Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/48

32 when Seleucus founded his capital on the banks of the Orontes, he only found an insignificant place there, whose name even has not descended to us.

Proofs stronger still establish satisfactorily, in my opinion, the fact that the author of “The Book of Nabathæan Agriculture” had acquaintance with the writings of the Greeks. In various passages of “The Book of Nabathæan Agriculture,” which seem to have escaped the attention of M. Quatremère, there are allusions to the Yúnánís, and it is well known that it is by that name that the Arabs designate the ancient Greeks, in distinction to the Roumis, or modern Greeks. Dr. Chwolson gives a very unsatisfactory explanation of this difficulty. Starting from the supposition that the Hellenic race arrived in Asia Minor at a very remote period, he deduces from this supposed fact, that from the year 2500 before Christ—it will be seen presently that