Phœnicians and Ethiopians. It contained 100 flourishing cities, towns and villages, and 12,000,000 souls within the kingdom. Every where one might have seen cultivated fields, frequented roads and crowded inhabitants. [Josephus and Strabb.].
Amorites. They occupied the portion of Syria which afterwards constituted the lots of Reuben, Gad, Manasseh, Dan, Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. As they were the most powerful of the devoted tribes, all the Canaanites sometimes went under their name.
Antioch. A city of this name was long the capital of Syria. It was situated on the banks of the Orontes, twelve miles from the Mediterranean, built by Seleucus Nicanor, B.C. 301. It was ranked the third city of the earth, being scarcely inferior to Alexandria. It was the royal residence of the kings of Syria. Luke and Theophilus were born in this place. Here Paul and Barnabas preached, and here the disciples of Christ were first called Christians. Chrysostom preached here in the fourth century with great success. This church was famous for many hundred years. In A. D. 538, sixty thousand of its inhabitants perished in an earthquake. In 1188, it was demolished by the Saracens. In 1822, a tremendous earthquake completely destroyed the remains of this once splendid city; and it is now little else than a heap of ruins. Its present name is Antakia. There were many other cities called Antioch; none of which are mentioned in Scripture, but that in Pisidia, which is now called Ak-sher, and sometimes Antiochio. —(Acts xiii. 14.)
Aleppo, a city of Syria, stands on four hills, twenty-two leagues east of Scanderoon. This city is about three miles in circuit.
Damascus. (Gen. xv. 2.) The capital of ancient Syria, for three centuries the residence of the Syrian kings, and the oldest city which now exists. Its modern name is El-shams. It is situated on the river Baradi, about two hundred miles south of Antioch, and a hundred and twenty north-east of Jerusalem. The country around it, within a circuit of twenty or thirty miles, is well watered, and exceedingly fertile. The city itself is about two miles in length, and surrounded by a wall.
