On the mainland Aradus possessed a considerable tract, and had a number of cities subject to her. Of these Strabo enumerates six, viz. Paltos, Balanea, Carnus--which he calls the naval station of Aradus--Enydra, Marathus, and Simyra.[447] Marathus was the most important of these. Its name recalls the “Brathu” of Philo-Byblius[448] and the “Martu” of the early Babylonian inscriptions,[449] which was used as a general term by some of the primitive monarchs almost in the sense of “Syria.” The word is still preserved in the modern “M’rith” or “Amrith,” a name attached to some extensive ruins in the plain south-east of Aradus, which have been carefully examined by M. Renan.[450] Marathus was an ancient Phoenician town, probably one of the most ancient, and was always looked upon with some jealousy by the Aradians, who ultimately destroyed it and partitioned out the territory among their own citizens.[451] The same fate befell Simyra,[452] a place of equal antiquity, the home probably of those Zemarites who are coupled with the Arvadites in Genesis.[453] Simyra appears as “Zimirra” in the Assyrian inscriptions, where it is connected with Arka,[454] which was not far distant. Its exact site, which was certainly south of Amrith, seems to be fixed by the name Sumrah, which attaches to some ruins in the plain about a mile and a half north of the Eleutherus (Nahr-el-Kebir) and within a mile of the sea.[455] The other towns--Paltos, Balanea, Carnus,[456] and Enydra--were in the more northern portion of the plain, as was also Antaradus, now Tortosa, where there are considerable remains, but of a date long subsequent to the time of Phoenician ascendancy.