ictiy.
546
DAMASCUS
DAMASCUS
attempt not only failed : it hastened the disaster they wished to avert. Ahaz appealed to Tiglath- pileser, who at once ' went up against D. and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir,' Rezin himself bein" slain (2 K 16*) ; and Assyr. colonists were placed in it (Jos.^nt. IX. xii. 3). This was the heaviest blow the city had yet re- ceived, and for a time she seems to have been crushed by it. To this period probably refer the prophecies of Isaiah and Amos, ' The riches of D. . . . shall be carried away before the king of Assyria' (Is 8''), ' Behold, D. is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap ' (Is 17'), ' I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of Benhadad . . . and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir, saith the Lord ' (Am !*• ' ; see also Jer 49-"'"). Ahaz came to D. to do homage to Tiglath- pileser. Here he saw the great altar, of which, at his order, a duplicate waa made by Urijah the priest, and put in the temple to supplant the brazen altar (2 K 16'°""). For the important issues of this act see W. R. Smith, OTJ&- 265, 443, RS 359, 466 ff.
A city occupying the position of D. could not be permanently ovem'helmed. During the Persian period she displayed afresh her perennial vigour, playing a distinguished part (Strabo, xvi. 2. 9). When Darius advanced against Alexander at Issus, he sent his harem and treasures to D. for safety. After his defeat and in'dorious flight, the city was treacherously surrendered to Alex- ander's general, Parnienio (Arrian, Exped. Al. ii. 11). During the Greek occupation D. yielded to Antioch on the Orontes the rank of first city in Syria. In the course of the wars with Egypt, D., with Palestine and Ccelesyria, fell at times into the hands of the Ptolemies. On the division of Syria (B.C. Ill) between Antiochus Grypus and Antiochus Cj-zicenus, D. fell to the latter. Against this prince Hyrcanus made a successful stand (Jos. Ant. xill. x. 1-3). The next king was Demetrius Eucserus, who, assisted by Ptolemy Lathyrus, establislied himself in D., and divided the rule of Syria with liis brother Philip {Ant. XIII. xiii. 4). Invited by discontented Jews, he marched against Alexander Jannieus, and defeated that prince near Sheclieiu, returning immediately to war with Philip. The latter, assisted by Arabs and Parthians, was victorious. Demetrius was sent to Mithridates, king of Parthia, and remained with him till his death. A younger brother, Antiochus Dionysus, now seized the throne of Damascus. He fell in an encounter witli Aretas, king of Arabia; and this monarch, invited by the inhabitants, entered D. and assumed the reins of government. Against Ptolemy Menuipus, ' who waa such a bad neiglibour to the city,' Alexandra, widow of Janmeus, sent an expedition to D., under her son Aristobulus, which achieved nothing {Ant. XIII. xvi. 3). Tigranes, king of Armenia, obtained temporary possession. The Romans under Metelhis took the city, and here, B.C. 64, Pompey received ambassadors from the neighbour- in" kings, who brought him presents ; among others, a golden vine from Aristobulus, valued at 500 talents. In B.C. 63 the whole of Syria became a Roman province ; and, while the proconsul usually resided in Antioch, D. began to assume her old ascendency. Herod, while still a young man, escaping judgment from the Sanhedrin, came here to visit Sextus Cassar, and was made by him general of the army of Ccelesyria {Ant. XIV. ix. 5). Later, according to Jos. {JIJ I. xxi. 11), he showed his magnanimity by adorning many cities, not only within but also beyond his own dominions. To D. he added the attractions of a gymnasium and a theatre. It was on the way to D. that the
miraculous event occurred through which Saul of Tarsus was converted to Christianity ; and in this city he first testified for Christ (Ac 9-"). It was then under the Arabian Aretas, and governed by an ethnarch, whose vigilance Paul escaped, being let down over the wall in a basket (2 Co IP^). Hither the apostle returned, after his sojourn in Arabia (Gal 1"). It was reckoned to the Decapolia (Pliny, HN v. 16). Josephus curiously remarks that Scythopolis was the greatest of these citie« After Herod's time he says little of D. ; but there must have been a strong Jewish colony there : at one time some 10,000 of these were slain by the populace {BJ II. xx. 2). Under Trajan, D. attained the rank of a Roman provincial city. Since that time, although she has often changed hands, her career of prosperity has hardly been interrupted, save perhaps when she fell before the ferocious Tamerlane (1399). D. is still the chief city in Syria, with a population of not less than 150,000. Christians have always been fairly numerous in the city. Theodosius transformed the great temple into a Christian church. On the advent of Islam it was changed into a Moslem mosque. D. was originally subordinate to Antioch, which was the seat of the patriarch ; but this official, still taking his title from Antioch, now resides in Damascus. The darkest blot on the history of the city is the massacre of some 6000 Christians in the summer of 1860.