Literature. —(1) Greek Text. — O. von Gebhardt, Die Psalmen Salomo's(,TU xiii. 2 [ISil,-;]); H. B. Swete, The Old Testament in Greek, 1894-96, iii. 766-787 (text of MS E with the variants of H and tiiree MSS dependent on H).
(2) Syriac Text. — J. Rendel Harris, The Odes and P.-^abns of .^oloriifm, 1909 (21911, where the variants of a Canibridiie University MS discovered hy Barnes [Harris, p. 46] and contain- ing: part of Ps 16 are given); F. C. Burkitt, in JThSt xiii. [1911-12] 372-3S5 (a description of a British Museum MS con- taining in immediate continuation of the odes of Solomon and with continuous enumeration Pss.-Sol. i. 1-iii. 5 and x. 4- xviii. 5).
(3) Commentaries, etc. — H. E. Ryle and M. R. James, Psalms 0/ the Pharisees, 1S91 (the Greek text here printed ia antiquated ; but on account of the fullness and excellence of the introduction and commentary this work remains of the first importance); J. Wellhausen, Die Pharisder und die Sadducder, 1874 (contains a German translation) ; J. Viteau, Les Psaumes de Salvrrion, 1911 (text, translation, and full intro- duction and commentary); G. B. Gray, 'The Psalms of Solomon ' (brief introduction and notes to an English transla- tion arranged in parallel lines in Charles's Apocrypha and Pseiidepigrapha oj the Old Testament. 1913. ii. 625-652). For a full bibliography, see Viteau, op. cit. pp. 240-251.
G. Buchanan Gray. PTOLEMAIS (TlToXep-ah). — Ptolemais is the ancient Canaanite town of Acco (mentioned in Jg 1^' and in the corrected text of Jos 19^), still known in Arab. a,s'Akka. Standing on the rocky promontory which forms the northern boundary of tlie sandy Bay of Acre, protected by the sea on the W., S., and S.E., and strongly fortitied on the landward side, it came to be regarded as the key of Palestine, and its chequered history is chielly a record of sieges, of which it ha;s probably had to endure more in ancient and modern times than any other Syrian town. Between it and the hills of tialilee lies the fertile Plain of Acre, six miles
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in width, watered by tlie Nalir Namein, the ancient Belus, a river famous for the manufacture — Pliny {JIX xxxvi. 65. 20) says the invention — of glass at its mouth, as well as for the niurex sheTls from wiiicli purple dye was extracted by the Phoenicians.
The town rose to considerable importance under the Macedonian kings of Egj'pt, who converted it into a Greek city, and its new name — given prob- ably by Ptolemy Soter, and retained when the rival kings of Sj'ria gained the mastery — continued to be used till the end of the Roman period, after which the old native name was revived. The city played a prominent i)art in the Maccabaean wars. There Simon routed the Sj'rian Greeks (I Mac 5"), and there ilonathan was treacherously captured by Trypho (12""'"). Ptolemais had an era dating from a visit of Julius Caisar in 47 B.C. Augustus was entertained in it by Herod the Great (Jos. Ant. XV. vi. 7), and Claudius established it as a colonia (Pliny, HN v. 17). The Romans used it as a base of operations in the Jewish war, at the outbreak of which its inhabitants proved their loyalty to Rome by massacring 2,000 Jews resident in the city and putting others in bonds (Jos. BJ II. xviii. 5).
Ptolemais is mentioned only once in the NT. St. Paul touched it in sailing from Tyre to Csesarea (Ac 21'). Its distance from Tyre is 2.5 miles. The Apostle saluted the Christians whom he found in the town, and remained a day in their company. The founder of the Church is not known. Philip the Evangelist, who laboured in Coesarea, has been suggested.
Under the name of Accon (St. Jean d'Acre of the Knights of St. John), the town was the scene of many conflicts in the time of tlie Crusaders, who made it their chief port in Palestine. Its capture by the Saracens brought the kingdom of the Franks to an end. The destruction of the city ' produced terror all over Europe ; for, with its fall in 1291, the power of the Christian nations of the West lost its last hold upon the East ' (C. Ritter, The Comparative Geography of Palestine and the Sinailic Peninsula, 1866, iv. 361). Reconstructed in the 18th cent., besieged in vain by Napoleon (1799), captured by Ibrahim Pasha (1831), and bombarded by the fleets of Britain, Austria, and Turkey (1840), it still has some commercial import- ance, though the recent growth of Haifa has told heavily against it.
LlTERATFRE. — A. P. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, new ed., 1877, p. 265 f. ; G. A. Smith, llGaL\ 1897 ; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Bunk, 1864, p. 308 ; C. Baedeker, Palestine and Syriai, 1906; E. Schurer, HJP ii. [1885] i. 90 1.
James Strahan.
PUBLIOS (HiSTrXios).— Publius was the leading man of Malta at the time of St. Paul's shipwreck there, when he hospitably entertained the ship- wrecked party (Ac 28'). His father, who was sick of fever and dysentery, was healed by the Ajjostle (v.*). The epithet 6 irpdros, ' the chief man,' seems to have been an official title peculiar to Malta (cf. Ramsay, St. Paul, 1895, p. 343). The form ' Poplios ' may be either the Greek popular equiva- lent for the Roman 7«-a;raojne)i Publius or the Greek rendering of the nomen i'opilius. Ecclesiastical tradition makes him the first bishop of Malta.