According to some authors, Syria, Phoenice, and Palæstine, were three distinct regions. Others include, within the Syrian frontier, not only Phoenice and Palæstine, but also Mesopotamia. Strabo describes Syria as comprehending all the country from Mount Amanus and the river Euphrates to Arabia and to Egypt'. The word Palæstine occurs only once, incidentally, in all his writings. Yet the name was in use above four centuries anterior to the Christian æra, as appears by several passages in the text of Herodotus', who describes Palæstine as that country which reaches from the borders of Egypt as far as Phoenice. Pliny separates the two countries of Phoenice and Palæstine in more than one instance*. Phocas, who visited the Holy Land in the twelfth century, and wrote the account of it so highly esteemed by Leo Allatius, evidently distinguishes Palæstine both from Galilee and Samaria'. Brocardus, who travelled a century

after

(1) Strabon. Geog. lib. xvi. p. 1063. ed. Oxon. 1807.

(2) Lib. xvi. p. 1103. ed. Oxon. It is found in the following authors, according to the references which I have collected from Reland's Palæstine, c. 7. Dio Cassius, lib. 37. Photius in Biblioth. p. 1311. Julian. in lib. contra Christian. Flav. Vopiscus in Vit. Aureliani. Statius Sylv. lib. 3. carm. 2. Silius Ital. lib.3. Ovid. in Fastis. Idem, lib. 4, et 5. Metam.

(3) Herodot. Clio, 105. Thalia, 5. Polyhymn. 8.

(4) Namque Palæstina vocabatur, qua contigit Arabas, et Judæa, et Cole, dein Phoenice." Plin. Hist. Nat. l. 5. c. 12. "Finis Palæstines centum octoginta novem millia passuum, a confinio Arabiæ: deinde Phonice." Ibid. c. 13. L. Bat. 1635. (5) A.D. 1185.

(6) "Autor elegans et accuratus, prout illa ferebant tempora, visus est." Leon. Allat. Præfat. in Zuppixta. Colon. 1653.

(7) Δεξιά μέν ἐστιν ἡ Κάρμηλος καὶ ἡ παράλιος πασῶν τῆς Παλαιστίνης, τά δε ευώνυμα ταύτης τὴν Γαλιλαίαν καὶ τὴν Σαμάριαν ἔχεσι. “Urbis dextera partes Carmelum et Maritimam Palæstinæ oram, sinistræ Galilæam et Samariam habent." Phocas de Loc. Syriæ, Phoenicia, et Palestine, cap. 9.

after Phocas, with equal perspicuity and brevity" extends the boundaries of Syria from the Tigris to Egypt; separates Phoenice from Palæstine, but considers both these countries as belonging to Judæa and Samaria, into which kingdoms the Holy Land was divided after the time of Solomon'. Considering therefore Palæstine as a part of the Holy Land, he divides it into three parts; the first being Palæstine, properly so called, whereof Jerusalem was the metropolis ; the second, Palestine of Cæsarea; and the third, Palæstine of Galilee. Adrichomius", who professes to follow Brocardus", considers the Land of Canaan, Palæstine, and the Holy Land, as names of the same country". In this he is not accurate; and the same remark may be applied to the writings of Cellarius, when he uses the expression "Palastina, seu Terra Sancta";" thereby making Palæstine include all Phoenice, which it never did; although Phoenice was comprehended in the territory called Terra Sancta, or the Holy Land. Palæstine differed from the Holy Land, as a part may be said to differ from the whole. Brocardus

evidently

(8) Locorum Terræ Sanctæ Descriptio. Basil. 1537. Brocardus travelled in the year 1283. See Egmont and Heyman's Travels, vol. II. p. 236. Lond. 1759.

(9) "Post tempus Salomonis in duo regna excrevit: unum regnum Judæ dicebatur ... alterum vero regnum Samariæ vocabatur." Ibid.

(13) Cellar. Geog. Antiq. passim. Vid. cap. xii. lib. 3. "De Syrid," cap. xiii. "De Palæstina, quæ et Chanaan, et Terra Sancta; &c." tom. II. Lips. 1706.

evidently considers the first as being a part of the second'. On this account the Author has preferred the name of THE HOLY LAND as being the only general appellation which can be said classically to comprehend the whole of that territory, distinguished as the Land of Promise to the Israelites, and by the Passion of Jesus Christ. It has been erroneously supposed that the appellation “TERRA SANCTA" originated in the writings of Christians, who indefinitely applied it to that district of Syria memorable for the sufferings of our Saviour; but the name existed before the Christian æra. The epithet of Holy had been applied to every thing connected with the Jewish people; among whom, not only their cities, their priests, and their temples, had this epithet, but their whole territory, by way of eminence, was peculiarly considered as "Holy Land." That Phoenice was included within its boundaries, is evident from the book of Joshua', which extends the borders of the tribe of Asher from Carmel unto Sidon. Hence Maundrell judiciously observes', "Near about Sidon begin the precincts of the Holy Land, and of that part of it in particular which was allotted to Asher." Phoenice is thus

(1) Bishop Pococke, in his Description of the East, considers the two expressions as synonymous. See vol. II. part 1. ch. 1. Lond. 1745.

(2) " Duplici ratione nomen Terræ Sanctæ huic regioni tribuitur, aliter a Judæis, aliter a Christianis." Reland. De Nomine Terræ Sanctæ. Vid. Thesaur. Antiq. Ugol. vol. VI. cap. 4. Hadriani Relandi Palæstina, Ven. 1746.

(3) Joshua xix. 24 to 31.

(4) Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 45. Oxf. 1721.

thus proved to have constituted a portion of the Holy Land; and that Palæstine did not include Phoenice is decidedly manifest from a passage in Herodotus', wherein Phoenice, Palæstine, and the Island of Cyprus, are separately enumerated. Cluverius, defining the boundaries of Palæstine, begins by marking a line of separation between that country and Phoenice®.

Among later writers, some have extended the boundaries of Palæstine, and others have circumscribed the limits of Syria. D'Anville' considers the former as including the whole of Phoenice, with all the western side of Anti-Libanus and Hermon ; and Mentelle, editor of the Antient Geography published in the French Encyclopédie, confines the latter to that part of Asia which has—the Mediterranean on the west; Mount Taurus, the river Euphrates, and a small portion of Arabia, on the east; and the Land of Judæa, or Palæstine, on the south. D'Anville had considered Judæa merely as a province of Palæstine. In fact, the several additions to the number of

8

(5) Ἔστι δὲ ἐν τῷ νομῷ τέτῳ Φοινίκη τε πᾶσα καὶ Συρίη ἡ Παλαιστίνη καλεομένη xai Kúpos. Thalia, cap. 91.

Reland has cited a passage from a most antient Hebrew commentary upon Genesis, wherein a similar distinction is, as decisively, marked: "Et erat fames in omnibus terris, sc. in tribus terris, PHOENICIA (ita jam tum scribebant, barbarè, pro Phoenice) ARABIA, et PALESTINA." Relandi Palæstina, cap. 7. in Thesaur. Antiq Sacrar. tom. VI. 33, 34. Venet. 1746.

(6) "Palæstina clauditur a Septentrione Phoenice." p. 588. Amst. 1729.

Cluver. Geog. lib. v. c. 2Q.

(7) Voy. Carte de la Palæstine, par D'Anville. Par. 1767.

(8) Encyclop. Méthodique, Geog. Anc. tom. III. Par. 1792.

1

of observations published concerning this part of Asia seem rather to have increased than diminished the uncertainty respecting the geography of the country. "Tanta est," says says Selden, "inter profanas et sacras literas in regionum finibus discrepantia. Neque in Syriæ duntaxat nomine, sed in Judææ et Palæstina. Judæos, ut par est, seu Ebræos a Palæstinis ubique separamus, ita et Scriptura. Sed Ptolemæo, Straboni, Tacito, Syria Palæstina eadem ipsa est, quæ Judæa: aliis diversæ sunt; sic Ebræi a Palæstinis disterminantur'. This discrepancy characterizes even the writings of the learned Cellarius, who, at an earlier period, opened his treatise DE SYRIA with marks of the indecision perplexing the sources of his information. Dr. Wells, in his "Historical Geography of the Old and New Testament," restricts Syria within much narrower limits than those assigned for it by Mentelle, excluding all Phoenice and the Holy Land. Although," says he', "Heathen authors do sometimes include the Holy Land as a part of Syria, yet by sacred writers it is always used in a more restrained sense; and in the New Testament, as a country distinct, not only from the Holy Land, but also from Phoenice,

(1) Selden then quotes from Statius, Syl. V.

"Palæstini simul Ebræique liquores.”

Vid. Seldeni Prolegomena ad Syntagma de Diis Syris.

(2) He is speaking of Pliny. "Nimis laxe fines ponit Syriæ: sed in hoc Melam suum sequutus erat, qui prope iisdem verbis, lib. i. cap. 11. recitavit. Et ex hac opinione videtur emanâsse, ut multi scriptores Syriam et Assyriam permisceant ac confundant." Cellar. Geog. Antiq. lib. iii. cap. 12. p. 398. Lips. 1706.

(3) Histor. Geog. of the Old and New Test. vol. II. p. 139. Oxf. 1801.