🟡 PLINY ON SYRIA

“Next to these countries Syria occupies the coast, once the greatest of lands, and distinguished by many names; for the part which joins up to Arabia was formerly called Palestina, Judaea, Coele Syria, and Phoenice. The country in the interior was called Damascena, and that further on and more to the south, Babylonia. The part that lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris was called Mesopotamia, that beyond Taurus Sophene, and that on this side of the same chain Comagene. Beyond Armenia was the country of Adiabene, anciently called Assyria, and at the part where it joins up to Cilicia, it was called Antiochia. Its length, between Cilicia and Arabia, is 470 miles, and its breadth, from Seleucia Pieria to Zeugma, a town on the Euphrates, 175. Those who make a still more minute division of this country will have it that Phoenice is surrounded by Syria, and that first comes the maritime coast of Syria, part of which is Idumaea and Judaea, after that Phoenice, and then Syria.

The whole of the tract of sea that lies in front of these shores is called the Phoenician Sea. The Phoenician people enjoy the glory of having been the inventors of letters, and the first discoverers of the sciences of astronomy, navigation, and the art of war.”