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.
(13.) After this, at the point where the Sirbonian Lake[3621] becomes visible, Idumæa and Palæstina begin. This lake, which some writers have made to be 150 miles in circumference, Herodotus has placed at the foot of Mount Casius; it is now an inconsiderable fen. The towns are Rhinocolura[3622], and, in the interior, Rhaphea[3623], Gaza, and, still more inland, Anthedon[3624]: there is also Mount Argaris[3625]. Proceeding along the coast we come to the region of Samaria; Ascalo[3626], a free town, Azotus[3627], the two Jamniæ[3628], one of them in the interior; and Joppe[3629], a city of the Phœnicians, which existed, it is said, before the deluge of the earth. It is situate on the slope of a hill, and in front of it lies a rock, upon which they point out the vestiges of the chains by which Andromeda was bound[3630]. Here the fabulous goddess Ceto[3631] is worshipped. Next to this place comes Apollonia[3632], and then the Tower of Strato[3633], otherwise Cæsarea, built by King Herod, but now the Colony of Prima Flavia, established by the Emperor Vespasianus: this place is the frontier town of Palæstina, at a distance of 188 miles from the confines of Arabia; after which comes Phœnice[3634]. In the interior of Samaria are the towns of Neapolis[3635], formerly called Mamortha, Sebaste[3636], situate on a mountain, and, on a still more lofty one, Gamala[3637].