COUNTRIES DISTANT FROM PALESTINE MENTIONED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

[Asia Minor is a large peninsular country, situated between the Black and the Mediterranean Seas, and extending about 1000 miles in length, and 400 in breadth. By the sacred writers it is called Asia, a name which they apply to designate sometimes the Lesser Asia,* sometimes the Roman province which comprehended Phrygia, Mysia, and a few of the adjoining countries; and at other times the extensive district of Lydia, embracing, in the widest sense, Ionia and Æolis; the whole region, in short, within which lay the seven churches of Asia; Ephesus, the capital of Ionia; Smyrna, a seaport in the same province; Pergamos, the ancient capital of Mysia; Thyatira, said by some to have belonged to Lydia, and by others to Mysia, in consequence of its situation on the borders of these provinces; Sardis and Philadelphia, in Lydia; Laodicea, the capital of Phrygia. This country was divided into the following provinces:-1. Cilicia, the capital of which was Tarsus, the birth-place of Paul;-a very ancient city, which, when the country was reduced to a province of the Roman empire, received the privileges of a free town, and rose in consequence to great wealth and importance, both in point of grandeur and science; 2. Cappadocia and Pontus, lying on the north of the former; 3. Bithynia and Galatia; 4. Lycaonia, in which lay the towns of Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium; 5. Lycia, the chief towns of which were Patara and Myra; 6. Pamphylia, containing the towns of Attalia and Perga, on the sea-coast; Pisidia, in which was Antioch; 7. Phrygia, in which stood Colosse, Hierapolis, and Laodicea; 8. Mysia, in which were Troas, Assos and Adramyttium, now Adramyti, situated on the coast, and in a gulf of the same

*Acts xxvii. 2.

name; Cnidus, a town as well as a headland in Caria, Cape Krio.

[Macedonia, a country in Europe, bounded on the north by Servia and Upper Bosnia, on the south by the Grecian Archipelago and Thessaly, on the east by Thrace and Bulgaria, and on the west by Albania. Its chief towns were Amphipolis, now Emboli, on the river Strymon, which flowed round the city, a circumstance which gave rise to the name; Apollonia; Berea; Neapolis, now Napoli; Nicopolis; Philippi; Thessa lonica, now Saloniki, at the head of the gulf of that

name.

[Achaia was the name of that western portion of the Peloponnesus or Morea, which was bounded on the north by the Gulf of Corinth, on the south by Elis and Arcadia, on the east by Sicyonia, and on the west by the Ionian Sea. In the apostolic age, it was a Roman province, and Gallio was the deputy or proconsul when Paul travelled through it. Its chief towns were Athens, famous for its Areopagus or Mars' Hill, an eminence on which its senate-house stood; Cenchrea, now Kenkri, the emporium of the district; Corinth, the capital, celebrated for its luxury. The northern part of this province is exclusively called Greece by the sacred historian.*

[Islands in the Archipelago :-Chios and Samos; Lesbos, the chief town of which was Mitylene; Patmos; Rhodes and Coos; Samothracia, now Samandrachi.

[Illyricum comprehended the modern countries of Sclavonia and Albania, together with part of Bosnia and Croatia. It early received the gospel. It was divided into two provinces, of which only Dalmatia, lying on the western coast of the Gulf of Venice, is mentioned in the New Testament.

[Italy had the well-known Adria, or the Hadriatic Sea, now the Gulf of Venice, in which Paul was ship

*Acts xx. 2.

east, about 200 miles in Its principal towns were

wrecked, on the south and length, and fifty in breadth. Appii Forum, now Borgo Longo; and the Three Taverns, about thirty miles from the capital; Puteoli, now Pozzuoli, situated on an eminence opposite Baiœ ; Rhegium, now Reggio; and Rome.

[Islands in the Mediterranean :-Cyprus, one of its largest islands, being about 200 miles long from east to west, and sixty broad. It is about 100 miles distant from Syria, and in ancient times was as celebrated for its beauty and productiveness, as it was infamous for the worship of Venus, and the consequent profligacy of its inhabitants. Its chief towns were Paphos and Salamis; Crete, now Candy, 180 miles in length, and about fiftyfive in breadth, in which were the maritime towns of Lasea, Fairhavens, Phenice, on the western coast of the island, where the rocky and intricate shore formed a semicircular harbour, very commodious and safe for wintering in, and Salmone, now Salamoni, which was also a cape on the east of the island; Clauda, now Gozo, a small island south-west of Crete; Melita, generally supposed to be Malta, towards the coast of Africa, about fifty miles south of Sicily, consisting of one-continued mass of white and soft free stone, about twenty miles long, and twelve broad,-by Bryant and others Melita is thought to be a small island off the coast of Illyricum; Sicily, the chief town of which was Syracuse.

[Spain, on the south-west of Europe.

[Æthiopia, now Abyssinia.

[Parthia, a country of Asia, on the west of Media. [Scythia, the name given by the ancients to the whole northern regions of Europe and Asia, which were then unexplored and unknown.]

Abel-beth-maachah, 347, 454 Agrida or Agri-Dagh, 73, 77

Acaba or Akaba, 242, 258, 451 | Ajrud, 222

Araba or Arabah, 258, 367, Askelon or Ascalon, 446, 510