HICKS, Elias (1748–1830), founder of the Hicksites, one of the two great sections into which the Society of Friends in America has since 1828 been divided (see Quakers), was born at Hempstead, Long Island, on March 19, 1748. During the earlier part of his life he followed the business of a carpenter and housebuilder ; but this occupation he latterly exchanged for that of farming. Reared in a Quaker family, he began, when about twenty- seven years of age, to “have openings leading to the ministry,” and to be “ deeply engaged for the right admin- istration of discipline and order in the church.” In the intervals of business, accordingly, he began to visit the meetings and families of Friends throughout an extensive range of country; and soon he established a very consider- able reputation as an efficient and popular itinerant preacher. His first literary effort seems to have been made no earlier than 1811, when he published Observations on Slavery ; those doctrinal divergences from the received orthodox creed of the Friends, by which his name was brought into the prominence it now possesses, appear not to have become visible until 1820, when he wrote a Doctrinal Epistle (published in 1824), which was fcllowed by much contro- versy, and resulted in 1828 in the formal separation from the Hicksites of their more orthodox Quaker brethren. The points involved were justly considered to affect the funda- mental doctrines of the Christian religion, such as those of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the supreme authority of Scripture. Hicks died at Jericho, Long Island, on February 27, 1830. See Journal of the Life and Labours of Elias Hicks (Philadelphia, 1828).
HIERAPOLIS. Of the many cities in the Greek world bearing this name the following are the most important.
1. A city of Syria Cyrrhestica, situated on some hills about 16 miles south-west from the junction of the Euphrates and the Sajur. Besides the natural strength of its position, it was important as lying on the line of intercourse between Northern Syria and Mesopotamia, and was always a great trading city. Its early history is quite unknown. It is not mentioned during the Assyrian wars in this part of Syria (see Sayce, Academy, October 1876). Abul Faraz asserts that Josiah was defeated there by Pharaoh Necho (611 b.c.) on his march towards Carchemish ; but according to 2 Chron. xxxv. 20 the battle took place at Carchemish, which lay on the Euphrates a little further north on the site of the modern Jerabliis, or Jerabis ; and probably Abul Faraz confounded the two cities. The same confusion perhaps has caused the statement of Ammianus that Hierapolis was identical with Ninus Vetus on the Euphrates. Jerabliis is clearly a corruption of Hierapolis, by which name therefore Carchemish must at some time have been styled by the Greeks ; but it is surprising to find two great cities of the same name so near one another. No proof exists that Hierapolis was an important city before the time of the Selencide, and Professor Sayce suggests that it then succeeded to the trade and name of the older city, which had now decayed. Its original name is given in Greek as BapPvixy, which points back to a form Bambyg or Mambug, while the Syrian form is given by Pliny as Mabog, i.e., Mabbog for Mambog. The romance of trade by which this name has become naturalized in many European languages deserves a passing notice. As the city lay on the highway to the East, cotton and silk were important branches of its trade. Probably cotton plantations existed there in old time; and after the cultivation of silk was introduced to western Asia in the time of the Sassanian kings, large groves of mulberry trees surrounded the city. The name Mambe was afterwards con- founded with the Persian word pambe, silk; and the Greek form BayBvKy also was similarly mixed up with the word Bop Bvé,[1] which originally denoted the fly supposed to spin on trees the cotton or silk (for the two substances were confused by the Greeks and Romans) which men then gathered off the trees (Virg., Georg., ii. 121). Hence the “Bombycinz vestes” of the Roman writers ; while the city itself is called ‘‘Bombycina urbs.” In Asia cotton seems to have been known as a distinct article, and was named after the city which was the chief seat of its manufacture, as muslin is from Mosul. By the crusaders the stuff and the name were carried to Europe, and the latter exists in English in the form “bombazine.” The Syrian goddess Atargatis, called by the Greeks Derceto, a personification of the nature power worshipped under different names over the whole of western Asia, had one of her niost famous temples in the. city; and perhaps Mambe may have been a local name of the goddess. Hence in the 3d century b.c., when, under the Seleucid kings, Bambyce became a great Greek city and the most important station between Antioch and Seleucia, it was called Hierapolis or Hieropolis. The latter form is found on coins, the former is used in classical literature. The coinage of Hierapolis begins under the Seleucidee. The autonomous coins, pro- bably for commercial reasons, imitate closely the coins of Antioch. The temple was plundered by Crassus on his Parthian expedition (53 b.c.). Under Dhiocletian or Constantine, Hierapolis became the capital of the new . province of Euphratensis, a name which soon gave place to the older name Commagene. As paganism decayed, Hierapolis ceased to be the sacred city, and recovered its ancient name; at the same time its importance and popu- lation declined. In the time of Julian, who concentrated there the Roman troops for the fatal Parthian campaign, it was still one of the greatest cities of Syria; but under Justinian, who made some attempt to restore it, great part of its area was a desert, and the once strong fortifications were so decayed that the place was not defensible against the Parthian king Chosroes. At the Arab conquest it passed into the hands of the caliphs. Haroun-al-Raschid (786–808) restored it and strengthened its walls, and it is mentioned about 1150 by Edrisi as a strong city. As the empire of the caliphs dwindled, Mambedj became a frontier post in the struggle between Christians and Mahometans, and its possession carried with it the rule in this part of Syria. The emperor Romanus Diogenes captured it in his gallant struggle against the Turks (1068). Necaptured by the Seljuk Turks, it soon afterwards fell into the power of the crusaders, until it was stormed by Saladin (1175). It was for some time the headquarters of the Mongol host under Hulagu Khan; and, as with many other Syrian cities, its desolation dates from this time. The rains which still exist called Kara Bambuche or Buyuk Mambedj, have been described by Pococke and others, and most carefully by Chesney (Luphrates Expedition, i. 420).
Strabo (xvi. p. 748) confuses this Hicrapolis with Edessa in Mesopotamia. A very full aecount of the city to supplement the brief outline here given may be found in Ritter, Erdkunde, x. 1041-65.
- ↑ BéuBvt is borrowed from the Persian word (Benfey, Wurzellez., ii. 113), though the form it has taken in Greek is influenced by the word Bop Béw, to buzz. It is used by Aristotle, &c., to denote a gnat found in Asia Minor, which has certainly nothing to do with silk.
