tanea, Gaulonitis, Gessuri, Machati, and Auranitis,) was given to the half tribe of Manasseh over Jordan, of which those three latter provinces defended themselves against them for many ages. But Batanea Ptolomy setteth further off, and to the north-east, as a skirt of Arabia the Desert: and all these other provinces before named with Peraæa and Ituræa, he nameth but as part of Coelesyria, as far south as Rabba or Philadelphia; likewise all the rest which belonged to Gad and Reuben, saving the land near the Dead sea, he makes a part of Arabia Petræa; for many of these small kingdoms take not much more ground than the county of Kent.

Basan, or, after the Septuagint, Basanitis, stretcheth itself from the river of Jaboc to the d Machati and Gessuri; and from the mountains to Jordan, a region exceeding fertile; by reason whereof it abounded in all sorts of cattle. It had also the goodliest woods of all that part of the world; especially of oaks, which bear mast, (of which the prophet Zacharias, Howl, O ye oaks of Bashan,) and by reason hereof they bred so many swine, as e 2000 in one herd were carried headlong into the sea by the unclean spirits which Christ had cast out of one of the Gaderens. It had in it threescore cities, walled and defenced; all which, after Og and his sons were slain, Jair, descended of Manasseh, conquered, and called the country after his own name, Avoth Jair, or the cities of Jair.

The principal cities of this half tribe (for I will omit the rest) are these; Pella, sometimes fButis, otherwise Berenice: by Seleucus, king of Syria, it is said to have been called Pella, after the name of that Pella in Macedon, in which

by colonies of the Israelites in the time of Saul, after his victory over the Amalekites and Ismaelites in those parts, as it is gathered out of 1 Chron. V. 10. whence it appears that it was part of Ituræa, of which, chap. 7. sect. 4. §. 5 and 6.

d So they call them of Mahacath, of which Mahacath somewhat hath

been spoken towards the end of the fifth paragraph of this chapter. See I Mac. v. 36. and Deut. iii. 14. and Josh. xii. 5.

e Mark v. 13.

f

Anciently, as it seems, it was called Tophel. See above in the bounds of the plains of Moab, in this chapter, sect. 4. §. 2.

both Philip the father and his son Alexander the Great were born. It was taken, and in part demolished, by Alexander Jannæus, king of the Jews, because it refused to obey the Jews' laws; but it was repaired by Pompey, and annexed to the government of Syria. It is now but a village, saith Niger. Carnaim by the river of Jaboc, taken by 8 Judas Maccabæus, where he set on fire the temple of their idols, together with all those that fled thereinto for sanctuary; and near it they place the castle of Carnion, of which 2 Mac. xii. 22. Then the strong city of Ephron near Jordan, which refusing to yield passage to k Judas Maccabæus, was forced by him by assault, and taken and burnt with great slaughter.

Jabes Gilead, or Jabesus, was another of the cities of this half tribe, which being besieged by 'Nahas, king of the Ammonites, was delivered by Saul, as is melsewhere mentioned. In memory whereof the citizens n recovered, embalmed, and buried the bodies of Saul and his sons, which hung despitefully over the walls of Bethsan, or Scythopolis. • Gaddara, or Gadara, is next to be named, seated by Pliny on a hill near the river Hieromiace, which river Ortelius seems to think to be Jaboc. At the foot of the hill there spring forth also hot baths, as at Machærus. Alexander Jannæus, after ten months siege, won it, and subverted it. Pompey restored it; and Gabinius Pmade it one of the five courts of justice in Palestine. Jerusalem being the first, Gadara the second, Emath or Amathus the third, Jericho and Sephora in Galilee the fourth and fifth. The citizens impatiently bearing the tyranny of Herod, surnamed Ascalonita, accused him to Julius Cæsar of many crimes; but perceiving that they could not prevail, and that Herod was highly favoured of Cæsar, fearing the terrible 4 revenge of Herod,

they slew themselves; some by strangling, others by leaping over high towers, others by drowning themselves.

To the east of Gadara they place Sebei, 'in which Josephus, Ant. 5. 13. saith Jephtha, was buried; whence others, reading with the Vulgar, Jud. xii. 7. Sepultus est in civitate sua Gilehad, (for, in una civitatum Gilehad,) imagine Gilehad to be the name of a city, and to be the same with Sebei. In like manner following the Vulgar, 1 Mac. v. 26. where it readeth Casphor for Chesbon; the same Adrichomius imagineth it to be ampla et firma Gilehaditarum civitas: so of one city Hesbon, or Chesbon, which they call Essebon, the chief city of Sehon in the tribe of Reuben, he imagineth two more: this Casphor in Manasses, and a city in Gad which he calleth Casbon, of which we have admonished the reader heretofore. Of Gamala, (so called because the hill on which it stood was in fashion like the back of a camel,) which Josephus placeth not far from Gadara, in the lower Gaulanitis, over-against Tarichea, which is on the west side of the sea or lake of Tiberias. See this Josephus in his fourth book of the Jewish War, c. 1. 3. where he describes the place by nature to be almost invincible; and in the story of the siege, shews how Vespasian, with much danger of his own person, entering it, was at first repulsed, with other very memorable accidents; and how at length, after the coming of Titus, when it was taken, many leaping down the rocks, with their wives and children, to the number of five thousand, thus perished; besides four thousand slain by the Romans; so that none escaped, save only two women that hid themselves.

About four miles west from Gadara, and as much east from Tiberias, (which is on the other side of the lake,) Josephus placeth Hippus, or Hippene, whence s Ptolomy gives the name to the hills that compass the plains in which it standeth; so that it may seem to have been of no small note. It is seated far from the hill country; on the east of the lake, as also Pliny noteth, lib. 5. cap. 15. it was restored by

* Of Mitspa in Gilead, the city of Jephtha, see in the tribe of Gad.

s In Vita sua.

t

Pompey; after by Augustus added to Herod's tetrarchy; it was wasted by the Jews, in the beginning of their rebellion; when by many massacres of their nation they were enraged against their borderers.

The next city of note, but of more ancient fame, is u Edrehi, or Edrai, wherein Og king of Basan chiefly abode when Moses and Israel invaded him; and near unto this his regal city it was that he lost the battle and his life. It stood in St. Jerome's time, and had the name of Adar, or Adara. Not far from these towns near Jordan, in this valley, stood Gerassa, or Gergessa, inhabited by the Gergesites, descended of the fifth son of Canaan. Of these Gergesites we read Matt. viii. 28. that Christ coming from the other side of the lake of Tiberias, landed in their coasts; where casting the devils out of the possessed, he permitted them to enter into the herd of hogs: in which story, for Gergesites, or Gergesins, St. Luke and St. Mark have Gadarens; not as if these were all one, (for Gergessa, or Gerassa, is a distinct town in these parts from Gadera,) but the bounds being confounded, and the cities neighbours, either might well be named in this story. This city received many changes and calamities, of which Josephus hath often mention. For besides other adventures, it was taken by L. Annius, lieutenant to Vespasian, and 1000 of the ablest young men put to the sword, and the city burnt. In the year 1120 it was rebuilt by Baldwin king of Damascus; and in the same year recovered by Baldwin de Burgo, king of Jerusalem, and by him utterly razed. Near unto Gerasa is the village of Magedan, or, after the Syriac, Magedu, or, after the Greek, Magdala, where the Pharisees and Sadducees, Matt. xv. desired of our Saviour a sign from heaven; the same place, or some adjoining to it, which y St. Mark calleth Dalmanutha. By the circumstances of which story it appears that this coast lay between the lake of Tiberias and the country of Decapolis. z Brochard makes both these places to be one,

t

Joseph. Bell. Jud. 2. c. 19.

"Of another Edrehi in Nephtalim, see Josh. xix. 37. Deut. iii. 1. and 10. item Josh. xiii. 31.

* Mark v. Luke viii.
y Mark viii.

Broch. Itin. 2. Of this Phiale, see in Naph. c. 7. sect. 4. §. 3.

and finds it to be Phiale, the fountain of Jordan, according to Josephus: but this Phiale is too far from the sea of Galilee and from Bethsaida to be either Magdala or Dalmanutha. For, as it appears by the story, not far hence towards the north was the desert of Bethsaida, a where Christ filled 5000 people with the five barley loaves and two fishes.

On the north of this Bethsaida they place Julias, not that which was built by Herod, but the other by Philip, which boundeth the region Trachonitis toward the south. It was sometimes a village, and not long after the birth of Christ it was compassed with a wall by Philip the tetrarch of Ituræa and Trachonitis; and after the name of Julia, the wife of Tiberius, called Julias, as hath been further spoken in the tribe of Gad, where it was noted that b Josephus makes this Julias to be the same as Bethsaida. Upon the east side of the same lake of Tiberias stands Corozaim, or Corazim, of which Christ in Matthew, Wo be unto thee, Corazim.

But the principal city of all these in ancient time was Asteroth, sometime peopled with the giants Raphaim; and therefore the country adjoining called the land of giants, of whose race was Og, king of Basan. In Genesis xvi. 5. this city is called Asteroth of Carnaim, whence 1 Macc. v. 26. it is called simply Carnaim, as Josh. xiii. 21. it is calledAsteroth without the addition of Carnaim. The word c Carnaim signifieth a pair of horns, which agree well with the name of their idol Astoreth, which was the image of a sheep, as it is elsewhere noted, that Astaroth in Deut. signifieth sheep. Others, from the ambiguity of the Hebrew, take Karnaim to have been the name of the people which inhabited this city, and expound it Heroes radientes d. For of old the Raphai, which inhabited this city, Gen. xiv. 5.

a Matt. xiv. Mark vi. Luke ix. John vi.

b Joseph. 8. Ant. 3. et alibi.

See chap. 7. sect. 3. §. 2. d Because horn when it is polished shineth; hence it is that the verb of this noun is sometimes lucere; as it

were corneum esse: whereupon the Vulgar, Exod. xxxiv. 19. reading cornutam corneam, or lucidam faciem, gave occasion to the fabulous painters to paint Moses with horns, Judith i. 8. I Cant. v.