Kitap 16
1.28
The surviving sons, who live at Rome, are entertained as princes at the public expense. The other kings (his successors) have continued to send ambassadors (to Rome), and to hold conferences (with the Roman prefects).
CHAPTER II.
2.1
SYRIA is bounded on the north by Cilicia and the mountain Amanus; from the sea to the bridge on the Euphrates (that is, from the Issic Bay to the Zeugma in Commagene) is a distance of 1400 stadia, and forms the above-mentioned (northern) boundary; on the east it is bounded by the Euphrates and the Arabian Scenitae, who live on this side the Euphrates; on the south, by Arabia Felix and Egypt; on the west, by the Egyptian and Syrian Seas as far as Issus.
2.2
Beginning from Cilicia and Mount Amanus, we set down as parts of Syria, Commagene, and the Seleucis of Syria, as it is called, then Coele-Syria, lastly, on the coast, Phoenicia, and in the interior, Judaea. Some writers divide the whole of Syria into Coelo-Syrians, Syrians, and Phoenicians, and say that there are intermixed with these four other nations, Jews, Idumaeans, Gazaeans, and Azotii, some of whom are husbandmen, as the Syrians and Coelo-Syrians, and others merchants, as the Phoenicians.
2.3
This is the general description [of Syria].Judging from Arrian (Anab. v. § 25; vii. § 9; iii. § 8), the historians of Alexander, as well as more ancient authors, gave the name of Syria to all the country comprehended between the Tigris and the Mediterranean. The part to the east of the Euphrates, afterwards named Mesopotamia, was called Syria between the rivers; that to the west was called by the general name Coele-Syria, and although Phoenicia and Palestine were sometimes separated from it, yet it often comprehended the whole country as far as Egypt. Strabo below, c. ii. § 21, refers to this ancient division, when he says that the name Coele-Syria extends to the whole country as far as Egypt and Arabia, although in its peculiar acceptation it applied only to the valley between Libanus and Antilibanus.
