Latin Texts & Translations

We must now return to the coast and to Phœnice. There was formerly a town here known as Crocodilon; there is still a river ^[Note] of that name: Dorum ^[Note] and Sycaminon ^[Note] are the names

of cities of which the remembrance only exists. We then come to the Promontory of Carmelus ^[Note], and, upon the mountain, a town ^[Note] of that name, formerly called Acbatana. Next to this are Getta ^[Note], Jeba, and the river Pacida, or Belus ^[Note], which throws up on its narrow banks a kind of sand from which glass ^[Note] is made: this river flows from the marshes of Cendebia, at the foot of Mount Carmelus. Close to this river is Ptolemais, formerly called Ace ^[Note], a colony of Claudius Cæsar; and then the town of Ecdippa ^[Note], and the promontory known as the White Promontory ^[Note]. We next come to the city of Tyre ^[Note], formerly an island, separated from the mainland by a channel of the sea, of great depth, 700 paces in width, but now joined to it by the works which were thrown up by Alexander when besieging it,—the Tyre so famous in ancient times for its offspring, the cities to which it gave birth, Leptis, Utica, and Carthage ^[Note],— that rival of the Roman sway, that thirsted so eagerly for the

conquest of the whole earth; Gades, too, which she founded beyond the limits of the world. At the present day, all her fame is confined to the production of the murex and the purple ^[Note]. Its circumference, including therein Palætyrus ^[Note], is nineteen miles, the place itself extending twenty-two stadia. The next towns are Sarepta ^[Note] and Ornithon ^[Note], and then Sidon ^[Note], famous for its manufacture of glass, and the parent of Thebes ^[Note] in Bœotia.

(20.) In the rear of this spot begins the chain of Libanus, which extends 1500 stadia, as far as Simyra; this district has the name of Cœle Syria. Opposite to this chain, and separated from it by an intervening valley, stretches away the range of Antilibanus, which was formerly connected with Libanus ^[Note] by a wall. Beyond it, and lying in the interior, is the region of Decapolis, and, with it, the Tetrarchies already mentioned, and the whole expanse of Palæstina. On the coast, again, and lying beneath Libanus, is the river Magoras ^[Note], the colony of Berytus ^[Note], which bears the name of Felix Julia, the town of Leontos ^[Note], the river Lycos ^[Note], Palæbyblos ^[Note], the river Adonis ^[Note], and the towns of Byblos ^[Note],

Botrys ^[Note], Gigarta ^[Note], Trieris ^[Note], Calamos ^[Note], Tripolis ^[Note], inhabited by the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Aradians; Orthosia ^[Note], the river Eleutheros ^[Note] the towns of Simyra and Marathos ^[Note]; and opposite, Arados ^[Note], a town seven stadia long, on an island, distant 200 paces from the mainland. After passing through the country in which the before-named mountains end and the plains that lie between, Mount Bargylus ^[Note] is seen to rise.