hundred talents, while Batanea with Trachonites, as well as Auranites, with a certain part of what was called the house of Zenodorus, paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip; but Idumea, and Judea, and the country of Samaria, paid tribute to Archelaus, but had now a fourth part of that tribute taken off by the order of Caesar, who decreed them that mitigation, because they did not join in this revolt with the rest of the multitude. There were also certain of the cities which paid tribute to Archelaus, Stratos' tower, and Sebaste, with Joppa and Jerusalem; for as to Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, they were Grecian cities, which Cæsar separated from his government, and added them to the province of Syria."

These, then, were the boundaries of Herod's kingdom at the period of his death. The same historian informs us afterwards, that Claudius, after the early misfortunes which Agrippa had undergone, not only confirmed to him the kingdom which Caius had given to him, but made an addition to it of all that country over which Herod, who was his grandfather, had reigned: that is, Judea and Samaria. "This," says, the Jewish writer, "Claudius restored to him as due to his family. But for Abila of Lysanias, he bestowed them upon him, as out of his own territories." t

Notwithstanding that it is usual to place the district of Abylene far to the northward, between Syro Phenicia, and CœleSyria, I think it by no means improbable that it was seated here near the lake of Tiberias, and much to the southward of the limits generally assigned to it. It seems agreed, on all hands, that it derived its name from its capital, Abila; and, as we have seen, there is now a large ruined city in this very neighbourhood, retaining still the name of Abeel, and having marks of former grandeur, which could only have belonged to a place of some con

• Joseph. Antiq. b. xvii. c. 11. s. 4.

Ibid. b. xix. c. 5. s. 1.

*

sequence. In the enumeration of the provinces of which Herod's kingdom was composed, Perea and Galilee are first mentioned, as being probably the most productive, and for the sake of naming the sum which they paid to Archelaus in yearly tribute; but it is after Batanea, and Trachonitis, and Auranitis, the most northern provinces, and before those of Idumea, and Judea, and Samaria, the most southern ones, that Abilene is mentioned, as if really lying between these extremes in the order of enumeration.

The Evangelist St. Luke, in fixing the date of John the Baptist's coming from the wilderness beyond Jordan to preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, says that this happened in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar; Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea, and of the region of Trachonites, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene. † The learned Grotius, in his note on this passage, which is quoted by Dr. Hudson and Whiston, as explanatory of that expression of Josephus which says that part of the country only, called the house of Zenodorus, paid tribute to Philip, observes, "When Josephus says that some part of the house or possession of Zenodorus, i. e. Abilene, was allotted to Philip, he thereby declares that the larger part of it belonged to another; this other was Lysanias, whom Luke mentions, of the posterity of that Lysanias who was possessed of the same country called Abilene, from the city Abila, and by others Chalcidene, from the city of Chalcis, when the government of the East was under Antonius, and this after Ptolemy, the son of Menneus; from which Lysanias, this country came to be commonly called the county of Lysanias; and as, after the death of the former Lysanias, it was called the Tetrarchy of Zenodorus, so, after the death of Zenodorus, or when the time for which he hired it was ended, when another Lysanias, of the same name with the

* See also Dr. Seetzen's Letter in L'Ambigu, No. 254.

† Luke, iii. 1.—Ptolemy also calls this city Abila of Lysanias, as Spanheim observes. Whiston thinks it to have been originally a part of Canaan. See his notes on the passage in Josephus, as referred to.

former, was possessed of the same country, it began to be called the Tetrarchy of Lysanias." ‡

It is clear, therefore, that the names of Zenodorus and Lysanias were names which this territory derived from those of its rulers at different periods; while that of Abilene, from its capital of Abila, was its more general and permanent one; and since this is positively said to have been bestowed on Agrippa by Claudius, as out of his own territories, one of the borders of his kingdom, upon which Gamala is said to have lain, must have been here near to this very spot. If objection be taken to its then forming an isolated spot, surrounded by districts under the government of Agrippa, and more particularly to its being mentioned at the same time with the country that lay at Mount Libanus, it may be replied, that there were many similar instances of isolated districts and towns, either independent, or subject to other governors, or enjoying peculiar privileges, as may be seen in the constant enumeration of such by Josephus; and even here, in the instance before us, where Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, places wide apart from each other, one to the east of Jordan, and one in the very south of Palestine, bordering on the desert of Idumea, were separated by Cæsar from the government of Archelaus, and added to the province of Syria.

Thus much may suffice for the general position of this place. Let us examine now more closely its minuter local features, as furnished us by the same animated and accurate pen. He says, "Now, Agrippa had united Sogana and Seleucia by leagues to himself, at the very beginning of the revolt from the Romans; yet did not Gamala accede to them, but relied upon the difficulty of the place, which was greater than that of Iotapata, for it was situated upon a rough ridge of a high mountain, with a kind of neck in the middle; where it begins to ascend, it lengthens itself, and declines as much downward before as behind, insomuch that it is like a camel in figure, from whence it is so named, although

• Grotius on Luke iii. 1.

the people of the country do not pronounce it accurately *: both on the side and the face there are abrupt parts divided from the rest, and ending in vast deep valleys; yet are the parts behind, where they are joined to the mountain, somewhat easier of ascent than the other; but then the people belonging to the place have cut an oblique ditch here, and made that hard to be ascended also. On its acclivity, which is straight, houses are built, and those very thick and close to one another. The city also hangs so strangely, that it looks as if it would fall down upon itself, so sharp is it at the top. It is exposed to the south; and its southern mount, which reaches to an immense height, was in the nature of a citadel to the city; and above that was a precipice, not walled about, but extending itself to an immense depth. There was also a spring of water within the wall, at the utmost limits of the city." †

It is impossible, that any one but an actual observer of the place at the moment he wrote, or one to whom all its features were familiar from long residence on it, could give so accurate a description of this spot as is here done by the Jewish warrior and historian. The rough ridge of the high mountain on which the city is seated, the neck in the middle by which it is connected to the land behind, the easy ascent to the city from this part, and the abrupt parts on the side and face of the hill ending in vast deep valleys below, are all features too prominently marked to be mistaken, and remain as permanently conspicuous now, as they were in the days of its glory. ‡

J, Jemel, or, as it is pronounced in Egypt, and in some parts of Syria, Gemel or Gamal-hard, is still the Arabic name for a camel, called, Jammaz, in the diction

aries.

+ Joseph. Wars of the Jews, b. iv. c. 1. s. 1.

D'Anville, in speaking of Gaulon, the capital of the territory of Gaulonitis, says, "Gamala n'en étoit pas loin, presque inaccessible par son assiette sur des rochers bordées des precipices, et dont on connoît la situation, en ce qu'elle n'étoit separée que par l'extrémité du Lac de Tiberiade, d'un lieu assez considerable que les salaisons qu'on y faisoit du poisson, pêché dans le lac appeller Tarishæa. Geog. Anc. p. 188. folio, Paris, 1769. Its present Arabic name of, Sumuk, signifies also a fish, and is doubtless a corrupted translation of its original one.

From the small size of the space which occupies the level on the summit of the hill, about half a mile in length by a quarter broad, and which is covered with colonnaded streets, temples, theatres, palaces, and great public buildings, surrounded with a wall and gates, there is great reason to believe that this was the citadel. It stands, as the Jewish writer describes it, on the south, to which it is exposed; and, as he says, this southern mount, which reaches to an immense height, might well stand in the nature of a citadel to the city. The precipice above, (or to the southward, for this expression could not have been meant to apply to altitude, as this was already the highest part of the mountain) was not walled about, but extended itself to an immense depth, as he himself describes it; and we were assured, that there was a spring of water within the wall, as he affirms, and that this was the only one now known on the whole hill, though, from our occupation in examining the buildings, we had not time to go and see it.

The city, which is said to have hung so strangely, that it looked as if it would fall down upon itself, so sharp was it at the top, was no doubt spread out on the northern side of the hill, since it was the southern mount that was in the nature of a citadel to it. Along the brow of the steep descent on the north, and facing the valley of the Hieromax, and the hot springs, as well as the town and lake of Tiberias, are seen the remains of private dwellings, which must, as described, have appeared from below to have stood literally one upon another; and from the great distance at which this city could be seen, it must have seemed to hang so strangely as to threaten its own fall.

The preservation of the edifices within the citadel, and the almost complete destruction of those that were spread around its foot on the side of the hill below, may easily be understood. This upper city, like the western division at Geraza, was reserved for the temples, theatres, palaces, and other public edifices, and all the pomp of architecture appears to have been concentred in this small space, where not a private dwelling seems to have been