Beyond the Pelusiac Mouth is Arabia[3597], which extends to the Red Sea, and joins the Arabia known by the surname of Happy[3598], so famous for its perfumes and its wealth. This[3599] is called Arabia of the Catabanes[3600], the Esbonitæ[3601], and the Scenitæ[3602]; it is remarkable for its sterility, except in the parts where it joins up to Syria, and it has nothing remarkable in it except Mount Casius[3603]. The Arabian nations of the Canchlæi[3604] join these on the east, and, on the south the Cedrei[3605], both of which peoples are adjoining to the Nabatæi[3606]. The two gulfs of the Red Sea, where it borders upon Egypt, are called the Heroöpolitic[3607] and the Ælanitic[3608]. Between the two towns of Ælana[3609] and Gaza[3610] upon our sea[3611], there is a distance of 150 miles. Agrippa says that Arsinoë[3612], a town on the Red Sea, is, by way of the desert, 125 miles from Pelusium. How different the characteristics impressed by nature upon two places separated by so small a distance! CHAP. 13. (12.)—SYRIA. Next to these countries Syria occupies the coast, once the greatest of lands, and distinguished by many names; for the part which joins up to Arabia was formerly called Palæstina, Judæa, Cœle[3613], and Phœnice. The country in the interior was called Damascena, and that further on and more to the south, Babylonia. The part that lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris was called Mesopotamia, that beyond Taurus Sophene, and that on this side of the same chain Comagene. Beyond Armenia was the country of Adiabene, anciently called Assyria, and at the part where it joins up to Cilicia, it was called Antiochia. Its length, between Cilicia and Arabia[3614], is 470 miles, and its breadth, from Seleucia Pieria[3615] to Zeugma[3616], a town on the Euphrates, 175. Those who make a still more minute division of this country will have it that Phœnice is surrounded by Syria, and that first comes the maritime coast of Syria, part of which is Idumæa and Judæa, after that Phœnice, and then Syria. The whole of the tract of sea that lies in front of these shores is called the Phœnician Sea. The Phœnician people enjoy the glory of having been the inventors of letters[3617], and the first discoverers of the sciences of astronomy, navigation, and the art of war. CHAP. 14.—IDUMÆA, PALÆSTINA, AND SAMARIA. On leaving Pelusium we come to the Camp of Chabrias[3618], Mount Casius[3619], the temple of Jupiter Casius, and the tomb of Pompeius Magnus. Ostracine[3620], at a distance of sixty-five miles from Pelusium, is the frontier town of Arabia.