No. 1. A medal of Antioch in Pisidia, representing the goddess Cybele, worshipped in this city.

No. 2. A medal with the figure of the deity, Men, Meen, or Mensis; called in Hebrew Meni. The prophet says, (Isa. lxv. 11.) "Ye prepare a table for Gad, and furnish a drink offering to Meni." (The Hebrew words Gad and Meni, in the English translation of the Bible, are rendered that troop, and number.) Gad probably means the deity, Good Fortune, whose figure, with the cornucopia and rudder, appears frequently on ancient medals. The crescent on our figure of Meni, alludes to the moon, the "queen of heaven;" and the worship of this deity occupied the whole family, fathers, women and children, as we learn from Jer. vii. 18.; and this was done "in the streets," in expectation of plenty, (chap. xliv. 17, 18.) the very idea of the cornucopia accompanying For

tune.

ANTIPATRIS, a town in Samaria, north-west from Jerusalem, anciently called Caphar-salama, but named Antipatris by Herod, in honour of his father, Antipater. It was situated in the way from Jerusalem to Cæsarea, and hither Paul and his guard came by night. Acts xxiii. 31. It was 42 miles from Jerusalem, and 26 from Cæsarea. Josephus says it was 17 miles from Joppa.

APAMEA, a city situated on the river Orontes in Syria. There was another city of this name in Phrygia in Asia Minor, called also Kibotos, the ark; having on its medals a figure of the ark, and a man receiving a dove flying to him, with part of the inscription Noe: hence some have conjectured that the ark rested not far from this place, as the subject was doubtless annually celebrated in the city. Calmet, Script. Illust.

APHARSACHITES, people sent by the kings of Assyria to inhabit the country of Samaria, in the room of those Israelites who had been removed beyond the Euphrates. Ezra v. 6.

APнEK, the name of several cities mentioned in Scripture. 1. Aphek, a town in the tribe of Asher. Josh. xix. 30. Judg. i. 31. 1 Sam. iv. 1. xxix. 1. 1 Kings xx. 30.

2. Aphek, in the tribe of Judah. Josh. xii. 18. called Aphekah, xv. 53.

3. Aphek in the tribe of Manasseh. Josh. xii. 18. xiii.

APPII-FORUM, a place in Italy, about 50 miles from Rome, where Paul was met by some Christians, in his journey thither. Acts xxviii. 15. This place is thought to have been named the Forum of Appius, from the same Appius who gave name to the Appian way, near Rome.

APOLLONIA, a city in the south of Macedonia, not far from

Amphipolis, through which St. Paul passed on his way to Thessalonica. Acts xvii. 1.

AR, the chief city of the Moabites, (Numb. xxi. 15. 28.) called also Rabbath Moab. It was situated upon the river Arnon, and was called by the Greek writers Areopolis. Some have supposed this city to have been the same with Aroer; but Aroer was given to the tribe of Gad, and was on the north side of the Arnon, whereas Ar belonged to the Moabites, and was consequently on the south side of that river.

ARABIA, a large tract of country in Asia, bounded north by Syria and Persia; east by the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea; south-east by the Indian Ocean; south by the Straits of Babelmandel, and west by the Red Sea, Isthmus of Suez, and the Land of Canaan or Judea: extending 1500 miles from north to south, and 1200 from east to west. The name Arabia is supposed to be derived from the Hebrew word Orebeh, a wilderness or desert.

This is one of the most interesting countries in the world. It has, according to prophecy, never been subdued; and its inhabitants, at once pastoral, commercial, and warlike, are the same wild, wandering people, as the immediate descendants of their great ancestor Ishmael are represented to have been.

But though in the tribes of the desert his descendants are recognized, Arabia was not first peopled by him, but by some of the numerous families of Cush, as we have stated in Part I.;

and it is not until about 550 years after the deluge that we read of the Ishmaelites and Midianites, as the shepherds and carriers of the deserts, and who were probably intermingled and shared the territory and the traffic, as the traders who bought Joseph are called by both names.

Arabia has been divided by geographers into three separate regions, called Arabia Petræa, Arabia Deserta. and Arabia Felix.

Arabia Petræa is the north-western division; bounded north by Judea and the Dead Sea; east by Arabia Deserta; south by Arabia Felix; and west by the western arm or branch of the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez. The greater part of this division was more particularly the possession of the Midianites; and in this region were the wanderings of the Israelites after leaving Egypt. Here were also seated the Edomites and Amalekites. The greater part of this district consists of sandy and stony plains, with naked rocks; but it contains some fertile spots, particularly in the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai, and in the range of Mount Seir.

Arabia Deserta is bounded north and north-east by Persia; east by a range of mountains which separate it from Chaldea; south by Arabia Felix; and west by Syria, Judea, and Arabia Petræa. This was more particularly the country, first of the Cushites, and afterwards of the Ishmaelites, as it is still of their descendants, the modern Bedouins, who maintain the same predatory and wandering habits. It consists almost entirely of one vast and lonesome wilderness, a boundless level of dry and burning sands, denying existence to all but the Arab and his camel. There are, however, scattered over this dreary waste, a few spots of vegetation, where a feeble spring of brackish water, with a few palm-trees, fix the principal settlement of a tribe, and afford stages of refreshment in these otherwise impassable deserts.

Arabia Felix, so called from the happier condition of its soil and climate, is situated in the southern part of the country. It is bounded on the north by the two other divisions; east by the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea; south-east by the Indian Ocean; south by the Straits of Babelmandel; and west by the Red Sea. It is divided into several provinces, of which Yemen, at the southern extremity, is represented as a well watered and fertile region, producing abundance of corn and fruits, and rich crops of the finest coffee, of which large quan

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tities are exported. In the western part of this division are the cities of Mecca and Medina.

The people of Arabia Felix claim descent direct from Joktan, the son of Heber, of the family of Shem, instead of Abraham and Ham, as the other Arabians; and are indeed a totally different people from those inhabiting the other parts of the country. Instead of being shepherds and robbers, they live in towns and cities, and subsist by agriculture and commerce. These were the people who were found by the Greeks of Egypt, enjoying a monopoly of the trade with the East, and possessing a high degree of wealth and refinement. From them the precious spices and merchandise of the east were carried across the country to Egypt, by the Cushite, Ishmaelite, and Midianite carriers, to a company of whom Joseph was sold by his brethren.

It is a singular and important fact, that Arabia has never been conquered by any invader, and the people still inhabit the land of their fathers. It was prophesied in Scripture that they should be invincible, and their millions of inhabitants are so many witnesses of the truth of revelation. Every man's hand is against Ishmael, and his against every man; and yet he dwells securely among his brethren. The body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies. The arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Cæsar, of Trajan and Napoleon, have never achieved the conquest of Arabia. The present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction; but his pride is reduced to solicit

the friendship of a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack. Their domestic feuds are suspended on the approach of a common enemy, and in their last hostilities against the Turks, the caravan of Mecca was attacked and plundered by eighty thousand Arabs. When they advance to battle, the hope of victory is in the front, and the assurance of retreat in the rear. Mounted on horses and camels, which in a few days can perform a march of four or five hundred miles, they disappear before the conqueror; the secret waters of the desert elude his search, and his victorious troops are consumed with thirst, hunger and fatigue, in the pursuit of an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and safely reposes in the heart of the burning solitude.

The Arabians were confounded by the Greeks and Romans, under the general name of Saracens; and by this they were called when Mahomet appeared in the seventh century. Their religion at this time was Sabianism, or the worship of the sun, moon, &c. intermingled with some Jewish and Christian maxims and traditions. The tribes themselves were generally at variance one with another, and desultory skirmishes, arising from these feuds, were frequent. Yet of these discordant materials Mahomet constructed a mighty empire; converted the relapsed Ishmaelites into good Mussulmans; united the jarring tribes under one banner; and out of a banditti, little known and little feared beyond their own deserts, raised an armed multitude which proved the scourge of the world. During the whole of the succeeding century, the rapid career of his followers was unchecked; the disciplined armies of the Greeks and Romans were unable to stand against them; the Christian churches of Asia and Africa were annihilated; and from India to the Atlantic, through Persia, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, Egypt, with the whole of northern Africa, Spain, and part of France, the Impostor was acknowledged. Constantinople was besieged; the Roman empire was plundered; and nothing less than the subjection of the whole Christian world was meditated on the one hand, and expected on the other.

But the five prophetic months (150 years) which this scourge was to last, (Rev. ix.) being fulfilled, the conquests of the Caliphs were checked. They were first defeated in France, by Charles Martel; the Persians and Greeks were at length aroused from their thraldom; the Turks, issuing from the plains of Tartary, now first made their appearance in the east, and the power of the Saracen Caliphate was extinguished.