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its conquests over many rich countries and considerable states; that the great kingdoms of the Seleucida and of the Ptolemies became part of the dominions of a single city, whose name we in vain look for in history; and this, though it flourished in modern times, in comparison of the age of David, (none of the dates found there being earlier than CHRIST,) and in times concerning which we have large

accounts.

That Palmyra and Balbec, which are pehaps the two most surprising remains of ancient magnificence now left, should be so neglected in history, as in a great measure to be left to tell their own story, appears to this ingenious writer a very remarkable fact, carrying instruction with it. Instruction of more sorts than one, let it be permitted me to say! for besides those moral lessons which the editor of these Ruins refers to, it removes at once all difficulties derived from the silence of profane history concerning the kings and affairs of Jerusalem, a city which stood in the neighbourhood of Palmyra and Balbec, which are passed over in as great or greater silence to which is to be added the consideration, that Jerusalem was much · more ancient than they.

Ruins of Palmyra, p. 11.

d P. 1.

OBSERVATION XLIV. .

Certain Particulars relative to Palmyra.

PALMYRA, though situated between the two great empires of Rome and Parthia, was an independent state in the days of Pliny; and by its advantageous situation, in the midst of a great desert, not only preserved its independence, but it was, according to Mr. Wood, the first care of those two mighty empires, "when at war, to engage it in their interest.

As it did not however always preserve its independence, being conquered by Aurelian, and subjected to the Romans, the ruins of some of their works still continuing there, so it might not be always a separate state in the ages that preceded that of Pliny. It however must, notwithstanding, have been an object of great attention at all times: and even before any city was built there, on account of its waters, which indeed are supposed to have been the occasion of erecting it. So William the Archbishop of Tyres mentions it as a great defect in the Christians, that they did not seize upon a place called Gerba, where there was abundance of water, and which lay in the way of Saladine, in his march out of Egypt to Damascus; which had they done, he supposes • Ruins of Palmyra, p. 5.

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f P. 13.

Saladine must have returned into Egypt, and have lost his whole army by thirst. Their taking possession afterwards of the waters called Rasel Rasit, which they proposed to do, but did not, he supposed too would have obliged him to go on farther about in the wilderness, and would have been attended with great loss to him.

Was then Palmyra the place that Pharaoh Necho wanted to secure," or Hadadezer king of Zobah? One might be tempted to fancy so from its importance, and its nearness to the Euphrates. It could hardly however be an object of Necho's attention, because the place he went against is expressly called by the Jewish historian Carchemish, whereas Palmyra was known to the Jews by the name of Tadmor in the wilderness, and is so called by this very historian, 2 Chron. viii. 4. Agreeably to this, long after the days of Necho, Saladine, who reigned over the same country of Egypt, is spoken of as having more towns than one on the Euphrates. This however shews how fond the Egyptian princes have always been of having some towns in the neighbourhood of that river.

It is much more probable, that this might be the border that Hadadezer sought to recover out of the hands of David; since it is in a manner universally allowed, that Solomon his son built a city here, which place, as he was a h2 Chron. xxxv. 20. i 2 Sam. viii. 3. Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 1029.

pacific prince, it is most natural to think had been previously secured by David; and it is reasonable to believe that he seized upon this important place, which though of such consequence to his caravans, had been neglected by Hadadezer, in order to become master of that advantageous commerce carried on through it from the Euphrates, which the ingenious editor of the Ruins of Palmyra,' if I understand him right, supposes was as ancient as these times. Such a supposition explains, I think, in the easiest manner, the contest between the king of Zobah and David about this place, which until then had lain unoccupied, and had been only used for a wateringplace.

But whether we are to understand it of the springs of Palmyra, or of any other place nearer the Euphrates, in the time of David at farthest, Providence fulfilled the prediction to Abraham, that to his seed should be given the land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates.

OBSERVATION XLV.
VATION

Some curious Remarks on the Euphrates.

DR. Pococke has made a remark upon this river, (the Euphrates,) which may possibly serve to explain a difficulty relating to another

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of which we read much more frequently in the Scriptures, I mean the Jordan.

The bed of the Euphrates, this writer tells us, was measured by some English gentlemen at Beer, and found to be six hundred and thirty yards broad, but the river only two hundred and fourteen yards over; that they thought it to be nine or ten feet deep in the middle; and were informed, that it sometimes rises twelve feet perpendicularly. He observed that it had an inner and outer bank; but says, it rarely overflows the inner bank; that when it does, they sow water-melons, and other fruits of that kind, as soon as the water retires, and have a great produce."

Might not the overflowings of Jordan be like those of the Euphrates, not annual, but much more rare? Maundrell observed an inner and an outer bank belonging to Jordan, but says, that river was so far from overflowing when he was there, that it ran at least two yards below the brink of its channel. The circumstance of his having been there the thirtieth of March, the proper time for its inundation, 1 Chron. xii. 15, appears a little to have dis

This, I suppose, was the breadth from one of the inner banks to the other; for Mr. Drummond tells us, that the Euphrates at Beer has two sets of banks, one for summer, and the other for winter, these last being full half a mile wider than the other." p. 205. If the width of one of the outer banks from the other is half a mile, or eight hundred and eighty yards more than the common bed of the Euphrates, it must be the distance from one of the inner banks to the other that these gentlemen measured, which they found to be six hundred and thirty yards only.

Vol. 2, p. 164.

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