YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY P-fl LMYRfl ftN D ZeNOBI-fl ZENOD1A. {Enlarged from a Coin.) Jg^_ 'v^^lbC "TIC ES^S^SS^^2iS2^S3 V^ TMOMflS NELSON &SONS AN1 ACCOUNT PALMYRA and ZENOBIA TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES BASHAN AND THE DESERT cffiro ffltttlltam BHritfjjt author of 'The Empire of the Hittites," "The Brontes in Treland" &c. &c. WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS THOMAS NELSON AND SONS NEW YORK : 33 EAST i7th STREET LONDON AND EDINBURGH 1895 Copyright, 1894, BY THOMAS NELSON AND SONS. Nottoooti $r»BB : J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith. Boston, Mass., U.S.A. PEEFAOE, This Book was written partly in the saddle and partly in the tent, and almost wholly amid the scenes and adventures which it describes. It should therefore not be lacking in local colour. The explorations and events recorded were incidents of a residence in Syria during nine stirring years, and companions in the dangers and enjoyments are still with us. The work — some chapters of which have already appeared — has been edited in the fresh light of new inscriptions and fuller investigations, and aims at giv ing a picture, in outline only, of the living past and the living present under consideration. The East moves slowly, and few changes in light or shadow call for alteration in tone or setting consequent on delay in publication. I am indebted to Dr. Mackinnon of Damascus, and Dr. Macphail of Edinburgh, for the use of recently taken photographs in Bashan ; and I am under special obligations to the publishers for the creditable manner in which they have produced the Book on both sides of the Atlantic. WILLIAM WRIGHT. WoOLSTHORPE, NORWOOD. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Bible regarding Solomon and Tadmor — Classic history and Zenobia — The great king and great queen — The glory and obscurity — Chronicles in stone — Two visits to Palmyra — Dangers — Com panions 1-4 CHAPTER II. Leaving Damascus — The Lebanons — City suburbs — Early fruit — King Abraham — -Turkish road -making — -Party separated — The fortress convent — Miraculous picture — Christian refuge — Syrian handcuffs — Maloula convent — Wonderful town — The scene — Syriac spoken 6-16 CHAPTER III. Party of Kurds — Among the mountains — Yabroud — Ancient tombs — Handsome people — Famine — Bedawi raids — A weeping woman — English lady 17-23 CHAPTER IV. Our party — Prince of dragomans — Gaudy guide — Desolate plain — Vaulting ambition — Ruined cities — The gleaners plundered ..24-30 CHAPTER V. More ruins — Vapour bath — Ancient sanitarium — The Jan — Bustards and Bedawin — Hazar-enan — The Stone Age — Schooling — Border Arabs — Guide and guards 31-39 CHAPTER VI. Searching for 'A in el- Wu'ul — Rickety . escort — "Brandy Bob" and "Gipsy" — Gazelle traps — Wild stampede — Drunk and incapable — Encamping in the dark — The " princess " and her gift — Revolu tion in hair — -The captive maiden — The captive mother's lullaby — Wa'al hunting — Desert Quakers — -The fountain — Suleib children supremely beautiful 40-03 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. Coursing hares on our way — Castle of Palmyra — Cyclopean horse — Strange birds — Arab camping-ground — Wonderful lizard — Ap proaching Palmyra — First sight of the ruins 54-02 CHAPTER VIII. Among the ruins — Encampment — Temple of the King's Mother — Hadrian and Palmyra — Temple of the Sun — Temple described — Holy of Holies — Zenobia in her splendour — City of columns — Pub lic edifices — Palace of Zenobia — Palmyra statues — Statues to Zenobia and her husband — Zenobia's name — Splendid city. . .63-73 CHAPTER IX. Sir Richard Burton's advice — Sealing implements — Waggish mule and ladders — Tomb towers — Dreadful dilemma — Facing the difficulty — Selecting diggers — Eighty chosen — Attacking the towers — Dig ging and climbing — Sculptures — ¦ A tower described — Skulls -and remains — Scarab of Tirhakah- — An African romance — Entrapped in a tomb — Among the bones — Sheol — Struggle to escape — Rescued > 74-94 CHAPTER X. The tepid river — A swim in the sulphurous fount — Penetrating the cavern — Fount Ephca and altar — Bedawi bathers drowned — Water supply of the city — Various sources — Climb to the castle — View from the castle — Name Tadmor — Building of Tadmor — Growth of Palmyra — Roman influence — Meeting-place of merchants — Trade routes — Origin of columns and statues — Cost of adornments. 95-108 CHAPTER XI. Zenobia in history and romance — Roman influence — Relationship of Rome to Tadmor — Roman policy — Odainathus — Roman blunder — Meditated revenge — Capture of Valerian — Sapor defeated by Odainathus — Odainathus murdered 109-122 CHAPTER XII. Zenobia's beauty and splendour — Claims kinship with Cleopatra — Supposed to be a Jewess — Statues to Zenobia and Odainathus — Zenobia's generals — The head of Zenobia — Zenobia's descent — Her appearance — Cassius Longinus — Zenobia's opportunity — Roman disasters — Zenobia's call to arms 123-138 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XIII. Zenobia prepares to meet the Romans — Her levies — Her camps — Drilling and discipline — Her armies inarch by three routes — Water — The great battle of Immae — The heroic queen — Roman strategy — The Romans victorious — Flight of the Orientals to Palmyra 139-150 CHAPTER XIV. The dogged West and the chivalrous East — The water question — The siege of Palmyra — Incidents of the siege — The city in straits — Aurelian's letter to Zenobia, and her reply — Zenobia looking for succour 151-158 CHAPTER XV. Zenobia fleeing for help — Desperate ride — Pursued — Seized at the Euphrates — Brought back a prisoner — In the presence of Aurelian — Palmyra capitulates — Execution of Longinus — Revolt at Palmyra — Return of Aurelian — His vengeance: — Restoration of the temple — Aurelian's triumph — The captive queen — Zenobia in Italy — Decadence of Palmyra 159-170 CHAPTER XVI. Last day at Palmyra — Bedawi charge — An awkward reception — Inter view with the spearmen — Return — Followed by the Bedawin — Encamped beside the enemy — Guards asleep — Arms removed — Uproar — Giving the Bedawin the slip — Escape and pursuit — Cara van attacked — Battle — Defeat of the peasants and plunder of the caravan — Turkish official sharing in the loot — Turkish justice . : 171-188 CHAPTER XVII. Fox-hunting — Turkish misrule — Blackmail — The Turkish caterpillar and the Bedawi locust — Marriage of the sheikh's daughter — House breaking — Disturbed night — Orientals and Damascus 189-193 CHAPTER XVIII. Incident in my first visit to Palmyra — Collecting curios — Mummies and skulls — Archaeological fever — The Greek image and umbrella handle — Fever cured — Long ride projected — Leaving the ruins — Way blocked — We charge — Very irregular army — Judgment on prudence — Desperate ride — Blood-mare and plebeian — Evading a camp — Discovered and pursued — Race for life — Successful ruse — Escape from pursuers 194-204 xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIX. The delightful dawn — A new danger — Unpleasant company — Fired on and slightly wounded — Retiring salute— Marvellous escape — Short halt at Karyetein — Pressing onward alone — People by the way — Vultures to the prey — Ladies and naked soldier — Samari- tanism 205-214 CHAPTER XX. Two horsemen — Challenge and counter-challenge — The dabbous and the shillelah — Peace and interview — Enemies become friends — Home in Damascus 215-221 CHAPTER XXI. ADVENTURES AMONG THE RUINS OP BASHAN. Starting for Bashan — Companions — The ways of dragomans — Camel panic — The street called Straight — Crusaders — Cemeteries — Mas sacre—Graves — Colporteur's spurt and the result — Scenery — The plain —The 'Awaj not the Pharpar — Rivers of Damascus — Naaman's choice justified 223-230 CHAPTER XXII. < The potters' caravan — Brag and cringe — The field of forays — Father of a tree, and Abu Muraj — Desert tactics — First sight of the Lejah — Billows of basalt — Reception at Burak — Water famine — Gloom of the Lejah — Bashan architecture — People of Burak — Caves and inscriptions — Shooting partridges — Cookery in the desert... 240-257 CHAPTER XXIII. Coasting the shore of the Lejah — Resemblance to a coast-line — Churn ing and butter — Coursing and capturing a Bedawi — Stalking bus tards — The katha migration — Grouse eggs — Entering Musineih — Ruins and inscriptions — Character of the ruins — Our following — The use of a joke — Losing our way — Mazes of lava — Cruising round promontories and headlands — People of Khubab waiting for a lord — An old acquaintance 258-273 CHAPTER XXIV. Position of Khubab — Agricultural village — Industries — Opposition of the priest — Sunday at Khubab — General description — Ilermon — Hauran towers — Deserted villages — Reception at Tibny — The widow and her son — Villages on the. plain — Ezra and Adra'at — CONTENTS. xv Identification of Edrei, the city of Og — Og's kingdom — Underground Edrei — Conquest of Bashan and defeat of Og — Bible narrative and the topography — Limits of Og's kingdom — Ashlaroth — Argument of identification 274-292 CHAPTER XXV. Ezra and its ancient church — Ruins described — Inhabitants of Ezra — Leaving by a slippery path — More coast-lines — Busr el-Hariry and its inhabitants — Battle of Nejran — Druzes and Christians — A strange lady — Her dwelling and influence and treasure — Her coin with Og's effigy — A diplomatic sheikh 293-301 CHAPTER XXVI. ¦ Druze courtesy and hospitality — Bedawi women — Druze women with horns — Christian women — Tell Sheehan open-mouthed — Druze women by the water — Kanawat and scenery — Identification and history — Gideon's expedition — The Bashan sanitarium — Rambles among the ruins — The people — " Our lord, King Herod the Great" — Atll and scenery — A discovery at Atil — Roman road .... 302-323 CHAPTER XXVII. Horses at Suweideh — Our old guide — Character of hospitality — Druze politics — Identification— Loading a donkey — Jebel Kuleib — Druze towns and people — St. George — Extinct volcanoes — The use of the towers — A splendid sheikh — Excitement among the Druzes — Pre paring coffee — Cause of the excitement — Warlike speech — Another acquaintance — New ground — Remarkable ruins 324-340 CHAPTER XXVIII. Melah es-Sarrar and its towers and people— Agriculture — Other ruins beyond — Arab carriers of salt from the Jowf — The Salchah of the Bible and Castle of Sulkhad — Castle on a crater — Bedawi battle — Feasting the victors — A wild scene — Men feeding — The women's share — Separated party — Bosra and ruins — Christian inscription — Signs of magnificence — Stormy night and sand-drift — The Turkish garrison and officers — Preparing for an attack — An officer's dormi tory — State of siege — Christian spies — Attack and escape — De parture from Bosra — A furious Druze — Battle of Mezareeb — The city that gave Rome an emperor and the Druzes a prince — 311-364 xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIX. Druzes in conclave — Questioned by Druze women — Sudden descent through a roof — Family at supper — The feast and foods — Druze religion — An uncanny old sheikh — Abrupt departure — Crossing the Lejah — Druze head-dress — Dama and its reported wonders — Resolved to know the worst — -Amazon women and savage-looking men — Exploring in safety — Dangerous Arabs — Arable land in the Lejah — Remarkable Arab shepherds — Business and talk — Wander ing in a maze — Steering by fixed points — Out on the level plain — Enormous flock of gazelles — Curiosity of the Christians at Buseir — Local industry — Vultures following the Mekka pilgrims — Cruelty to animals — Filthy and ferocious pilgrim — Loveless return home — Light on the sacred record — Our duty to the Druzes — The end 365-387 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Grand Colonnade, Palmyra.. .Fron- - tispiece Maps — Empire of Zenobia ; Routes to Palmyra xx Fountain, Damascus 1 Soffit Ornament of Temple Cell Door 4 Pilaster Ornament, Temple of Sun 5 The Triumphal Arch 7 Saidenaya 11 Frieze Ornament, Temple of Sun. 17 Yabroud 18 Yabroud.Family 19 Entablature of Grand Entrance, Temple of Sun 24 Sudud's Vaulting Ambition 27 Palmyra Tesserae 30 Entablature of Grand Entrance Portico, Temple of Sun 31 Soffit of Cornice, Little Temple.. .40 Soffit supported by Four Columns. 63 Basso Relievo on Pilaster, Temple of Sun 54 Triumphal Arch, with Castle in the distance 67 Palmyra Ruins 69 Temple of the Sun 61 Fragment of a Temple 62 Fallen Capital 63 Temple of the King's Mother 64 Upright of Side Door of Great Temple 65 Ceiling of Holy of Holies, Temple of Sun 67 Temple of the Sun, Eastern Side. .69 Triumphal Arch 71 Side Archway of Triumphal Arch 72 Ceiling of Tomb Tower 74 The Father of Ladders 75 Tomb Towers 81, 85 Palmyrene Figure 88 Seal of Tirbakah 88 Baalatga and 'Alliasha 90 Mortuary Vault 92 Palmyrene Figure 94 Soffit in Temple of Sun 95 Castle end of Great Colonnade. . 99 Central part of Great Colon nade 104-5 Palmyrene Figure 108 Zenobia 109 The Triumphal Arch 113 Coin of Valerian 122 Projecting Entablature, Temple of Sun 123 Doorway of Zenobia's Palace. . .125 Supposed Heads of Zenobia. 129, 130 Coin of Zenobia 139 Grand Colonnade. .143 Palmyrene Inscription 150 Entablature, Temple of Sun 151 Roman Lamp 158 Frieze in Temple of Sun 159 Colonnade of Temple of Sun .... 165 Scroll and Capital of Pilaster, Temple of Sun 170 Frieze, Great Door of Temple Court 171 Granite Monoliths 173 Palmyra Terra-Cotta Head 188 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Cornice Soffit of Tomb Tower. . . 189 Bedawi Robbers 190-191 Ceiling of Holy of Holies, Temple of Sun 193 Palmyrene Inscriptions 194 Tessera from Palmyra 204 Ceiling of Tomb Tower 205 Soffit of Side Door of Temple.. . .214 Square Entablature, Great Tem ple 215 Damascus 218-219 Solitary Column 221 Bab es-Shurki, Damascus 222 Map — Sketch Route of Bashan 224-225 Runaway Camels in Desert 227 Villa on the Barada 236 The Barada and Merj 237 Coin of Aretas 240 Basalt Bed of the Lejah 245 Lejah Partridges 256 Stone Window (Hauran) 258 Bedawtn of the Hauran 261 Temple at Musmeih 265 Interior of Temple 266 Coin of Philip the Tetrarch. . . ,274 Hermon 276-277 Hauran Watch Tower 279 Palmyra Mortuary Tower 279 Coin of Herod the Great 293 Coin of Edrei 300 Folding Stone Door (Hauran). .302 TellSheehan 803 Druze Tantur 305 Temple of Kanawat 308 Druze Ladies of Lebanon 309 Ruin at Kanawat .311 Coin of Kanawat 314 Gateway, Kanawat 316 Peripteral Temple at Kanawat. .319 Ruins at Kanawat 321 Ruins and Druzes, Kanawat. . . 323 Doorway at Kanawat 324 Stone Door (Hauran) 340 Coin of Bosra 341 A Group of Arabs 345 Bosra 350 Columns at Bosra 351 Ruins of Bosra 357 Bab el-Howa, Gate of the Wind 360 Shuhba, Roman Bath 364 Coin of Philip 365 Druze Sheikhs at 'Ahiry 367 The Hajj leaving Damascus .... 381 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA oXKo CHAPTER I. ^HE Bible tells us that Solomon built Tadmor in the wilderness, and classic authors inform us that Zenobia had her home there. History, sacred and secular, links the city inseparably with that magnificent King of Israel, unrivalled in wisdom and barbaric splendour, and with that desert queen and peerless woman, whose regal at- fountain, Damascus. tributes and personal accomplish ments were as remarkable as the brilliance of her reign. The city comes on the stage of history in the blaze of glory that surrounded the most wondrous of Oriental kings, and after many centuries of splendid obscurity, quits the stage of history in the meteoric glare that accompanied the most wondrous of Oriental queens. l B 2 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. And yet history, careful to preserve the remembrance of cities of which no vestige remains, has been so reticent about Tadmor, that the wonderful ruins, lately discovered, almost alone perpetuate her glory. Her chronicles are written in stone — in graceful villa and spacious palace, in massive mausoleum and mighty temple, in vistas of airy colonnades and crescents seen through triumphal arches, and in a thousand monuments of genius and taste, battered and hurled about as playthings of time, but con serving in every feature the blush and freshness of youth. Like a shrinking beauty, Tadmor sits in solitary gran deur behind her own desert mountains ; and those who would see her in her calm retreat must leave the beaten tracks of tourists, and cross "the great and terrible desert." During ten years, I had seen many tourists arrive at Damascus, eager as devotees to gaze on this queen of ruins; but owing to the expense, danger, and general hardships of the journey, few of the multitude had been permitted to look upon her beauty. Of these few, fewer still had free leisure to become acquainted with all her charms. I may consider myself the most fortunate of tourists, in that I twice succeeded in visiting Palmyra under the most favourable circumstances, and without stepping far out of the circle of nry professional duties. I shall take my readers by my latest route, through a region seldom explored, and by an easy path, with water at regular intervals. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 3 As my first trip to Palmyra was made in the ordinary prescribed manner, I shall get it out of the way as quickly as possible, and only refer to it again to illustrate or supplement my second. It consisted of long, weary marches, day and night, along the middle of an uninterest ing plain, extending in an eastern direction, with moun tains like walls running most of the way on either side. I left Damascus on the 20th March, 1872, and reached Pal myra in four days ; but as the road was monotony itself, I came back to Damascus at one stretch, and my mare trotted into Damascus almost as fresh as she had trotted out of Palmyra. This long ride, which was beset with adventures, I shall describe further on. From the time of my first trip to Palmyra, the people of Karyetein, where I spent a night, never ceased to urge me to establish a school among them, and I had promised to revisit them in the spring of 1874. During that spring the Bedawin plundered the whole eastern borders of Syria. Caravan after caravan with Bagdad merchandise was swept off into the desert. The British Bagdad post, sacred in the most troublous circumstances, had been seven times plundered, the letters had been torn open and strewed over the plain, and the postman, without camel or clothes, left to perish, or find his way as he best could to human habitation. Spearmen, like swarms of locusts from the east, spread over Jebel Kalamoun, and having slain the shepherds, and stripped any men or women who fell in their way, drove before them all the flocks and herds of the region. 4 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. Feeble fanaticism held sway in the city, and absolute anarchy reigned in the rural districts; and so great was the terror of the peasantry, that, though they were actually starving, they could not move from their vil lages, except in large armed bodies, and even thus they sometimes fell a prey to the Ishmaelites. In this state of the country, I had almost given up my promised visit, when two daring explorers, the Hon ourable C. F. P. Berkeley and wife, arrived in Damascus. Coolness and courage had carried them safely through Petra and Karak, and all the trans-Jordanic regions, whore they were sometimes beset with savage and furious mobs. Their faces were set towards Tadmor, and the prospect of danger only gave a keener zest to the projected tour. A common interest drew us together, and I was able to avail myself of their escort and pleasant society, in return for topographical knowledge, and an acquaintance with the people and their ways. The season was already far advanced for making the journey to Pal myra, and so we resolved to start at once. SOFFIT ORNAMENT OF TEMPLE CELL DOOR. PILASTF.R ORNAMENT, TEMPLE OF THE SUN. CHAPTER II. /^vN the 25th May, 1874, we left Straight Street, ^-^ Damascus, at nine o'clock a.m. As we passed out of the city, we saw green vegetables beginning to make their appearance in the markets, and jaundiced-looking apricots, ripened in the baths, were being eagerly purchased and greedily devoured by the famine-strioken people. A little beyond Bob Tuma, Thomas' Gate, where once stood St. Thomas' Church, the site of which is now unknown, we turned out of the straight road to Palmyra, into a shady lane to the left. We had planned our route through the highlands of Jebel Kalamoun, that we might visit the interesting towns and mission schools of that region, while escaping the great heat of the plains. On most maps of Syria, the Anti-lebanon appears as a huge caterpillar, laid side by side and parallel with Mount Lebanon ; but the Anti-lebanon consists of a series of mountain ranges, some of which run parallel with 5 6 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. Lebanon and sink into the great Hums plain, while some twist off in a more eastern direction, and shoot out into the desert. The most eastward and desertward of these ranges rises into Hermon at the one end, and sinks into Palmyra at the other; and the part of this latter range which lies north-east of Damascus is generally known as Jebel Kalamoun. Our shady lane, through the orchards of Damascus, was overhung with great spreading walnuts, trellised with vines, and on either side were apricots beaded with new fruit, and thickets of pomegranate with scarlet blossoms bursting forth like handfuls of crumpled silk. Half an hour from the city we crossed the Taura (Pharpar), a river of Damascus, a little below where a cotton manufactory was established with English machin ery, and under English superintendence. The English .workmen, however, found great difficulty in getting their wages, and they were kept in unhealthy lodgings, until three out of four died, and the survivor returned home broken in heart and constitution, and with experi ences sufficient to deter others from being allured into similar service by the prospect of high wages. Beyond the bridge, we met a party with a few sacks of new barley, artificially ripened, and carried on the backs of donkeys into the city ; and we saw fields of barley pulled and left on its side to ripen, that it might be in time for the famine prices. An hour from Damascus we passed through Burzeh, a Moslem village, where there is the sanctuarv of THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 9 Abraham, and where the people still talk familiarly of " good King Ibrahim," though the names of Sultan Selim and Salah ed-Din (Saladin) have already almost passed from local tradition. Here we struck into the mountains to the left by a pass up a gorge, parallel to the sublime gorge of the Barada, by which tourists enter Damascus, and much resembling it, but on a smaller scale. Our road lay up a fine mountain torrent, through which our horses splashed and tumbled. Once a Damascus Moslem was riding up the same gorge, and he had his leg broken by the falling of his horse. When dying he left a sum of money to make a road through the pass, to prevent the repetition of such accidents as cost him his life. The money, after lying many years in the wrong place, was unearthed by an English engineer; but it found its way into Moslem hands once more, and in summer, when the pass was bone dry, a road was made along the bottom of the ravine. The fact of the Turks having made a road themselves was published in the papers, and people wondered. The road was made chiefly of diy dust, pressed down by the palms of the hands and the bare feet of the workmen and workwomen ; and though it had been only one year made when we passed through, not a vestige of it remained. In less than half an hour we issued from the gorge at Maraba, a Moslem village, clinging to a bare rock overhanginer the water. We turned up the western 10 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. side of the ridge through which we had come, by a narrow valley full of fragrant walnuts, and white- stemmed poplars, and green corn as high up as the soil was watered, and no higher, calling to mind the words of the prophet, " And everything shall live whither the river cometh" (Ezek. xlvii. 9). We lunched in a lovely green meadow, under the trees, near the village Et-Tell, and then continued our course in the track of the water past Menin, a village which, like Et-Tell, contains many remains of ancient buildings. This part of our route was charming. We had left the steaming city behind, and we were con tinually getting up out of the heated plain. Here and there we had pleasant shade, and everywhere the sparkling water murmured past us, and every vista and every eminence supplied pictures of blending land scapes, such as are rarely seen even in Syria. Here our party was temporarily broken up. We had agreed to spend the first night at Maloula, but my com panions' guide had directed the tents to Saidenaya, and so I had to ride on alone, as I had arranged to visit the mission schools of Yabroud and Nebk on the following day. I passed the fortress convent of Saiden&ya, perched on a high rock, up which hewn steps lead to a small door, the only entrance. This convent contains a crowd of ignorant, idle women, and is famous for a picture painted by St. Luke, which distils a fluid very effica cious for eye complaints, and for replenishing the coffers PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. n of the convent. The picture was once stolen, but in the hands of the thief it became changed into flesh, and continues so to this day. I once tried hard to see this miraculous picture. I urged the cruelty of keeping a thing of flesh and blood so closely confined, and the advantages that might be expected from a little fresh air. I was also very liberal, and tried to bribe my SAIDENAYA. hostess, who was not fair, but it was all in vain. I could not see it and live, and so I was spared the sight. This miracle has attained to an antiquity respectable in these days. Nearly two hundred years ago, Henry Maundrell found the fame of the picture,1 and the 1 At a very early period the picture was supposed to represent the Virgin Mary. There is a Latin MS. in the Library of Trinity College, 12 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. reputation of the establishment, about the same as they are now. But they have a new miracle to boast of in the convent of Saidenaya. In 1860, many Christians took refuge in the con vent, and they were there for a time in a state of siege. There is no well in the convent, and only a cistern in which the rain-water from the roof is preserved. But, wonderful as it may seem, the water in the cistern swelled up to the brim, and overflowed in a stream all the time that the wicked Druzes hovered about the convent. Could I disbelieve the miracle when I was told of it by a lady who actually saw it take place, and pointed out to me the very spot? It is much to be regretted that this miracle took place in such an out- of-the-way convent ; but even thus, I have no doubt, it will yet receive the fame it merits. My path lay along the eastern side of the mountain range on which Saidenaya stands. The range has a sea-washed crest, showing in its length a clear tide-line. Though the mountains were bare and without vegetation, there were in several places little flocks of goats and sheep, attended by very small, half-naked shepherds, burnt Dublin, consisting of a Guide Book to Palestine, written about 1350 a.d. The picture is thus referred to: "Ten miles from Damascus is the city of Saidenaya, in which is the venerate image of the glorious Virgin Mary, which was brought from Jerusalem. This blessed image was entirely converted into a fleshy substance, so that it ceases not night and day to emit a sacred oil, which the pilgrims who come there from every quarter carry away in little glass jars. No Saracen can live in this city; they always die within a year." PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 13 brown. The red plain had been scratched in several places, but the " thin ears blasted with the east wind " showed that, as on the six previous years, the crop of the region was about to be a complete failure. In this solitary ride I met only one partj' of men. They were village recruits, who had been taken by con scription. Handcuffs in Syria are of a most primitive kind. A piece of a tree, eighteen inches long and eight inches in diameter, is split up ; a place is hollowed out across the split, and the two wrists being placed in the groove, the two pieces are nailed together with large spikes. Each recruit had his hands nailed up, and the party was being driven into Damascus by one mounted dragoon. The sticks had been so unskilfully fitted that some of their wrists were bleeding, and the poor fel lows were all lame and hungry. He would be a real benefactor who would supply Turkey with a few thou sand pairs of civilized handcuffs. In less than three hours I turned to the left, through a narrow cleft in the mountain, and then wound up and down its western side, till I reached the Greek Catholic convent of Maloula. About eight o'clock I reached the small iron portal, which opened to my first tap, and I found myself in a quadrangle with a two-storied range of rooms running all round it. Instead of nuns, as at Saidenaya, a great drove of mountain cows were housed iu the court at night, and the place was kept by two agricultural monks and two " stout daughters of the plough." i4 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. My servant, who had preceded me, had my bed erected in an aerial cell, and the kindly old priest brought me a bottle of native wine, and what was better still, fresh eggs and milk. It is only fair to state that the priest who honoured me with his company seemed to value more highly than I did this "wine of Helbon," which maintains in its neighbourhood the pre-eminence it held in the days of Ezekiel. In exact ratio as the contents of the bottle went down, the spirits of my entertainer rose, and till a very late hour he poured out stories of the place, natural and supernatural, until I was fairly driven into the land of dreams. Next morning I was on the roof of the convent when the first shafts of rosy light shot over the eastern moun tains. The upper convent stands near the edge of a fearful precipice, on a ledge of rock which seems driven wedge-like into a deep break in the mountain. Creeping close to the edge of the precipice, I looked over, and beneath me I saw the most picturesque town in Syria, perhaps the most remarkable in some respects in the world. The cliffs rise several hundred feet over the village, and the houses stick like swallows' nests one above the other about the bases of the cliffs. The flat roofs looked like the steps of a great ladder up the side of the mountain. The Greek convent beneath, Mar Theckla, is wedged in under a huge ledge of impending mountain, and a door opens out of the living rock. The arch of the roof is PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 15 supported by a slender column, which seems to mock the crushing weight above. The deep valley below is full of huge blocks that have fallen from the mountain, and the pendant cliffs are cracked and fissured, and seem ready to follow into the ravine. As I stood on a half- detached ledge that overhung the houses, I almost held my breath, lest the huge mass should plunge madly down among the human nests, bringing instant death to hundreds. The scene was lovely as well as strange. Behind, the red hill curved around like a vast amphitheatre, and on either side the mountain cliffs stood up like the sides of a great portal. In front, the gardens opened out like a fan from the mouth of the gorge. These gardens, green with the many shades of walnut, and pop lar, and bay, and cypress, and growing corn, terminated abruptly in a flat chocolate-coloured plain, around which rose tawny hills, in some places bleached white. Eagles soared and wild pigeons swarmed about the cliffs above ; and the air beneath was full of swallows, which darted in and out under the projecting ledges ; and there were several families of Syrian nuthatches — some of them rare specimens, even in Syria — which swung and sput tered about the brows of the cliffs. The communication between the upper convent and the village is difficult. On either side of the wedge on which the convent stands, and against which the houses are stuck, there is a rent or deep fissure separat ing it from the mountain. I descended through the 1 6 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. rent on the south-western side by a narrow path with stone steps cut in the rock. I found the people of Maloula as interesting as their village. They speak the ancient Syriac language, though most of them can also speak a little Arabic, but with a Syriac accent. Maloula is the centre of a group of villages where the language of the conquering Arabs has not yet completed its triumph. In Bukha and Jub-'Adin, neighbouring villages, the people are all Moslems, and all speak Syriac ; so that while the religion of the prophet has prevailed, the language of the people has conquered the conquerors. In Maloula it is a drawn battle. Many of the people are still Christians, and most of them hold by their own old language. In all other villages in Syria the language of the Koran is the language of the people. I ascended to the convent through the northern rent, in the bottom of which runs the stream of the village. The walls rose to a height of two hundred feet on either side, showing a very narrow strip of sky above. The cliffs are full of/ chambers, and closets opening off chambers, and there are hundreds of tombs all chiselled out of the solid rock. The village is of high antiquity, as the Greek inscriptions reach back to the first century of our era ; and the rock-hewn chambers, which served for human habita tions before the people learned from the swallows their present style of architecture, point doubtless to a very remote period. FRIEZE ORNAMENT, TEMPLE OF THE SUN. CHAPTER III. HAVING thoroughly explored the village, and paid for my lodging as at an inn, I took leave of the simple-hearted old monk, and started for Yabroud. In a quarter of an hour I had got up out of the amphitheatre or basin, at the bottom of which Maloula stands, and just as I gained the level plateau I came on a party of very savage-looking men sitting round an artificial tank of stagnant water. They were clothed in black sheepskin coats, with the woolly side out, and they were armed with clubs and swords and skin-covered shields. They were a party of Kurds on their way to Damascus, and just such a party as constantly murder and rob solitary travellers. We measured each other's strength, and saluted formally. A ride of three hours over swelling hills, with a range of slate-coloured mountains on the right, and a wide red plain stretching away to distant mountains on the left, brought us to a gorge in the mountain choked with vege- 17 c i8 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. tation. Beyond the gorge, high over the green, rose a curious conical hill, white as snow, called Ras el-Kowz. At the base of this hill stands Yabroud, the Jambrouda which sent a bishop to the Council of Nice. The place still continues to be the residence of a bishop. I entered the town past a beautiful fountain which pours its wealth of waters through the village and YABROUD. gardens, creating a little paradise among the parched hills. The sides of the gorge contain many ancient and unused tombs hewn in the rock. Some are high up in the face of the cliffs, and must have been difficult of access at all times, while others are level with the ground, and are spoken of as shops. In one of these some wild-look- PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 19 ing gipsies were living as I passed, calling to mind the demoniac of Gergesa. The first thing that strikes one on entering Yabroud is the appearance of the people. The men in this and the other villages about are as a rule tall, well-built, and FAMILY OF YABROUD. handsome. Even the Christians here have an air of independence about them such as one seldom meets with in Syrian Christians. The women are in still more strik ing contrast with their sisters elsewhere throughout the country. They are tall, red-cheeked, healthy, and com fortable looking, and though seldom beautiful, they have nothing of the gipsy appearance of the women in the south 20 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. and east, nor of the sickly waxen complexion of Damascus beauties. They have a general resemblance to the women of Nazareth, but they have more stamina and less prudery than the maidens of the pitcher. In- ordinary times, as we passed along, we saw them standing at their doors, with big, rosy children in their arms, or grinding at the mill, or spinning woollen yarn with a spindle; and not unfrequently heard from them hearty ringing laughter, such as might resound from a harvest-field at home. At the time of my visit, however, all cheeks were pale enough, and laughter and gladness had departed, and I started, on entering the mission school, at the pinched and hungry look of the children. There were thirty names on the roll, but only fifteen pupils in attendance. The explanation was brief and sad. Fam ine was in the district; five or six bad harvests had followed in succession. Madder root, which is largely cultivated in the district for dj'eing purposes, had be come almost unsaleable, owing to a German chemist having discovered a mineral substitute. Those who admired the brilliant aniline dyes, little thought that the new flash and fading colours in Persian rugs meant starvation among the mountains of Northern Syria. The flocks of the villagers had been swept off by the Arabs, who had also intercepted their supplies ; and the Turks insisted on having their taxes in full, though giving nothing in return. I was assured that there were not ten bushels of wheat PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 21 in the village of three thousand inhabitants, and the people were living chiefly on wild roots and vegetables. Fifteen of the scholars were on the mountains and in the glens, competing with the goats and gazelles for something to drive away hunger. One-half of the children only went on these expeditions at a time, and the fifteen who were in the school were making a meal of bean bread and hashish, which consisted for the most part of mint from the stream and rhubarb (rabbas~) from the mountain. They were like a flock of hungry kids feeding on clover. One hour beyond Yabroud, I entered Nebk, through the mouldering huts of Ibrahim Pasha's camp. The great Egyptian general, seeing the splendid appearance of the villagers, established his camp where the soldiers could, have the best medicines — good air and good water. During his occupation of Syria, the villagers were safe from the Bedawin. The Turks have learned nothing from his example, in the arts of either war or peace. The village of Nebk crowns a high hill, or nabk, and is crowned itself by the residence of a Syrian Catholic bishop, whose chief business, like that of his mitred brother in Yabroud, seemed to be the suppres sion of education. Hunger was pinching also in Nebk, but the Protestants, having learned principles of thrift with the gospel, were all in circumstances of comfort. Fifty pupils were in the school, and though all were on short allowance, they had not the hide-bound, hunger- pinched appearance of the children of Yabroud. 22 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. Nebk had suffered severely from the two great enemies of the land, — the Bedawin and the Turks. On my previous visit, I entered the village just a few minutes before the Bedawin made a gazzo up to the very entrance. They carried off a few camels laden with grain, and left the drivers without a garment. Great was the excitement in the village. People rushed to the roofs of their houses and screamed in concert, " He that has a sword, and he that has a gun, let him forth against the Arabs " ; but while all screamed, none went forth, and the Bedawin swept round the base of the hill and carried off their booty unmolested. A short distance from the place, two miserable women were gathering brushwood for fuel. Every day they took their two donkeys out in the morning, and returned in the evening with their loads, which they sold and honestly maintained themselves and their animals. They had nothing in the world but the two donkeys, which were little larger than goats. The Bedawin of romance would surely have spared such objects ; but the Bedawin of the desert rushed on the donkeys with a yell of joy, stripped the ragged garments from the women, beating them Avhen they resisted, and left them bare footed, and without a fig-leaf, to find their way back in shame to the village. Never, perhaps, did romance take greater liberties with truth than when it threw a halo of chivalry round those cut-throats of the desert. Next morning as I passed out among the high-walled gardens to visit the schools of Deir 'Atiyeh, I came PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 23 suddenly upon a woman sitting by a little stream and wailing plaintively. Beside her was a little basket of cow's dung, which she had gathered for fuel. Her grief was not a surface exhibition to catch sympathy, as no one was near in the early morning. She told me her sad tale : her husband, . returning with a load of grain from the Euphrates, had been speared by the Bedawin, and she and her children were left destitute. On emerging from the gardens, and reaching the desert once more, I saw a cavalier bearing down furi ously upon me. At the distance of a mile, I recognized bur lady companion whom I had left at Saidenaya two days previously. As I watched an English lady bound ing over the desert on a splendid charger, whose neck of thunder swayed hither and thither to her silken touch, I could not help thinking how much Christianity, in its highest types, owes to its contact with Teutonic chivalry. Deir 'Atiyeh was our rendezvous, and we all con verged to the Protestant school. Thence we passed out of the village, and after skirting the gardens for some time, we turned into the desert eastward, in a direct line for Tadmor. We had soon to call a halt, for our muleteers were hugging the village, and hang ing back, evidently with the object of making a short day, and putting us down at the first convenient resting- place, as they had done the first day. tlHTiTirtfinDnnrc^ ENTABLATURE OF GRAND ENTRANCE, TEMPLE OF THE SUN. CHAPTER IV. THE halt gave me an opportunity of estimating the magnitude and organization of our party. Two cava liers stood out conspicuous from all the others. They were Gazawy, the dragoman, the same who brought "Sheikh Stanley " through " Sinai and Palestine," and a Moslem sheikh, brought from Nebk as guide to the expedition. Gazawy was the prince of dragomans; his weakness, perhaps his strength, was to have everything of the best, and always ten times more than enough. The long line of laden mules carried, I believe, provisions for the party for twelve months. Booted and braced, he sat on a splendid horse, called the "Steam Engine," as if he were a part of the horse, and viewed the long cavalcade with a smile of pride on his kindly, weather- beaten face. Gazawy's chief pride and glory that morning was his guide, chosen expressly on account of his radiant waist coat. Half a mile from the village this guide lost the 24 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 25 road, and led us astray, and fell back to the rear, where he could do no harm. When a village would rise into sight before us, he would suddenly gallop up and declare it was " Sudud," or some other town that he knew was on our way ; but as we saw Sudud far down on the plain to the left, we called the guide "Sudud" for the rest of the journey, and groped our way by the aid of an incorrect map. Our course during the day lay north-east over gently undulating ground. On our right was the bare northern shoulder of Kalamoun, which we were rounding, and to our left was the great plain which stretches away to Hums and Hamah. Green spots dotted the red expanse, and marked the sites of such towns as Kara, Hafr, and Sudud, the Zedad of Scripture, one of the border cities of the Land of Promise. That plain once supported the flocks and hosts of the Hittites and the armies of the Seleucidse, but under the beneficent rule of our Turkish allies, the sites of great cities are marked by lofty mounds and wretched huts, and the miserable inhabitants carry their provisions from the Euphrates. We met no travellers, for all who wished to escape the Bedawin travelled under the pro tection of the darkness. Persian larks, hawks, vultures, and pin-tailed grouse, were the only tenants of that deso late region. A little after mid-day " Sudud " spied two human beings creeping down from the mountain as if going to cross our path. He immediately gave the alarm, and as 20 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. there were only two, and they were not likely to be Bedawin, he charged direct at them, valiantly brandishing his rusty weapons, with all the awkwardness of a vil lage horseman. Our bandit guard joined in the chase, which was picturesque and exciting, though ludicrous. "Sudud" kept in advance, and as he became convinced that there were no Bedawin, and no ambuscade, he became more valorous. He would show that though he might not know the way, he was the hero of the party in the hour of danger. But just as he was snatching his laurels, the fate of "vaulting ambition" befell him; for his horse, having had enough of it, stopped short at the edge of a dry river-bed, ,and "Sudud" shot over his head to the other side. All cheered, and called on "Sudud" to charge the enemy; but he once more retired to the rear, where he kept guard for the remainder of the day. The Bedawin that we were going to annihilate turned out to be two gipsy tinsmiths who were stealing down the ravine to the village below, when the eagle eye of our "Sudud" discovered them. We reached Muhin before sunset, and pitched our camp beside a copious fountain. The water was warm and slightly sulphurous. Few Europeans had passed that way before, and the people of the village swarmed about us, more curious than civil. They were Moslems of the surly kind. Muhin stands on a little hill, and on the highest part, west of the houses, there are the remains of an ancient SUDUD'S VAULTING AMBITION. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 29 church. The building was about twenty paces long and sixteen paces broad, and from twenty-five to thirty feet high. The circular end of the church was towards the north-west, and from the middle of the side wall on either side, all round the circular end, there were pilasters with pedestals and Corinthian capitals. A piece had fallen out of the circular end, but there still remained seven pilasters on one side and five on the other intact. The church is still very perfect, and is unlike any other building I have seen in Syria. From the top we had a magnificent view of the whole country, from the Wall of Lebanon to the Gate of Palmyra, and we were able to take bearings, and mark out our line of march for the morrow. About two o'clock in the morning we were startled by a horrid din in the village : every human being that could scream screamed; every dog barked to the utmost limit of his capacity ; every horse that could make a clatter on the rocks galloped hither and thither. An alarm of Bedawin had been given, and the people were gathering in their flocks for safety, and preparing to defend their threshing-floors. As we were close by the threshing-floors, we had a fair prospect of seeing play; but we kept our beds till morning, and by the time we were ready to rise the noise had all died away. The Bedawin, as we found out afterwards, made their attack, but not on Muhin. Every year the people of these regions go to the Hauran during the harvest. The men reap for wages, and their wives and daughters, Ruth-like, glean after them. This 3° PALMYRA AND. ZENOBIA. having been an unusually bad year, an unusual number of reapers and gleaners had gone to the Hauran.1 I here quote the sequel from the Levant Herald of 9th July, 1874: "These poor reapers had amassed 17,000 piasters, and were returning to their starving families. But the Arabs were informed of the easy prey they would find in these unarmed peasants. They waylaid them, and left them hardly a shred to cover their nakedness. The Arabs then swept on unopposed, under their leader Sheikh Dabbous ; and making a circuit by Sudud, Hawarin, and Karyetein, carried off all the stray flocks and donkeys that came in their way." 1 1 have seen scores of young Syrian women, from distant villages, gleaning in safety after the rough Bashan reapers. PALMYRA TESSERAE BELONGING TO THE LATE M. WADDINGTON. ENTABLATURE OF GRAND ENTRANCE PORTICO, TEMPLE OF THE SUN. CHAPTER V. THE next morning (May 28th, 1874) we sent our baggage animals and all impedimenta to Karyetein by the direct route, while we turned out of the way with a slender escort, to visit the wonderful hot baths on a distant mountain to the left. We rode the first hour through high-walled gardens and flat fields to Hawarin, a city famed in local tradition for its seven splendid churches. We were surprised by the extent of the ruins of this place, and we had not allowed ourselves time to explore it as thoroughly as its importance deserved. I saw three large buildings, and the foundation of a fourth, called churches by the people. The largest and most perfect of these was a rectangular building, thirty paces long by twenty-five broad, and thirty feet high. The internal arrangements of the building consisted of a central hall, and three rooms on each side opening into the hall. The stones in the walls were large, but they seemed to have been rifled from other structures. 31 32 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. From the numerous foundations of houses, many of them of massive public buildings, there can be no doubt that Hawarin marks the site of an important city; but the fragmentary Greek inscriptions which I found in my hurried search gave no key to the name of the place. From Hawarin we rode across a flat plain four hours to Gunthur. All the district showed signs of ancient culti vation, and were the people protected from the Bedawin and the Turks, the flats would once more wave with golden grain. Little patches were cultivated here and there, but not of sufficient importance to tempt the hered itary robbers. Water, the great desideratum for cultiva tion, was abundant, though all the fountains and channels were choked up. At the water we found straggling flocks of pin-tailed grouse ; and throughout the desert, wherever we came upon water, however small the quantity, we found grouse and snipe. We always approached little patches of desert marsh with expectation, and it required skill to bring down the brace of snipe which generally rose right and left. At Gunthur we found, as usual, a few wretched huts on the site of what once had been an important town. The houses were cone-topped, and at a distance looked like cornstacks in a farmyard; but the illusion was dis pelled when we entered the square, which was full of dung, in which a dozen naked children and a score of mangy dogs were disporting. The huts were built round a court, so as to form a PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 33 rampart against the Bedawin, but there were breaches which left the place unprotected, and about twelve days after we passed, the Giath and 'Amour Bedawin came through the place, and swept it clean of the results of the late harvest. At one corner of the court was the foundation of a very solid temple, twenty paces by fourteen, with two or three courses of the huge stones still in their places. A larger, more ornate, and more modern structure lay in ruins in the field a few hundred yards to the north-east. The peasants, who were gathering in their grain, told us that the flats about the village were often covered with water during the winter, and that the place was much frequented by wild geese, bustards, and wild boars. Grouse swarmed about the water, and there were some spur-winged plover in a meadow close by. From Gunthur we started for Solomon's Baths, which we saw on the mountain, under the guidance of a kindly old African, who had lived long in that neighbourhood, a slave under many masters, and who was full of the traditions of the baths, and of Lady Belkis, the wife of Solomon, for whom the baths were erected ! In five minutes we passed a fine spring, slightly tepid and sulphurous. In half an hour we reached the base of a low mountain, and after ascending the mountain diagonally for about half an hour, we came to considerable ruins on its eastern summit. The only inhabitants of the ruins that we saw were a fox, a hare, and a covey of partridges. 34 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. The exact position of the place, which is called Abu Rebah, is due north of Karyetein, a distance of three and a quarter hours, or about ten miles as the crow flies. Having made a general tour of the neighbourhood in quest of partridges, some of which I secured for dinner, our guide conducted us to the wonderful bath. He first pointed out to us, in the roof of a vault, an opening about a foot in diameter, the edges of which were soot- stained, and through which issued a hot vapour. Descending from the roof, which was on a level with the foundations about, we passed through a low entrance into an arched vault eight or ten feet square. The walls and roof of the vault were scribbled over with Greek by the Browns, Joneses, and Robinsons of two thousand years ago. The literature was of the same serious character as that seen in many of our railway and other waiting-rooms at home. From this outer vault there was an opening twenty inches high into another similar vault, and through the opening there came hot puffs of sulphurous vapour. I crept through this hole, but I was instantly driven back b)' the intense heat. My servant then rushed in boldly, but he rushed out quite as quick, almost suffocated, and covered with per spiration from head to foot. It was a case of what the Arabs call " head in ; tail out." After this we explored more carefully the inner vault. In the centre of the floor there was an opening about the same size and exactly under that we saw in the roof. Steam came hissing from the hole as from the funnel PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 35 of a ship, and we could hear a hissing and gurgling sound under the vault, as from water boiling over into the fire out of a great caldron. We threw stones into the furnace, and heard them descending to a great depth, but a piece of paper thrown in was instantly shot out by the current of the vapour. Previous to our visit, Omer Bey, a Hungarian officer, had let down a brazen vessel into the orifice by a rope ; but the vessel was snatched from the rope by the Jan, left by King Solomon to keep the water boiling! Our faithful guide lost his good opinion of us when we sug gested that perhaps the fire had burned it off. Indeed, he ever afterwards looked upon us with that suspicion which is the reward of all who are foolish enough to think differently from their neighbours. West of the bath, in the ravine, there is a large reser voir, the roof of which is supported on five rows of arches resting on buttresses of solid masonry. All traces of water are gone, but the cement on the walls remains white and firm, and is scrawled over with thousands of hieroglyphics, which are mostly the wasm, or tribe- marks, of the Bedawin. Judging from the foundations of the ruins, the houses appear to have been very small, and they were doubtless used as lodging-houses for invalids and others visiting the baths, for the only attraction to such a barren knoll was its heated vapour. Abu Rebah must have been once an important sanitarium, and the bath has still a very high reputation for its healing powers. It is considered 36 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. infallible in rheumatic complaints, and in the case of barrenness, and is much resorted to in the present day. Men are said to be carried to the bath confirmed invalids, and after spending a night in the vault, return home on their own feet. In descending the mountain from the baths we started several very small whitish hares, and saw many holes of foxes and jackals. The ground was strewed with rock crystals, which glanced like diamonds in the sunlight. A low range of hills screened Karyetein from our view, but we had steered our course by a peak which we knew was in a line with the village. In the bright atmosphere the distance seemed as nothing, yet it was a most weary ride across a level plain, which was all seamed with footpaths, some of which had been trod by Abraham and his emigrants. We passed several abandoned Bedawi encampments, but we saw no living thing in a ride of over three hours, except a few hares and bustards, and an occasional eagle hastening overhead to its prey. On reaching Karyetein, however, we learned that we must have passed under the very noses of the plundering Bedawin, who were hovering about our path in the mountains. My teacher, whom I had sent on with the baggage in the morning, had announced our approach in Karyetein, and a most cordial welcome was given us. The civil and military chiefs of the place turned out in their best to do us honour, and the people were profuse in their thanks for the school which we had come to establish among them. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 37 The supposition that Karyetein is the Hazar-enan of Scripture (Num. xxxiv. 9, 10) is probably correct, but the identification of the place with the Greek town Koradsea is a mistake. Two Greek inscriptions (one on a long stone, now over the gateway of a Moslem house, and the other on the pedestal of a column in the sheikh's court) give the name of the place as Nazala. The discovery of this name gave rise to a fresh exam ination of the Peutinger Itinerary, when it was found that the name reprinted " Nehala " was " Nazala " in the original. The name "Karyetein" is dual, and simply means "two towns," and one can see both the old and the new town. About a mile south-west of the present town, near the foot of a low mountain, there is a splen did fountain called " Ras el-'Ain." Around this fountain was built the old town, Hazar-enan ("the enclosure of fountains"). Close by the fountain — or fountains, for there are a number of them — there is a large artificial mound, on which are the massive foundations of a temple. The building was twenty-one paces long and sixteen broad, and some of the stones of the foundation were eight feet in length. On one of the largest stones there is a well-cut trident. A short distance north-east of the mound there is the base of a square building about forty- eight paces each way. The lower story of this building was vaulted, and the stones remain in their places, as they were too heavy to be removed to the new town, which is chiefly built of mud. It is not improbable that the inhabitants of the Fountain Village moved to a distance 38 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. from the fountain to enjoy a quiet life, such fountains being the scene of constant strife. At the fountain were flocks of grouse, and a few snipe, and I got a very small bittern, which, through the zeal of my companion, is now in, the museum of the Protestant Syrian College, Beyrout. The ground was full of pottery, and, among other relics of antiquity, I picked up on the Tell two fine flint knives. We need not, however, rush into theories about the stone, bronze, and iron ages, for a famous sheikh of the Bedawin, to whom I showed my treasures, assured me that such knives were still used by his people. Karyetein contains, about three hundred houses, and one-fifth of the inhabitants are Christians, chiefly Syrian Jacobites. The schoolmaster, for whom all had been petitioning and importuning, had arrived, and only one man in the place (the Christian priest) opposed the opening of the school. In all places where a missionary opens a school in Syria he opens at least two; sometimes indeed all the sects open schools in self-defence. The opposing priest, under pressure of circumstances, and in a fine spirit of enterprise, opened a school himself; but as the work was not quite in his line, besides being hard, our teacher had all the pupils to himself in a few days, and Mos lems and Christians learned to read the story of Christ's love and passion, sitting side by side. I hoped also to induce the Bedawin to send their children to this school in the centre of the desert, but several blood feuds had first to be settled before such a thing was possible. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 39 The people of Karyetein are a fine-looking race of men, — especially the princelings of the ruling family. They hunt and hawk, and are as good horsemen as the Bedawin, and better shots. They resemble the Bedawin, but have much more bone and sinew. Their independence has been developed thoroughly by resisting the encroachments of the Turks and the Bedawin ; but of late a Turkish garrison has been placed among them, and their acquies cence has been secured by giving them appointments of command and trust. The civil and military chiefs are very great people in Karyetein, and we had to attend carefully to all the punctilios of receiving and returning visits. Long negotiations in the matter of guide and guards had to be conducted with as much diplomacy as might have sufficed for the cession of a duchy. It was at last arranged that we were to have an equal number of civil and military guards — that is, regular soldiers; and irregu lar mounted police. The guide was a difficult question to decide ; for each of the authorities had one to recommend, — " the only one " who knew the path to 'Ain el-Wu'ul, — and as it was understood that the protege" was to share his fee with his patron, our dragoman was placed in a delicate situation. A1 SOFFIT OF CORNICE IN LITTLE TEMPLE. CHAPTER VI. LL things having been arranged, — for negotiations even in the desert come to an end, — we struck our tents, and started from Karyetein on the 30th of May, at four o'clock in the afternoon. Our object was to break the journey at 'Ain el-Wu'ul (" fountain of the Ibexes"), a reputed fountain in the mountains to the right, half way to Palmyra from Karyetein. The exist ence of this fountain was kept a secret, so that people might employ camels to carry water, and our innovation ' was looked upon with great disfavour. Gazawy compromised the matter by taking a few water- carriers, at a very high charge. Our cavalcade was led out across the river at the town mill, wobbled about through ploughed fields for a time, and at last turned Palmyra-ward into the desert. We had now assumed the dimensions and character of an invading army. We were not stealing through the desert under cover of the darkness, but forcing our way where we pleased and at our leisure. 40 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 41 " Brandy Bob," a captain in the infantry, was com mander-in-chief of our military escort. He rode a vicious mule, with only a halter, and without stirrups, carried a single-barrelled fowling-piece about eight feet long, and a bottle of brandy in each pocket, d la Gilpin. He had a habit of alighting abruptly, not always on his feet, but that may have been the mule's fault, or the brandy's. His soldiers were all mounted and equipped in the same unceremonious manner as himself. Irregular' police in Syria are a very irregular force indeed. Nominally in government service, they are ready to take a turn at throat-cutting for anybody who employs them, and they are the free-lances or government ban ditti of the country. If there is a prospect of plunder, they will join a Bedawi raid, and by their arms, such as they are, contribute to the victory. On my first tour to Palmyra, our irregular escort proceeded to rob every individual they saw in the desert. Remonstrance on our part was of little avail, for our protectors replied that they had only agreed to take us safely to Palmyra, not to abstain from taking anything Allah placed in their way. On the whole, we had such a guard as might have been safely trusted to make short work of- any party weaker than themselves. Faris, our gipsy guide, deserves a passing notice. He was a light, little man, with crimped hair, sallow com plexion, coal-black eyes, which were always on one, and a stealthy, silent step, as if he were afraid of waking 42 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. some one only slightly asleep. He always seemed drawing up his feet from behind, but he never let them get before him, lest they should let out some secret. His mare was of the same gipsy cast, a marled grey. Her neck was hollowed down like a camel's where one expected a curve, and her under lip hung down and ex posed the teeth, while her nose and upper lip were drawn back, and had a curious huffed appearance. Her legs were bent the wrong way, and her joints were in the wrong places, and she was so lean, and wizened, and dry, that she seemed to go nodding and dozing along without life or feeling. They were an uncanny-looking pair, and I could not look at them without an uneasy feeling, and much curiosity. With " Brandy Bob " and " Gipsy " at our head, we swept along the desert in splendid style. In front were two little mountains, offsets from the range on the right. That to the left was called Khuderiyeh, and that on the right Barady, and we made straight for the opening between them. We passed several gazelle-traps, near Karyetein. Little walls converge to a field from a great distance, increasing in height as they approach the field. The field is walled round, leaving gaps at intervals, out side of which there are deep pits. The gazelles, led on by curiosity, and guided by the little walls, march boldly into the field, and when they are startled, they rush out wildly in a panic, at the breaches, and tumble into the pits. Sometimes forty or fifty are taken out of a pit alive at one time. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 43 The desert was tolerably smooth as far as the little mountains, when it became more broken and cut up, chiefly by the action of mountain torrents. The Arabs reported that in the mountain range to the right there were the remains of a great reservoir which once sup plied water to Kasr el-Hiyar, the solitary ruin in the direct route between Karyetein and Palmyra. That evening we had the finest sunset I had ever seen in the desert. The western horizon seemed literally ablaze. Soon the light blue veil of the mountains be came tinted with violet and indigo, and finally settled into leaden death, and the wind came up cold as a Siberian winter. We held on our course bravely till midnight, when our column became very unsteady, and began to wriggle about promiscuously over the desert. The cold was intense, and the bottle passed between our leaders more frequently than was consistent with their responsible po sitions, or than was expedient for safe and steady guid ing. Suddenly we turned to the right, and marched straight against the mountain, which we had been ap proaching at an acute angle. We knew the fountain was in the range to the right, but thought it must be at least two hours farther on. Gipsy, however, spurned interference, and assumed all responsibility. We soon got into a maze of rocks, and after half an hour's scrambling through them and over them, we came right against the precipitous side of the mountain. Gipsy went boldly at the mountain, Avith a few inartic- 44 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. ulate words, when, suddenly, he came down on his head on a heap of stones, and the old horse turned and made a vignette over him. He lay in a bundle, motionless, where he fell, and when I asked what was the matter, he hiccoughed out, "It's a hare," as if he had got off to catch it. "Brandy Bob's" bottle had done its work, and the guide was hopelessly drunk. Then commenced a scene never to be forgotten. No one knew exactly where we were, or where the well was, but we spread out across the rugged base of the mountain after midnight to look for a well of which we had only heard a report. Our horses staggered over precipices and scrambled out of ravines in the most marvellous manner; baggage ani mals followed wildly after the cavaliers, stumbling and rolling over rocks ; the whole looked like a steeple-chase, or a wild stampede, everything magnified by the black shadows ; and there was an appalling expenditure of ner vous force, in the use of strong language. We explored desperately for about an hour, which seemed an age ; but as the moon was hurrying behind the mountain, and as we were only getting more hope lessly lost, we encamped for the night on a bare plateau at the base of the mountain. The cold was as intense as had been the heat of the day ; but we were soon in that happy land where the per plexities of the day are forgotten. The night, however, has perplexities as real and as distressing as those of the day, while they last, and so I dreamt of stumbling fran- PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 45 tically over rocks, and of being in imminent danger of tumbling over precipices, until a little Bedawi girl pulled the door of my tent aside, and the sun, hot as a furnace, shone in upon me. The little maiden we called the " Princess," and per haps no princess, except in an Eastern tale, ever was the bearer of more joyful news or more acceptable gifts. She announced the lost fountain, and she bore in one hand a brazen vessel full of fresh milk, and with the other she led a snow-white lamb. I remembered how African explorers, when hope lessly exhausted, had been ministered to by savage women, and I sighed for the pen of an African ex plorer, that I might celebrate the praises of this min istering angel of the desert and of the fountain. Our little angel was not of the white and shining kind ; she was dark olive, and her only garment was a blue calico shirt, close fitting at the neck, and extending far down the leg. A blue fillet, wound round the head, left the hair free to stand up and enjoy the mountain breeze, and beneath the fillet it fell in uncombed plaits around her shoulders. These plaits were prolonged by bits of strings, made of camel's hair, down to below the waist. Doubtless a revolution has since taken place in the disposition of Bedawi locks in the desert, for my companion presented the Princess with an ivory comb, a work of art which caused in the encampment no little speculation as to its use. 46 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. But Ave must not be diverted from describing our Princess, Avhose piercing timid black eyes shone brightly in deep, sooty sockets, and Avhose feet, which spurned the flint, gave a fine example of what Disraeli called " the high Syrian instep." In a short conversation that I held with her, Avhen pay ing for the luxuries which she brought us, I noticed that she pronounced the letter j soft, and otherwise spoke Arabic like a Syrian girl. I said, " You are not a Bedawi bint (girl) ? " The Bedawin who accompanied the maiden to see that their gifts were paid for Avere within ear-shot, and she replied loudly, " You do me too much honour in receiving my gifts ; why should you pay for them ? " and then in a low, but hurried manner, she told me she had been carried off by the Bedawin from Rustan, a village on the Orontes, between Hums and Hamah. The revelation Avas made with the swiftness of a light ning flash. The acting was exquisite, and the dramatic effect instantaneous and startling. I did not catch every thing that was expressed, but the hurried and helpless appeal revealed the fact that our "Princess" was a lit tle captive Syrian slave, and I resolved to rescue and re store her. My sense of pity as well as chivalrous instincts Avere awaked, and though I Avas in the land of the Bedawin I did not despair of success. The following nursery song, which I had often heard sung by Syrian mothers, came to my recollection. I had stumbled on the living drama in real life : — PALMIRA AND ZENOBIA. 47 THE LULLABY.1 Sleep, baby, sleep I a sleep so sweet and mild, Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawi child I Aside to the Once I was a happy girl, grape sellers. The Prince Abdullah's daughter, Playing with the village maids, Bringing wood and water. Suddenly the Bedawin Carried me away : Clothed me in an Arab robe, And here they make me stay. Sleep, baby, sleep ! a sleep so sweet and mild, Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawi child 1 Aside. Ye sellers of grapes, hear what I say ! I had dressed in satin rich and gay ; They took my costly robes away And dressed me in aba coarse and grey. I had lived on viands costly and rare, And now raw camel's flesh is my fare. Sleep, baby, sleep ! a sleep so sweet and mild, Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawi child ! Aside. Oh I seller of grapes, I beg you hear ! Go tell my mother and father dear, That you have seen me here to-day. Just by the church my parents live, The Bedawin stole me on Thursday eve. Let the people come and their sister save, Let them come with warriors bold and brave, Lest I die of grief and go to my grave, I Avas only partially dressed in my tent, and to secure the return of the little captive to our camp later on, I 1 This translation is, I believe, from the pen of Dr. Jessup, of Beyrout. 48 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. received back from her the money I had given her, promising to pay more for all when she had brought us an additional supply of milk. Whether the Bedawin had heard what their captive had said, or had divined what Avas passing in my mind, they had taken in the situation completely, and before I was fully dressed, they had disappeared as secretly and noiselessly as they came. They departed without their money, and they left no trace behind them, nor could I get any information regard ing them from the other people about the well. The two Bedawin Avho had accompanied the little "Princess" were clothed from head to foot in the skins of the wa'al (ibex) and gazelle. They seemed like ordinary Bedawin — small, spare, dark men, Avith deep- set, restless eyes, and noses of the scimitar type. They belonged, however, to the Suleib Arabs, a unique tribe in the desert. At a remote period this tribe Avas degraded from exercising the larger prerogatives of Bedawin of the higher aristocracy. They do not make war on the weak, nor rob, except in a pilfering way, nor inter marry with any of the other tribes. Many Avild stories relate the causes of their degradation, but that most common among the other Bedawin is, that they ran aAvay from the siege of Kerbela, leaving their friends to be butchered, "and the uurse of Allah still lies heavy upon them." As a part of their punishment, they Avere placed on the same footing Avith women, as unworthy to ride horses, and so they never ride PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 49 anything but donkeys; but the Suleib donkeys (known as Bagdad donkeys) are the finest in the world, and will bring from twenty to forty pounds in Damascus. They are the large and beautiful white asses which reach England by Morocco. The Suleib Arabs, unlike the other Ishmaelites of the desert, have their hand against 'no man, and no man's hand is against them. They live by the chase, and by the milk and avooI of their flocks ; and when they sell a donkey, its price supplies them with all they need from the outer world. On the declivities of 'Ain el-Wu'ul are still to be found iciiul, or ibexes, which they hunt Avith great skill. Clothed in the skin of the xva'al, they follow them from rock to rock, on all-fours, until they shoot them at short range ; and sometimes their disguise is so complete, that they even catch the gazelle and iva'al aliAre with their hands. These Suleib Arabs take no part in forays ; as one of them said to me, " Allah has made enough for us all, and if we plunder one another, there Avill not be enough for us all." They Avill sit on the ground, impartial spectators of a battle, and Avhen the fight is over they will nurse the Avounded of both sides, like the Knights of the Geneva Cross. When one tribe is pursuing another, they will entertain with equal but limited hospitality both the pursued and pursuer; but nothing can wring from them any information as to the direction the fugi tives have taken. These Arabs are to be found about the Avells in the neighbourhood of 'Ain el-Wu'ul, and So PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. they are always of the same peaceful and hospitable character. Our visitors informed us that the fountain was about a mile farther on among the mountains, and so, as soon as we had eaten their offerings, we moved our camp forward to the foot of the ravine below the fountain. We pitched ' on the site of a military camp where Omar Bey had stationed his soldiers when he wished to reduce the desert to subjection. We should have had no difficulty whatever in finding the fountain ; but our guide misled us, as I believe, on purpose. From the pass between the tAvo little mountains Ave should have followed a beaten path, leading gently to the light to the lowest break in the mountain, about three hours ahead. On our return we rode from the fountain to Karyetein in ten and a half hours, so no one need ever again spend monejr in Avater-carriers on the road to Palmyra. We ascended to the fountain through a gorge, the stones in the bottom of Avhich were as slippery as ice. Every tribe that crosses the plain between Palmyra and Karyetein is obliged to pass up this gorge for water ; and through the wear of ages the stones have become so polished that scarcely one of our animals Avent up to the water without a fall. The stones, however, were so smooth that none were injured by falling. We discovered the fountain at the head of the gorge. It is a deep tank about twelve feet square, faced round Avith rough stones, and the water was about ten feet lower than PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 51 the surface of the platform in which the tank was sunk, so that it had to be drawn up, and placed in hollow stones for the animals to drink. The stones about the tank were squared, but not chiselled, and though Ave saAv foundations of buildings, Ave could find no inscriptions. From between the high shoulders of the gorge, we had a good view of the broadest part of the plain that extends to Palmyra, and the Kasr el-Hiyar lay exactly north-west of the fountain, some six or eight miles distant. The water in the tank was very green, but one ceases to be fastidious about the quality of Avater in the desert. Tavo cheerful little maidens were filling skins with the green fluid, and fourteen skins were lying about filled and festering in the sun. A number of camels were squatting at the troughs, waiting for some one to bring them water, and flocks of goats were pouring over the cliffs and con verging on the fountain. The little stagnant pond had attracted a great number of living things. Partridges scolded us from the rocks on every side, for interfering with their beverage ; and myriads of linnets, of all kinds and colours, settled on the tall thistles, and awaited our departure ; and eagles and vultures and red-beaked choughs soared over us at every altitude. A little way over from the fountain Avas the Suleib encampment. It consisted of about a dozen tents — or rather a dozen long pieces of black haircloth, fastened down with stones at the side next the wind, and at the 52 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. other side propped up with bits of sticks, and tied doAvn with strings. Beneath the awnings thus formed women squatted, horribly tattooed, and filthy-looking; and one miserable creature, who was sick, lay on skins, Avith a skin filled with water for her pilloAV. The dirt of the tent Avas scarcely removed beyond the tent strings, and the odour, at least to us, was far from agreeable. Some of our irregular police were sitting in the tents, feasting on a half-roasted sheep that had been slain for them. We saw none of the famous Suleib donkeys, and we learned with regret that a plague had swept many of them away, and that they had been obliged to sell a great many of what remained, during the Syrian famine. A few black and wretched substitutes stood nodding about the tents. On our return to the fountain from Palmyra, Ave saAv no trace of the Suleib, but three men Avere found dying of thirst at the fountain. They had made their Avay to the place, but were too weak to reach the water. I Avas especially interested in the Suleib Arabs, as I thought they would not be afraid to send their children to one of our schools, in a border village, such as Kary etein, and I imagined that as they had no blood feuds or enemies among the Bedawin, they might be employed to carry instruction and the light of the gospel to the other wanderers of the desert. They, however, strongly objected to their children quitting the Avays of their fathers ; and I found, on consulting a Bedawi chief, that the blue-blooded Bedawin PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 53 held the Suleib in such contempt, that they would not on any account allow their children to be taught by them. " We Avould let our children learn from Nasara (Chris tians), or Jews even; but that they should be taught by these low-souled, Avomanish Bedawin — ask forgiveness from God for such a thought!" Nothing in the Suleib camp made such an impression on us as the exquisite beauty of the children. Though un washed and almost unclad, they appeared to me the most graceful and the sweetest little animals I had ever seen in the desert or elsewhere. In this opinion I do not stand alone. Lady Anne Blunt speaks of a Suleib family as follows : — . . . " Two younger men, his relations, are exceedingly good look ing, with delicately cut features, and the whitest of teeth. There is a boy, too, who is perfectly beautiful, Avith almond-shaped eyes, and a complexion like stained ivory. A little old woman not more than four feet high, and two girls of fourteen, the most lovely little creat ures I ever saw, complete the family.'' — Tribes of lite Euphrates, Yo\. II. 109. SOFFIT SUPPORTED BY FOUR COLUMNS. ilASSI) RELIEVO ON PILASTER, TKMI'I.K (IF THE SUN. CHAPTER VII. T T Jit enjoyed a quiet day at A'in el-Wu'ul, much to * * our own satisfaction and that of our animals ; and on the 1st of June, 1874, at four o'clock in the morning, we started on the last stage of our journey to Palmyra. The morning air was fresh and balmy, the peaks Avere tipped with amethyst, and purple shadows shot with gold lay heavy about the mountains, and as we streamed down from the plateau, Ave felt buoyant as the Avavy atmos phere that danced and floated around us. Five hares were started in the descent, and each be came the subject of a fresh chase and general fusillade, and on the level plain one hare Avas actually run down and caught by a soldier on a one-eyed horse. That man was a mighty hunter, and his one-eyed horse Avas Avorthy of his rider. On our return through Karyetein, the sheikh's son presented me Avith a Persian greyhound. In the morning, a fox Avas seen creeping up the hill to the mountain, and instantly all our cavaliers started in pur suit with a desert yell. 04 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 55 The fox took in the situation and did his best, and he had nearly a mile of start. The hunters, from being an irregular croAvd, soon found their places in the tail of the dust-comet that streamed up the hill. The head of the comet Avas the one-eyed horse, and there thundered in his track horses twice his size and ten times his value. In twenty minutes the greyhound had reached the fox, but did not knoAV Avhat to do Avith him. The question was soon settled by the rider of the cyclopean horse, who rushed in, seized reynard, and brought him back alive and in triumph, at his saddle-boAV. At five o'clock the Castle of Palmyra rose into vieAv, and Ave felt delightfully independent of Gipsy, the guide. We had a weary ride before us, in which distance was felt, not seen. The way was monotony itself, for Ave had got almost back into the ordinary route of the tourist. In some places the ground was wavjr, and then our column dipped and emerged like a boat among bil lows. At other places it Avas dead flat, and then Ave marched on, and on, and on for ever, leaving in our track a trail of dust. The mountain range on our right rose again from the break at the fountain, and stretched on in an unbroken ridge to opposite Palmyra, when it suddenly turned toward the city and shut in the plain. Across the plain to the left, the edge of a highland, or step, like a mountain ridge, shut in the plain on the north ; and this ridge also ran straight to Palmyra, and then turned off at right angles towards the Euphrates. Sometimes the monotony of our march Avas broken by a 5 6 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. spurt after a hare, or a shot at a sand-grouse, and in crossing a seil, or the dry bed of a mountain torrent, I got two large grey birds, with big yellow eyes, called by the BedaAvin darraji, — perhaps a species of rock curlew. We passed hundreds of places where Arabs had en camped, marked by stones left in circles, and by bones and ashes and graves. At one of these encampments I found beads of old Damascus manufacture, and a flint knife that had been recently used. The plain was a tawny broAvn, and the abundant grass and herbage of spring had been reduced to powder. A few spots Avere green in the distance, but when we came up to them, we only found the el-kali plant growing in greater abun dance and perfection than elsewhere. The plain, which runs between mountains, like the level bed of a narrow sea, from near Karyetein to Pal myra, varies in breadth from four to ten miles, and consists of good soil, Avhich might be cultivated. On my first return trip from Palmyra, I found it carpeted with grass and flowers to the fetlocks of the horses. One nowhere meets the desert sands of tradi tion till almost at the entrance to Palmyra. About two hours from Palmyra, Ave were aroused out of a slumberous state by one of our soldiers firing off his rifle, and rushing about in an excited manner. We galloped up to him, and found that he had wounded a large lizard, thirty-nine inches long. It was horribly ugly as it Avrithed on the ground. It had a stuffed look, like PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 59 a Turkish officer, tightly belted, and bulging out on each side of the ligatures. The skin of this extraordinary monster is now in the museum of the Syrian Protestant College, Beyrout. As we approached closer to Palmyra, the ruins on the hilltops came safely out of the mirage, and assumed their PALMYRA RUINS. permanent forms. Every hour new structures rose into view, and through the pass, to which we were hurrying, Ave could see the tops of the colonnades within. Perhaps there is no vieAV of Palmyra which gives so much excite ment as this. After the bare monotonous desert, Ave 60 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. come gradually on a scene of enchantment, and though Ave have come expressly to see the scene, it breaks upon us as a surprise ; not all at once, but increasing at every step — castle, and tower and temple, and serried lines of Corinthian capitals, seen in part, and in such a Avay as to suggest more, lead up with the most dramatic effect to the most splendid dSnouement. The thrill of expect ancy and delight is a rich reward for all our fatigue. In the middle of the pass, Avith a path on either side, there is 'a rocky eminence, which Avas built over with tomb toAvers. Some of the towers are almost entire, and of others there only remain the foundations. On the right rises Jebel el-Man tar ("the Mountain of the look out,") Avith the old Avail running up its narrow ridge to the top, and its base sentinelled about Avith huge square towers. This mountain terminates suddenly in the plain, and the Avail runs down its south-eastern side ; and after passing through Abu Sahil, the vaulted cemetery, it draws a Avide circuit round the southern side of the city. On the left from the edge of the pass rises a chain of mountains, which screens Tadmor from the Avest, and runs away in the Dawara range towards the Euphrates. The Avail took the course of the highest summits of this range, and after enclosing the castle, turned sharp in a south easterly direction, and curved round the city till it met the Avail coming up from the south-west. This wall,- which can be easily traced, is no doubt that of the city in its palmiest days, and should always be kept in mind Avhen estimating the greatness of the Palmyra of Zenobia. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 6 1 On the north-east side the outer wall is about nine hundred yards beyond the modern Roman wall. Travellers generally express their disappointment at the smallness of Palmyra; but they form their estimate of its magni tude by the .small oblong space enclosed within the Justinian wall, less than three miles long. While the city had no special claim to celebrity on account of its TnE TEMPLE OF THE SUN. size, in that respect even it was not insignificant, as the old Avails which we have pointed out were from ten to thirteen miles in circumference, and the enclosed space was closely packed with human habitations, many of them of the most splendid description. As we swept through the pass, Tadmor lay beneath us ; and its ruins, which seemed graceful and fantastic as frostwork on glass, stretched out for more than a mile before us, and ended in the massive Temple of the Sun. On the left, the yellow mountains towered over it ; and 62 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. on the right, green gardens of palm and olive surged around it. On the outer side, these gardens are girt by the desert, which stretches away to the horizon, smooth as the sea, and the yellow sands, which shimmer golden in the sunlight, are flecked by the silver sheen of exten sive salt lakes. FRAGMENT OF A TEMPLE. FALLEN CAPITAL. CHAPTER VIII. "\ T T'E hastened over prostrate columns, and along silent * * streets, till we reached the beautiful little temple called the "Temple of the King's Mother." Here we descended from our horses at half-past three o'clock p.m., having made the journey from 'Ain el-Wu'ul in about ten and a half hours' actual riding. This little temple commands an excellent view of the ruins, and so we pitched our camp beside it, and my bed was spread within its once sacred fane. I had thus ample leisure by starlight and sunlight, to study what Miss Beau fort, in her pleasant book, called "a little gem of a temple, almost perfect in form," and which is still beautiful, though without the fluted columns which she attributed to it. The temple was sixty feet long, including the portico, and about twenty-seven feet broad. Its projecting roof in front was supported by six columns Avith Corinthian capitals ; and in the walls there were half columns and 63 64 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. pilasters, so arranged as to break, by light and shadow, the monotony of a flat surface. Each column had a bracket, on which once stood a statue ; and there are inscriptions on the faces of the brackets, one of which contains the names of Hadrian and Agrippa, and a date corresponding to 130 of the Christian era. This dedication took place the same year in Avhich Hadrian erected a temple to Jupiter at Jerusalem, and THE TEMPLE OF THE KING'S MOTHER. about nine years after the building of Hadrian's Avail between the Tyne and Solway Firth. In that year Hadrian visited Palmyra, and in an inscrip tion he is called the " God Hadrian " ; and Palmyra took to itself the name of the god, and was known for a time as " Hadrianopolis." PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 65 The door of our temple Avas nine and a half feet Avide, and its jambs and lintels Avere monoliths, adorned with a tracing of the egg and dice pattern. There Avere win dows on each side of the door, Avith bevelled and pro jecting stone frames, and there Avere similar Avindows in L'l'fclGHTS OF SIDE DOOlt OF GREAT TEMPLE. each side wall of the temple. The whole edifice once stood on a raised platform ; but the sand and ruins have silted up round it, taking aAvay from its height, and giving it a slightly heavy look. Half a score of similar temples lie prostrate among the ruins here and there, showing even in their fallen estate, by the grace and grandeur of their fragments, Iioav much they surpassed this, which doubtless stands a soli tary specimen to-day, owing to its having sacrificed airy beauty to solidity and strength. Right in front of our little temple stood the great Temple of the Sun. Its northern wall rose before us to a height of seventy feet, and hid from our view all the glories within. The blank wall Avas broken by pilasters with carved capitals, which supported a solid projecting 66 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. entablature, and there Avere AvindoAvs between the pilasters Avhich Avere all closed, except one, through which some of the superfluous dung of the village within Avas ejected. The strong outer Avail gave the temple something of the character of a fortress ; and this Avas necessitated by the position of the city, surrounded as it Avas by the Avild hordes of the desert, and subject to the sudden incursions of the Parthians from the east. The Moslems changed the temple into a real fort, by building up the AvindoAvs, and raising a square tower over the splendid portico. This magnificent old temple, I shall not attempt to describe in detail. It covered about six hundred and forty thousand square feet of ground, and in going round it you Avalk more than a mile. The entrance doorway, Avhich was beautifully sculptured, Avas thirty-two feet high and sixteen feet wide, and its jambs and lintels Avere each single stones. Around the court, near the outer wall, Avere toavs of columns, seventy feet high, to the number of three hundred and seventy-four, and these, like the other columns of Palmyra, had brackets for the statues of those whom the Tadmorenes delighted to- honour. Within the spacious square enclosed by these colonnades stood a beautiful building on a raised plat form, ascended by a flight of stone steps, and surrounded by a single roAV of fluted columns Avith Corinthian capitals in bronze. This Avas the temple. Its length north and south was about forty paces, and its breadth nearly sixteen paces. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 67 The entrance was in the Avestern side, and at the other end there was Avhat might be called the Holy of Holies. The ceiling in this naos, or innermost part of the temple, still remained entire, exhibiting the most lovely designs with zodiacal signs and the most perfect carving to be seen in Tadmor. Indeed, this temple is the chief triumph of the Tadmor artists ; and at the time Zenobia used to CEILING OF HOLY OF HOLIES, THE TEMrLE OF THE SUN. grace its steps surrounded by her brilliant court, it must have been an object of surpassing splendour. The great polished columns in the temple alone, if placed end to end, would have formed one column nearly six miles long ; and the statues, if drawn up in form, would have presented about the same numbers as a regi ment of the line. We can well understand how Aurelian 68 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. spent such vast sums — three hundred pounds' Aveight of gold and eighteen hundred pounds' weight of silver, as well as the crown jewels of Zenobia — to repair this temple, Avhich had been injured by his soldiers. Let us look at the temple in its present state. As Ave approach it in front, Ave see, over the patched and broken walls, columns standing, and leaning about at every angle, as though the temple enclosure were a huge lumber-yard of columns. Around the outer wall is a deep ditch, and the entrance is reached by a raised cause- Avay flagged Avith broad stones, among which I recog nized a panelled stone door. The sheikh and a croAvd of his people are sitting on stones in the gate. Camels and mules pass in and out, and women Avith jars of Avater on their heads, and babies on their shoulders, enter the enclosure. The men are tall, and, as it seems to me, have a Jewish cast of features. The women are coarse featured, but not very ugly, and they all blacken their eyebrows and blue their lips. Within, we find the Avhole area of the temple filled Avith clay-daubed huts, so that we can only get an idea of the place by climbing over them. We pass on straight to the Holy of Holies, which we explore Avith our hand kerchiefs held to our noses, for the inmost shrine is the cesspool of the community. We hurry out to the fresh air; but it is not fresh, for all the offal and filth of the houses are flung out into the narrow lanes, and lie rotting in the sun. Wherever we go among these human dens there reek TEMPLE OF THE SCX, EASTERN SIDE. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 7' filth and squalor, and the hot pestiferous atmosphere of an ill-kept stye. Such is now the state of that gor geous temple which the proud Tadmorenes raised to their gods, which Avere no gods, and where they glori fied one another in monuments of perishable stone. Looking at the ruins of Tadmor, one Avonders at the rage that must have existed for columns. Little houses had their tiers of little columns, and great houses had i^?-fej^S;^J^frP^ '-^0^m :^*v TRIUMPHAL ARCH. their tiers of correspondingly great columns. Public edi fices for civil and religious uses had their quota of lofty columns. Little streets and public squares all liad their rows of columns; and wherever you move, columns with out number block your path. They lie, in some places, like trees swept together by a flood into heaps; at other places they protrude from the sand, or stand up in solitary grandeur, having no apparent connection with anything else. 72 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. The column mania found its fullest expression in the great colonnade of the piincipal street. This street inter sected the city, running almost in a line between the Temple of the Sun and the Castle. The end next the temple com menced Avith a splendid triumphal arch, and after extend ing toAvards the mountain for about four thousand feet, terminated in what is now a maze of prostrate columns. The triumphal arch consisted of a large central and two side arches, from which ran four rows of columns, forming a central broad- way and sidewalks. About half Avay doAvn the street, a little below the arcade which cuts the colonnade at right angles, there are four massive pedestals, on which probably stood equestrian or other stat ues of enormous magni tude ; and near this spot, on both sides, are splen did ruins, which local tradition makes the pal- SIDE ARCHWAY OF TRIUMPHAL ARCH. aCe of " Sltt Zeiliab " (Lady Zenobia) and the judgment-hall. Independent of the colonnades that branched off right and left, this one street, with its sidewalks, must have had about fifteen hundred columns. These columns were PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 73 fifty-seven feet high, and Avere composed of three great drums, Avhich supported Corinthian capitals and massive ornate entablatures. Between the second and third drum there Avas a section of a column inserted, Avith a pro truding bracket for the reception of a bust or statue, and on the fronts of these brackets Avere inscriptions in Greek and Palmyrene, giving the names of the persons Avhose statues graced the pedestals. On two columns side by side, near the central arcade, are tAvo inscriptions of the greatest interest. The one records the dedication, by his generals, of "a statue to Septimius Odainathus, king of kings, and regretted by the whole city " ; and the other is a dedication to his Avife, " Septimia Zenobia, the illustrious and pious queen." In the Palmyrene, under the Greek, we find Zenobia's Palmyrene name — Bath-Zabbai, the daughter of Zabbai. Both statues Avere raised in the month of August A.D. 271, only a short time before the fall of the city. What a splendid city Palmyra must have been in its palmy clays, Avhen the victorious hosts of Odainathus returned laden Avith the spoils of Oriental kings, and marched in glittering array through the long colonnades, beneath the statues of illustrious Palmyrans! Or Avhen the fiery Bath-Zabbai flashed through those corridors in her gilded chariot, surrounded by her martial courtiers and fair companions! Or Avhen, with bare arms and helmet on head, with all the pomp of real or mimic Avar, she sallied forth on her shining Arab to review and harangue her Avarriors on the sandy plain! CEILING OF TOMB TOWER. CHAPTER IX. LET us pass on to the examination of the famous tombs, the most interesting objects in Palmyra, lest Ave be supposed to have also caught the column mania. On my first visit to Palmyra, I arrived equipped for a thorough exploration of the tombs. Sir Richard Burton, who had visited the ruins before me, urged me to take ladders and ropes and grappling-irons, for the ascent of the towers, which he had been unable to examine for lack of such appliances. In accordance with this advice, I made ample preparations. A trusty carpenter Avas em ployed to make three thirty-foot ladders ; choice poplar trees Avere carefully split up and fitted Avith oak rounds from Bashan. Powerful hemp ropes were specially manu factured, and mighty grappling-irons Avere prepared. I sometimes thought if I could get up the ruin so as to fit on the grappling-irons, I might be able to dispense with them altogether; but then, Avhat is the use of fol- 74 THE FATHER OF LADDERS. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 77 loAving advice by halves? So I did as I Avas advised, that nothing might be Avanting to enable me to reach those lofty resting-places of the dead, Avhich all my prede cessors had sighed in vain to ransack. I had once had some skill in climbing to rooks' nests, but I was not then quite thirteen stone Aveight. I deter mined, however, that in this case the right hand should not forget its cunning, and for weeks before our depart ure for Palmyra I kept running up eighty-foot ladders like a hodman, and climbing the slack rope like a middy. A large grey mule Avas provided to carry the scaling- apparatus to Palmyra. That mule Avas a wag. He would rush into the centre of a crowd, Avith the ladders on his back, stop suddenly, and, Avith the most comical expression on his countenance, Avheel right round, and make a clean sweep of the party. And sometimes he would take a fancy to a cavalier, and go tilting after him, down the plain at full speed, evi dently with intent to ram him down. Remonstrance was unavailing, for a thirty-foot ladder reaches further than a whip ; and with his load of ladders he Avould go point blank at the most wrathful horseman. A Turkish soldier, who had got a punch in the back, rushed up valiantly to chastise " the father of ladders," as the mule Avas called ; but before he reached the object of his wrath a sweep of the ladders unhorsed him, to the great amusement of all the spectators. I advise future travellers who go by the old monoto nous road, to take a mule laden Avith ladders, for ours 78 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. gave us more than he cost in amusement; and the cry, "There is the father of ladders," was the most potent spell to drive away sleep, and save us from breaking our necks. I shall never forget the consternation Avith which I first saw the tomb-toAvers. There they towered up to heaven, more than one hundred feet high, most of them horribly cracked and toppling over; even the stones seemed rotten. And was I to throAV a grappling-hook over those lofty pinnacles, and commence slack-rope practice up those "bowing A\'alls," which were only waiting for an excuse to fall? Around the base of the mountains, on all sides, these huge toAvers of death lifted their heads aloft, grim and inaccessible. I Avas in a dreadful dilemma. If, on the one hand, I attempted to scale the toAvers, I Avas certain to break my neck ; and if I failed, I Avas certain to become an object of ridicule to my party, who placed to my credit all the eccentricities and misdemeanours of the " father of ladders," and who had already some misgivings about my sanity. What Avas to be done ? I thought of pointing out the aAvkward questions that might be raised by my insurance company in case of an accident on the slack rope, or of explaining the irreparable loss my family and church Avould sustain should anything untoAvard happen ; but I kneAv that I could not get the barbarians to comprehend what Avas meant by a company to insure people against dying, and pay them when they Avere dead, and I believed PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 79 that they Avould look very lightly on Avhat I considered a loss ! I kept my secret, and for three days explored every thing that could be explored in Palmyra — interviewed the inhabitants from a missionary point of vieAv, measured columns, stepped distances, explored cellars,, bought antiques, copied inscriptions, and wrote copious notes, but never once Avent near the towers, all the time looking for some Beus ex machind to extricate me from my diffi culty — some blood-thirsty razzia by the Bedawin, or some other dreadful thing, which might render the exploration of the towers impossible. Every time my eye caught the ladders, or the towers, my heart sank within me. " When are you going to do the towers ? " said one of our party, sarcastically. The question could be put off no longer. Notice Avas given that forty men, Avith pickaxes, spades, and baskets, Avould be employed on the folloAving morning, at six piasters for the day each. The folloAving morning, before the sun had tipped the towers with gold, one hundred men were surging about our tent, draAvn by the prospect of earning a shilling each. I began to pick out the strongest looking, and those who had the best tools, and to set them apart from the croAvd ; but suddenly the whole croAvd would move across to join the chosen feAv. After an hour spent in vainly trying to make a selection, the crowd hit upon a solution. " Give us," said thej', " three or four piasters apiece, and take us all." Eighty Avere easier taken than forty, and so we lessened the fee, and doubled the number of workmen. 80 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. It Avas the saddest sight I saw at Tadmor, the number of idle, able, hungry men, wanting employment, .and willing to work, and the fields lying uncultivated. But did any enterprising man, Avith capital, attempt to utilize the resources of the place, the Turks would encourage him by taxing every tree he planted, and by holding him responsible for all arrears incurred before he Avas born Avhile the place was unoccupied. One old man, Avhom we were going to reject, held out his Avithered arms, and jumping off the ground, Avith a force that might have shaken out his few remaining teeth, shouted, " Let me go ; let me earn three piasters ; I can Avork as well as any of them." The plucky old man got his three piasters, and was one of the most useful of the party. We started for the invasion of the tombs, a motley but formidable band. Six men Avere told off to the ladders, iavo to the ropes, and the remainder, in companies of eight, were placed under the charge of our military guards. We Avere a noisy multitude, as we swarmed down through the ruins to disturb the bones of the haughty Palmyrans ; and it was my last hope, that should the toAvers prove unscalable Ave might somehow take them by screaming, as the French took the Bastille. We first proceeded to Abu Sahil, the most ancient cemetery, south of the entrance to Tadmor. Here were groups of towers, and the plain all round Avas full of mounds, Avhich were supposed to mark the position of large excavated cave-tombs. According to local tradi- PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 81 tion, a camel passing over one of these had once suddenly disappeared, having fallen through the roof into the tomb. TOMB TOWER. Immense treasures, especially in works of art, were alleged to have been found in that tomb. 82 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. Our ten companies of eight were told off, under their military leaders, to drive shafts into the most promising mounds, and prizes Avere offered on a graduated scale to the first, second, third, etc., companies Avho should strike fresh tombs. The digging detachments commenced with a will, and we left them under the generalship of one European, supported by eight Turkish soldiers, and started for the towers. We began quietly with the smallest towers, and proceeded steadily to the largest, and in less than three hours of hard Avork, Ave had thor oughly explored them all. I stood on the top of every toAver, and we had only tAvice recourse to the ladders ; and even then I think we might have dispensed with them. The ropes were used for measuring, and the grappling-irons were not used at all. I can iioav assure all those who sighed to explore the upper stories of the tomb-toAvers, and Avhose imaginations revelled in their undisturbed treasure, that the highest recesses had been ransacked before I scaled them, and that nothing remained but a feAv mutilated mummies and a great number of bones and skulls. We brought aAvay a number of skulls, choosing those that seemed most unlike each other, and one mummy very carefully Avrapped up in many folds of cloth, of a texture and colour much resembling Avhat is used in Pal myra at the present day. The bodies had all been embalmed, and all the skulls Avere full of olive stones broken. We saw many pieces of broken statuary, but it was as a PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 83 rule so stiff and conventional that we could not much blatne the barbarian iconoclasts. The pieces Avere gen erally of a Avoman reclining on a couch, raised on her elbow, attended by a fawn, and receiving a cup from the hand of a slave who stood at the foot of the couch. So common was this type, with slight variations, that one Avould suppose the Tadmor belles never did anything but recline on couches, Avith a stereotyped simper on their faces, and receive sherbet from deferential slaves. The towers were all of the same type, some of them being large and others small; some of them Avell finished, and others of undressed stones. I give two pictures of the most perfect of these monuments, and they may be used to correct Wood and Dawkius' plan of the same monuments, Avhich are drawn somewhat out of proportion. Great liberties haAre been taken by tourists with this monument. It is said to have been erected by Grichos, though the man had his name Avritten up Iamlichos, twice, both in Greek and Palmyrene as plain as a signboard, so that he that runneth might read. The date, 1 also, 1 Wood and Dawkins gave the date of this monument as 314 of the Seleucidse era, corresponding to the second year of the Christian era ; and, as far as I am aware, all who have written on Palmyra, except Waddington, have followed their reading. The inscription is written above the door, as well as on the table beneath the niche on the facade. AVood and Dawkins declare that inasmuch as the shape of the letters contradicted "a rule established by antiquaries," they "were careful in examining the date, which is very legible in both inscriptions." I have twice examined the date, and I have it in photograph, and it cor responds to 82 of the Christian era, not 2, as Wood and Dawkins assert. 84 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. is given eighty years too early, and theories in archaeology, and on the ante-Roman refinement of the Palmyrans, have been founded on the mistake. The mausoleum is a marvel inside of beautiful carving and rich colours ; but as it has often been described, Ave shall pass to another, and. taller one, which has attracted less the attention of tourists, and which I explored very thoroughly. Kasr eth-Thuniyeh is thirty-three and a half feet square at the base, and twenty-five feet eight inches square above the basement. Its height is one hundred and eleven feet, and it comprises six stories, reached by stone stairs now much broken doAvn. It has also underground an immense Arault, full of bones of Avild animals and men, with pieces of mummy cloths, etc. Opposite the door, down the centre of the building, there is a long hall with a very beautiful panelled stone ceiling. In each side of the hall are four recesses in the wall, about the length and breadth of a large coffin. Shelves were placed in these recesses, leaving room for dead bodies to be run in between them. The upper stories Avere like the first, except that they were not so ornate, and contained more recesses in the sides, some of them as many as eight. My companion, Mr. Cotesworth, found by actual counting that there Avere places for four hun dred and eighty bodies in this one tower. Any one Avith a steady head, who can jump across a chasm six or seven feet Avide and one hundred feet deep, need not fear to reach the top of this monument, and he will be well rewarded for his pains. t- > W: TOMB TOWER. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 87 From the top of the tower he will get his best idea of the ruins and dimensions of Palmyra. In moister regions ivy and moss soon Avrap ruins about so closely that they cannot be seen ; but here every polished shaft lies Avhere it fell, as clean as it left the hands of the workman, so that he Avill have a bird's-eye view of all the ruins, in their desolate grandeur; and even Avhere the sand has covered the streets and foundations of houses, he will be able to trace the exact position which they occupied. He will be able, also, to trace the outer wall of Zenobia's Tadmor, and to conjecture the points at Avhich the final struggle Avith Rome took place. Having thoroughly done the towers, we returned to the diggers, and found that they had toiled Avith about the same success as ourselves. In nearly every place the barbarians and wild beasts had preceded us. The mummies had been torn from their cerements, and their bones scattered through the vaults. Skulls, mutilated statuary, consisting chiefly of reclining females with pine cones in their hands, coins, and clay tablets, with Pal myrene inscriptions, Avere our rewards. One little terra-cotta scarab which I picked up with other tessarso in a tomb-vault proved to be of more than ordinary interest. It resembled the Palmyra tab lets in colour and form, and I was not at once aware of the importance of my find, but in looking over my collection in the tent, I saw that one of the little objects was Egyptian, and at a later period I became convinced that I had actually discovered a scarab of the 88 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. renowned Tirhakah. Tirhakah is twice mentioned in the Bible.1 Uozekiah and his people Avere hard pressed by Senna- »s«kir'#fflfc1fifSfiP.~**^ eheiib, but the boastful As- •s syrian heard that Tirhakah, King of Ethiopia, had come to light against him, and he returned to Nineveh, where he was slain by his oavh sons. These references in the Bible are of the most casual character, and I could hardly bring myself to be lieve that I had actually found at Palmyra a record of the mysterious Egyptian monarch Avho had flourished more than twenty-five hundred years before. Being fully alive to the improbability of any relic of the great Tirhakah being found in a Palmyra tomb, and knoAV- ing how ready some at home Avould be to trip me up if I blundered, I did not proclaim my find publicly ; but I sent the scarab to the British Museum by my friend, the Rev. Greville Chester, and the late Dr. Birch read the inscription as follows : — "... of Amen, Tiihakah, he has given thee eternal life." PALMYRENE FIliURE. SEAL OF T1RHAKA. 1 2 Kings xix. 9, and Isaiah xxxvii. 9. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 89 On May 4th, 1880, Dr. Birch read a paper on Tir hakah before the Society of Biblical Archteology, and referring to the scarab, said : " As the little object has much the same appearance as the other (Palmyra) objects, it is difficult to conceive how it came there, or if it is an indication that the conquests of Tirhakah extended as far as Palmyra." x Tirhakah, Avho was a very powerful monarch, seems to have begun his reign about 688 B.C. There is a very touching reference to his prosperity in an Egj'ptian inscription. At a very early age he left Ethiopia and proceeded northward, and he seems to have made his Avay to the throne Avhile still a youth. His mother, Avho had remained behind in Ethiopia for a time, followed him north, and Avhen she overtook him, she found him King of Upper and Lower Egypt. He extended his conquests to distant lands. Strabo says he penetrated as far as the Pillars of Hercules. A statue at Boulak mentions among his conquests, the Bedawin, the Hittites, Aradus, the Phoenicians, the Assyrians, and Mesopotamia. The Temple of Thebes and the Fane of Mount Barkal and other Egyptian monuments attest the splendour of Tirhakah's reign. One slab, discovered by us in an underground tomb, contained two figures, two feet three inches high, both holding up one bunch of grapes betAveen them. It had also Palmyrene inscriptions2 between the heads of the 1 Transactions, Vol. VII. p. 208. 2 The inscription between the heads of the figures reads thus : 9o PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. statues and beneath their feet, and the drapery, like that of all the other figures, was of many folds and creases. On the lower corner of a somewhat simi lar slab I saAv in very minute Greek the name of the establishment that supplied the orna ment. Crossing the Abu Sahil Cemetery, I noticed a hole made by a fox or a jackal, at the base of one of the mounds. I threAV a stone into the hole, and heard it rolling doAvn a con- uaalatoa and 'alliasha. siderable distance. The spirit of adventure was roused, and squeezing myself " linages of Baalatga and 'AUiasha, children of Buna, son of Jashubi." The inscription below the figures reverses and amplifies the other : " In the month of Kanun [November], year 400 [94 a.d.]. These two like nesses are those of 'AUiasha and Baalatga, children of Buna, son of Jashubi, son of Belsazar, son of Hiram — Ilabal. " The last word corre sponds to our Vale, or liequiescat in pace. The tablet, which was too heavy for us to carry, was brought to Damascus by the Itussiau consul, to whom I am indebted for the photograph from which the engraving is taken. The engraved slab is now in St. Petersburg. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 9i through the hole with some difficulty, and sliding down gently, I suddenly dropped seven or eight feet, into a pitch dark dungeon. I thought I had fallen a much greater distance ; indeed, in the unknown darkness, I thought, in my descent, I Avas never going to reach the bottom. Having recovered from the shock of the fall, I lighted a piece of magnesian Avire, and found myself amply rewarded for my abrupt tumble, by the marvellous scene that met my view. By the bright light I saw that I was in a low-broAved vault, surrounded by the mouldering remains of one hundred and fifteen Palmyraus. The vault Avas sixty feet long by tAventy-seven Avide, and seven or eight feet high. There were nine recesses for bodies on either side, and five at the lower end. The recesses, in length and general dimensions, resembled the loculi in the tomb- towers which Ave had already explored; but they were cemented down the sides, and each had five shelves of hard-baked pottery fitted and cemented into them. On these shelves the embalmed, corpses of the Pal- myrans Avere laid, the bodies having been rammed in head foremost, Avith their feet out. As I looked around this silent and awful resting-place of the dead, I could not help thinking that Isaiah may have had in view such a charnel-house when he described the commotion that Avould be caused by the arrival of the Chaldean monarch : "Hell [sheol] from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee" (Isa. xiv. 9). 92 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. My magnesian wire soon burned to the end, but before it was exhausted I had time to make the accompanying ground plan of the vault, on a piece of cigarette paper which I happened to have in my pocket. MORTUARY vault. When the bright light went out, the darkness became palpable. I struck my feAv remaining matches, one after another, but they only served to disclose the denseness of the gloom. I was in a A'eritable trap of death. The hole through Avhich I had descended Avas several feet beyond my reach. I had been a considerable time in the pit, but the minutes seemed hours, and it was clear that none of my party knew anything of my position. In the still darkness, I heard the beating of my oavu heart distinctly. After a few minutes of beAvilderment, it became appar ent that I must depend on my own efforts to effect my PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 93 escape from the awful charnel-house. 1 began at once to draw the pottery shelves from under the skeletons, to form a step by which to reach the hole at the top. It was not pleasant, in the darkness, to grope among the bony skeletons, sometimes putting my hands on a skull, and sometimes on the fleshless toes of a foot. I tried to set up the longest tiles on their ends, laying others across, and propping up the structure Avith shin- bones and other fragments of skeletons ; but the erection came down when I tried to mount it, and I found that it would be necessary to build up a solid mass of the tile shelves. The tiles were about an inch thick, and I knew that there were one hundred and fifteen, but some of them were so Avell cemented into their places that I could neither draw them out nor break them. It soon became a struggle for life, and in the darkness I lost a good deal of time in finding the exact spot on which to place the tiles when I had succeeded in drawing them from under the fleshless skeletons. In the midst of my operations, I heard footsteps overhead. I made all the noise I could, singing the Druze war-song, which carries a great burden of sound. I heard voices, and believed I was heard; but the sound of voices and of the footfalls died away. I resumed my labours with a feeling of consternation. I do not think I was much troubled with superstitious feelings, but I worked so hard that the perspiration dropped from my face. Suddenly, to my great joy, many voices and more 94 PALMYRA AND. ZENOBIA, numerous footsteps returned. Some of the Palmyrans. who had heard me underground declared Avith alarnr- that the dead Avere being disturbed, and that they were shouting for the " Sheikh Ibn el-Hamdan " ; and some of my people, Avho had missed me, hearing the report, and recognizing a bit of my desert Druze song, came hurrying off to find me. A rope with a grappling-iron was let down the hole. I put my foot on the hook, using it as a stirrup, and holding by the rope, I was, after a little trouble, drawn out once more into the light of day. I had been absent scarcely an hour, though the time of my detention in the darkness seemed an age. PALMYRENE FIGURE. SOFFIT IN TEMPLE OF THE SUN. CHAPTER X. | HAD spent eight hours among the tombs above -*- ground, and one hour Avith the dead in the darkness. I was much in need of a bath, and one of the finest baths in the world was at hand. We hurried to the fountain called Ephca, south of the entrance of the city, and plunged in. The Avater Avas warm, but not uncomfortably so, and one soon ceased to be distressed by the disagreeable smell of sulphur. It was a part of our plan to explore as far as possible this sub terranean river, and so, leaving a guard at the entrance, I swam in with a candle. The river turned in somewhat to the right, under Jebel el-Mantar. Sometimes the roof rose fifteen or twenty feet above the water, and sometimes it was so close to the Avater as scarcely to leave me room to pass. The breadth varied from seven to twelve feet, and in several places Avhere I dived to the bottom I esti mated the depth to be from eight to ten feet. As I proceeded, the water became sensibly warmer and 95 96 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. the air more difficult to breathe, and the flame of the candle greAV smaller and smaller, and finally went out altogether. I estimate that I had penetrated between four and five hundred feet, and the cavern still continued broad and deep ; but when the light went out, I Avas left in darkness that might be felt. There is no resting-place after one leaves the entrance, as the water has scooped out and undermined the per pendicular sides, and the water is not buoyant; but as it is warm, one can stay in it a long time without receiv ing any harm. I floated out of the darkness, having received no harm except a few bumps, and having spent in the Avater about an hour and a quarter. I question, hoAvever, if it Avould be possible to penetrate into the cavern much further than I went, owing to the sulphurous atmosphere. The aqueduct seems to be natural. The sides and roof are composed of a gravelly clay, Avhich seems to be always falling in; and I saAv no traces of man, except at the entrance, Avhere there is some cutting in the rock to let the Avater out. An altar which stood at the mouth of the cavern gave it the name Fount Ephca. The date of the dedication of the altar was the 20th of October, 162 a.d. The grotto is much used as a bath still, and Ave seldom vis ited it without startling from their bath the nymphs of the village ; and I am told that the Bedawin are so fond of it that a number of them are drowned in it every year. A considerable volume of Avater issues from the cavern and forms a little river. A slight steam rises from the PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 97 water, and the stones are stained by the sulphur; but after passing over the sandy bed of the stream for a few hundred yards, the Avater loses much of its disagreeable taste. It is used chiefly for Avashing, and for irrigating the gardens ; but it is also drunk, and considered Avhole- some by the natives. The fountain of Ephca has been erroneously supposed to have been the principal source of the city's water supply. To the left of the entrance to Palmyra there are the ruins of an aqueduct of massive, well-dressed stones, which once brought water to the city proper. This Avas constructed to contain a volume of water eight feet high by four feet broad. Near the same place there passed into the city an underground aqueduct, which Avas con ducted down the middle of the grand colonnade. It is first tapped, not far from the triumphal arch, at a depth of eight or ten feet below the pavement, and it flows out of the city north of the Great Temple, and is used for all purposes, especially for irrigation. This water is drawn from a fountain called Abu el- Fawaris, which lies about five miles due west of the Castle of Tadmor. The water is good, but perceptibly impregnated Avith sulphur ; and as all the channels have been choked up for hundreds of years, people busy them selves in conjecturing whence the Palmyrans got their water supply. There is no doubt that the Abu el-FaAvaris fountain was their chief source ; but the waters of Ephca Avere also utilized, and the houses had cisterns for rain water, as we discovered in several places. H 98 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. The Castle of Palmyra is perhaps the most conspicuous object in the neighbourhood, and Avell deserves a visit, not on its oavii account, but on account of the unparalleled view which it commands. We rode up the mountain to near the top, and Avhen it became too steep for our horses, Ave left them with a guard and proceeded on foot. A deep ditch surrounds the castle, and partridges Avere sunning themselves about its edges. We climbed up into the castle by the rough face of an almost perpendicular rock; but we saAv the remains of a broken bridge across the ditch, Avhich once gave easy access to the castle, and there are still marks of horses having been stabled within it. The castle stands on the highest peak, on the highest summit, impregnable to any force in the desert ; but the present structure is built of small stones quarried out of the ditch and rifled from the ruins, and is doubtless a late effort of the Moslems. The castle is still entire, and the rooms, which were arched and cemented, are all in a good state of preserv ation. From its battlements Ave had an uninterrupted view on all sides. The Dawara range 1 of mountains, on Avhich we stood, stretched away north-east to the Euphrates, and beyond as far as the Tigris; and near 1 On some maps the mountain range north of Tadmor is called Jebel Amur. As it approaches the Euphrates it is called Jebel Bisshari ; beyond the Euphrates it is called Jebel Abdularis ; and as it stretches toward Mossul it has the name Jebel Sinjar. Dawara was the name by which the range was known to my guides at Palmyra. CASTLE END OF THE UREAT COLONNADE. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 101 the eastern base of the mountains Ave saAv the village of Arak, Avith about fifteen huts and a Turkish garrison. We could distinctly trace the old Avails of Tadmor extending doAvn the mountain, from outside the castle, in a south-eastern direction, and curving round the city. Away beyond, east and south, was the flat, yellow desert, patched and seamed with glistening salt. Far to the south, past the shoulder of Jebel el-Mantar, stood a soli tary tower, called Kasr el-Hazun ; and on the horizon beyond, there appeared a low range of mountains, known as Jebel el-'Aleib. To the Avest, over a wavy highland of limestone hills, Ave could distinctly discern through the blue mists the lofty outline of Lebanon and the snows of the Cedar mountain. What a Avatch-tower from which an enemy might be descried while he was yet several days' journey from the place ! Beneath us, the city, half surrounded by its gardens, lay calm as a citj' of the dead, and supremely lovely even in desolation. As we stand on the battle ments we see at a glance the appropriateness of its name. Tadmor in Syriac means " wonderful," and in Arabic "ruin." The Syriac and Arabic name still clings to the " wonderful ruin," Avhile the Roman name Palmyra is absolutely unknown to the natives. The name Tadmor has been supposed to mean in HebreAv " city of palm-trees," and it has been taken for granted that Palmyra is the Greek translation of the word; but the Avord Tadmor is not Hebrew, and the Avord Palmyra is not Greek. The meaning of the Avord 102 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. should be sought for in the language of the people who frequented those fountains before the time of Solomon, for though he built Tadmor in the wilderness, he did not change its name. The great king of Israel, having extended his king dom by conquest to the north and east, "built Tadmor in the Avilderness, and the store cities of Hamath." He found the important station Tadmor, in the desert, sup plied Avith water, and forming the link between East and West, and he enlarged and fortified, and doubtless garri soned it, the better to consolidate his empire and draw the wealth of the Indies into his little kingdom. Doubt less Tadmor was then, as now, an open and unsafe rest ing-place for the bearers of the commodities he so much desired ; and he made it not only a strong outpost, but a secure haven. As Ave have seen, the Bible J and local tradition unite in declaring that " Solomon built Tadmor in the wilder ness " ; but Avho built the Tadmor of Odainathus and Zenobia? Who polished and poised those columns noAV strewed on the plain before us? for not a vestige remains of the Tadmor of Solomon. As being the most remote, Tadmor was probably one of the first places wrested from the feeble successors of Solomon, and for 1 Once and only once (2 Chron. viii. 4) is Tadmor mentioned in the Bible. The Tadmor in 2 Kings ix. 13 is Tamar in the Hebrew text, and is said to be " in the land," and is now identified as a ruin at Kurnub in the land of Juda. Every peasant talks familiarly of King Solomon, and yet there is not a Bible in the place, nor would the inhabitants accept a copy. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. ?°3 a thousand years it disappears from history, having become, in all probability, a " wonderful ruin " in the eyes of the savage hordes that encamped about its foun tains. Palmyra, however, as the convenient half-way house between the commercial cities of Phoenicia and of the Seleucidae on the Mediterranean, and the eastern realms about and beyond the Persian Gulf, rose into a wealthy and independent state. Secure in her surround ing desert, like sea-girt England, Palmyra, as the channel of East India merchandise, grew in wealth, but not in strength; and about half a century before the Christian era, she came on the stage of Roman history for the first time, when Mark Antony attempted to plunder her mer chant princes. For the next three hundred years, Tadmor continued to grow in wealth and power, and in the cultivation of all the arts of war and peace. Tadmor flourished, like Switzerland, a free republic, surrounded by mighty and despotic empires. Her architects and sculptors adorned her with edifices which excite the wonder of the world, and she became the congenial home of the greatest phi losopher of his age, Longinus, the author of the " Treatise on the Sublime," and the prime minister of Zenobia. Odainathus, one of her senators, rose to the proud position of holding the balance of power between Rome and Parthia, and of avenging the Roman arms, and Avear- ing the Roman purple ; and his widow, Zenobia, victorious over the Roman legions, reigned, Queen of the East, from the Nile to the Euphrates. 104 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. From the time of Mark Antony to the time of Aure lian the city had so groAvn in strength that the latter was unable to take it Avith his victorious armies, though only defended by the remnants of Zenobia's dispirited troops; and Tadmor did not surrender till Zenobia, who had escaped to raise fresh succour, was brought back a prisoner from the banks of the Euphrates. The golden age of Tadmor's prosperity seems to have been from her first contact with the power of Rome, until she was finally crushed by that power ; and her splendid edifices Avere the result of that wave of civiliza tion Avhich Avas put in motion by the Macedonian con queror, and continued by the Romans. Like most of the splendid ruins of Syria, those of Palmyra date from the early centuries of our era. From the early part of the second century the relations betAveen Rome and Palmyra became most intimate. Palmyra ministered to Roman luxury, and Rome became pledged for the safety and stability of the merchant city. In all ages the Avealth of India has flowed in a direct line to the centre of the Avorld's power. The centre of the Avorld's poAver had become fixed on the Seven Hills, and Pliny tells us that the city of Rome alone took annually one million sestertii of Indian merchandise. It is interesting to trace the routes across the desert along Avhich, as by a magnet, Rome drew the riches of the East. One line passed through Gaza and Petra to Forath. A second, starting from Akka on the Medi terranean, ran across Galilee, north of Nazareth, crossed CENTRAL PART C REAT COLONNADE. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 105 the Jordau below the lake of Gennesaret, and struck direct for the head of the Persian Gulf, past Bosra and Sulkhad. The Roman road is still in many places un injured, awaiting the European engineers to lay down the rails on the shortest, safest, and cheapest overland route to India. The northern routes from Antioch through Aleppo and Karrhaj, or more northern still through Carchemish, Edessa, and Nisbis, were closed to commerce by cen turies of turbulence. It was at Palmyra that the East and West joined hands in the mutual benefits of com merce. The Tadinorenes, like the English in our day, were the chief carriers and retailers of Indian merchan dise, and Appian, the Roman historian, speaks of them with the same contempt as the first Napoleon spoke of the " nation of shopkeepers." " They are merchants," said lie, disdainfully, "Avho seek among the Persians the products of India and Arabia, and carry them to the Romans." The Tadinorenes took a different view of the dignity of commerce, and many of the statues, that sentinelled the long colonnades were placed there in honour of the successful leaders of caravans. Thus J. A. Zebeida Avas adjudged a statue in April 147 A.D., by the merchants Avho accompanied him Avith the caravan from Volgesia. Markos had a statue for organizing the caravan of which Zabdeathus Avas the conductor. Thaimarson Avas honoured with a place in the grand colonnade, on account of his having led a caravan from Karak for 106 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. the liquidation of an ancient debt of three hundred dinars. And a statue was erected in the grand colonnade, in 257 a.d., by the senate and people in honour of Salmalath, for having conducted a caravan at his own expense. In several instances, also, Ave find tribes erecting statues to those whom they considered had merited Avell of them ; so that the BedaAvin seem to have thrown in their lot with the merchants. . In those days, the Palmyrans held the monopoly of the overland route to India; and so long as they main tained a strict neutrality between Rome and Persia, they grew in Avealth and in general luxury; and Ave learn from many of the inscriptions that the citizens lavished their Avealth in beautifying their city. The inscriptions give us the best answer to the question, Avhich has puzzled so many, " Who built the Tadmor of Zenobia?" It has been generally supposed that Hadrian adorned Palmyra, but from the inscriptions we learn that the beautifying of the place Avas rather the Avork of the people and senate of the luxurious little republic. The rule seems to have been that when wealthy citi zens erected temples and colonnades in honour of the gods, and performed other public-spirited acts, their fellow-citizens honoured them Avith statues. Thus, from an inscription, Ave learn that one man erected six columns, Avith their architraves, and painted them, in honour of Sliems and Alath (the Sun and a female deity worshipped by the Arabs), and his fellow-citizens erected PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 107 a statue to him in March 129 A.D. Another citizen erected seven columns, Avith all their ornaments and brazen bal ustrades, and he was "statued" in March 179 a.d. And from the inscription, to which Ave have already referred, on the portico of the " Temple of the King's Mother," we learn that " the temple, with all its ornaments, was built by one Mala, called Agrippa, at his own expense." A statue Avas erected to Mala for his services during the visit of the "god Hadrian" ; but he seems to have been a general benefactor, for it is recorded in the same inscription that "he gave oil to the inhabitants, the soldiers, and to strangers." The small temples and the colonnades appear, from the inscriptions, to have been the gifts of private indi viduals ; but such a work as the great Temple of the Sun must have proceeded from the senate and the republic. It is not unlikely that private donations may also have been used, and we find an inscription record ing the dedication of a statue " by the senate and people to Ogga, Avho honoured himself by giving to the senate the sum of ten thousand drachmas." J It would thus seem that the Tadinorenes could honour the gods, adorn the city, and have their vanity gratified by a statue, for an outlay of from .£400 to £ 500. By the side of this statue stood another to Ogga, and the inscription significantly declared that " it was erected by the senate and people for love." 1 The Attic drachma was worth Q\d., and the Aginetan, Is. Id. io8 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. The people of Tadmor, as the inscriptions declare, honoured and rewarded citizens who rendered distin guished service to the community, and in the bestowal of their favours they marked Avith special distinction their townsman Odainathus and his Avife Zenobia. PALMYRENE FIGURE. ZENOBIA. {From a Coin.) CHAPTER XI. ' I "HE history of Zenobia is linked inseparably, by fact -*- and fiction, Avith Palmyra, and deserves at our hands a more detailed notice than Ave have given thus far. The very mention of Tadmor, as Ave have already said, recalls the names of Solomon and Zenobia, and both are associated in the Oriental mind Avith the won derful ruin ; but while Solomon is accredited Avith super human poAvers, the Sitt Zeinab, or Lady Zenobia, is renowned for her Avomanly graces and accomplishments, as well as for her vast learning and martial bearing. In a bookless land, traditions are carefully preserved among a people who talk and listen, but do not read, and the wonderful story of the Sitt Zeinab is scarcely more mythical on the lips of the Palmyrans and Bedawin, than is that of Zenobia Augusta in the pages of Tre- bellius Pollio, Zosimus, and Vopiscus. In building up a slight history of Zenobia, and the dynasty of which she Avas the most distinguished orna- 109 no PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. ment, I have three sources of information open to me, the Roman historians, the Palmyran inscriptions, and the living traditions. Of the latter, I shall make sparing use, and only Avhen it harmonizes with the two former.1 The Roman Empire came into contact Avith Britain and Palmyra about the same time. Twelve years be fore Julius Caesar landed at Dover, Mark Antony, on a plundering expedition, made a raid on Palmyra. But the Palmyrans fled Avith their treasures beyond the Euphrates, and the Roman robber found the city denuded of its Avealth. He also met a line of Palmyra archers, before Avhom his cavalry recoiled. At this period Palmyra must have been an important place, for one of the great tomb-towers dates back to 9 A.D. Pliny defines the geographical and political position of Tadmor, as " situated in the midst of an almost impassable desert, and on the confines of two poAverful and hostile kingdoms." The definite history of Palmyra begins in the early days of the Christian era, although there is a great Avealth of local tradition regarding Solomon and the Jan. PalmA/ra owed its rise and splendour to a number 1 Por much of the traditions to which I attach weight, I am indebted to the late Lady Ellenborough, who spent a great deal of time at Pal myra, and busied herself in weaving together the local stories regarding the great desert queen. Chiefly from this source I derived my inform ation regarding Zenobia's military camps, and the routes by which her armies marched to meet Aurelian. Lady EUenborough's identifications were confirmed by an intelligent young Sheikh, who accompanied me to the traditional camping grounds. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. m of causes, geographical, political, and personal. It was a buffer state betAveen the Roman and Parthian spheres, and, as Mommsen says, " in every collision betAveen the Romans and Parthians, the question Avas asked, what policy the Palmyrans Avould pursue." x The Avars between these rival powers contributed to the Avealth and importance of the little neutral republic, which maintained its independence down to 130 A.D., Avhen the Emperor Hadrian visited it, and gave it his own name, Hadrianopolis. He did not conquer Palmyra, but he took it into a kind of client-relationship of mutual advantage. Seven years later, a law regulating the customs and dues of Palmyra Avas engraved upon a stone in the city, and this long inscription, recently discovered, throAvs much light on the life and industry of the place. As interested and poAverful protectors of the safest route to India, the Palmyrans Avere of vital service to the East as well as to the West, in keeping open the lines of commerce. As a mercantile community, and the guardians of merchandise, neutrality and peace Avere essen tial to the prosperity, and even to the existence, of the desert city ; but the Roman legions crept slowly but surely closer to Tadmor. A Roman garrison Avas stationed at Danava, on the Avay to Damascus ; Roman legions were on both banks of the Euphrates, as far down as Circesium ; and Mesopotamia, Avhich had been added to the Roman Empire by Severus, Avas occupied by imperial troops. 1 The Provinces of the Roman Empire, Vol. II. 93. ii2 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. Although the Roman power was firmly established on three sides of Palmyra, the relation of the little republic to the desert tribes was such that the Romans treated it with marked consideration. Septimius Severus raised it to the position of a Roman colony, and a popularly elected senate managed its affairs. In draAving closer the bonds of relationship, the Romans did not impose irksome restrictions on the Palmyrans ; and, unlike other peoples who had come Avithin the Roman sphere, they were not limited to the two imperial lan guages, but used in public, as Avell as in private docu ments, their OAvn language, side by side Avith the Greek. Palmyra also formed a customs district, in Avhich the customs Avere collected, not on account of the state, but of the district. As the bonds of union Avith Rome became closer, the Palmyrans began to add Roman names to their own Semitic names; but they seem to have taken whatever ' advantage they could derive from the Roman connection, and while groAving in Avealth and poAver, they maintained their independence, notwithstanding the veneer and nomi nal domination of Rome. When Avar broke out betAveen the Persians and Romans, Palmyra became a place of supreme importance to the imperial cause, and successive emperors visited it on their way eastAvard, and influential citizens received at their hands distinguished marks of imperial favour. Septimius Severus, on one of his expeditions against the Parthians, visited Palmyra, and raised a distinguished THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 115 citizen, named Odainathus, to the rank of senator; and the neAV senator assumed the name of his patron, and was known as Septimius Odainathus, the son of Hairan, the son of Wah-ballath, the son of Nassor. This Septimius Odainathus was a powerful citizen, as well as a Roman favourite. He was, however, playing a double game, and being suspected of plotting a revolt against Roman authority, his assassination was procured by Rufinus, a Roman officer. A crime is always a blunder ; and Septimius Odainathus left behind him two sons, Hairan and Odainathus. Hairan, the elder, is mentioned as chief or headman of the Palmyrans, in an inscription dated 251 a.d. But the fame of the family centres round the younger brother, Odai nathus. Both, however, contributed to the result; for while Odainathus led the men of action and the Bedawin of the desert, Hairan guided the Avealthy merchants and the aristocracy of the city. Odainathus meditated revenge on the Romans for the murder of his father, but he bided his time and kept his own counsel. He spent his youth among the hardy spearmen, perfecting the instrument by Avhich he hoped to throw off the yoke of the foreigner, and accustoming himself to the ways and wants of hardy warfare. His opportunity came, but not Avith so clear an issue as he meditated. In the year 251 a.d., the emperor fell fighting against the Goths in Europe, and the Empire for a time seemed to have fallen to pieces. The West was in confusion, and n6 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. the East was left to take care of itself, without any helping hand from Rome. Black Sea pirates ravaged the coasts of the Mediterranean. Sapor of Persia drove the Romans out of Mesopotamia, Armenia, Cappadocia, and Syria. After a time of confusion, the Empire began to right itself, and Publius Licinius Valerianus ascended the throne of the Caesars. He marched against the Persians, and drove them out of Cappadocia ; but a terrible plague SAvept aAvay a great part of his army, and delayed him in following up the enemy. In 258 a.d., as Valerian passed through Palmyra, he raised Odainathus to the consular dignity; and the gold smiths and silversmiths of the city marked the elevation of their fellow-citizen to the highest honorary title of the Empire, by an inscription Avhich still tells the tale. To the north-Avest of the city there is a space marked Avith black ashes, and the natives of Palmyra call it the " Siaghah," or silversmiths' quarter. There the workers in the precious metals carried on their craft, and formed probably one of the most powerful guilds of Palmyra. They used their influence in the elevation of Odainathus, Avho intended to succeed whether the Roman or the Persian proved victorious. Sapor the Great was then at the zenith of his power. There had been a revival of the old Persian faith and Persian valour, and the Romans had fled before the hosts of Iran. After long delay, Valerian crossed the Euphrates at the close of 259, or the beginning of 260 a.d. A des perate and decisive battle was fought near Edessa. The PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 117 Romans Avere beaten, and the emperor Avas taken pris oner and carried into captivity. The disaster to the imperial cause at Edessa in the East Avas as great as the fall of Decius at the mouth of the Danube had been to the Empire in the West. Sapor treated the unfortunate Valerian with savage cruelty. He boasted that on mounting his horse he always placed his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor ; and Avhen Valerian died, after enduring the most cruel indignities, he had him flayed, and his skin stuffed Avith straw, and preserved as a trophy in the national temple. Sapor pressed his victory Avith ruthless vigour.. An- tioch and other cities and towns Avere sacked by his barbarian soldiery. Endless trains of captives thronged the routes to Persia, and Avere led like cattle to the Avater, once a day; and it is said that the Persians, in order to facilitate their passage of a deep ravine, filled it Avith their captives, and marched across on their throbbing bodies. Odainathus, having Avatched the campaign, resolved to conciliate the victor. The whole East seemed at Sapor's feet, and Odainathus sent him congratulatory letters, rich presents, and an enormous train of dromedaries. But the haughty Sapor, flushed with victory, rejected the Palmyran's gift with scorn. "Who is this Odainathus," asked the Persian, "that thus insolently presumes to write to his lord? Let him prostrate himself before our throne, with his hands bound behind him, or swift destruction shall be poured on his 118 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. head, his race, and his country." So saying, he ordered the presents to be hurled into the river. (Patricius in Excerp. Leg. p. 24.) Odainathus, who had meditated freedom from the golden yoke of Rome, had no desire to become the abject thrall of the arrogant Sapor. The city and the desert shared Avith him the feeling of resentment roused by the inso lence of the barbarian, and as they perceived the common danger, they united all their powers to meet the impend ing Hoav. Sapor had shown his teeth before he Avas ready to bite. He had met no opposition from the Empire after the overthrow of Valerian, and city after city, following the example of Antioch, opened its gates to the victorious Persians. But on reaching Pompeiopolis, on the coast of Cilicia, a stubborn resistance Avas offered, and Sapor Avas obliged to invest and besiege the city. At this juncture an enterprising leader, knoAvn as Cal- listus or Ballista, turned the fortunes of the Avar by a bold stroke. Without any special authority, he got to gether the scattered Roman ships, sailed for the besieged city, and falling suddenly on the besiegers, slaughtered several thousands of them, and captured the royal harim. Sapor, on receiving the sudden check in Cilicia, hurried home to quell the little storm he had raised at Tadmor. Odainathus, accompanied by his beautiful and Avarlike Avife, Zenobia, had already taken the field, and marched to intercept the returning foe. He had Avith him the PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. u9 sheikhs of the desert tribes Avith their SAvift cavalry, and the archers and spearmen of Tadmor, who had knoAvn their leader from childhood. The patriotic guilds of the city Avere there in their strength, under the eye of their distinguished fellow-citizen. The desert and town Arabs were united to drive back the barbarians, and save the beautiful city, the centre and source of their industry. In addition to the Orientals, Odainathus had collected the remnants of the shattered legions in that region, and he had under his command a disciplined Roman force eager to meet the Persians again, and Avipe out the stain of defeat. The army of Palmyra encountered the Persians to the west of the Euphrates, before they had crossed the river. A battle was fought, and Odainathus and Zenobia gained a decisive victory. The Bedawin swept the Persian cav alry before them, and the gallant Tadmorenes and steady Romans completed the rout of ¦ the barbarians. Sapor fled Avith the remnant of his army beyond the Euphrates, hotly pursued by the man Avhose presents, a short time before, he had arrogantly thrown into the river. According to Trebellius Pollio, Odainathus captured the king's treasures. He also captured the remainder of the king's Avives who had not been seized by Callistus, and he caused Sapor to flee into his own country. In the hour of victory the hand of Odainathus Avas stayed. A Roman general had throAvn off the Roman yoke in Northern Syria, and an Oriental empire was being set up in the East, on the shattered foundation of the 120 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. Roman. Such an empire Avould have been fatal to the existence of Palmyra as a kingdom. Odainathus grasped the situation. He saw an oppor tunity for collecting under his standard the scattered fragments of the Roman army, Avhich, under his skilled generalship, he knew would carry him to victory ; and so, recalling his forces from the pursuit of Sapor, he marched against the usurper. The armies met at Emesa, in 261 a.d., Avhere it is said that Callistus betrayed his master to Odainathus. An other account, by Zonaras, speaks of Callistus having been put to death by Odainathus. One thing is clear, that Odainathus Avas successful in his campaign against the usurper. By his brilliant victories, Odainathus had become king of the East. The emperor had given him an exceptional position, Avithout a parallel. He Avas not merely joint ruler, but "independent lieutenant of the emperor for the East." Odainathus had gained the point at Avhich he aimed. Valerian Avas a captive in the hands of Sapor, and his son Gallienus Avas just the kind of weak and frivolous emperor that suited the ambitious designs of the Pal- myran. According to Trebellius Pollio: "While Gallienus Avas idle, or only doing foolish and ridiculous things, Odai nathus crushed Ballista (Callistus), a pretender to the Empire. He then immediately Avaged Avar on the Per sians to avenge Valerian, Avhich that emperor's son had PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 121 neglected to do; occupied Nisibis and Carras, and sent the captive satraps to Gallienus to shame him. "Persia being desolated, and all Mesopotamia being reduced to the Roman poAver, the conquering troops having marched to Ctesiphon, the king being fled, Odainathus Avas, Avith the .approbation and applause of the Roman Avorld, declared Augustus b}' the senate, and received as colleague in the Empire by Gallienus, and the money taken from the Persians was ordered to be coined in their joint names." There are several Roman accounts of the events of this period, but they are somewhat confused. It is certain, however, that Odainathus cleared the Eastern field of all rival representatives of Western authority. Besides, he harassed the Persians, devastated their country, and plun dered their cities, and on tAvo occasions the Palmyra army besieged Ctesiphon, and Avon a great battle before the walls of the city. But though he pressed Sapor hard, he did not succeed in liberating the captive Vale rian. Perhaps, like the Avorthless Gallienus, he was not anxious to see Valerian at liberty. Whatever his feelings towards Valerian may have been, Odainathus vindicated the majesty of the Roman arms to the satisfaction of the Roman people. Odainathus had undoubtedly saved the Eastern Roman Empire from being overrun by Persian barbarians, but he saved it for him self; for Avhile Persia was crippled, and the Roman Empire disorganized, he held the balance of power in his oavii hands. 122 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. Gallienus Avas supposed to be suzerain, but Odainathus Avas practically king. By 264 a.d., he had, in the name of Rome, and by the help of Roman soldiers, attained to supremacy from Armenia to Arabia; and Avhile control ling the legions of Rome, he Avas able to rely on the fidelity and loyalty of the provinces that owned his sway. When at the height of his victorious career, Odainathus Avas murdered in 266 or 267, at ICmesa, by his nepheAV Maconius, Avhom he had punished for insubordination. v>*v«»S«iK^«w.s*»u5?«**w**«es*^ jrirnfwdojuiitlii.ilo^ MIIIBI Illllll PROJECTING ENTABLATURE, TEMPLE OF THE SUN. CHAPTER XII. /^\DAINATHUS Avas famous for the brilliancy of his KJ Avars, but he was more famous still for the beauty and brilliance of his Avife. He Avas a man of great ambition, courage, and success, but he is now remem bered as the husband of Septimia Zenobia. While Odainathus Avas engaged in driving the Goths out of Asia Minor, and clearing the eastern Roman provinces of usurpers and barbarian intruders, Zenobia ruled in Palmyra, and carried forward the conquest of Egypt. Odainathus was to some extent associated in the Roman sovereignty Avith Gallienus, and Zenobia shared in his honours ; but she Avas enthroned a queen in the hearts of her. people, and dowered with the charms that inspired to heroism. Aurelian, in a letter to the senate, Avhich we shall quote further on, attributed the victories of Odainathus to the genius of his wife. Zenobia claimed kinship Avith Cleopatra, but the claim Avas advanced on her conquest of Egypt, as if to strengthen 123 124 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. her title to the throne of the Ptolemies. There may, hoAvever, have been some grounds for Zenobia's preten sions, or she would not have pressed them in the face of Roman historians, and scholars like Longinus, and her perfect command of the Egyptian tongue indicated a close connection Avith that country. On the other hand, had her claim been Avell founded, the historians Avould have eagerly emphasized the fact. With less probability she was declared to be a Jewess, but her enlightened treatment of the Jews of Alexandria no doubt gave rise to the report. Had she been a Jewess, she Avould not have failed at Tadmor to claim descent from Solomon, the builder of the city, and she would not have allowed heathen symbols to appear on her coins. Arab historians and romancers have traced the origin of the great queen of Tadmor, through a long pedigree of BedaAvi sheikhs who belonged to the tribe of the Beni-Samayda, and Avho frequented the borders of Syria. About the middle of the great colonnade which marks the via recta of Palmyra, statues were erected in August 271 a.d., to Odainathus and his Avidow. They were placed ft-y^jaxljsa.yiArAoVOJ.roji.tt, //3333~P>>3 [Translation. — The Statue of Septimius OJaiuathns, king of kings, re gretted )jy the entire state. The Septimii, Zalnla, fteneral-in-cliief, and Zabbai, General of Tudmor, Excellencies, have erected it to their Lord, in the month of Ab, 582 (=August, 271 a.d.).] DOORWAY' OF ZENOBIA'S PALACE. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 127 on brackets protruding from the columns, and on the fronts of the brackets there Avere inscriptions in Pal is W6s c^y^iitixiia b ?rci v j nasS 1/3333 -?yt>i \,^3tw&\v%whwnx. [Translation. — The Statue of Septimia, the daughter of Zabbai, the pious and just Queen. The Septimii Zabda, General-in-chief, and Zabbai, General of Tadmor, Excellencies, have erected it to their sovereign, in the month of Ab, the year 582 (=August, 271 a.d.).] CenTIMIANZHNOBIANTHNAAM nPOTATHN£YC£BHBACIAICCANCtnTIMIOIZABAACOMerACCTPA THAATHCKA1ZABBAIOCOCNBA46 CTPATHAATHCOIKPATICTOITHNA£CnOINANCTOYCBTT$MHNEI AUU (51c) [Translation. — Septimia Zenobia, the illustrious and pious queen. The Septimii Zabtlas, the great General, and Zabbai, the local General, Excellencies. . . . their sovereign. The year 582 in the month of August.] myrene and Greek. One inscription declared that Zabdas, commander-in-chief, and Zabbai, commander of Tadmor, erected the statue in honour of the lamented Odainathus, king of kings, their master. The other proclaimed that the same illustrious generals erected the statue in honour of Septimia Bath-Zabbai (in Greek, Zenobia), the pious and holy queen. The name "Bath-Zabbai" signifies liter ally the daughter of Zabbai, and she may have been the daughter of the commander-in-chief of Tadmor, Avho shared in the erection of the statue. An important item in my Palmyra programme was to find the statue of Zenobia. I set about the work with earnest deliberation, first going up on a ladder to the 128 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. bracket on Avhich the statue had been placed, and read ing carefully the inscription in Greek and Palmyrene. Then Ave began to overturn the accumulation of sand at the base of the column Avhere the statue must have fallen. To encourage the Avorkers, I offered a beshlik for the discovery of a head. The head of Zenobia for five piasters, equal to one franc ! And how the descendants of the proud Tadinorenes delved in the cUbris of the beautiful city for the head of the illustrious queen that once ruled the East, and set at defiance the Romans ! The diggers strained every nerve and muscle to secure the reward; in fact, I believe a syndicate Avas formed on the spot, so that each of the five diggers might receive one piaster divi dend, should the prize be secured ! I had mounted the ladder to examine the inscription to the late lamented Odainathus, Avhen I Avas startled by a tremendous yell that burst from the excavators. The shout of triumph sounded strange among the silent ruins. " 0 Khawaja, descend ; Ave have got the head of Sitt Zeinab!" shouted the chief of the party, as he ran to the foot of the ladder, and in his excitement began to ascend the rounds Avith a large stone in his hands. The shouting brought a croAvd of idlers around us, and in a few minutes about one hundred persons were hold ing an inquest on the head of Zenobia. The head had been broken off a statue, and Avas some what disfigured. It was, hoAvever, the head of a Palmyra lady, Avith carefully folded turban. There Avas a broad PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 129 jewelled band across the forehead horizontally, and other bands extending diagonally from the middle of the fore head downwards toward the ears, Avith jewels in each as large as beans. The head was not so grand as we expected, and it was considerably battered, but after enduring the weather and the buffetings of fortune for 1593 years, it was in a wonderful state of preservation. I was reconciling my self to it with the reflection, that perhaps, like heroes generally, the heads of female statues are less impres sive on close inspection, Avhen another yell of triumph, reinforced by a hundred voices, made the ruins of old Palmyra resound again. Nothing like it had been heard since the day that the Tadmor cavalry, with Zenobia in glittering armour at their head, drove Sapor the great across the Euphrates. Had Odainathus or Zenobia been about, they would have heard an echo of other days. 130 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. My excavators, seeing that I Avas pleased with their find, as I Avas tenderly removing the sand of ages from the folds of the turban, and doubtless thinking that I ought to be encouraged, had delved deeper and brought to the surface the female head of another statue. ^j.^™*i*t There are circumstances under which one may have too much of a good thing. The second discovery ren dered the identification of the first Avith Zenobia doubt ful. The new head Avas purely Grecian in style and decoration. The fringe came down low on the fore head, and there Avere holes in the eyes for jeAvels. Turning from the interesting though mutilated heads, found by the column on Avhich the statue of Zenobia once stood, and Avhich may or may not have been intended for PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 131 the great queen, I think it is almost certain that Bath- Zabbai Avas a native of Tadmor, and that, like most of the other Palmyrans, she was of Arabian descent, at least on her father's side. It is probable that on her mother's side she may have been Egyptian, and may, veiy probably, have received her education among her mother's people. It is certain that she was a Palmyra beauty, belonging to the military and governing aristocracy of the republic. Odainathus, a AvidoAver, vir clarissimus consularis, the favourite of Rome, of Palmyra, and of the desert, chose Zenobia, the fairest flower of the East, to share his fame and fortune and dangers. The Roman historians have given us scant information as to the origin of this splendid woman, but they have given us pen and ink sketches of her personal appearance, and abundant details regarding her achievements. Trebellius Pollio tells us : " She lived with royal pomp after the Persian manner, received adulation like the kings of Persia, and banqueted like the Roman emperors. " She went in state to the assemblies of the people, in a helmet, with a purple band fringed Avith jeAvels. Her robe was clasped with a diamond buckle, and she often wore her arm bare. " Her complexion was a dark brown, her eyes black and sparkling and of uncommon fire. Her countenance Avas divinely expressive, her person graceful in form and motion beyond imagination, her teeth were white as pearls, and her voice clear and strong. She displayed the severity 132 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. of a tyrant, Avhen severity was called for ; and the clem ency of a good prince, when justice required it. "She was generous with prudence, but a husbandress of wealth more than is the custom with Avomen. Some times she used a chariot, but more frequently rode on horseback. She Avould march immense distances on foot at the head of her infantry, and would drink with her officers, the Armenians and Persians, deeply, but Avith sobriety, using at her banquets golden goblets, set with jewels, such as Cleopatra Avas Avont to use. In her seiwice she employed eunuchs advanced in years, and very few damsels. "She ordered her sons to be instructed in the Latin language, as befitting the imperial purple, in which she had arrayed them. She was herself acquainted Avith the Greek tongue, and Avas not ignorant of Latin, though from diffidence she spoke it seldom. She spoke Egyptian perfectly, and Avas so versed in the history of Alexandria and the East, that she made an abridgment of Oriental history." 1 Cornelius Capitolinus, another Roman historian, de clared Zenobia to be the handsomest of all Oriental women. This supremely beautiful and accomplished lady must have been very young at the time of her marriage, and during the stirring years Avhen she exercised so large an influence on the destinies of the world. Her youth and beauty had a magic charm, not only with the gallant 1 Trebellius Pollio, Hist. August, p. 199. PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 133 spearmen of her race, but for all the Orientals that followed her standard and espoused her cause. But she had still more solid claims to their allegiance and support. Her knowledge of languages alone showed that she must have been given to studious habits, and from the Latin and Greek literature Avithin her reach, she had probably a Avider acquaintance Avith the Avorld than any of her generals, or than even Odainathus himself. Her perfect command of Egyptian as a living tongue implied an early education in the schools of Alexandria, and gave colour to the claim of kinship Avith the renowned Cleopatra ; and Avhile acquiring a knoAvledge of the Greek and Roman languages, Zenobia must have learned much of the character and influence of the Greek and Roman peoples. This marvellous Avoman did not, however, finish her education Avhen she quitted the schools. She con tinued her study of Greek and Roman Avriters under the guidance of Longinus, Avho Avas as pre-eminent among the philosophers and scholars of his time as Zenobia herself Avas among the women of her day. Cassius Longinus Avas probably born at Emesa in Syria, Avhere he became heir to his uncle Phronto. His parents, being in easy circumstances, took him to travel, and he had an opportunity of A'isiting the chief places in the then civilized world. He had also the advantage of an educa tion directed by the greatest teachers of his time. He studied at Athens under his uncle Phronto, at Rome under Plotinus and Amelius, and at Alexandria under Ammonius Saccas and Origenes. i34 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. Having learned in the best schools, he became a teacher. The famous Porphyry Avas one of his pupils, and he became the centre of the last brilliant galaxy of pagan scholars. Longinus united in himself the subtlety of Greek form with Roman fervour. His "Treatise on the Sublime" bears in its luminous beauty that stamp of sense and form which, notwithstanding doubts as to the authorship, proves it to be the work of Longinus, who, on account of his great learning, was called " a living library." No doubt Zenobia must have heard of the great Longi nus during her school days, and it is probable she may have met him at Alexandria ; but it is certain he became her instructor and secretary, and practically her prime minister and guide, and that he perished on the overthrow of Palmyra. We find the folloAving summary of his life in a preface to his writings by Suidas: "Longinus Cassius, philoso pher, preceptor of Porphyry the philosopher, a learned scholar and critic, lived in the time of the Emperor Aurelian, and was cut off by him as having conspired with Zenobia, the Avife of Odainathus." Longinus, the chief counsellor of the Avidowed queen, favoured the policy of independence by throwing off the Roman yoke ; and it was his policy, as Ave shall see, that led to the destruction of Tadmor, the captivity of the queen, and the forfeit of his own life. Cassius Longinus, as events proved, Avas not a safe counsellor for the young and proud Zenobia. We do PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 135 not know Iioav he came to have the name " Cassius." Possibly he inherited it, but more probably he assumed it, through sympathy Avith the deeds of such men as Caius Cassius and Cassius Chaerea. In any case, the associa tions of the name Avere distinctly anti-imperial and even regicidal. Besides being a Syrian, he Avould be ready to throw off the Roman yoke as soon as occasion offered. On the death of Odainathus, Zenobia had to recon sider her position. I have examined the two inscriptions in Palmyra dedicated to Odainathus. According to the one erected in April 258 A.d., Odainathus Avas of consular dignity, and on that of August 271 A.D., he Avas declared king of kings. In the inscription Avhich accompanied the statue of Zenobia of August 271 A.D., she is styled Queen. This title had doubtless been accorded to her by her husband, who Avas king of kings, and acquiesced in at Rome ; but Zenobia, fearing that the rank and titles Avhich she and her children enjoyed, in virtue of her husband's personal services, might be set aside at Rome, resolved to act as queen-regent during the minority of her son. The state of the Roman Empire Avas favourable to the ambition of Zenobia, and the schemes of Longinus. Gallienus Avas a base, bad emperor. He takes rank in vice with Heliogabalus and Nero. His neglect of his duty to his captive father and distracted country had reduced the Empire to confusion and degradation. The Roman legions, when he was emperor, Avere driven back in all the remote provinces. The Roman seas were full of pirates. 136 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. An opportunity Avas soon given to Zenobia, if we are to accept the statement of Trebellius Pollio, to assert her queenship. On hearing of the murder of Odainathus, Gallienus despatched an army against the Persians under Heraclianus. Zenobia, resenting the encroachment, es poused the Persian cause, and at the head of a Palmyra army marched to meet the Romans. A battle was fought on the confines of Persia, which ended in the rout and destruction of the Roman army. Soon afterwards, Gallienus was murdered at Milan, leaving Syria and Mesopotamia in the hands of Zenobia. Claudius came to the throne, and as he was fully occupied with enemies in Europe, he recognized the authority of Zenobia, and devoted himself to strengthen ing the Empire by reforms at home. At that time, Probatus, a pretender, appeared in Egypt. Zenobia despatched Zabdas, the commander-in-chief, against him, Avith an army of seventy thousand Palmyrans, S)rri- ans, and Bedawin. He encountered Probatus at the head of an army of fifty thousand Egyptians, and gained a complete victory. Zenobia had undertaken the Egyptian campaign in the cause of Rome, and had fought and conquered in the name of Rome, but she held the country in her own name, and as a part of the kingdom of Palmyra. Aurelian, on coming to the throne, recognized the Pal myra conquest of Egypt. The statements of Roman historians regarding this period are contradictory and perplexing, but I have a coin, struck in Alexandria, with PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. 137 the figure of Zenobia's eldest son and the title Impe- rator on one side, and the figure of Aurelian and the title of Augustus on the other. Aurelian Avas a soldier of fortune, Avho had risen from the lowest rank. He Avas called to be Emperor by the army, and during the two first years of his reign he sub dued the Goths, Germans, and Vandals. At the same time, Zenobia Avas adding the province of Asia Minor to her dominions. In 271 A.D., Aurelian had so reduced matters to a satis factory condition in Europe, that he Avas able to turn his attention to Zenobia. A Palmyra garrison had been left in Egypt. Probus, who had been waging war against the Mediterranean pirates, Avas ordered to. drive the Orientals out of Egypt. He Avas victorious, but Zabdas, being ' guided by Timagenes, attacked the Romans who had attempted to cut off his retreat, and defeated them. The time had now arrived for a decisive struggle between the East and the West, between Aurelian and his veteran legions and Zenobia and her chivalrous Orientals. The contrast between the foes and their followers was very great. Aurelian had risen to power by courage, strength, and attention to discipline. He lacked culture, refinement, and education ; but he had built up a Roman army which had become an irresistible engine of war. With this engine he hoped to crush Zenobia. At the approach of the danger, the refined and cul tured Zenobia paused in her literary and artistic pursuits, 138 PALMYRA AND ZENOBIA. and called together the sons of the desert, Avho had planted her standard on the banks of the Nile and estab lished her authority on the plains of the Selencrda). SAvift dromedaries sped forth from Palmyra, in all direc tions, to warn the BedaAvin of the approaching foe. The Roman name had no terror for the freemen of the desert. In several encounters they had annihilated the famous legions ; and even the Parthians had destroyed a Roman army, and held in slavery a Roman emperor. Zenobia's summons Avarned them of a common danger, and roused them to repel the common foe. The prosperity of Palmyra meant the prosperity of the BedaAvin. The city in the desert was at that time the meeting-place between Europe and Asia, the market place where the East and West exchanged their wares, and the tribes were the common carriers both east and Avest. What the Phoenicians were by sea, that were the Bedawin by land ; and during the ascendency of Zenobia, the BedaAvin were not only the carriers of the common wealth, but the body-guard of the dynasty. Zenobia's call to arms was splendidly responded to, and in a feAv days the sandy plains of Tadmor sAvarmed Avith Avarriors, ready not only to protect their beautiful and heroic queen, but also to guard intact the lines of their commerce. They came together with light hearts, eager to be led against the western barbarian. COIN OF ZKNdlilA. I tfnhti-ii<