On the side of Syria, joining up to Judæa, is the region of Decapolis[3669], so called from the number of its cities; as to which all writers are not agreed. Most of them, however, agree in speaking of Damascus[3670] as one, a place fertilized by the river Chrysorroös[3671], which is drawn off into its meadows and eagerly imbibed; Philadelphia[3672], and Rhaphana[3673], all which cities fall back towards Arabia; Scythopolis[3674] (formerly called Nysa by Father Liber, from his nurse having been buried there), its present name being derived from a Scythian colony which was established there; Gadara[3675], before which the river Hieromix[3676] flows; Hippo, which has been previously mentioned; Dion[3677], Pella[3678], rich with its waters; Galasa[3679], and Canatha[3680]. The Tetrarchies[3681] lie between and around these cities, equal, each of them, to a kingdom, and occupying the same rank as so many kingdoms. Their names are, Trachonitis[3682], Panias[3683], in which is Cæsarea, with the spring previously mentioned[3684], Abila[3685], Arca[3686], Ampeloëssa[3687], and Gabe[3688]. CHAP. 17. (19.)—PHŒNICE. We must now return to the coast and to Phœnice. There was formerly a town here known as Crocodilon; there is still a river[3689] of that name: Dorum[3690] and Sycaminon[3691] are the names of cities of which the remembrance only exists. We then come to the Promontory of Carmelus[3692], and, upon the mountain, a town[3693] of that name, formerly called Acbatana. Next to this are Getta[3694], Jeba, and the river Pacida, or Belus[3695], which throws up on its narrow banks a kind of sand from which glass[3696] is made: this river flows from the marshes of Cendebia, at the foot of Mount Carmelus. Close to this river is Ptolemais, formerly called Ace[3697], a colony of Claudius Cæsar; and then the town of Ecdippa[3698], and the promontory known as the White Promontory[3699]. We next come to the city of Tyre[3700], 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 Carthage[3701],—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 purple[3702]. Its circumference, including therein Palætyrus[3703], is nineteen miles, the place itself extending twenty-two stadia. The next towns are Sarepta[3704] and Ornithon[3705], and then Sidon[3706], famous for its manufacture of glass, and the parent of Thebes[3707] in Bœotia.