The Romans embellished it with many magnificent edifices, but of which scarcely any vestige now remains.
In regard to the new city, the Gothic kings for some time made it their residence; but it was taken by storm soon after the victory obtained at Xeres, over the Gothic king Rodrigo. It at last fell before Ferdinand III., after a year's siege; and three hundred thousand Moors were compelled to quit the place; notwithstanding which it became the most magnificent city in all Spain, a little after the discovery of America; all the valuable commodities of the West Indies being carried thither.
An old Spanish writer thus speaks of this place:—"Not far from hence one sees the ruins of an ancient city; and of an amphitheatre, great part of which remains; but many of the great parts lie in such confusion, as if it had been thrown into disorder by an earthquake. The people call this place Sevilla la Vieja, or Old Seville; but the learned take it to be the ancient Italica, the birth-place of the emperor Adrian and Silius Italicus; there having been found a sufficient number of ancient medals and inscriptions to justify that opinion; and amongst others, they found a medal of Tiberius, with the following legend upon it: DIVI. AVG. MVNIC. ITALIC. PERM. And in the time of Fernando el Santo, the conqueror of Seville (which was in the year 1248), this place retained some traces of its ancient name; for it was called Talca. Some of the ruins appear to have been the remains of a temple, and a bath. In the spot near which many of these ruins are to be seen, there is a monastery of St. Isidore; and in the church there is an altar of alabaster, which can scarce be matched in Europe[301]."
JERUSALEM.
NO. XLIV.—JERUSALEM.
"How doth the city solitary sit, she that was full of people!
How is she become a widow, that was great among the nations!
Princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
She weepeth sore in the night, and her tear is upon her cheek:
She hath none to comfort her, among all her lovers:
All her friends have betrayed her, they became her enemies."
Lamen. i. 1, 2.
"In the whole universe," says Mr. Eustace, "there were only two cities interesting alike to every member of the great Christian commonwealth, to every citizen of the civilised world, whatever may be his tribe or nation—Rome and Jerusalem. The former calls up every classic recollection; the latter awakens every sentiment of devotion; the one brings before our eyes all the splendour of the present world; the other all the glories of the world to come."
Palestine, or the land of Canaan, originally extended in length from north to south, near two hundred miles, and from eighty to fifteen in breadth, from east to west. Its southern boundary was formed by the desert of Beersheba, the Dead Sea, the river Arnon, and the river of Egypt, or the Siehor; to the north, it was bounded by the mountainous ridge called Antilibanus; to the east by Arabia, and to the west by the Mediterranean. Though rocky and mountainous, it was one of the most fertile provinces of the temperate zone; a land, according to the authority of the sacred penman, of brooks of waters, of fountains, and depths, that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive-oil, and honey; a land wherein bread might be eaten without scarceness, whose stones were iron, and out of whose hills might be dug brass.