] These appear to be the rivers found in the neighbourhood of Roha or Orfa, the ancient Edessa. One of these rivers bears the name of Beles, and is perhaps the Basileios of Strabo. Chabur is the Aborrhas.

[537] Probably an interpolation.

[538] The passage of the Euphrates here in question was effected at the Zeugma of Commagene, called by Strabo the present passage. On passing the river you entered Anthemusia, a province which appears to have received, later on, the name of Osroene. It extended considerably towards the north, for in it the Aborrhas, according to Strabo, had its source; but it is doubtful whether it extended to the north of Mount Masius, where the latitudes, as given by Ptolemy, would place it. I do not exactly know whether Strabo intends to speak of a city or a province, for the position of the city is unknown; we only learn from a passage in Pliny, vi. c. xxvi., that it was not on the Euphrates. The word τόπος is not, I think, so applicable to a province as to a city, and in this last sense I have understood it, giving also to κατὰ the meaning of latitude, in which it is so often applied by Strabo; strictly speaking, the sense of “vis-à-vis,” “opposite to,” might be given to it.—Letronne.

[539] This is an error of the author or of the copyist. Edessa (now Orfa) is not to be confounded with Bambyce (Kara-Bambuche, or Buguk Munbedj) of Cyrrhestica in Syria, which obtained its Hellenic name from Seleucus Nicator.

[541] The Parthians became masters of Syria under Pacorus, and of Asia Minor under Labienus. B. C. 38.

[542] Artavasdes, king of the Armenians. B. xi. c. xiii. § 4.

[543] The text would lead us to suppose that Phraates succeeded Pacorus, whereas below, § 8, Pacorus, the eldest son of the Parthian king, died before his father, Orodes. Letronne, therefore, and Groskurd suppose that the words, “the son of Orodes,” are omitted after “Pacorus” above, and “his” in the translation would then refer to Orodes.

[544] See b. vi. c. iv. § 2, in which the motives for getting rid of these members of his family are not mentioned.

[545] Judging from Arrian (Anab. v. § 25; vii. § 9; iii. § 8), the historians of Alexander, as well as more ancient authors, gave the name of Syria to all the country comprehended between the Tigris and the Mediterranean. The part to the east of the Euphrates, afterwards named Mesopotamia, was called “Syria between the rivers;” that to the west was called by the general name Cœle-Syria, and although Phœnicia and Palestine were sometimes separated from it, yet it often comprehended the whole country as far as Egypt. Strabo below, c. ii. § 21, refers to this ancient division, when he says that the name Cœle-Syria extends to the whole country as far as Egypt and Arabia, although in its peculiar acceptation it applied only to the valley between Libanus and Antilibanus.

[548] Modern conjecture has identified it with Shogh and Divertigi.

[549] Kulat-el-Mudik.

[551] Mesopotamia in the text is no doubt an error of the copyist. We ought probably to read Commagene. Groskurd proposes to read “Commagene, like Mesopotamia, consisted of one satrapy.” Groskurd’s emendation of the text is followed, although not approved of, by Kramer.

[552] These four portions were no doubt formed by the four hills contained within the circuit of Antioch. The circuit wall existed in the time of Pococke. The detailed and exact description given of it by this learned traveller, as also his plan of Antioch, agree with Strabo’s account. Pococke, Descrip. of the East, ii. p. 190.

[555] Orontes, or Nahr-el-Asy.

[557] B. xii. c. viii. § 19; b. xiii. c. iv. § 6.

[558] Also Hierapolis, the modern Kara Bambuche.

[559] Berœa owes its name to Seleucus Nicator, and continued to be so called till the conquest of the Arabs under Abu Obeidah, A. D. 638, when it resumed its ancient name of Chaleb, or Chalybon.

[560] The territory subject to the town Cyrrhus, now Coro.

[562] The modern names of the Arceuthus and Labotas are unknown.

[566] Called Phraates by Pseudo-Appian, in Parthicis, p. 72.

[568] Posidi, on the southern side of the bay, which receives the Orontes.

[569] On Cape Ziaret.

[571] The text is corrupt. The translation follows the proposed corrections of Letronne and Kramer.

[572] Shizar, on the Orontes.

[573] Cæcilius Bassus was besieged twice in Apameia, first by C. Antistius, afterwards by Marcus Crispus and Lucius Statius Marcius. Cassius succeeded in dispersing the troops of this rebel without much difficulty, according to Dion Cassius, xlvii. 27.

[574] Arethusa, now Restan, was founded by Seleucus Nicator. According to Appian, Pompey subdued Sampsiceramus, who was king of Arethusa. On this account Cicero, in his letters to Atticus (ii. 14, 16, 17, 23), calls Pompey in derision Sampsiceramus. Antony put Iamblicus, son of Sampsiceramus, to death; but Augustus restored the small state of Arethusa to another Iamblicus, son of the former.

[575] The people of Emesa, now Hems.

[576] Balbek and Kalkos.

[577] This Ptolemy, son of Mennæus, was master chiefly of Chalcis, at the foot of Libanus, from whence he made incursions on the territory of Damascus. Pompey was inclined to suppress his robberies, but Ptolemy softened his anger by a present of 1000 talents, which the Roman general applied to the payment of his troops. He remained in possession of his dominion until his death, and was succeeded by his son Lysanias, whom Cleopatra put to death, on the pretext that he had induced the Parthians to come into the country. Josephus, Bell. Jud.

[578] One of the branches of Antilibanus.

[579] This Alchædamnus is constantly called Alchaudonius by Dion Cassius, whom he calls the “Arabian dynast.” Falconer therefore inferred that here we ought to read Ἀράβων instead of Ῥαμβαίων, but Letronne does not adopt this reading, and supposes the Rhambæi may have been a tribe of the Arabians.

[580] The text is here corrupt, and the passage, according to Kramer, probably introduced into the text from a marginal note.

[581] παραλία, but this is a correction for παλαιά, which Letronne proposes to correct for περαία, which is supported in § 13, below. The part of the continent opposite, and belonging to an island, was properly called Peræa, of which there are many examples. That part of Asia Minor which is opposite Rhodes was so called, b. xiv. c. v. § 11, as also the coast opposite Tenedos, b. xiii. c. i. § 46. Peræa was also adopted as a proper name. Livy, xxxiii. 18.

[582] Pococke places Paltus at Boldo; Shaw, at the ruins at the mouth of the Melleck, six miles from Jebilee, the ancient Gabala.

[585] According to Pococke, the ruins of Aradus (Ruad) are half a mile to the north of Tortosa (Antaradus). It is remarkable that Strabo makes no mention of Antaradus, situated on the continent opposite Aradus; Pliny is the first author who speaks of it. Probably the place only became of note subsequent to the time of Strabo, and acquired power at the expense of some of the small towns here mentioned. Antaradus, reëstablished by Constantine, assumed the name of Constantia.

[589] The resistance of the sea water to the ascent of the fresh water is cut off by this ingenious contrivance, and the fresh water rises above the level of the sea through the pipe, by natural causes, the head or source of the spring being in the upper ground of the mainland. This fountain is now known by the name of Ain Ibrahim, Abraham’s fountain.

[590] B. xiv. c. v. § 2.

[592] If the words of the text, φέρει δὲ καὶ, “it produces also,” refer to the lake, our author would contradict himself; for below, § 41, he says that Jericho alone produces it. They must therefore be referred to “a hollow plain” above; and the fact that they do so arises from the remarkable error of Strabo, in placing Judæa in the valley formed by Libanus and Antilibanus. From the manner in which he expresses himself, it is evident that he supposed the Jordan to flow, and the Lake Gennesaret to be situated, between these two mountains. As to the Lycus (the Nahr el Kelb), Strabo, if he had visited the country, would never have said that the Arabians transported upon it their merchandise. It is evident that he has confused the geography of all these districts, by transferring Judæa, with its lakes and rivers, to Cœle-Syria Proper; and here probably we may find the result of his first error in confounding Cœle-Syria Proper with Cœle-Syria understood in a wider meaning. See above, c. i. § 12.

[598] Josephus, i. 1.

[599] Above, c. ii. § 3.

[602] Above, c. i. § 12, 15.

[605] Tyre—daughter of Zidon. Isaiah xxiii. 12.

[606] In B. v. c. iii. § 7, Strabo tells us that Augustus prohibited houses being erected of more than 70 Roman feet in height.

[607] Josephus (Antiq. Jud. xv. 4, § 1) states, that Mark Antony gave Cleopatra all the coast of Phœnicia, from Eleutheria to Egypt, with the exception of Tyre and Sidon, which he left in the enjoyment of their ancient independence. But according to Dion Cassius (liv., 7), Augustus arrived in the East in the spring of the year 734, B. C., or eighteen years before the Christian era, and deprived the Tyrians and Sidonians of their liberty, in consequence of their seditious conduct. It follows therefore, that if Strabo had travelled in Phœnicia, he must have visited Tyre before the above date, because his account refers to a state of things anterior to the arrival of Augustus in Syria; and in this case the information he gives respecting the state of the neighbouring cities must belong to the same date; but he speaks above (§ 19) of the order reëstablished by Agrippa at Beyrout, which was effected four years after the coming of Augustus into Syria. We must conclude, therefore, that Strabo speaks only by hearsay of the Phœnician cities, and that he had never seen the country itself. Letronne.

[608] Il. xxiii. 743.

[609] Probably under Zenarchus of Seleucia, the Peripatetic philosopher whose lectures he attended. B. xiv. c. v. § 4.

[610] Nahr-Quasmieh.

[611] Vestiges of the ancient city still remain. Here was the celebrated temple of the Phœnician Hercules, founded according to Herodotus, ii. 44, before 2700 B. C.

[613] Letronne estimates this at a penny.

[614] Athenæus, p. 742, Bohn’s Class. Library.

[615] The Tower of Strato was an ancient city almost in ruins, which was repaired, enlarged, and embellished by Herod with magnificent buildings; for he found there excellent anchorage, the value of which was increased by the fact of its being almost the only one on that dangerous coast. He gave it the name of Cæsarea, in honour of Augustus, and raised it to the rank of a city of the first order. The repairs of the ancient city, the Tower of Strato, or rather the creation of the new city Cæsarea, took place about eight or nine years B. C.; so that this passage of Strabo refers to an earlier period.

[616] Josephus (Ant. Jud. xiv. 13, § 3) calls a district near Mount Carmel Drumos, employing the word Δρυμός, a forest, as a proper name.

[618] Van Egmont (Travels, vol. i. p. 297) considers it impossible, from the character of the intervening country, to see Jerusalem from Joppa. Pococke, on the contrary, says, that it would not be surprising to see from the heights of Joppa, in fine weather, the summit of one of the high towers of Jerusalem; and this is not so unlikely, for according to Josephus the sea was visible from the tower of Psephina at Jerusalem.

[620] Ras-el-Kasaroun.

[623] Akaba or Akaba-Ila.

[628] Sebaki-Bardoil.

[629] The passage through which the lake discharged itself into the sea.

[631] It appears that in the time of Strabo and Josephus the temple of Jupiter only remained; at a later period a town was built there, of which Steph. Byzant., Ammianus Marcellinus, and others speak, and which became the seat of a bishopric.

[632] B. xvi. c. iii. § 3.

[633] B. xiv. c. v. § 3.

[634] Arabia Petræa. Petra, now called Karac, was the capital.

[635] Josephus, Ant. Jud. xiii. 9. 1.

[638] Rabbath-Ammon, or Amma.

[639] Herod rebuilt Samaria, and surrounded it with a vast enclosure. There also he erected a magnificent temple, and gave to the city the surname of Sebaste, in honour of Augustus.

[640] In b. xvii. c. ii. § 5, our author again says that the Jews were originally Egyptians. So also Josephus, xiv. 7. 2.

[641] “Judæi mente solâ, unumque numen intelligunt, summum illud et eternum, neque mutabile, neque interiturum.” Tacitus, Hist. v. c. 5.

[642] Strabo here attributes to Moses the opinions of the Stoics.

[643] Strabo appears to have had little acquaintance with the Jewish history previous to the return from captivity, nor any exact knowledge until the arrival of the Romans in Judæa. Of the Bible he does not seem to have had any knowledge.

[644] Probably Strabo copies from accounts when the country was not well cultivated.

[645] αἱ γυναῖκες Ἰουδαïκῶς ἐκτετμημέναι, below, c. iv. Section 9.

[647] Diviners by the dead.

[648] Diviners by a dish into which water was poured and little waxen images made to float.

[649] Diviners by water.

[650] ὡροσκόποι is the reading of the text, which Groskurd supposes to be a corruption of the Latin word Haruspex. I adopt the reading οἰωνοσκόποι, approved by Kramer, although he has not introduced it into the text.

[651] According to Josephus, Johannes Hyrcanus dying, B. C. 107, was succeeded by Aristobulus, who took the title of king, this being the first instance of the assumption of that name among the Jews since the Babylonish captivity. Aristobulus, was succeeded by Alexander Jannæus, whose two sons were Hyrcanus II. and Aristobulus II., successively kings of Judæa, B. C. 67, 68.

[653] Solomon’s conduit was constructed on the hydraulic principle, that water rises to its own level. The Romans subsequently, being ignorant of this principle, constructed an aqueduct.

[654] Balsamodendron Giliadense. Pliny xii. 25.

[655] Medicago arborea.

[656] The pistachia, b. xv. c. ii. § 10.

[657] In. b. xvi. c. ii. § 16, our author says that it is found on the borders of the Lake Gennesareth.

[658] It yields, during the hot season, an immense quantity of toddy or palm wine.

[659] Obtained by boiling the branches of the balsamodendron in water, and skimming off the resin.

[660] Strabo here commits the singular error of confounding the Lake Asphaltites, or the Dead Sea, with the Lake Sirbonis. Letronne attempts to explain the origin of the error. According to Josephus, the Peræa, or that part of Judæa which is on the eastern side of the Jordan, between the lake of Tiberias and the Dead Sea, contained a district (the exact position of which is not well known, but which, according to Josephus, could not be far from the Lake Asphaltites) called Silbonitis. The resemblance of this name to Sirbonis probably misled our author.

[661] Specific gravity 1·211, a degree of density scarcely to be met with in any other natural water. Marcet’s Analysis. Philos. Trans. part ii. page 298. 1807.

[662] By chrysocolla of the ancients is generally understood borax, which cannot however be meant in this passage. It may probably here mean uric acid, the colour of which is golden.

[663] A place near the Lake Asphaltites, called Masada by Josephus, de B. Jud. iv. 24, v. 3.

[664] Genesis xiv. and Wisdom x. 6: “the fire which fell down on the five cities.”

[665] In this quotation from Eratosthenes we are probably to understand the Lake Sirbonis, and not the Dead Sea; a continuation, in fact, of Strabo’s first error. The translator adopts Kramer’s suggestion of Θετταλίαν for θάλατταν in the text.