Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 208

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We must now return to the coast and to Phœnice. There was formerly a town here known as Crocodilon; there is still a river3689 of that name: Dorum3690 and Sycaminon3691 are the names of cities of which the remembrance only exists. We then come to the Promontory of Carmelus3692, and, upon the mountain, a town3693 of that name, formerly called Acbatana. Next to this are Getta3694, Jeba, and the river Pacida, or Belus3695, which throws up on its narrow banks a kind of sand from which glass3696 is made: this river flows from the marshes of Cendebia, at the foot of Mount Carmelus. Close to this river is Ptolemais, formerly called Ace3697, a colony of Claudius Cæsar; and then the town of Ecdippa3698, and the promontory known as the White Promontory3699. We next come to the city of Tyre3700, 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 Carthage3701,—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 purple3702. Its circumference, including therein Palætyrus3703, is nineteen miles, the place itself extending twenty-two stadia. The next towns are Sarepta3704 and Ornithon3705, and then Sidon3706, famous for its manufacture of glass, and the parent of Thebes3707 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 Libanus3708 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 Magoras3709, the colony of Berytus3710, which bears the name of Felix Julia, the town of Leontos3711, the river Lycos3712, Palæbyblos3713, the river Adonis3714, and the towns of Byblos3715, Botrys3716, Gigarta3717, Trieris3718, Calamos3719, Tripolis3720, inhabited by the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Aradians; Orthosia3721, the river Eleutheros3722, the towns of Simyra and Marathos3723; and opposite, Arados3724, 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 Bargylus3725 is seen to rise.