spread from the Alps to the southernmost extremity | but no Trojan men, nor any prince named Æneas ever of the land. This position receives very strong sup- set foot in the Italian peninsula. The last ancient port from the fact that the name Italus was in gen-people who formed settlements at any early period in eral use among the various nations of the Italian Italy were the Gauls. They entered during the reign peninsula. In the language of fable it was the appel- of Tarquinius Priscus, and successive hordes made lation of an ancient monarch. We find mention made their appearance under the following kings. They of a King Italus among the Ausones and Opici, and seized upon what was called, from them, Cisalpine likewise among the Morgetes, Siculi, and Sabini. Gaul, and one division of them, the Senones, even We find, moreover, all these early tribes using one penetrated far into the centre of Italy. They were common dialect, the Oscan. Now, that such a being finally subdued by the Romans, more through the want as Italus ever existed, appears extremely improbable; of union than of valour.-On the subject, however, of and still more so the assertion that Italy was named the origin of the Latin tongue, a very plausible theory after this ancient king. Daily experience proves that was started by Jäkel, which assigns it to the German. countries are called after the nations who inhabit (Der Germanische Ursprung der Lateinischen Sprache, them; and few, if any, examples can be adduced of &c., Breslaw, 1831.) He makes the Latin to be nations taking an appellation from their rulers. In the mainly and essentially the dialect of a Teutonic race, present case it appears scarcely credible. We know that migrated from Germany into Italy by the way of of no period when the different Italian tribes were the Tyrol, at a period vastly more remote than that under the control of a single ruler, and yet each have to which Roman history reaches. The germe of this their Italus. Was there a monarch of this name in theory, however, is found in Funccius (Ďe Origine et every district of Italy? and, still more, did each sep-Pueritia, L. L., p. 64, c. 5. De Matre Lingua Latarate community form the resolution of deriving from their respective monarch a name for themselves and the region they inhabited, so that, finally, the common name for the whole land became Italia? Either supposition is absurd.-The name Italus, then, was the generic name of the whole race, and the land was called after it, each community being known at the same time by a specific and peculiar appellation, as Latini, Umbri, &c. The fact of the universal prevalence of the Oscan tongue is strongly corroborative of what has just been advanced. But, it may be contended, no proof exists that any king named Ítalus was acknowledged by the traditions of the Tusci or Umbri. The answer is an easy one. Antiquity makes mention of these as the progenitors of the Latini, among whom a King Italus appears; and Scymnus records an old authority, which makes the Umbri to have been descended from Latinus, the son of Ulysses and Circe. That these two nations, moreover, spoke a language based on the old Italic or Oscan form of speech, was discovered by the Romans in the case of the Rhæti, a branch of the former, who had retired to the Alps upon the invasion of the Gauls. The original population of Italy then was composed of the Itali. To these came various nations, which we shall now enumerate in the order of history. The earliest of these new-comers appear to have been the Illyrian tribes, and, in particular, the Liburni, who may, with truth, be regarded as the earliest of European navigators. They extended themselves along the coast of the Adriatic as far as Iapygia. Next in the order of time were the Veneti, a branch of the great Sclavonic race (vid. Veneti), who settled between the mouths of the Po and the Illyrian Alps. Were they the earliest possessors of this part of Italy, or did they expel the Tuscan Euganei? All is uncertainty. Of the origin of the great Etrurian nation, we have already spoken under the article Hetruria. The Siculi, who appear to have been the original inhabitants of Latium, and who were subsequently driven out and retired to Sicily (vid. Siculi), are falsely considered by some to have been of Iberian origin. A fourth people, however, who actually came into Italy, were the Greeks. Before the time of the Trojan war there are no traces of any such emigration; but after the termination of that contest, accident It has been thought by several modem writers that threw many of the returning bands upon the Italian the climate and temperature of Italy have undergone coast. We find them in Apulia, on the Sinus Taren- some change during the lapse of ages, and that it was tinus in Enotria, at Pise, and in Latium as the chief anciently colder in winter than it is at the present day. part of the population of Alba Longa. Their language, (Du Bos, Reflex., vol. 2, p. 298.—L'Abbé Longuerue, the Eolic Greek, for they were principally Achæi, op- cited by Gibbon, Misc. Works, vol. 3, p. 245.) In the erating upon the old Italic or Oscan tongue, then prev-examination of this question, it is impossible not to alent in Latium, and becoming blended, at the same time, with many peculiarities and forms of Pelasgic origin, gave rise to the Latin tongue. Trojan female captives were brought along with them by the Greeks,

ina Germanica.)-Ancient geographers appear to have entertained different ideas of the figure of Italy. Polybius considered it, in its general form, as being like a triangle, of which the two seas meeting at the promontory of Cocinthus (Capo di Stilo) as the vortex, formed the sides, and the Alps the base. (Polyb., 2, 14.) But Strabo is more exact in his delineation, and observes, that its shape bears more resemblance to a quadrilateral than a triangular figure, with its outline rather irregular than rectilineal. (Strabo, 5, 210.) Pliny describes it in shape as similar to an elongated oak-leaf, and terminating in a crescent, the horns of which would be the promontories of Leucopetra (Capo delle Armi) and Lacinium (Capo delle Colonne). According to Pliny (3, 5), the length of Italy, from Augusta Prætoria (Aosta), at the foot of the Alps, to Rhegium, the other extremity, was 1020 miles; but this distance was to be estimated, not in a direct line, but by the great road which passed through Rome and Capua. The real geographical distance, according to the best maps, would scarcely furnish 600 modern Italian miles of 60 to the degree, which are equal to about 700 ancient Roman miles. The same writer estimates its breadth from the Varus to the Arsia at 410 miles; between the mouths of the Tiber and Aternus at 136 miles; in the narrowest part, between the Sinus Scyllacius and Sinus Terinæus, at 20 miles. The little lake of Cutilia, near Reate (Rieti) in the Sabine country, was considered as the umbilicus or centre of Italy. (Plin., 3, 12.)-It might be expected that the classical authors of Rome would dwell with fondness on the peculiar advantages enjoyed by their favoured country. Accordingly, we find a variety of passages, which Cluverius has collected in his fifth chapter (De Natura cœli solique Italici ac laudibus ejus), where the happy qualities of its soil and climate, the variety and abundance of its productions, the resources of every kind which it possesses, are proudly and eloquently displayed. Those that seem principally deserving of notice are the following: Plin., 36, 13.-Virg., Georg., 2, 136, seqq.-Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom., 1, 36.

Climate of Ancient Italy.

consider the somewhat analogous condition of America at this day. Boston is in the same latitude with Rome, but the severity of its winter far exceeds not that of Rome only, but of Paris and London. Allowing that

The Malaria in Ancient and Modern Times.

the peninsular form of Italy must at all times have had an effect in softening the climate, still the woods and marshes of Cisalpine Gaul, and the perpetual snows of It now becomes a question, whether the greater cold the Alps, far more extensive than at present, owing to of the winter, and the greater extent of wood and of the then uncultivated and uncleared state of Switzer- undrained waters which existed in the time of the Roland and Germany, could not but have been felt even mans, may not have had a favourable influence in mitin the neighbourhood of Rome. Besides, even on the igating that malaria which is at the present day the Apennines, and in Etruria and Latium, the forests oc- curse of so many parts of Italy, and particularly of the cupied a far greater space than in modern times; this immediate neighbourhood of Rome. One thing is would increase the quantity of rain, and, consequently, certain, that the Campagna of Rome, which is now althe volume of water in the rivers; the floods would most a desert, must, at a remote period, have been be greater and more numerous, and, before man's do- full of independent cities; and although the greater minion had completely subdued the whole country, part of these had perished long before the fourth centhere would be large accumulations of water in the low tury of Rome, yet even then there existed Ostia, Laugrounds, which would still farther increase the coldness rentum, Ardea, and Antium on one side, and Veii and of the atmosphere. The language of ancient writers, Cære on the other, in situations which are now regardon the whole, favours the same conclusion, that the ed as uninhabitable during the summer months; and Roman winter, in their days, was more severe than it all the lands of the Romans on which they, like the is at present. It is by no means easy to know what old Athenians, for the most part resided regularly, lie weight is to be given to the language of the poets, nor within the present range of the malaria. Some have how far particular descriptions or expressions may have supposed, that, although the climate was the same as been occasioned by peculiar local circumstances. The it is now, yet the Romans were enabled to escape statement of the younger Pliny (Epist., 2, 17), that the from its influence, and their safety has been ascribed bay-tree would rarely live through the winter without to their practice of wearing woollen next to the skin shelter, either at Rome or at his own villa at Lanuvium, instead of linen or cotton. But, not to notice other if taken absolutely, would prove too much; for, although objections to this notion, it is enough to say that the the bay is less hardy than some other evergreens, yet Romans regarded unhealthy situations with the same how can it be conceived that a climate in which the apprehension as their modern descendants. (Cato, R. olive would flourish could be too severe for the bay? R., 2.-Varro, R. R., 1, 4.—Id., 5, 3, 5.—Id., 5, 3, There must either have been some local peculiarity of 12.)-On the other hand, Cicero (de Repub., 2, 6) and winds or soil which the tree did not like, or else the fact, Livy (7, 38) both speak of the immediate neighbouras is sometimes the case, must have been too hastily hood of Rome as unhealthy; but, at the same time, assumed; and men were afraid, from long custom, to they extol the positive healthiness of the city itself; leave the bay unprotected in the winter, although, in ascribing it to the hills, which are at once airy themfact, they might have done it with safety. Yet the selves, and offer a screen to the low grounds from the elder Pliny (17, 2) speaks of long snows being useful heat of the sun. It is true, that one of the most unto the corn, which shows that he is not speaking of healthy parts of modern Rome, the Piazza di Spagna the mountains; and a long snow lying in the valleys and the slope of the Pincian Hill above it, was not of central or southern Italy would surely be a very un- within the limits of the ancient city, yet the praise of heard-of phenomenon now. Again: the freezing of the healthiness of Rome must be understood rather the rivers, as spoken of by Virgil and Horace, is an comparatively with that of the immediate neighbourimage of winter which could not, we think, naturally hood than positively. Rome, in the summer months, suggest itself to Italian poets of the present day, at cannot be called healthy, even as compared with the any point to the south of the Apennines. Other ar- other great cities of Italy, much less if the standard be guments to the same effect may be seen in a paper by taken from Berlin or from London. Again: the neighDaines Barrington, in the 58th volume of the Philo-bourhood of Rome is characterized by Livy as "a pessophical Transactions. Gibbon, too, after stating the tilential and parched soil." The latter epithet is worarguments on both sides of the question, comes to the thy of notice, because the favourite opinion has been, same conclusion. (Misc. Works, l. c.) He quotes, that the malaria is connected with marshes and moisthowever, the Abbé de Longuerue as saying that the ure. But it is precisely here that we may find the exTiber was frozen in the bitter winter of 1709.-Again:planation of the spread of the malaria in modern times. the olive, which cannot bear a continuance of severe Even in spring nothing can less resemble a marsh than cold, was not introduced into Italy till long after the the present aspect of the Campagna. It is far more vine: Fenestella asserted, that its cultivation was un-like the down country of Dorsetshire, and, as the sumknown as late as the reign of Tarquinius Priscus (Plin., 15, 1); and such was the notion entertained of the cold of all inland countries, that Theophrastus (Plin., 15, 1) held it impossible to cultivate the olive at the distance of more than 400 stadia from the sea. But the cold of winter is perfectly consistent with great heat in the summer. The vine is cultivated with success on the Rhine, in the latitude of Devonshire and Cornwall, although the winter at Coblentz and Bonn is far more severe than it is in Westmoreland; and evergreens will flourish through the winter in the Westmoreland valleys far better than on the Rhine or in the heart of France. The summer heat of Italy was probably much the same in ancient times as it is at present, except that there were a greater number of spots where shade and verdure might be found, and where its violence, therefore, was more endurable. But the difference between the temperature of summer and winter may be safely assumed to have been much greater than it is now, notwithstanding the arguments of Eustace and several other travellers. (Arnold, History of Rome, vol. 1, p. 499, seqq.)

mer advances, it may well be called a dry and parched district. But this is exactly the character of the plains of Estremadura, where the British forces suffered so grievously from malaria fever in the autumn of 1809. In short, abundant experience has proved, that when the surface of the ground is wet, the malaria poison is far less noxious than when all appearance of moisture on the surface is gone, and the damp makes its way into the atmosphere from a considerable depth under ground. If, then, more rain fell in the Campagna formerly than now; if the streams were fuller of water, and their course more rapid; above all, if, owing to the uncleared state of central Europe, and the greater abundance of wood in Italy itself, the summer heats set in later, and were less intense, and more often relieved by violent storms of rain, there is every reason to believe that the Campagna must have been far healthier than at present; and that precisely in proportion to the clearing and cultivation of central Europe, to the felling of the woods in Italy itself, the consequent decrease in the quantity of rain, the shrinking of the streams, and the disappearance of the wa

ITALICA, I. the capital of the Peligni in Italy. (Vid. Corfinium. II. A city of Spain, north of Hispalis, and situate on the western side of the river Bætis. (Strabo, 141.-Oros., 5, 23.) It was founded by Publius Scipio in the second Punic war, who placed here the old soldiers whom age had incapacitated from the performance of military service. (Appian, B. Hisp., c. 38.-Cas., B. Civ., 2, 20.) It was the birthplace of the Emperor Trajan, and is supposed to correspond with Sevilla la Vieja, about a league distant from the city of Seville. (Surita, ad It. Ant., p. 413, 432.Florez, Esp. S. F., 12, p. 227.-Ukert, Geogr., vol. 2, p. 372.)

ter from the surface, has been the increased unhealthi- | land's Travels, vol. 1, 349.- Pouqueville, vol. 3, p. ness of the country, and the more extended range of 334.) Cramer, however, thinks it ought to be looked the malaria. (Arnold's History of Rome, vol. I, p. for to the north of the Peneus, near Ardam and Pet501, seqq.) chouri.-II. A fortress of Messenia, on a mountain of the same name. It was celebrated for the long and obstinate defence (ten years) which the Messenians there made against the Spartans in their last revolt. The mountain was said to have derived its name from Ithome, one of the nymphs that nourished Jupiter. On the summit was the temple of Jupiter Ithomatas, to whom the mountain was especially dedicated. Strabo compares the Messenian Acropolis to Acrocorinthus, being situated, like that citadel, on a lofty and steep mountain, enclosed by fortified lines which connected it with the town. Hence they were justly deemed the two strongest places in the Peloponnesus. When Philip, the son of Demetrius, was planning the conquest of the peninsula with Demetrius of Pharos, the latter advised him to seize first the horns of the heifer, which would secure to him possession of the animal. By these enigmatical expressions he designated the Peloponnesus, and the two bulwarks above mentioned.

ITALICUS, a poet. (Vid. Silius Italicus.)

ITALUS, a fabled monarch of early Italy. (Consult remarks under the article Italia, page 693, col. 1.)

was eighty stadia from the sea. (Peripl., p. 16.)

ITIUS PORTUS, a harbour of Gaul, whence Cæsar set sail for Britain. Cæsar describes it no farther than by saying, that from it there was the most convenient passage to Britain, the distance being about 30 miles. (B. G., 5, 2.) Calais, Boulogne, and Etaples have each their respective advocates for the honour of being the Itius Portus of antiquity. The weight of authority, however, is in favour of Witsand or Vissan; and with this opinion D'Anville coincides. Cæsar landed_at Portus Lemanis or Lymne, a little below Dover. For a long time this was the principal crossing-place. In a later age, however, the preference was given to Gessoriacum or Boulogne in Gaul, and Rutupia or Richborough in Britain. Lemaire, however, is in favour of making the Itius Portus identical with Gessoriacum, as others had been before him. (Ind. Geogr. ad Cæs., B. G., p. 291.)

ITUNE, Estuarium, now Solway Firth, in Scot

ITHACA, a celebrated island in the Ionian Sea, northeast of Cephallenia. It lies directly south of Leucadia, from which it is distant about six miles. The ex-(Strab., 361.—Polyb., 7, 11.) Scylax says Ithome tent of this celebrated island, as given by ancient authorities, does not correspond with modern computation. Dicæarchus describes it as narrow, and measuring eighty stadia, meaning probably in length (Græc. Stat., v. 51), but Strabo (455) affirms, in circumference, which is very wide of the truth, since it is not less than thirty miles in circuit, or, according to Pliny (4, 12), twenty-five. Its length is nearly seventeen miles, but its breadth not more than four. Ithaca is well known as the native island of Ulysses. Eustathius asserts (ad Il., 2, 632) that it derived its name from the hero Ithacus, who is mentioned by Homer (Od., 17, 207). That it was throughout rugged and mountainous we learn from more than one passage of the Odyssey, but especially from the fourth book, v. 605, seqq.-It is evident, from several passages of the same poem, that there was also a city named Ithaca, probably the capital of the island, and the residence of Ulysses (3, 80). Its ruins are generally identified with those crowning the summit of the hill of Aito. (Dod-land. well, vol. 1, p. 66.) "The Venetian geographers," observes Sir William Gell, "have in a great degree contributed to raise doubts concerning the identity of the modern with the ancient Ithaca, by giving in their charts the name of Val di Compare to this island. That name, however, is totally unknown in the country, where the isle is invariably called Ithaca by the upper ranks, and Theaki by the vulgar. It has been asserted in the north of Europe, that Ithaca is too inconsiderable a rock to have produced any contingent of ships which could entitle its king to so much consideration among the neighbouring isles; yet the unrivalled excellence of its port has in modern times created a fleet of 50 vessels of all denominations, which trade to every part of the Mediterranean, and from which four might be selected capable of transporting the whole army of Ulysses to the shores of Asia." The same writer makes the population of the island 8000. It is said to contain sixty-six square miles. (Gell's Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca, p. 30.)

ITUREA, a country of Palestine, so called from Itur or Jetur, one of the sons of Ishmael, who settled in it; but whose posterity were either driven out or subdued by the Amorites, when it is supposed to have formed part of the kingdom of Bashan, and subsequently of the half tribe of Manasseh east of Jordan; but, as it was situated beyond the southern border of Mount Hermon, called the Djebel Heish, this is doubtful. It lay on the northeastern side of the land of Israel, between it and the territory of Damascus or Syria; and is supposed to have been the same country at present known by the name of Djedour, on the east of the Djebel Heish, between Damascus and the Lake of Tiberias. The Itureans being subdued by Aristobulus, the high-priest and governor of the Jews, B.C. 106, were forced by him to embrace the Jewish religion, and were at the same time incorporated into the state. Philip, one of the sons of Herod the Great, was tetrarch or governor of this country when John the Baptist commenced his ministry. (Plin., 5, 23.-Joseph., Ant. Jud., 13, 19.- Epiphan., Hares., 19. 3, 1.)

Luke,

ITHACESIE, I. three islands opposite Vibo, on the coast of Bruttium. They are thought to answer to the modern Braces, Praca, and Torricella. (Bischoff ITYS, son of Tereus, king of Thrace, by Procne, und Möller, Wörterb. der Geogr., p. 651.)—II. Baiæ daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. He was killed is called by Silius Italicus "sedes Ithacesia Baii," be- by his mother when he was about six years old, and cause founded by Baius, the pilot of Ulysses, accord-served up before his father. He was changed, according to the poetic legends of antiquity. (Sil. Ital., 8, 539.-Compare Lycophron, Cassand., 694.-Tzetzes, ad loc.)

ing to one account, into a pheasant, his mother into a swallow, and his father into an owl. (Vid. Philomela. - Ovid, Met., 6, 620.— Amor., 2, 14, 29.—Horat., Od., 4, 12.)

ITHOME, I. a town of Thessaly, in the vicinity of Metropolis. It is conceived by some modern travel- JUBA, I. a son of Hiempsal, king of Numidia, suclers to have been situated on one of the summits now ceeded his father about 50 B.C. He was a warm occupied by the singular convents of Meteora. (Hol-supporter of the senatorial party and Pompey, being

turned a gross population of five millions and a half. The present aspect of Palestine, under an administration where everything decays and nothing is renewed, can afford no just criterion of the accuracy of such statements. Hasty observers have indeed pronounced, that a hilly country, destitute of great rivers, could not, even under the most skilful management, supply food for so many mouths. But this precipitate conclusion has been vigorously combated by the most competent

moved, it is said, to this course by a gross insult which, I from the facts recorded in the book of Samuel, we in his youth, he had received from Cæsar. He gained, may conclude with greater confidence that the enrolB.C. 49, a great victory over Curio, Cæsar's lieuten-ment made under the direction of Joab must have reant in Africa. After the battle of Pharsalia and the death of Pompey, he continued steady to his cause; and when Cæsar invaded Africa, B.C. 46, he supported Scipio and Cato with all his power, and in the first instance reduced the dictator to much difficulty. The battle of Thapsus, however, turned the scale in Casar's favour. Juba fled, and, finding that his subjects would not receive him, put an end to his life in despair, along with Petreius. (Vid. Petreius.) His connexion with Cato has suggested the underplot of Ad-judges, who have taken pains to estimate the produce dison's tragedy. (Plut,, Vit. Pomp.-Id., Vit. Cæs. of a soil, under the fertilizing influence of a sun which - Flor., 4, 12.—Sueton., Vit. Jul., 35. — Lucan, 4, may be regarded as almost tropical, and of a well690.-Paterc., 2, 54.)-II. The second of the name, regulated irrigation, which the Syrians knew how to was son of the preceding. He was carried to Rome practise with the greatest success. Canaan, it must by Cæsar, kindly treated, and well and learnedly ed-be admitted, could not be compared to Egypt in reucated. He gained the friendship, and fought in the spect to corn. There is no Nile to scatter the riches cause, of Augustus, who gave him the kingdom of of an inexhaustible fecundity over its valleys and plains. Mauritania, his paternal kingdom of Numidia having Still it was not without reason that Moses described been erected into a Roman province. Juba cultivated it as "a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountdiligently the arts of peace, was beloved by his sub- ains, and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; jects, and had a high reputation for learning. He a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, wrote, in Greck, of Arabia, with observations on its and pomegranates; a land of oil-olive and honey; a natural history; of Assyria; of Rome; of painting land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; and painters; of theatres; of the qualities of animals; thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose on the source of the Nile, &c., all which are now lost. stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig Juba married Cleopatra, the daughter of Antony and brass." (Deuteron., 8, 7, seqq.) The reports of the Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. Strabo, in his sixth book, latest travellers confirm the accuracy of the picture speaks of Juba as living, and in his seventeenth and drawn by this divine legislator. Near Jericho the last book as then just dead. This would probably fix wild olives continue to bear berries of a large size, his death about A.D. 17. (Clinton, Fast. Hellen., which give the finest oil. In places subjected to irrivol. 2, p. 551, in notis.—Phot., Cod., 161.—Athena-gation, the same field, after a crop of wheat in May, us, 8, p. 343, e. — - Plut., Mor., p. 269, c., &c. - produces pulse in autumn. Several of the trees are Consult the dissertation of the Abbé Sevin, Sur la Vie continually bearing flowers and fruit at the same time, et les Ouvrages de Juba, in the Mem. de l'Acad. des in all their stages. The mulberry, planted in straight Inscr., &c., vol. 4, p. 457, seqq.) rows in the open field, is festooned by the tendrils of the vine. If this vegetation seems to languish or become extinct during the extreme heats-if in the mountains it is at all seasons detached and interrupted-such exceptions to the general luxuriance are not to be ascribed simply to the general character of all hot climates, but also to the state of barbarism in which the great mass of the present population is immersed. Even in our day, some remains are to be found of the walls which the ancient cultivators built to support the soil on the declivities of the mountains; the form of the cisterns in which they collected the rain-water; and traces of the canals by which this water was distributed over the fields. These labours necessarily created a prodigious fertility under an ardent sun, where a little moisture was the only requisite to revive the vegetable world. The accounts given by native writers respecting the productive qualities of Judæa are not in any degree opposed even by the present aspect of the country. The case is exactly the same with some islands in the Archipelago; a tract from which a hundred individuals can hardly draw a scanty subsistence, formerly maintained thousands in affluence. Moses might justly say that Canaan abounded in milk and honey. The flocks of the Arabs still find in it a luxuriant pasture, while the bees deposite in the holes of the rocks their delicious stores, which are sometimes seen flowing down the surface. The opinions just stated in regard to the fertility of ancient Palestine, receive an ample confirmation from the Roman historians, to whom, as a part of their extensive empire, it was intimately known. Tacitus especially (Hist., 5, 6), in language which he appears to have formed for his own use, describes its natural qualities with the utmost precision, and, as is his manner, suggests rather than specifies a catalogue of productions, the accuracy of which is verified by the latest observations. The soil is rich, and the atmosphere dry; the country yields all the fruits

JUDA, a province of Palestine, forming the southern division. It did not assume the name of Judæa until after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity; though it had been denominated, long before, the kingdom of Judæa, in opposition to that of Israel. After the return, the tribe of Judah settled first at Jerusalem; but afterward, spreading gradually over the whole country, they gave it the name of Judæa. Judæa, being the seat of religion and government, claimed many privileges. It was not lawful to intercalate the year out of Judæa, while they might do it in that country. Nor was the sheaf of first-fruits of the barley to be brought from any other district than Judæa, and as near as possible to Jerusalem. The extent of this remarkable country has varied at different times, according to the nature of the government which it has enjoyed or been compelled to acknowledge. When it was first occupied by the Israelites, the land of Canaan, properly so called, was confined between the shores of the Mediterranean and the western bank of the Jordan; the breadth at no part exceeding fifty miles, while the length hardly amounted to three times that space. At a later period, the arms of David and of his immediate successor carried the boundaries of the kingdom to the Euphrates and Orontes on the one hand, and in an opposite direction to the remotest confines of Edom and Moab. The population, as might be expected, has undergone a similar variation. It is true, that no particular in ancient history is liable to a better founded suspicion, than the numerical statements which respect nations and armies; for pride and fear have in their turn contributed not a little to exaggerate in rival countries the amount of persons capable of taking a share in the field of battle. Proceeding on the usual grounds of calculation, we must infer, from the number of warriors whom Moses conducted through the desert, that the Hebrew people, when they crossed the Jordan, did not fall short of two millions; while,

which are known in Italy, besides balm and dates. I like the waves of the ocean in the wind. Bothin, or But it has never been denied that there is a remarka- Batanea, on the other hand, contains nothing except ble difference between the two sides of the ridge which calcareous mountains, where there are vast caverns, forms the central chain of Judæa. On the western in which the Arabian shepherds live like the ancient acclivity, the soil rises from the sea towards the ele- Troglodytes. Here a modern traveller, Dr. Seetzen, vated ground in four distinct terraces, which are cov- discovered, in the year 1816, the magnificent ruins of ered with an unfading verdure. The shore is lined Gerasa, now called Djerash, where three temples, two with mastic-trees, palms, and prickly pears. Higher superb amphitheatres of marble, and hundreds of colup, the vines, the olives, and the sycamores amply re- umns still remain, among other monuments of Roman pay the labour of the cultivator; natural groves arise, power. But by far the finest thing that he saw was consisting of evergreen oaks, cypresses, andrachnes, a long street, bordered on each side with a splendid and turpentines. The face of the earth is embellished colonnade of Corinthian architecture, and terminating with the rosemary, the cytisus, and the hyacinth. In in an open space of a semicircular form, surrounded a word, the vegetation of these mountains has been with sixty Ionic pillars. In the same neighbourhood, compared to that of Crete. European visiters have the ancient Gilead is distinguished by a forest of dined under the shade of a lemon-tree as large as stately oaks, which supply wealth and employment to one of our strongest oaks, and have seen sycamores, the inhabitants. Perea presents on its numerous terthe foliage of which was sufficient to cover thirty per- races a mixture of vines, olives, and pomegranates. sons, along with their horses and camels. On the Karak-Moab, the capital of a district corresponding to eastern side, however, the scanty coating of mould that of the primitive Moabites, still meets the eye, but yields a less magnificent crop. From the summit of is not to be confounded with another town of a similar the hills a desert stretches along to the Lake Asphal- name in the Stony Arabia. (Seetzen.-Annales des tites, presenting nothing but stones and ashes, and a Voyages, vol. 1, p. 398-Correspondence de M. Zach, few thorny shrubs. The sides of the mountains en- p. 425.)-The countries now described lie on the eastlarge, and assume an aspect at once more grand and ern side of the river Jordan. But the same stream, in more barren. By little and little, the scanty vegeta- the upper part of its course, forms the boundary be tion languishes and dies; even mosses disappear, and tween Gaulonitis and the fertile Galilee, which is idena red, burning hue succeeds to the whiteness of the tical with the modern district of Szaffad. This town, rocks. In the centre of this amphitheatre there is an which is remarkable for the beauty of its situation arid basin, enclosed on all sides with summits scat- amid groves of myrtle, is supposed to be the ancient tered over with a yellow-coloured pebble, and afford- Bethulia, which was besieged by Holofernes. Tabaing a single aperture to the east, through which the ria, an insignificant place, occupies the site of Tibesurface of the Dead Sea and the distant hills of Ara- rias, which gave its name to the lake more generally bia present themselves to the eye. In the midst of known by that of Genesareth, or the Sea of Galilee; this country of stones, encircled by a wall, we perceive but industry has now deserted its borders, and the extensive ruins, stunted cypresses, bushes of the aloe fisherman with his skiff and his nets no longer aniand prickly pear, while some huts of the meanest or- mates the surface of its waters. Nazareth still reder, resembling whitewashed sepulchres, are spread tains some portion of its former consequence. Six over the desolated mass. This spot is Jerusalem. miles farther south stands the hill of Thabor, some(Belon, Observations, &c., p. 140.-Hasselquist, Trav- times denominated Itabyrius, presenting a pyramid els, p. 56.-Shultze's Travels, vol. 2, p. 86.)-This of verdure crowned with olives and sycamores. From melancholy delineation, which was suggested by the the top of this mountain, the reputed scene of the state of the Jewish metropolis in the third century, is transfiguration, we look down on the river Jordan, not quite inapplicable at the present hour. The scen- the Lake of Genesareth, and the Mediterranean Sea. ery of external nature is the same, and the general as- (Maundrell, p. 60.)-Galilee, says Chateaubriand pect of the venerable city is very little changed. But (Itin., 2, 132), would be a paradise were it inhabitas beauty is strictly a relative term, and is everywhere ed by an industrious people under an enlightened govgreatly affected by association, we must not be sur-ernment. Vine-stocks are to be seen here a foot and prised when we read in the works of Eastern authors a half in diameter, forming, by their twining branchthe high encomiums which are lavished upon the vi- es, vast arches and extensive ceilings of verdure. A cinity of the holy capital. Abulfeda, for example, cluster of grapes, two or three feet in length, will give maintains, not only that Palestine is the most fertile an abundant supper to a whole family. The plains part of Syria, but also that the neighbourhood of Jeru- of Esdraelon are occupied by Arab tribes, around salem is one of the most fertile districts of Palestine. whose brown tents the sheep and lambs gambol to the In his eye, the vines, the fig-trees, and the olive- sound of the reed, which at nightfall calls them home. groves, with which the limestone cliffs of Judæa were-Proceeding from Galilee towards the metropolis, we once covered, identified themselves with the richest enter the land of Samaria, comprehending the modern returns of agricultural wealth, and more than com- districts of Areta and Nablous. In the former we find pensated for the absence of those spreading fields, the remains of Cesarea; and on the Gulf of St. Jean waving with corn, which are necessary to convey to d'Acre stands the town of Caypha, where there is a the mind of a European the ideas of fruitfulness, com- good anchorage for ships. On the southwest of this fort, and abundance.-Following the enlightened nar- gulf extends a chain of mountains, which terminates rative of Malte-Brun, the reader will find that south-in the promontory of Carmel, a name famous in the ward of Damascus, the point where the modern Palestine may be said to begin, are the countries called by the Romans Auranitis and Gaulonitis, consisting of one extensive and noble plain, bounded on the north by Hermon or Djibel-el-Sheik, on the southwest by Djibel-Edjlan, and on the east by Haouran. In all these countries there is not a single stream which retains its water in summer. The most of the villages have their pond or reservoir, which they fill from one of the wadi or brooks during the rainy season. Of all these districts, Haouran is the most celebrated for the culture of wheat. Nothing can exceed in grandeur the extensive undulations of their fields, moving

annals of our religion. There Elijah proved by miracles the divinity of his mission; and there, in the middle ages of the church, resided thousands of Christian devotees, who sought a refuge for their piety in the caves of the rocks. Then the mountain was wholly covered with chapels and gardens, whereas at the present day nothing is to be seen but scattered ruins amid forests of oak and olives, the bright verdure being only relieved by the whiteness of the calcareous cliffs over which they are suspended. The heights of Carmel, it has been frequently remarked, enjoy a pure and enlivening atmosphere, while the lower grounds of Samaria and Galilee are obscured