Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/547

 PALAESTINA. added concerning the two tribes and a Iialf beyond Jordan, although their general disposition has been anticipated in the account of the nations whom they dispossessed. [Amokites.] Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh. — The southern part of the old Amorite conquests on the east of Jordan was assigned by Moses to the Reubenites, whose possessions seem to have been coextensive with the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, whose capital was at Heshbon. [Hesbox.J There is, however, some apparent confusion in the accounts; as while Reuben is said to have possessed " from Aroer by the river Arnon,. . .Heshbon,. . .and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Ainorites," Gad is also said to have had " the rest of the kingdom of Sihon;" and while Gad is said to liave held '' all the cities of Gilead," Manasseh is said to have had '•half Gilead." (Josh. xiii. comp. ver. 21 with 27, and 25 with 31); while from Numbers (xxxii. 39 — 42) it would appear that Manasseh possessed the whole of Gilead. As the Israelites were not per- mitted to occupy the country which they found still in possession of the Ammonites, but only so much of it as had been taken from them by Sihon king of the Amorites, the limits of the Israelite possessions towards the Ammonites are not clearly defined [Amjionitae; Bashan]; and it may be doubted whether the distribution of the country among the two tribes and a half was not regulated rather by convenience or the accident of conquest than by any distinct territorial limits: certain it is that it would be extremely difficult to draw a line which should include all the cities belonging to any one tribe, and whose sites are fixed with any degree of certainty, and yet exclude all other cities mentioned as be- longing to one of the other tribes. Generally it may be said that the possessions of Gad and Reuben lay to the south and west of the trans-Jordanic provinces, while those of Mana'^seh lay in the moun- tains to the east of the Jordan valley and the lake of Gennesaret. It is plain only that the Jordan was the bonier of the two former, and that of these the tribe of Gad held t!;e northern part of the valley, to " the sea of Chinnereth." {Josh. xiii. 23, 27.) When the Gadites are said to have built nine cities, the Reubenites six, it can only be understood to mean tlmt they restored them after they had been dismantled by their old inhabitants, as in the case of Machir the son of Manasseh it is expressly said that he occupied the cities of the dispossessed Amorites. (Numb, xxxii. 34 — 42.) It may, per- haps, be concluded from Deut. iii. 1 — 17 that, while the kingdom of Sihon was divided between the tribes of Gad and Reuben, the whole kingdom of Og was allotted to the half-tribe of Manasseh; as, indeed, it is highly probable that the division of the land on the west of Jordan also followed its ancient distri- bution among its former inhabitants. It is remarked by Rehind, that the division of the land by Solomon has been too commonly overlooked, for, although it had regard only to the provision of the king's table, it is calculated to throw consider- able light on sacred geography. The country was divided into twelve di:;trifts, under superior officers, several of whom were allied to the king by mar- riage, each of which districts was made chargeable with victualling the palace during one month in the year. Whether these divisions had any further political significancy does not appear, but it is diffi- cult to imagine that any merely sumptuary exigences would have suggested such an elaborate arrange- PALAESTINA. 531 ment. The divisions agree for the most part with those of the tribes. (1 Kings, iv. 7 — 19.) 3. Third Period. — We have no distinct account of the civil divi>ion of the country on the return of the Jews from the captivity, and during its subsequent history, until it was reduced to a Roman province. Under the Persians, the title of " governor on this side the river,"' so frequent in the books of Nehe- miah and Ezra, and the description of the strangers, colonists of Samaria, as " men on this side the river" (Euphrates), probably indicates the only designation by which Palestine was known, as a comparatively small and insignificant part of one of the satrapies of that enormous kingdom. (Ez7-a, iv. 10, 17, v. 20, vi. 6, &c.; Neh. ii. 7, iii. 8, &c.) Among the Jews, the ancient divisions were still recognised, but gradually the larger territorial divi- sions superseded the tribual, and the political geo- graphy assumed the more convenient form which we find in the New Testament and in the writings of Josephus, illustrated as they are by the clasbical geographers Pliny and Ptolemy. The divisions most familiar to the readers of the New Testament are, Judaea, Galilee, Samaria, De- capolis, and Peraea. in which is comprehended the whole of Palestine, with the exception of the sea- border, the northern part of which is called " the coasts of Tyre and Sidon" by the evangelists, and comprehended imder the name of Phoenice by Josephus and the classical geographers. The three first-named districts are very clearly described by Josephus; and his account is the more valuable as confirming the descriptions contained in the Bible ot its extreme fertility and populousness, which will, however, present no difficulty to the traveller who has h.ad the opportunity of observing the natural fertility of the soil in the parts still rudely culti- vated, and the numerous traces of the agricultural industry of ancient limes. Galilee, Upper and Loioer. — "There are two Galilees, one called Lower, the other Upper, which are surrounded by Phoenicia and Syria. On the side of the setting sun they are bounded by the frontiers of the territory of Ptolemais, and Carniel, a mountain formei'ly belonging to the Galileans, but at present to the Tyrians; which is joined by Gaba, called the ' city of knights,' because the knights disbanded by Herod dwell there ; and on the south by Samaris and Scythopolis, as far as the river Jordan. On the east it is bounded by Ilippene and Gadaris, and Gaulanitis and the frontiers of Agrippa's kingdom. The noithern limit is Tyre and the Tyrian territory. That which is called Lower Galilee extends in length from Tiberias to Chabulon, near which on the .sea-coast is situated Ptolemais. Its greatest breadth is from a vilbige called Xalbth, situated in the great plain, to Ber- base; from which place also the breadth of Upper Galilee commences, extending to a village named Baca, which separates the Tyrian territory from Galilee. In length, Upper (jalilce reaches to Mcroth from Thella, a village near the Jordan. " Now the two Galilees, being of such extent, and surrounded by foreign nations, liave always resisted every hostile invasion; for its inhabitants are trained to arms from their infancy, and are exceedingly numerous ; and neither have the men ever been wanting in courage, nor the country sufTeied from paucity of inhabitants, since it is rich, and favour- able fur pasture, and planted ^. every variety of tree; so that by its fertility it invites even those M SI 2