quadrant, four square, and 60 cubits high, built of the hardest marble, and so cemented as almost to defy the ravages of time. On the four sides were brazen gates, with curtains or palisades of the same metal, 120 cubits high, and 410 paces long, for the purpose of giving defence to the city, and striking beholders with terror. The walls were 600 paces from north to south, and 396 from east to west. The numerous columns, porticoes, stair-cases, images, &c. are exceedingly magnificent, even in their ruinous state; and induce the belief that the Persian empire in all its grandeur, could boast of nothing more glorious, nor have left anything to posterity more astonishing than the description and ruins of this once splendid city. The fine plain in which this city stood was in the eastern part of Persia; it was 20 leagues long and 6 broad, and within this compass there were more than 1000 villages, adorned with beautiful gardens.

Alexander the Great, taking Persepolis by storm, put the unhappy inhabitants to the sword. He likewise burnt the other cities and villages of that plain. The destroying element rolled onward like an overwhelming and resistless deluge; and in a little time the dwelling place of thousands presented nothing but a heap of smoking ruins one vast picture of desolation. It is supposed that Alexander took 120,000 talents from the city of Persepolis, and robbed, the inhabitants of the plain of all their valuable property. The spoil was so great that it required nearly 6,000 camels and mules to carry it off.

SHUSHAN. (Neh. i. 1; Esth. i. 5.) An ancient extensive, and magnificent city, [called by the Greeks, Susa, or the city of lilies,] situated on the river Ulai, [now Kerrah.] It was in the province of Elam, in Persia, now known as Khusistan, and formerly as Susiana. Shushan was the capital. It is said to have been built by Memnon, before the Trojan war. It was the winter residence of the Persian kings from the time of Cyrus, being sheltered by a high ridge of mountains from the north-east wind; but in the summer it was so intensely hot as to be scarcely habitable. Here Daniel had his vision of the ram and he-goat. (Daniel viii.)

MEDIA. (Isa. xxi. 2.) This country which probably derives its name from Madai, (Gen. x. 2,) anciently occupied what is now part of the kingdom of Persia, and was bounded north by the Caspian Sea and Armenia, south by Persia proper and west by Assyria. It was a fertile and well cultivated region, and was divided into greater and lesser Media. Ninus, king of Assyria, added this country to his kingdom, and retained it till the time of Sennacherib, when it revolted, and his son became king, B. C. 700. It fell into the hands of Cyrus the Great, about 556 B. C. who perfectly united Media and Persia, forming the Medo-Persian kingdom. Hence, by Esther and Daniel, the laws and chronicles of the Medes and Persians are always mentioned together. God employed the Medes to punish Babylon, and then sent them the cup of his wrath by Cyrus.(Isa. xiii. 17, 18; xxi. 2, 3; Jer. xxv. 25.)

ACHMETHA. (Ezra vi. 2.) The Ecbatana of ancient Media, and the place where the records of the kingdom were preserved. The place is occupied, as it is supposed, by the modern city of Hamadan, in Persia. It was surrounded by seven walls, and at one period was considered the strongest and most beautiful city of the east, except Nineveh and Babylon.

The

PARTHIANS, (Acts ii. 9,) or the inhabitants of Parthia, originally a province of Media, on its eastern side, situated between the Persian Gulf and the Tigris. Parthians seem to have resembled the Cossacks of our day, and were celebrated for their skill in archery, and especially for shooting as they fled, and were a part of the Scythian horde who so long disputed with Rome for the dominion of the east. Parthia was united to the Persian empire, A. D. 226. The Persian language was spoken there; and indeed in Scripture and other ancient writings, Persia and Parthia are often used as synony

mous.

THE KINGDOM AND CITIES OF SYRIA.

SYRIA was formerly a province of Canaan. The inhabitants were Canaanites, called by the Greeks, Phœ

nicians and Ethiopians. It contained 100 flourishing cities, towns and villages, and 12,000,000 souls within the kingdom. Every where one might have seen cultivated fields, frequented roads and crowded inhabitants. [Josephus and Strabo.]

AMORITES. They occupied the portion of Syria which afterwards constituted the lots of Reuben, Gad, Manasseh, Dan, Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. As they were the most powerful of the devoted tribes, all the Canaanites sometimes went under their name.

ANTIOCH. A city of this name was long the capital of Syria. It was situated on the banks of the Orontes, twelve miles from the Mediterranean, built by Seleucus Nicanor, B. C. 301. It was ranked the third city of the earth, being scarcely inferior to Alexandria. It was the royal residence of the kings of Syria. Luke and Theophilus were born in this place. Here Paul and Barnabas preached, and here the disciples of Christ were first called Christians. Chrysostom preached here in the fourth century with great success. This church was famous for many hundred years. In A. D. 538, sixty thousand of its inhabitants perished in an earthquake. In 1188, it was demolished by the Saracens. In 1822, a tremendous earthquake completely destroyed the remains of this once splendid city; and it is now little else than a heap of ruins. Its present name is Antakia. There were many other cities called Antioch; none of which are mentioned in Scripture, but that in Pisidia, which is now called Ak-sher, and sometimes Antiochio.(Acts xiii. 14.)

ALEPPO, a city of Syria, stands on four hills, twentytwo leagues east of Scanderoon. This city is about three miles in circuit.

DAMASCUS. (Gen. xv. 2.) The capital of ancient Syria, for three centuries the residence of the Syrian kings, and the oldest city which now exists. Its modern name is El-shams. It is situated on the river Baradi, about two hundred miles south of Antioch, and a hundred and twenty north-east of Jerusalem. The country around it, within a circuit of twenty or thirty miles, is well watered, and exceedingly fertile. The city itself is about two miles in length, and surrounded by a wall.

The streets are narrow, but well paved; and it is said that one of them, which runs through the breadth of the city and suburbs, from two to three miles, is still called "straight." (Acts ix. 11.) The adjoining country is so beautiful in scenery, and so rich in soil, that the orientals regard it as a paradise on earth-such is its commanding situation.

GADARA, the capital of Peræa, in Colo-Syria, stood about four miles eastward of the Sea of Tiberias. Great numbers of swine were kept here, which was directly contrary to the Mosaic law. When Christ, in healing two possessed persons, suffered the devils to enter their herd of swine, and drown them, instead of being humbled by their punishment, they besought the Savior to leave their country. About forty years after, the city was burnt by the Romans.

HELBON. (Ezek. xxvii. 18.) A Syrian city of great opulence and antiquity, celebrated for its wines; and probably the same with Aleppo, [or, as the Arabs say, Alep or Halab,] which is now one of the most flourishing cities of Turkey. Its buildings are of hewn stone, and its streets paved with the same. It was once deeply concerned in the India trade, and is still a place of commercial intercourse and manufacturing enterprise.

ITUREA. (Luke iii. 1.) A province of Syria, which derived its name from Jetur, a son of Ishmael, whose posterity inhabited it. It was south of Trachonitis, beyond Jordan, and probably included Auranitis and Batanea. It was overrun by a party of the Israelites in the time of Jotham king of Judah, and a vast quantity of spoil taken. (1 Chr. v. 19, 22.) It is now called Djedour.

MESOPOTAMIA, (Deut. xxiii. 4.) or Syria, between the two rivers, elsewhere called Padan-aram, or the plain of Syria, was the name of the country lying between the Tigris and the Euphrates. It was the first abode of men both before and after the flood, and was bounded north by Armenia, east by Assyria, south by Arabia, and west by Syria, and embraced the modern El-jesira of Turkey. Some suppose that the wise men who visited the infant Jesus, were from this country. Here were the garden of Eden and the tower of Babel. It was the original

residence of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all their children save Benjamin. (Gen. xi. 31.) It was astonishingly populous, containing, according to Ptolemy, seventy important cities. Christianity, in a mutilated form, still exists here. The region is still fertile, and is now called Diarbekir.

1

PHONICE. (Acts xxvii. 12.) A winter harbor on the southern shore of Crete.

PHOENICIA. (Acts xxi. 2.) A province of Syria, and, in the largest extent of the term, embracing a strip of land adjoining the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, eighty miles long and twelve broad. Properly, however, it included only the territories of Tyre and Sidon. The Phoenicians were descendants of the Canaanites, and a Syro-phoenician was a Phoenician of Syria. Phoenicia was also subject to the Greek government in the time of our Savior, and hence Tyre and Sidon might be regarded as Greek cities. (Comp. Matt. xv. 22; Mark vii. 26.) The Jews regarded all the rest of the world as Greeks. Phoenicia is considered as the birth-place of commerce, if not of letters. The soil is still fertile, producing a rich variety of grains and fruits; but all the enterprise and prosperity of the people is blasted by the despotism of the government. Carthage was established by a colony of Phoenicians; and Cadiz, in Spain, is also supposed to have been settled by the same people about one thousand years before Christ. It is thought the Phoeninicians pushed their trade as far as Britain, and they probably had settlements on the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Sir Isaac Newton thinks that vast numbers of Edomites fled hither in the days of David, and carried their arts along with them. The chief city of this region, and sometimes the region itself, is now called Tripoli.

TOB. (Judg. xi. 3, 5.) A district in the south-east of Syria, whither Jephthah fled, and whence he was called to lead the army of Israel.

THE GREAT AND SPLENDID CITY OF SYRIA-PALMYRA. This city was situated about fifteen miles east from Damascus, and one hundred and twenty from Tarabolas or Tripoli. It was the metropolis of Palmyrene, a fertile province of Syria. Surrounded on all sides by