[618] Van Egmont (Travels, vol. i. p. 297) considers it impossible, from the character of the intervening country, to see Jerusalem from Joppa. Pococke, on the contrary, says, that it would not be surprising to see from the heights of Joppa, in fine weather, the summit of one of the high towers of Jerusalem; and this is not so unlikely, for according to Josephus the sea was visible from the tower of Psephina at Jerusalem. [619] Jebna. [620] Ras-el-Kasaroun. [621] Esdod. [622] Asculan. [623] Akaba or Akaba-Ila. [624] Near Suez. [625] Refah. [626] B. C. 218. [627] El Arish. [628] Sebaki-Bardoil. [629] The passage through which the lake discharged itself into the sea. [630] El-Cas. [631] It appears that in the time of Strabo and Josephus the temple of Jupiter only remained; at a later period a town was built there, of which Steph. Byzant., Ammianus Marcellinus, and others speak, and which became the seat of a bishopric. [632] B. xvi. c. iii. §3. [633] B. xiv. c. v. §3. [634] Arabia Petræa. Petra, now called Karac, was the capital. [635] Josephus, Ant. Jud. xiii. 9. 1. [636] §27, above. [637] Jaffa. [638] Rabbath-Ammon, or Amma. [639] Herod rebuilt Samaria, and surrounded it with a vast enclosure. There also he erected a magnificent temple, and gave to the city the surname of Sebaste, in honour of Augustus. [640] In b. xiii. c. ii. §5, our author again says that the Jews were originally Egyptians. So also Josephus, xiv. 7. 2. [641] “Judæi mente solâ, unumque numen intelligunt, summum illud et eternum, neque mutabile, neque interiturum.” Tacitus, Hist. v. c. 5. [642] Strabo here attributes to Moses the opinions of the Stoics. [643] Strabo appears to have had little acquaintance with the Jewish history previous to the return from captivity, nor any exact knowledge until the arrival of the Romans in Judæa. Of the Bible he does not seem to have had any knowledge. [644] Probably Strabo copies from accounts when the country was not well cultivated. [645] αἱ γυναῖκες Ἰουδαïκῶς ἐκτετμημέναι, below, c. iv. Section 9. [646] Od. xix. 494. [647] Diviners by the dead. [648] Diviners by a dish into which water was poured and little waxen images made to float. [649] Diviners by water. [650] ὡροσκόποι is the reading of the text, which Groskurd supposes to be a corruption of the Latin word Haruspex. I adopt the reading οἰωνοσκόποι, approved by Kramer, although he has not introduced it into the text. [651] According to Josephus, Johannes Hyrcanus dying, B. C. 107, was succeeded by Aristobulus, who took the title of king, this being the first instance of the assumption of that name among the Jews since the Babylonish captivity. Aristobulus, was succeeded by Alexander Jannæus, whose two sons were Hyrcanus II. and Aristobulus II., successively kings of Judæa, B. C. 67, 68. [652] B. C. 63.