LiTERiTDRE.— W. Smith, DGRG, 1868, art. 'Syracusaj'; J. Fiihrer and V. Schultze, Die altchrintlichen Grahsttitten Sizilieiis, 1907 ; C. Baedeker, Southern Italy and Sicily^'',
190S, pp. 406^20. James Strahan.
SYRIA {^vpla). — This term is employed in the LXX as the equivalent of the Heb. Aram. It is probably the same word as the Babylonian Stiri, which was applied to a N. Euphratean district. 'Syria' was distinct from 'Assyria,' though Herodotus (vii. 63) confounds 'kaavptoi and 'Zvpioi as barbarian and Greek forms of a single ethnic term. As defined by Strabo (xvi. ii. 1), who is followed by Pliny and Ptolemy, Syria was bounded on the W. by the Mediterranean, on the N. by the Tauric range of mountains, on the E. by the middle Euphrates and the Ham.ad or desert steppe, and on the S. by the Sinaitic peninsula. Its com- ponent parts {ib. XVI. ii. 2) were Commagene, Seleucis, Ccelesyria, Phoenicia, and Judfea. The whole country was about 400 miles from N. to S., with a mean breadth of 150 miles. But there was a special, and a still prevalent, usage, wherein Syria was restricted to that part of the wider area which lies N. of Palestine, exclusive of Phoenicia. Under the Ottoman system Syria denotes no more than the district of Damascus, for the vilayets of Aleppo and Beyrout, as well as the sanjaks of Lebanon and Jerusalem, form separate areas.
The most prominent physical features of Syria are two parallel mountain ranges trending N. and S. The western range, springing from Taurus, includes Mt. Casius and Lebanon, and broadens out into the table-land of Galilee, Samaria, and Judfea. The eastern system, which rises into Anti-Libanus and culminates in Hermon, may be traced in Jebel Hauran and the mountains of Moab as far as Horeb. Between Lebanon and the sea is the plain of Phoenicia, which has only a few torrent-streams. From the high lacustrine district of Coelesyria, between Lebanon and Anti-Lil)anus, the Orontes flows northward, the Litany and Jordan southward. To the east of Hermon, the Abana (or Barada), after creating the oasis of Damascus, loses itself in desert marshes. The district of Commagene has two river-basins, which belong respectively to the Cilician and the Euphra- tean river-systems.
Most of the nationalities which have settled in Syria have been of the Semitic stock. Separated from one another by great mountain barriers, they have never formed a political unity, but during the centuries in which their freedom was undis- turbed by the military powers on the Nile and Euphrates valleys they developed types of civil- ization and culture which, through the commerce of PhoBuicia and the religion of Judtea, have powerfully influenced mankind. The Arabs who founded the Nabat,-ean kingdom, with Petra as its centre, were largely affected by the manners and customs of their Aramaean neighbours.
The foundation of Greek cities in Syria after the
SYKTIS
TAISKKNACLE
r,47
time of Alexander the Great was of primary im- portance for the country. Antioch was built as the seat of the Seleueiil dynasty, and became the third, if not the secoiul, city in the world. The Graico-Syrian civili/ation extended far down both sides of .Jordan, ami, but for the crazy policy of Antiochus Epiphanes and the consequent Macca- ba!an revolt, might have abscn-bed jud.-ea itself. Syria was conquered for the Romans by Pompey in G.S B.C. The province of that name which he constituted did not embrace the whole country of Syria in the wider sense. It extended from the Gulf of Issus in the N. to a little beyond Damascus in the S. The rest of ancient Syria was to be found partly in the territories of numerous free cities, and partly in petty principalities subject to Rome, while Comniagene had become an independ- ent kingdom before the time of Pompey's conquest. Syria was geographically related to Cilicia, with which it easily communicated by the Pylm Syrice (Beilan Pass), and Augustus formed the great triple province of Syria-Cilicia-Phoenice, which subsisted throughout the 1st cent. A.D. Syria and Cilicia formed a single mission-field for the Apostolic Chvirch, and are therefore several times named together in the NT (Ac IS-^- •", Gal 1='). Hadrian constituted the three provinces of Syria, Syria- Phtenice, and Syria-Palestina. Antioch remained the capital of Syria till the time of Septimius Severus, who gave the honour to Laodicea (now Latakia), making it a colonia. After the Muliani- madan conquest (A.D. 636) the old Semitic capital, Damascus, regained its ascendancy. Syria suffered greatly at the hands of the Mongols (A.D. 1260), and never recovered its old prosperity.
Literature. — J. L. Porter, Fice Years in Damnscus, 2 voU., ISo.^i; G. A. Smith, HGHL*, 1897; H. C. Butler, Archi- tecture and other Arts, 1903; G. L. Bell, The Desert and the Sown. 1907. JaMES STRAHAN.
8YRTIS (AV 'quicksands,' Ac 27").— The Great
and theLittleSyrti3(2upns^f7o(X77Kai/«Kpd) were the eastern and western recesses of the great bay on the North African coast between Carthage and Cyren- aica. Drifting before an E.N.E. wiiul (see Ei;ra- QUII.O), the crew of .St. Paul's sliiji knew that they were being carried in the direction of the Greater Syrtis(now the G ill/ iif Sidrn), 'the Goodwin Sands of the Mediterranean ' (I''. W. Karrar, The Life and Work of Ht. Paul, 1897, p. 568). The best comment on Luke's words is supplied by Strabo (xvn. iii. 20) :
' The difliculty of navipating both this and the Lesser Syrtis arises from the souiitiini^s in many parts being soft mud. It sometimes happens, on the ebbini; and tlowin;; of the tide, that vessels are carried upon the siiallows, settle down, and are seldom recovered. Sailors therefore, in tH)astin};, keep at a distance from the shore, and are on their guard. lest they should be caught by a wind unprepared, and driven into these gulfs.'