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ties and places faid to be built by Solomon, we have mention CHAP. made of Tadmor in the wilderness, which is the only one that hath not been before fpoken of, and therefore is here to be described; and this shall be done by giving the reader an abstract of what is faid concerning this place in our Philosophical Transactions for the months of November and December, 1695, and from Dr. Hallifax's Letter to Dr. Edward Bernard, publifhed in the Philofophical Tranfactions for October, 1695.

The city of Tadmor, whofe remains in ruins do with so much evidence demonftrate the once happy condition thereof, feems very well to be proved to be the fame city which Solomon, the great King of Ifrael, is faid to have founded under that name in the defert. Jofephus (Jewish Antiq. book viii.) tells us, that the Syrians called it in his time Thadamora ; but the Greeks, Palmyra. Hence, the writer of the Philofophical Tranfactions thinks the name Palmyra to be Greek, and to have no relation to the Latin word Palma (fignifying a palm-tree, which are faid to have abounded in these parts, and are therefore thought by others to have given name to his city, the Hebrew word Thamar having a great affinity the Hebrew name Tadmor, and fignifying also a palmee). However, the forementioned writer thinks the name Palmyra to be rather of a Greek extraction, namely, from Palmyos or Palmys, which Hefychius interprets King Father; or perhaps from Palmytes, which, according to the fame Hefychius, was an Egyptian God.

History is filent as to the fate and circumftances of this city, during the great revolutions in the Eaft. But it may well be fuppofed, that fo advanced a garrifon as this was (i. e. being at fo confiderable a distance from the Holy Land) continued not long in the poffeffion of the Ifraelites; especially fince immediately after Solomon they fell into civil diffenfion, and were divided into two diftinct kingdoms. So that it is not to be doubted, but this city fubmitted to the Babylonian and Perfian monarchies, and afterwards to the Macedonians under Alexander, and the Seleucidæ. But when the Romans got footing in these parts, and the Parthians feemed

to

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CHAP. to put a stop to their farther conquefts in the Eaft, then was this city of Palmyra (by reason of its fituation, being a frontier, and in the midst of a vaft fandy defert, where armies could not well fubfift to reduce it by force) courted and carefled by the contending parties, and permitted to continue a free ftate, a mart or staple for trade, for the convenience of both empires.

tures.

With thefe advantages of freedom, neutrality, and trade, for near two centuries, it is not strange, that it acquired the state and wealth anfwerable to the magnificence of its noble strucBut when the Romans under Trajan had made it appear, that there was no comparison between the puissance of the Parthians and them (Trajan having taken Babylon, and Ctefrphon, the then feat of the Parthian empire), the Palmyrens were at length determined to declare for the Romans; which they did, by fubmitting themfelves to the Emperor Adrian, about the year of Chrift 130. when Adrian made his progrefs through Syria into Egypt. And that magnificent Emperor, being highly delighted with the native strength and fituation of the place, was pleafed to adorn it. Nor is it unlikely, that many of the marble pillars were the gift of that Emperor, and particularly thofe of the long Porticus; for that none of the infcriptions are before that date. And it was ufual for the Cefars to prefent cities, that had obliged them, with marble pillars to adorn their public buildings. These here were not far to fetch, the neighbouring mountains affording marble quarries. But the magnitude of the porphyry columns is indeed very remarkable, confidering how far those vaft ftones must have been brought by land-carriage to this place; it being not known that any other quarries yield it, except those of Egypt, which lie about midway between Caito and Siena, between the Nile and the Red Sea. The ftone very valuable for its colour and hardness, and for that it rifes in blocks of any magnitude required.

is

From the time of Adrian to that of Aurelian, for about an hundred and forty years, this city continued to flourish and increase in wealth and power, to that degree, that when the Emperor Valerian was taken prifoner by Sapores King of

Perfia,

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Perfia, Odenathus, one of the lords of this town, was able CHAP, to bring a powerful army into the field, and to recover Mefopotamia from the Perfians, and to penetrate as far as their capital city Ctefiphon. Whereby he rendered fo confiderable a fervice to the Roman ftate, that Gallienus, fon to Valerian, thought himself obliged to give him a fhare in the empire. But, by a strange reverfe of fortune, this honour and respect to Odenathus occafioned the fudden ruin and overthrow of the city. For he and his elder fon being murdered by a kinsman, and dying with the title of Auguftus, his wife Zenobia, in right of her fon Waballathus, then a minor, pretended to take upon her the government of the Eaft, and did adminifter it to admiration. And when foon after Gallienus was murdered by his foldiers, fhe grafped the government of Egypt, and held it during the short reign of the Emperor Claudius Gothicus. But Aurelian coming to the imperial dignity, would not suffer the title of Augustus in this family, though he was contented that they should hold under him as Vice-Cæfaris.

But nothing less than a fhare of the empire contenting Zenobia, and Aurelian perfifting not to have it difinembered, he marched against her, and having in two battles routed her forces, he shut her up, and befieged her in Palmyra. And the befieged finding that the great refiftance they made availed not against that refolute Emperor, they yielded the town; and Zenobia flying with her fon, was pursued and taken. With which Aurelian being contented, fpared the city, and leaving a small garrifon, marched for Rome with his captive lady. But the inhabitants believing he would not return, fet up again for themselves, and flew the garrifon he had left in the place. Which Aurelian understanding, though by this time he was got into Europe, with his usual fierceness speedily returned; and getting together a fufficient army by the way, he again took the city without any great oppofition, and put it to the fword, with an uncommon cruelty (as he himself confeffes in a letter extant in Vopifcus), and delivered them to the pillage of his foldiers. And it is obfervable, that none of the Greek infcriptions are after the date of this calamity,

which

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CHAP. which befel the city in or about A. D. 272. after it had been nine or ten years the feat of the empire of the Eaft, not without glory.

Though this city was at that time fo treated by Aurelian, yet it is certain that he did not burn it, or destroy the build ings thereof. The words ufed by Zofimus on this occafion feem only to relate to his demolishing the walls and defences of the place. And that Emperor's own letter extant in Vopifcus does fufficiently fhew, that he fpared the city itself; and that he took care to reinftate the beautiful Temple of the Sun that was there, which had been plundered by his foldiers. However, the damage then fuftained was never retrieved by the inhabitants; and I do not find, says the ingenious writer, that ever this city made any figure in history after it. Yet a Latin inscription found there seems to intimate, as if Dioclefian had restored their walls within thirty years after. About A. D. 400. it was the head-quarters of the first legion of the Illyrians; and though Stephanus gives it no better title than that of a garrison, yet it appears to have been an archbishop's fee, under the metropolitan of Damafcus.

To say in what age, or from what hand, it received its final overthrow, which reduced it to the miferable condition it now appears in, there is no light in any of our hiftorians. But it is probable, it perifhed long fince in the obscure ages of the world, during the wars of the Saracen empire. And being burnt and deftroyed, it was never rebuilt: which occafions the ruins to lie fo entire, in the manner as they were left, neither being used to other ftructures on the place, nor worth carrying away, because of the great diftance thereof from any other city.

As to the circumstances of this city in A. D. 1691, I shall here give the reader an abstract of Dr. Hallifax's Letter above mentioned. We departed, fays that reverend perfon, from Aleppo on Michaelmas-day, 1691; and in fix easy days travel over a defert country, came to Tadmor, journeying almost continually to the south, with very little variation to the eastward.

As we rode into the town, we took notice of a castle about

an

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an hour's distance from it, and fo fituated as to command CHA P. both the pass into the hills by which we entered, and the city too. But we could eafily perceive it was no old building, retaining no footsteps of the exquifite workmanship and ingenuity of the ancients. Upon enquiry we were informed, that it was built by Man-Ogle, a Prince of the Druces, in the reign of Amurath the Third, A. D. 1585. But I know not, fays the reverend author, how to give much credit to this ftory; because I find not, that either Man-Ogle, or any other Drucian Prince, was ever powerful in these parts; their strength lying on mount Libanus, and along the coast of Sidon, Berytus, &c. It is a work of more labour than art, and the very fituation alone is enough to render it almost impregnable; ftanding on the top of a very high hill, inclosed with a deep ditch cut out of the very rock, over which there was only one fingle paffage by a drawbridge. This bridge too is now broken down; so that there is no entrance remaining, unless you will be at the pains to clamber up the rock, which is in one place feasible, but withal fo difficult and hazardous, that a small flip may endanger one's life. Nor is there any thing within to be feen, fufficient to recompence the trouble of getting up to it, the building being confufed, and the rooms very ill contrived. Upon the top of the hill, there is a well of a prodigious depth, as certainly it must be a great way to come at water from the top of fuch a rock, the ditch that furrounds it not having the leaft appearance of moisture in it. This caftle ftands on the north fide of the town, and from hence you have the best profpect of the country all about.

You see Tadmor under you inclosed, on three fides, with long ridges of mountains, which open toward the east gradually to the distance of about an hour's riding; but to the fouth ftretches a vast plain beyond the reach of the eye, of which more by and by. The air is good, but the foil exceeding barren; nothing green to be feen therein, fave some few palm-trees in the gardens, and here and there about the town. The city itself appears to have been of a large extent, by the space now taken up by the ruins; but there are no footsteps