ASIA. tradistinction both to the White Syrians, or CappaCHAP. III. docians, north of the Taurus, and the Syrians, or Distinction Assyrians, of Mesopotamia and Babylonia. From the between the former it was separated by the chain of Taurus ProPalaestine per; from the latter by an uncertain and irregular White Syri- line, which may be drawn from the southern point of ans of Cap- the Dead Sea to the upper course of the Euphrates.' Syrians of and the padocia, and the Assyrians of Babylonia and Mesopotamia. country. Anti-Liba nus. Valley of the Jordan. The country may be described as consisting of two sets of highlands, formed by the ramifications of Mount Taurus, and running from north to south under Face of the the names of Libanus and Anti-Libanus, until they Libanus and finally connect themselves with the rocky masses of Horeb and Sinai in Arabia Petraea. Between them is the long and remarkable valley containing the Dead Sea, the river Jordan, and a chain of lakes running northward from thence to the foot of the Taurus. Between this mountain region and the western bank of the Euphrates is the dry and gravelly desert of Syria, which however is covered with grass and wild flowers during the brief rains of winter and spring. It extends southwards into the desert of Arabia. Phoenicia was a territory along the coast of the northern half of the mountain region. Palaestine formed the southern part. The Syrians of Damascus, to the north of Palaestine and east of Phoenicia, are nowhere mentioned by Herodotus, but were doubtless included in the same satrapy. Desert of Phoenicians their migra the Ery thracan. The PHOENICIANS originally wandered from the tions from Erythraean to the Mediterranean, and having settled on the sea-coast of that part of Syria 2 which is called Palaestine, began to undertake long voyages, and to export Assyrian and Acgyptian merchandise. From tire region, for, he evidently (vii. 89) considered Palaestine to include Phoenicia. 1 Syria, or Aram, in its widest signification, denoted all the countries inhabited by the Aramaeans or Syrians, and embraced not only the region between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, but frequently also Mesopotamia and Babylonia, or the region between the Euphrates and Tigris, and even sometimes Assyria Proper, or Kurdistan, to the east of the latter river. On the other hand, Assyria was frequently made in its turn to include the same territories, and we find the terms Syria and Assyria often interchanged by Greek and Roman authors. Herodotus says (vii. 63) that the people who were called Syrians by the Greeks were termed Assyrians by the Barbarians. 2 vii. 89. the city of Argos they carried off Io, an outrage 1 ASIA: which is said to have been the original cause of the CHAP. III. Persian wars; and they are also especially men- Commercial tioned as having taken to Greece the frankincense, enterprise. which they imported from Arabia.2 Their maritime power was very considerable, and without them the Persians could never have achieved any con 3 quests at sea. In conjunction with the Syrians of Naval supePalaestine, they furnished Xerxes with three hundred riority. ships, and were considered to be the best sailors in 4 6 circumci all the Persian fleet, more especially the Sidonians.5 Their equipment consisted of helmets made very Equipment. much after the Hellenic fashion; linen breastplates; " shields without rims; and javelins.' They learnt Practice of the custom of circumcision from the Acgyptians, but those who carried on commercial intercourse with Greece discontinued the practice." On the Figureprows of their vessels they fixed the Pataici or their ships. images representing pigmies, which were not unlike the image of Hephaestus in the temple at Memphis." 10 heads on camp settle The palm wine of Phoenicia seems to have been Palm wine. much celebrated, and when Cambyses sent a cask with his other presents to the Aethiopians, it proved to be the only one of the gifts that pleased their taste." The Phoenicians themselves carried their Tyrian wine in earthen vessels into Aegypt twice every ment in year, and they seem to have had a large settlement Acgypt. in the Aegyptian capital, for we are told that the Tyrian Phoenicians dwelt round the sanctuary of Proteus at Memphis, whence the whole district was called the Tyrian camp.12 ent temple Of the country of Phoenicia we can obtain very Tyre. Anci little information from Herodotus. At Tyre there was of Heracles. 2 iii. 107. * vii. 89. 1 i. l. 3 i. 143. 5 vii. 96. The linen, says Larcher, was steeped in sour wine mixed with a certain quantity of salt. Eighteen thicknesses were laid on each other and worked together, as they make felt, and was then proof against steel, and could resist an arrow. Mr. Cooley adds, that this armour of wadded linen was probably an Aegyptian invention, and is still used in Upper Nubia, by those tribes which are removed a little from the ordinary course of change and innovation. 10 iii. 20. 7 vii. 89. 11 iii. 22. 8 ii. 104. 12 ii. 112. 9 iii. 37. ASIA. a temple of Heracles, (Melicartha,) richly adorned CHAP. III. with a great variety of consecrated gifts, and containing two pillars, one of gold and the other of emerald, both of which shone exceedingly in the darkness of night. Herodotus inquired of the priests how long the temple had been built, and was told that it had been erected 2300 years previously, at the same time that the city itself was founded, There was also another temple dedicated to the Thasian Heracles.2 Beside the foregoing, we also find mention of Sidon, and the town of Aradus, the native place of Merbalus.* Sidon. Syrians of or Hebrews, known to The HEBREW NATION, or Syrians of Palaestine, as Palaestine, Herodotus calls them, though so important in the scarcely history of the world, are but little mentioned by our Herodotus. author. In his mind they merely formed, with the Phoenicians and the island of Cyprus, a satrapy of the Persian empire. Phoenicia was the maritime nation extending along the coast. Palaestine was the agricultural nation, occupying the interior, and including the caravan route between Aegypt and the Importance east. In a political point of view its possession was tine as a key the more important to Persia, as it tended to secure to Acgypt. that of Aegypt. From the book of Ezra we learn of Palaes that the head of this satrapy bore the title of governor of the country "beyond the river;" and that the Jews of Palaestine were sometimes governed by a subordinate ruler of their own race. In the time of Nehemiah we find allusion made to more satraps than one.' The following is all we can ga ther from Herodotus. At Ascalon (the old city of Aphrodite the Philistines) was the celebrated temple of the Ascalon, temple of or Astarte. 1 Josephus, quoting from Menander, says that Hiram, the contemporary of the Jewish Solomon, pulled down the old temples of Melicartha and Astarte, and built new ones. Herodotus therefore only saw the new temple, which however must in his time have been 550 years old. Joseph. Cont. Apion, lib. i. c. 18. 2 ii. 44. 3 ii. 116. 4 vii. 98. 5 The mountainous territory of Phoenicia was but little adapted for agriculture, and we consequently find that the corn country of Palaestine became her granary. Solomon furnished Hiram with an immense quantity of wheat and oil in return for the Phoenician king's assistance in building the great temple at Jerusalem. celestial Aphrodite,' which was plundered by the ASIA. Scythians in their excursions towards Aegypt. This CHAP. III. temple was the most ancient of all that were dedicated to the Syrian Aphrodite, for the one in Cyprus was built some time afterwards, and that in Cythera was founded by some Phoenicians who came from this part of Syria. At Magdolus (or Megiddo 3) the Magdolus or Aegyptian king Neco defeated the Syrians. The Megiddo. city of Cadytis however is especially mentioned as Cadytis. being a large city, and in the opinion of Herodotus 6 by Pri ing with not much less than Sardis.5 Prideaux identifies it Identified with Jerusalem, not only from our author's notice of deaux with its importance, but also because Jerusalem was anci- Jerusalem. ently called Kedushah, or "the holy;" changed in the Syriac dialect, which was the vernacular tongue of the period, into Kedutha; and again changed by Herodotus, who gave it a Greek termination, into Káduris, or Cadytis. Jerusalem is also still called by the Arabs El-kuds, or "the holy." Herodotus how- By Mr. Ewever further describes Cadytis as a city on the coast, Kedesh in for he says that from Phoenicia to Cadytis, and from Galilee. Cadytis to Jenysus, (in the south,) the ports belong to the Arabs. He also mentions that the Aegyptian king Neco took Cadytis, after the battle of Megiddo, and therefore could not have alluded to Jerusalem, as the latter city would have been quite out of his line of march. Mr. Ewing therefore shows that Jerusalem could not have been meant, and he justly observes, that to speak of the maritime towns between Jerusalem and Jenysus, would be as absurd as to speak of those between Oxford and London.10 Called Astarte, Ashtaroth, Queen of heaven, etc., and is identified with the moon, as Baal was with the sun. 2 i. 105. 3 Herodotus has here confused Megiddo, the plain or valley at the foot of Mount Carmel, where Josiah was defeated and slain by Necho, with Magdolus or Migdol, in Lower Aegypt, 12 miles east of Pelusium. 4 ii. 159. 5 iii. 5. 6 Prideaux's Connexion, an. 610 B. C. 7 The inscription on the shekels was "Jerusalem Kedushah," or Jerusalem the Holy, and this coin carried the name among the neighbouring nations; hence the city was soon called simply Kedushah for shortness' sake. 10 Classical Museum, No. iv. 8 iii. 5. 9 ii. 159. ASIA. CHAP. III. He points out Kedesh in Galilee as the Cadytis of Herodotus, because Kedesh is a maritime town, and would lie in Neco's line of march from Megiddo towards the Euphrates; and he also derives the name Cadytis from Kadatha, a Chaldee corruption of Kedesh. Mr. Ewing is evidently mistaken in his identification, for Phoenicia stretched southwards some distance beyond Kedesh, and mention has already been made of the sea-ports between Phoenicia and By Colonel Cadytis. Colonel Rawlinson has cleared up the diffiwith Gaza. culty. The forty-seventh chapter of Jeremiah prophetically describes the desolation by Pharaoh of the land of the Philistines; and further, expressly alludes to the capture and destruction of GAZA, by the same king. The name of the Philistine city Correctness of Gaza, as discovered by Dr. Layard and interview. preted by Colonel Rawlinson, is Khazita,' and as the description given by Herodotus is in every way applicable to Gaza, we may presume that this was the name that the Greeks changed into Cadytis. Rawlinson of the latter Sea-ports of The sea-ports on the coast of the Mediterranean from Phoenicia to Cadytis, and from Cadytis to the city of Jenysus, belonged to the Arabians; but from 3 1 Outline of Assyrian History collected from the cuneiform inscriptions, by Lieut. Col. Rawlinson. Printed from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 2 It must not however be forgotten that Cadytis, though in the midst of an Arab population, belonged to the Syrians of Palaestine. 3 It has been thought that the Arabs here described by our author were no other than the Hebrew tribes. This superficial theory, whilst it would explain the apparent difficulties in the geography, is contradicted by history, and indeed by Herodotus himself, as the manners and customs which he ascribes to the Arabians (see chap. on Independent Asia) can by no means be identified with those of the Jews. It seems certain, that after the return from the Babylonian captivity, and for a long time subsequently, the Hebrews only occupied the city of Jerusalem and its immediate neighbourhood, and gradually enlarged their territory as they increased in population. I cannot therefore but presume that the Arabs here alluded to were descendants of the old Philistine nation, which was evidently a powerful people in the reign of Judas Maccabaeus. Those commentators who suppose that Herodotus never could have penetrated Palaestine, merely on the ground that if he had done so he would have left some account of such a peculiar nation as the Jews, are, I think, labouring under a misconception of the period in which our author flourished. He was contemporary with Nehemiah, at a time when the Jewish nation was almost crushed by the Samaritans, and when Jerusalem possessed neither walls, towers, nor gates. The picture of utter pros |