the winter solstice (Joseph., Ant., viii. 5). At Tyre, as among the Hebrews, Baal had his symbolical pillars, one of gold and one of smaragdus, which, transported by phan tasy to the Farthest West, are still familiar to us as the pillars of Hercules. The worship of the Tyrian Baal was carried to all the Phoenician colonies. His name occurs as an element in Carthaginian proper names (Hannibal, Asdru6a/, &c.), and a tablet found at Marseilles still re mains to inform us of the charges made by the priests of
the temple of Baal for offering sacrifices.A much-disputed question is the relation of the sun-god Baal to Moloch-Saturn. Moloch is certainly called Baal in Jer. xix. 5, xxxii 35, but the word may here retain its appellative force. It is, however, the theory of many scholars, especially worked out by Movers, that Moloch is only a special development of Baal, representing the de structive heat instead of the life-giving power of the sun. Another question of some nicety concerns the precise char acter and mutual relations of the female deities associated with Baal. In the Old Testament, as we have seen, Baal is generally associated with Ashera, but sometimes with Ashtoreth or Astartc (in the plural Ashtaroth, associated with the plural Baalim, 1 Sam. vii. 4, &c.) As Ashtoreth is constantly associated with the Phoenician Baal, it was long customary to identify Ashera with her, a theory op posed to the fact that Ashtoreth is represented as a chaste goddess. The key to the difficulty is probably to be sought in the Assyrian mythology, where we find that the planet Venus was worshipped as the chaste goddess Istar, when she appeared as a morning star, and as the impure Bilit or Beltis, the Mylitta of Herod. (L 199), when she was an evening star. These two goddesses, associated yet contrasted, seem to correspond respectively to the chaste Ashtoreth and the foul Ashera, though the distinction between the rising and setting planet was not kept up among the West ern Semites, and the nobler deity came at length to be viewed as the goddess of the moon.
Finally, we may mention as a special form of Baal the Philistine Baal-zebub, or " Baal of flies," a conception which has more than one analogy in Greek religion, especially the [ Greek ] at Olympia. The use of the word Beelzebub, or rather, with a slight change, Beelzebul, by the later Jews, to denote the prince of the devils (Mat. xii. 24), is easily understood on the principle laid down in 1 Cor. x. 20.
For further information as to Baal, the reader may consult works on Syrian and Phoenician religion. Of older books, the most celebrated is Selden s De diis Syris ; of recent books, Movers s Die Phonizier, i., a work full of learn ing, but deficient in method and logic. The valuable con tributions to the subject from Assyrian research are partly brought together by Schrader in the Stud, und Krit. for 1874, pp. 335, sqq.
BAALBEC, or Ba’albak, an ancient city of Syria, celebrated for the magnificence of its ruins, which, with the exception of those at Palmyra, are the most extensive in that region. The derivation of the latter part of the name is still dubious, some boldly identifying it with the Egyp tian laki, a city, and others comparing it with the Arabic bakha, "to be thronged." It is almost certain that the Greek Heliopolis was intended to be a translation of the name. The town is pleasantly situated on the lowest de clivity of the Anti-Libanus, at the opening of a small valley into the plain of El-Buka a or Sahlat Ba albak, about 35 miles N.N.W. of Damascus, and 38 S.S.E. of Tripoli. The inhabitants have a saying, Burton informs us, that it lies on the balance, meaning that it occupies the flattened crest of a watershed. By Bussegger its height above the sea is given at 3496 Paris feet, and by Schubert at 3572, the mean of the observations being 3584 Paris feet, or 4502 English feet. A small stream, rising in the immediate neighbourhood from a fountain known as Ea as-el Ayn, is employed for the irrigation of the valley.
The origin of Baalbec is lost in remote antiquity, and the historical notices of it are very scanty. The silence of the classical writers respecting it would seem to imply that previously it had existed under another name, and various attempts have been made to identify it with certain places mentioned in the Bible, as with Baalgad, " in the valley of Lebanon" (Josh. xi. 17); Baalath, one of Solomon s cities (1 Kings ix. 18); Baal-hamon, where Solomon had a vine yard (Cant. viii. 11.); and "the plain of Aven" (Bikath- Aven, Amos i. 5). referred to by Amos ; but none of these identifications seem to rest on any very solid support, though they have each in turn met the approval of some writer of authority. In the absence of more positive in formation, we can only conjecture that its situation on the high road of commerce between Tyre and Palmyra and the farther East rendered it at an early period a seat of wealth and splendour. It is not at all improbable that the state ment of Macrobius in his Saturnalia may be founded on the tradition of a real and potent connection between Heliopolis and its Egyptian namesake. It is mentioned by Josephus (Ant., xiv. 3, 4), Pliny (Nat. Hist., v. 22), and Ptolemy, and coins of the city have been found belonging to the reigns of almost all the emperors from Nerva to Gallienus. John Malala of Antioch ascribes the erection of a great temple to Jupiter (vaov TU> Ati //.eyav) at Helio polis to Antoninus Pius ; and two votive inscriptions still exist on the bases of columns in the Greater Temple, be longing to the age of Septimius Severus. From the civic coins of the reigns of Nerva and Hadrian we learn that the city had been constituted a colony by Julius Caesar, and that it was the seat of a Boman garrison in the time of Augustus, and obtained the Jus Italicum from Septimius Severus (Ulpian, De Censibus, lib. i.) Some of the coins of this last emperor bear the figure of a temple and the legend COL.HEL.I.O.M.H., Colonia Heliopolis Jovi Optimo Maximo Heliopolitano ; while one of the reign of Valerian has the representation of two temples.
It is evident that in the early Christian centuries Heliopolis was one of the most flourishing seats of Pagan worship, and the Christian writers draw strange pictures of the morality of the place. In 297 it became the scene of the martyrdom of Gelasinus. The Emperor Constontine, according to Sozomen, issued a rescript against the licen tious rites of the people, and founded a basilica among them ; but, on the accession of Julian, the Pagan popula tion broke out into violent persecution, and the city be came so notorious for its hostility to Christianity, that Christians were banished thither from Alexandria as a special punishment. Theodosius the Great is said to have turned " the temple of Balaniits, the Trilithon," into a Christian church, and the city seems to have been the seat of a bishop.
have continued a place of importance down to the time of the Moslem invasion of Syria. They describe it as one of the most splendid of Syrian cities, enriched with stately palaces, adorned with monuments of ancient times, and abounding with trees, fountains, and whatever contributes to luxurious enjoyment. After the capture of Damascus it was regularly invested by the Moslems, and after a courageous defence, at length capitulated. The ransom exacted by the conquerors was 2000 ounces of gold, 4000 ounces of silver, 2000 silk vests, and 1000 swords, together with the arms of the garrison. The city afterwards became the mart for the rich pillage of Syria; but its prosperity scon received a fatal blow from the caliph of Damascus, by
whom it was sacked and dismantled, and the principal in-