distinguished for its magnitude and splendour. It is now a small town of
some 13,000 inhabitants.
- SYRIA (Hebrews Aram), the name in the Old Testament given to the
whole country which lay to the north-east of Phoenicia, extending to
beyond the Euphrates and the Tigris. Mesopotamia is called (Genesis
24:10; Deuteronomy 23:4) Aram-naharain (=Syria of the two rivers), also
Padan-aram (Genesis 25:20). Other portions of Syria were also known by
separate names, as Aram-maahah (1 Chronicles 19:6), Aram-beth-rehob (2
Samuel 10:6), Aram-zobah (2 Samuel 10:6, 8). All these separate little
kingdoms afterwards became subject to Damascus. In the time of the
Romans, Syria included also a part of Palestine and Asia Minor.
“From the historic annals now accessible to us, the history of Syria may
be divided into three periods: The first, the period when the power of the
Pharaohs was dominant over the fertile fields or plains of Syria and the
merchant cities of Tyre and Sidon, and when such mighty conquerors as
Thothmes III. and Rameses II. could claim dominion and levy tribute from
the nations from the banks of the Euphrates to the borders of the Libyan
desert. Second, this was followed by a short period of independence, when
the Jewish nation in the south was growing in power, until it reached its
early zenith in the golden days of Solomon; and when Tyre and Sidon were
rich cities, sending their traders far and wide, over land and sea, as
missionaries of civilization, while in the north the confederate tribes of the
Hittites held back the armies of the kings of Assyria. The third, and to us
most interesting, period is that during which the kings of Assyria were
dominant over the plains of Syria; when Tyre, Sidon, Ashdod, and
Jerusalem bowed beneath the conquering armies of Shalmaneser, Sargon,
and Sennacherib; and when at last Memphis and Thebes yielded to the
power of the rulers of Nineveh and Babylon, and the kings of Assyria
completed with terrible fulness the bruising of the reed of Egypt so clearly
foretold by the Hebrew prophets.”, Boscawen.