Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/473

 Chap. 19.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 439 has the town of Apamea divided by the river Marsyas from the Tetrarehy of the Nazerini^ ; Bambyx, the other name of whieli is Hierapolis^, but by the Syrians called Mabog (here the monster Atargatis% called Derceto by the Greeks, is worshipped) ; and the place called Chalcis® on the Belus'', from which the region of Chalcidene, the most fertile part of Syria, takes its name. We here find also CjTrhestice, with Cyrrhum^, the Gazatse, the Gindareni, the Gabeni, the two Tetrarchies called Granucomatse^, the Emeseni^", the Hyla- 1 Now Kulat-el-!Mudik, situate in the valley of the Orontes, and capital of the province of Apamene. It was fortified and enlarged by Seleucus Nicator, who gave it its name, after his wife Apama. It also bore the Macedonian name of PeUa. It was situate on a hill, and was so far sur- rounded by the windings of the Orontes, as to become a peninsida, whence its name of Chersonesus. A^ery extensive nuns of this place still exist. ^ It is suggested, that these are the Phylarchi Arabes of Strabo, now called the Nosairis, who were situate to the east of Apamea. The river Marsyas here mentioned was a small tributary of the Orontes, into which it falls on the east side, near Apamea. ^ This was situate in Cyrrhestica, in Syria, on the high road from Antioch to Mesopotamia, twenty-four miles to the west of the Euphrates, and thirty-six to the south-west of Zeugma ; two and a half days' jour- ney from Beroea, and five from Antioch. It obtained its Greek name of the " Sacred City" from Seleucus Nicator, owing to its being the chief Beat of the worship of the Syrian goddess Astarte. Its ruins were first discovered by Maundrell. bedj, Manbesja, Manbesjun, Menba, Manba, Manbegj, and the modem name, Kara Bambuche, or Buguk Munbedj. ° Astarte, the semi-fish goddess, ^ This Chalcis is supposed to have been situate somewhere in the district of the Buckaa, probably south of Ileliopolis, or Baalbec. It has been suggested, that its site may have been at, or near Zahle ; in the vicinity ol" which, at the village of Ileusn Nieba, are to be seen some remarkable remains. Or else, possibly, at Majdel Anjar, whore Abul- feda speaks of great ruins of hewn stone. 7 Ansart suggests, that Belus is here the name of a mountain, and that it may be the same that is now called Djebel-il-Semmaq. ^ To the north of Chalcidene, a town of Syria, on the slopes of the Taurus, eiglity miles to the north-cast of Antioch. In the Roman times, it was the head-quarters of the Tenth Legion. The ruins near the modem village of Corns represent the ancit-iit Cyrrhus. Of the Gazata^ and Gindareni, nothing is known. * Possibly meaning the " Biu^ghcrs of Granum." Nothing is known of these peo])le. ^^ The people of Emesa, a city in the district of Apamcnc, on tlu) right,
 * In the former editions it is "Magog;" but Sillig's reading of
 * Mabog" is correct, and corresponds with the Oriental forms of Mun-