[Page 211.]—Route of the Tyrian commerce.] The remains of this paved road leading towards Tyre are still distinctly visible along the coast. See Irby and Mangles, Travels, p. 197.
[Page 211.]—Megiddo.] Called Μαγδόλος by Herodotus, ii. 159. in his narrative of the victory of Pharaoh Necho.
[Page 211.]—Turris Stratonis.] It is uncertain from, whom this town received its name. Herod occupied ten years in restoring and beautifying it, and forming the harbour; and gave it, in honour of Augustus, the name of Cæsarea. Jos. Ant. xvi. 5. Bell. Jud. i. 21. It was called Καισάρεια Σεβαστή (Augusta) and ἐπι τῇ θαλασσῇ, to distinguish it from Cæsarea Philippi or Paneas, near Dan. It was to Cæsarea Augusta that Paul was sent when his life was threatened by the Jews. Acts xxiii. 23. From the account of Josephus it should seem as if it had had no harbour before Herod formed one; for he observes, that the whole coast from Dan to Joppa was without a harbour. Bell. Jud. i. 21.
[Page 213.]—The purple dye.] The manner of making it is fully described by Pliny, N. H. lib. ix. 60. seq. “Two shell-fish were employed to furnish it, the murex and the purpura; the former gave a dark blue colour; the latter a brighter tint, approaching to scarlet. The liquor is contained in a sort of pouch, which occupies the middle part of the shell; the shells are carefully broken, so as to preserve the part entire; they are sprinkled with salt, and the mucilage which they form is put into a leaden caldron and heated; the fleshy particles are gradually drawn off and the liquor left pure. The purple tint was given by the mixture of the two juices.” Swinburne’s Travels in Sicily, ii. 64, 65.
[Page 213.]—Acco.] It received the name of Ptolemais from one of the kings of Egypt. In the middle ages, when it became celebrated in the history of the crusades, it resumed its original name, slightly altered, and is now called Acre. It lies on the northern side of the promontory of Carmel. See Maundrell, p. 54.
The Τυρίων κλίμαξ, which, according to Josephus, (Bell. Jud. ii. 10.) was one hundred stadia north of Ptolemais, appears to have been the White Cliff in which the chain of Antilibanus terminates, and it probably derived its name from the road described by Egmont and Heyman, ii. 232. Maundrell erroneously places it to the north of Berytus, (p. 35.) It is so steep, says Mr. Buckingham, (p. 58) as “in some places to render steps necessary:” hence the name κλίμαξ.
[Page 215.]—Lebanon.] “Præcipuum montium Lebanum erigit, mirum dictu tantos inter ardores opacum fidumque nivibus.” Tac. Hist. v. 6. לבן signifies in Hebrew white. Libanus and Antilibanus are described by Strabo, xvi. 755. Reland, lib. i. c. 47. The part of the chain Antilibanus, which was called Hermon by the Israelites, was called Sirion by the Sidonians, and Shenir (the Sannir or Sannin of the Arabs) by the Amorites, Deut. iii. 9. They are sometimes distinguished from each other (Cant. iv. 8.) as different points of the same mountain chain. Some geographers have placed another Hermon in Galilee, near Tabor, (see Reland’s and Pococke’s maps) from Ps. lxxxix. 12. where, however, Tabor and Hermon seem to be conjoined, as having each witnessed a signal display of Jehovah’s power. Josh. xi. 17. Judges iv. See Lightfoot, ii. 369.
[Page 215.]—Dan.] Josephus (Ant. v. 3. viii. 8.) speaks of Dan as situated in the great plain of Sidon, and near Libanus and the source of the Lesser Jordan. Lightfoot and Reland suppose that the Lesser is the Jordan before it reaches the lake Samochonitis. This seems not probable.
[Page 218.]—Tyre.] In the description of Tyre, v. 6, the islands of Chittim are Greece, Macedonia, Italy, and its dependent islands, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, &c. Comp. Gen. x. 4. Dan. xi. 30. 1 Mace. i. 1. viii. 5. It is not wonderful that the Jews, knowing chiefly the southern parts of Greece, Italy, Gaul, and Spain, which are so deeply indented by the sea, should call them isles. Box, of extraordinary size, was produced in Corsica, Plin. N. H. lib. xvi. 28. The prophet here describes some extraordinary luxury in the equipment of a Tyrian vessel, not the ordinary construction of their ships. V. 7. Elisha is Hellas, Greece. Laconia was celebrated for its purple as well as many of the islands adjacent to the Peloponnesus:
——nec Laconicas mihi