CHAP. 17. (19.)—PUŒNICE.
We must now return to the coast and to Phœnice. There was formerly a town here known as Crocodilon; there is still a river1 of that name: Dorum2 and Sycaminon3 are the names of cities of which the remembrance only exists. We then come to the Promontory of Carmelus4, and, upon the mountain, a town5 of that name, formerly called Acbatana. Next to this are Getta6, Jeba, and the river Pacida, or Belus7, which throws up on its narrow banks a kind of sand from which glass8 is made: this river flows from the marshes of Cendebia, at the foot of Mount Carmelus. Close to this river is Ptolemais, formerly called Ace9, a colony of Claudius Cæsar; and then the town of Ecdippa10, and the promontory known as the White Promontory11. We next come to the city of Tyre12, 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 Carthage13,— 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 purple14. Its circumference, including therein Palætyrus15, is nineteen miles, the place itself extending twenty-two stadia. The next towns are Sarepta16 and Ornithon17, and then Sidon18, famous for its manufacture of glass, and the parent of Thebes19 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 Libanus20 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 Magoras21, the colony of Berytus22, which bears the name of Felix Julia, the town of Leontos23, the river Lycos24, Palæbyblos25, the river Adonis26, and the towns of Byblos27, Botrys28, Gigarta29, Trieris30, Calamos31, Tripolis32, inhabited by the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Aradians; Orthosia33, the river Eleutheros34 the towns of Simyra and Marathos35; and opposite, Arados36, 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 Bargylus37 is seen to rise.
