[571] The text is corrupt. The translation follows the proposed corrections of Letronne and Kramer.
[572] Shizar, on the Orontes.
[573] Cæcilius Bassus was besieged twice in Apameia, first by C. Antistius, afterwards by Marcus Crispus and Lucius Statius Marcius. Cassius succeeded in dispersing the troops of this rebel without much difficulty, according to Dion Cassius, xlvii. 27.
[574] Arethusa, now Restan, was founded by Seleucus Nicator. According to Appian, Pompey subdued Sampsiceramus, who was king of Arethusa. On this account Cicero, in his letters to Atticus (ii. 14, 16, 17, 23), calls Pompey in derision Sampsiceramus. Antony put Iamblicus, son of Sampsiceramus, to death; but Augustus restored the small state of Arethusa to another Iamblicus, son of the former.
[575] The people of Emesa, now Hems.
[576] Balbek and Kalkos.
[577] This Ptolemy, son of Mennæus, was master chiefly of Chalcis, at the foot of Libanus, from whence he made incursions on the territory of Damascus. Pompey was inclined to suppress his robberies, but Ptolemy softened his anger by a present of 1000 talents, which the Roman general applied to the payment of his troops. He remained in possession of his dominion until his death, and was succeeded by his son Lysanias, whom Cleopatra put to death, on the pretext that he had induced the Parthians to come into the country. Josephus, Bell. Jud.
[578] One of the branches of Antilibanus.
[579] This Alchædamnus is constantly called Alchaudonius by Dion Cassius, whom he calls the “Arabian dynast.” Falconer therefore inferred that here we ought to read Ἀράβων instead of Ῥαμβαίων, but Letronne does not adopt this reading, and supposes the Rhambæi may have been a tribe of the Arabians.
[580] The text is here corrupt, and the passage, according to Kramer, probably introduced into the text from a marginal note.