Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/40

Rh been built in the Middle Ages ; and above this a curious hillock, with an artificial rock-platform, called el ’Oreimeh, “the little knoll.” Immediately to the north-east a precipice projects to the lake, and the aqueduct from the Tabghah spring is led to an ancient rock-cut channel, which seems to have been once intended for a road in the face of the cliff. In the Quaresmius speaks of this place, Minyeh, as the site of Capernaum. In the Isaac Chelo was apparently shown the same site as containing the tomb of Nahum, and as being the " city of the )Iinai.” The “ )Iinai,” or “ sorcerers,” are mentioned in the Talmud, and by this title the Jews stigmatized the early Christians; and these “Minai” are called in one passage of the Talmud “sons of Capernaum." There is thus a close connexion between this Minyeh—named from the Minai——and the town of Capernaum. The position of the site is also suitable for that of Capernaum, being in the plain of Gennesareth, two miles from the “ round spring,” or fountain of Capharnaum. No other site of any importance exists in the plain of Gennesareth. See. South of the plain of Gennesareth is the undisputed site of the New Testament town of Magdala. A few lotus trees and some rock-cut tombs are here found beside a miserable mud hamlet on the hill slope, with a modern tomb-house or l'ubbelz. Passing beneath rugged cliffs a recess in the hills is next reached, where stands Tabari‘ya, the ancient Tiberias or Rakkath, containing 3000 inhabitants, more than half of whom are Jews. The walls, flanked with round towers, and now partly destroyed by the earthquake of 1837, were built by Dhahr el ’Amr, as was the serai or court-house. The two mosques, now partly ruinous, were erected by his sons. There are remains of a crusading church, and the tomb of the celebrated Maimonides is shown in the town, while Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Meir lie buried outside. The ruins of the ancient city, including granite columns and traces of a sea-wall with towers, stretch southwards a mile beyond the modern town. An aqueduct in the cliff once brought water a distance of 9 miles from the south. Kerak, at the south end of the lake, is an important site on a peninsula surrounded by the water of the lake, by the Jordan, and by a broad water ditch, while on the north-west a narrow neck of land remains. The plateau thus enclosed is partly artificial, and banked up 50 or 60 feet above the water. A ruined citadel remains on the north-west, and on the east was a bridge over the Jordan 3 broken pottery and fragments of sculptured stone strew the site. The ruin of Kerak answers to the description given by Josephus of the city of Taricheae, which lay 3O stadia from Tiberias, the hot baths being between the two cities. Taricheae was situated, as is Kerak, on the shore below the cliffs, and partly surrounded by water, while before the city was a plain (the GhOr). Pliny further informs us that Taricheee was at the south end of the Sea of Galilee. Sinnabreh, a ruin on a spur of the hills close to the last- mentioned site, is undoubtedly the ancient Sinnabris, where Vespasian (Joseph., B. J., iii. 9, 7) fixed his camp, advancing from Scythopolis (Beisan) on Taricheae and Tiberias. Sinnabris was 30 stadia from Tiberias, or about the distance of the ruin now existing. The eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee have been less fully explored than the western, and the sites are not so perfectly recovered. The town of Hippos, one of the cities of Decapolis, was situated 30 stadia from Tiberias, and 60 stadia from Gadara (Umm Keis). It is conjectured that the town Susitha, mentioned in the Talmud, is the same place, and the name Susyeh seems to have existed east of the Sea of Galilee at a late period. Susitha from “sus,” meaning “horse,” is, etymologically at least, suggestive of the Greek “ hippos.” The site is at present unknown. Kalat el Hosn (“castle of the stronghold ”) is a ruin on a rocky spur opposite Tiberias. Two large ruined buildings remain, with traces of an old street and fallen columns and capitals. A strong wall once surrounded the town ; a narrow neck of land exists on the east where the rock has been scarped. Rugged valleys enclose the site on the north and south ; broken sarcophagi and rock-cut tombs are found beneath the ruin. This site answers to the description Josephus gives of Gamala, an important fortress besieged by Vespasian (Bell. Jzul., iv. 1, l). Gersa, an insigniﬁcant ruin north of the last, is thought to represent the Gerasa or Gergesa of the, situated east of the lake; and the projecting spur of hill south of this ruin is conjectured to be the place where the swine “ran violently down a steep place ” (Matt. viii. 3:2). The site of Bethsaida Julias, east of Jordan, is also unknown. It has been supposed (and the theory is supported by even so important an authority as Reland) that two separate places named Bethsaida are mentioned in the New Testament. The grounds for this conclusion are, however, very insufficient ; and only one Bethsaida is mentioned by Josephus. It was near the Jordan inlet, on the east side of the river, and under its later Greek name of Julias, it is mentioned, with Hippos, by Pliny. The site usually pointed out is the ruin of et Tell, north of the Batihah plain ,- the remains are, however, modern and insigniﬁcant. Just south of the same plain is a ruined village called Mes’aidiych, the name of which approaches Bethsaida in sound but not in meaning. This is the site pointed out by Vandevelde, and it is possible that the course of Jordan has shifted west- wards, and that the old mouth is marked by the two creeks running into the shore on the east, in which case the site of )Ies’aidiyeh might be accepted as the Bethsaida of the gospels, which appears to have been cast of Jordan.

1em  GALILEO. Galileo Galilei (–1642), one of the earliest and greatest of experimental philosophers, was born at Pisa, February 18,. His father, Vincenzo, was an impoverished descendant of a noble Florentine house, which had exchanged the surname of Bonajuti for that of Galilei, on the election, in, of one of its members, Galileo de’ Bonajuti, to the college of the twelve Buonuomini. The family, which was fifteen times represented in the signoria, and in gave a gonfalonier to Florence, flourished with the republic and declined with its fall. Vincenzo Galilei was a man of better parts than fortune. He was a competent mathematician, wrote with considerable ability on the theory and practice of music, and was especially distinguished amongst his contemporaries for the grace and skill of his performance upon the lute. By his wife, Giulia de’ Ammannati of Pistoja, he had two sons, Galileo and Miehelangiolo, and two daughters, Virginia and Livia. From his earliest childhood Galileo was remarkable for intellectual aptitude, as well as for mechanical invention. His favourite pastime was the construction of toy-machines, not the less original and ingenious that their successful working was usually much hindered by the scarcity of suitable materials. His application to literary studies was equally conspicuous. In the monastery of Vallombrosa, near Florence, where his education was principally conducted, he not only made himself acquainted with the best Latin authors, but acquired a fair command of the Greek tongue, thus laying the foundation of the brilliant and elegant style for which his writings were afterwards distinguished. From one of the monks he also received instruction in logic, according to the system then in vogue ; but the futilities of the science revolted, while its subtleties