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farther South, the eastern chain Antilibanus also subdivides: one of the branches runs directly south, parallel with the line of coast, and seldom farther from it than 20 miles; the other flows southeast, skirting the desert. These two mountain chains inclose the wide valley of the Jordan, and uniting again to the south of the Dead Sea, form a basin, which, unlike most others, has no opening or outlet.

The conformation of the country now described gives rise to the great diversities of soil and climate which Syria exhibits,—the oppressive heats and extreme humidity of the maritime districts ;the healthful freshness of the inland and mountainous regions, produced by the snowy tops of Lebanon, and the height of the general level; and the dry heats and dismal aridity of the country bordering on the desert, and of the greater part of Judea itself. There are numerous traces in this country of volcanic action. When Strabo tells us (lib. xvI. c. 2.) that thirteen flourishing cities are said to have existed in the valley now filled by the lake Asphaltites, it is probable that he is only recording an imperfect tradition of the catastrophe we read of in sacred history: and the smoke and pitch that still rise to the surface, shew that the subterraneous fire is not yet extinct;-a notion which the frequency of earthquakes in Syria at the present day seems to confirm.

Historical Epochs.-As the country just described never formed one separate and independent state, it will be sufficient to note a few of the remarkable periods of history connected with it. Such are, 1. The various events of sacred story from the time of Abraham to the commencement of the Christian era. 2. The commercial greatness of Phoenicia during the flourishing times, first of SIDON, and then of TYRE. 3. The taking of ancient Tyre, called afterwards Palætyros, by Nebuchadnezzar, (b. C. 500,) and of insular Tyre by Alexander the Great, (A. U. 422. b. C. 332.) 4. The taking and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, (A. D. 70.) Its modern history is included in that of the Turkish Empire.

Antiquities. Remains of antiquity are found at Baalbec, at Gerasa, (the site of which, beyond the Jordan, has been thence ascertained,) and, above all, at Palmyra.

Books on Syria.-Strabo, Pliny's Nat. Hist. B. v., Travels of Pococke, Arvieux, Maundrell, Shaw, Volney, and Kinnear.

DIGRESSION

CONCERNING THE

CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

THE notions of the ancients as to all countries far removed from the shores of the Mediterranean, were so imperfect, that they attached much less importance than we do, and referred more rarely, to the Grand Divisions of the Earth's surface. They did occasionally acknowledge the three great portions of Europe, Asia, and Africa, or, as the Greeks called it, Libya. In Africa, however, they were not accustomed to include Egypt, but considered it as an appendage to Asia. Every school-boy knows, (from Sallust, Jug. c. 19.) that Catabathmos, which lay to the west of Alexandria, was regarded by many ancient Geographers as the eastern limit of Africa,* while others made the course of the Nile the boundary between Asia and Africa. As, therefore, according to a very prevailing ancient division, Alexander's expedition against Persia was confined to Asia, before quitting that quarter of the Globe, we shall sketch rapidly the Macedonian's progress, not only through the countries already described, but also through those more eastern regions, whose ancient geography has but little

✦ «Ægyptus, Asiæ prima pars, inter Catabathmum et Arabas," says Pomponius Mela, (1. 9.) who wrote under the Emperor Claudius.

interest for the classical student, except in so far as it refers to that extraordinary man. The latter part of his career of conquest, indeed, does not admit of certainty throughout. There are some of the countries which have not been visited by any European traveller; and the rest have been so vaguely described, that it is often difficult to come to a fixed opinion as to the precise line of Alexander's march. Besides, the authors who record his history, lived at a much later period than he. They often transpose and omit the facts,—give different names to the same town,-and, above all, mix up the geographical opinions of their own age with those of Alexander's. The result of all this confusion is, contradictions without end, and difficulties almost insurmountable. In the remoter regions of his progress, therefore, the probable must be substituted for the certain.

Setting out from Pella, the place of his birth, Alexander marched through Amphipolis, crossed the Strymon near its mouth, and the Hebrus; and in twenty days arrived at Sestos, on the European side of the Hellespont. After crossing to Abydos, and visiting Troy,' he advanced to the banks of the Granicus, where he first encountered and defeated the Persians. The principal points in his farther progress were the following:-Sardes, capital of Lydia, Ephesus, Miletus, Halicarnassus, Patăra, at the mouth of the Xanthus, Phaselis. After marching round Climax, (one of the southern extremities of Mount Taurus,) he turned northward to Celænæ, Gordium, and Ancyra: Marched southward again through Cappadocia and the Pylæ Cilicia, to Tarsus on the Cydnus, and Soli: thence eastward to Issus, where he

1 Alexander, quum in Sigeo ad Achillis tumulum adstitisset; O Fortunate, inquit, adolescens, qui tuæ virtutis Homerum præconem inveneris. CICERO, PRO ARCH.

fought and gained a second great battle: Turning to the south through Sidon and Tyre, the latter of which he took by assault after a difficult siege, he marched to Jerusalem and Gaza; then to Memphis, capital of Egypt, along the coast to Parætonium, beyond the western limit of Egypt, and south to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, in the Libyan Desert: then back to Tyre; forward to Damascus, and, keeping Palmyra on the right, to Thapsacus on the Euphrates. Passing that river, he led his army across Mesopotamia, and the Tigris; and at Gaugamela fought the third great and decisive battle of Arbēla. The main points of his subsequent and almost unresisted progress, were BABYLON; Susa; Ecbatuna, capital of Media; Pyle Caspia, Hecatompylos, ZadraCarta, in Hyrcania, near the S. E. extremity of the Caspian Sea; Artacoana; Alexandria, a city founded by the conqueror among the Ariani; along the river Etymander, to Arachosia ; thence northward by Paropamisus, through Bactriana to Bactra, on the Oxus, and through Sogdiana to Maracanda, the modern Samarcand, and northwards to Araxes3 or Jaxartes, called improperly by some of the historians of Alexander, the Tanais. This river was the boundary of Sogdiana, and of Alexander's progress northward; in memory of which he is said to have erected Alexandri Aræ, not far from, and in imi

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many provinces from bound to bound;

From Arachosia, from Candaor east,

And Margiana, to the Hyrcanian cliffs
Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales;

From Atropatia, and the neighbouring plains
Of Adiabene, Media, and the south

Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven.-PAR. REG. III. 315.

pontem indignatus Araxes.-ÆN. VIII. 728.

- patiens Latii jam pontis Araxes.-STAT. SILV. I. 79.

tation of, the altars of Bacchus, Hercules, and Semiramis. Returning south by Bactria and Aornos, he passed the eastern limit of the Persian Empire, at the river Cophes, a tributary of the Indus. On the banks of the latter, and of its numerous tributaries, Alexander found the dominions of Porus, the Oxydracæ, &c.; and after sailing down to its mouth, directed his course back from Pattala, along the coast of Gedrasia, a country bounded to the south by the Erythrean Sea; and passing through Pasargado and Persepolis, arrived once more at Babylon, where he died, in the year of Rome 431, and 323 years before the Christian era.

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