Listed 7 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "DAMASKOS Ancient city SYRIA".
In the interior of S Syria, between the mountains and the desert,
in the midst of irrigated gardens, famous for their produce. It was conquered
by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. The Lagids and Seleucids wrangled over it,
and the latter gave it the name of Demetrias. It was threatened by the Iturii
and passed under Nabataean control in 85 B.C. under Aretas III Philhellene. Conquered
by Pompey in 64 B.C., Damascus flourished in the Roman period. It was the birthplace
of Apollodorus, Trajan's architect, and became a Roman colony under the Severans.
Diocletian set up an arsenal here; Julian visited the town, and Theodosius and
Arcadius built a church in honor of St. John the Baptist. Taken by the Persians
in 612, it was reconquered by Heraclius in 628 and in 635-36 by the Moslems.
The site has never been abandoned, but there are few Greek or Roman
remains: notably the Temple of Damascene Jupiter and the ancient plan of the city.
The Street called Straight, mentioned in The Acts of the Apostles, can still be
seen.
The sanctuary of Damascene Jupiter, now occupied by the mosque of
the Omayyads, was the largest of all Syrian sanctuaries. It consisted of a temple
(completely destroyed in the Omayyad period) built in the middle of two concentric
courts. The inner one was 150 m E-W by 100 m N-S, and surrounded by a monumental
peribolos built in the first half of the 1st c. A.D. This has become the enclosing
wall of the mosque. The stone walls are 14 regular courses high, capped by stepped
merlons. Towers containing staircases stand at each corner; the S towers serve
as foundations for two of the minarets of the mosque.
The monumental entry was to the E, where propylaea 33 m long jutted
out 15 m from the line of the walls. The great stairway, which still has 15 steps,
is buried to over half of its original height. Three bays led to the interior,
with two small lateral rooms for the porters. On the W was a single axial bay,
with a large doorway topped by an arch on each side, to admit carts and sacrificial
animals. Spacious rooms (chambers and exedras) extended right and left of the
E and W gates up to the towers. On both N and S sides was a triple bay adorned
with sculptures and, in the W part of the S side, a gate topped by an arch. In
Byzantine times three Christian inscriptions were engraved over other words on
the lintels of the S gates.
The outside enclosure consisted of a massive rampart. The exterior
was adorned with large pilasters and a portico was built against it on the interior.
The remains of the wall and colonnade are mainly visible to the E, where a monumental
gate with a triple bay lies exactly on the axis of the large propylaea of the
peribolos. The axial arrangement on the W side can be seen in the souk which leads
to the W door of the mosque: a pediment supported by four large Corinthian columns
framed by two piers; beside these are pilasters which undoubtedly matched the
colonnade of the portico. An inscription of A.D. 90-91 indicates that there was
an entry for carts on the W side, as well as a gamma-shaped annex which stood
against the enclosure and was supported by the town ramparts on its N side.
The exact location of the Church of St. John the Baptist within the
sanctuary of Damascene Jupiter is a matter of controversy; apparently it cannot
have become the Omayyad mosque.
On the axis of the E entry to the temple, a wide avenue, 240 m long
and bordered with colonnades in the Roman period, led to a spacious agora. The
grid of the ancient streets, which dates to Hellenistic times, has been traced
in the present plan of the E part of the old town, E of the temple: the streets
running N-S are spaced 45 m apart, those running E-W 100 m apart. Some irregular
streets appear E of the agora, however, in a district whose popular name suggests
that it was the Nabataean quarter. In the 1st c. A.D. there were so many Nabataeans
in Damascus that King Aretas IV maintained an ethnarch there.
The axis of the ancient town was the Street called Straight, bordered
with colonnades in Roman times. It ran from the W gate to Bab Sharqi, the well-preserved
E gate with three bays with semicircular arches. The central pavement was more
than 13 m wide, the lateral porticos 6 m apiece. Actually the Street called Straight
had three sections with different axes, but two monumental arches masked the slight
changes in orientation. One arch can be seen 500 m W of Bab Sharqi; it has a lateral
bay with a semicircular vault and a sturdy masonry mole. The other was 250 m farther
W. Not far from the second arch, on the S side of the avenue, a hillock often
called a tell may cover the ruins of a palace. A tall column bearing a huge imperial
statue stood near it during the Late Empire. Farther W, S of the avenue, the curving
course of the streets suggests the existence of a Roman theater. Its hemicycle
opened to the N and must have had a diameter of ca. 100 m.
The ramparts of the Moslem town follow the course of the ancient walls
only in a short stretch on either side of the E Gate, where the line is strictly
rectilinear and perpendicular to the axis of the Street called Straight. Even
there, the ancient materials are all reused. Various indications, however, have
allowed a reconstruction of the course of the ancient fortification. It was a
huge rectangle, and therefore must date to Roman times; the mediaeval gates mark
the sites of the ancient ones. The remains of a Roman bridge over the river can
be seen some m from Bab Tuma, on the axis of the gate. The citadel, XV of the
temple, contains nothing ancient except reused materials. On the inside, however,
it preserves part of the W front of the Roman ramparts.
J. P. Rey-Coquais, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 5 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Damaskos; in Hebrew, Dammesek; in Arabic, Dimeshk-es-Sham).
One of the principal cities of Syria, in what was called Coele-Syria, a few miles
to the east of Antilibanus, where the chain begins to turn off to the southeast,
under the name of Carmel. It is beautifully situated in an extensive and pleasant
plain, and watered by a river called by the Greeks Bardine or Chrysorrhoas, "the
golden stream," now Barada. The Biblical name of this stream was Abana. Damascus
is supposed to have been founded by Uz, the eldest son of Aram. However this may
be, it existed in the time of Abraham, and may be reckoned one of the most ancient
cities of Syria. It was conquered by David, but freed itself from the Jewish yoke
in the time of Solomon, and became the seat of a new principality, which often
harassed the kingdoms of both Judah and Israel. It afterwards fell, in succession,
under the power of the Assyrians and the Persians, and came from the latter into
the hands of the Seleucidae. Damascus, however, did not flourish much under the
Greek dynasty, as it had while held by the Persians. The Seleucidae neglected
the place, and bestowed all their favour on the new cities erected by them in
the northern parts of Syria; and here, no doubt, lies the reason why the later
Greek and Roman writers say so little of the city itself, though they are all
loud in their praises of the adjacent country. Damascus was seized by the Romans
in the war of Pompey with Tigranes, B.C. 65, but still continued, as under the
Greek dynasty, a comparatively unimportant place until the time of Diocletian.
This emperor, feeling the necessity of a strongly fortified city in this quarter,
as a depot for munitions of war and a military post against the frequent inroads
of the Saracens, selected Damascus for the purpose. Everything was done, accordingly,
to strengthen the place; extensive magazines were also established, and likewise
numerous workshops for the preparation of weapons of war. It is not unlikely that
the high reputation to which Damascus afterwards attained for its manufacture
of sword-blades and other works in steel, may have had its first foundations laid
by this arrangement on the part of Diocletian. The city continued from this time
to be a flourishing place. In the seventh century it fell into the hands of the
Saracens, and was for some time after this the seat of the califs. Its prosperity,
too, remained unimpaired, since the route of the principal caravans to Mecca lay
through it. It was sacked by Tamerlane, and finally became subject to the Turks.
The Great Mosque of Damascus still shows traces of the Graeco-Roman
architecture.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Damascus (Damaskos: Eth. Damaskenos: the territory he Damaskene),
the capital city of Syria, both in ancient and modern times, though its preeminence
was disputed during the classical period by Antioch. It is an exceedingly ancient
city, being mentioned first in the history of Abraham's pursuit of the defeated
kings (Gen. xiv. 15); and his steward Eliezer was a native of Damascus (xv. 2).
Josephus ascribes its foundation to Uz, a grandson of Shem (Ant. i. 6. § 3). During
the period of the Hebrew monarchy it was the head or capital of Syria (Isaiah,
vii. 8), and the Syrian king is called the king of Damascus (2 Chron. xxiv. 23).
But during the struggles between these neighbouring kingdoms it occasionally fell
into the hands of the Israelites. Thus David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus,
and the Syrians became servants to David (2 Sam. viii. 6; 1 Chron. xviii. 6),
after he had defeated Hadarezer, king of Zobah, to whom the Syrians of Damascus
had allied themselves. The fact that Tadmor in the wilderness was built by Solomon
(2 Chron. viii. 4), which further gives countenance to the very ancient and consistent
tradition of his connection with Baalbek, proves that David's son and successor
retained possession of southern Syria; but Damascus was during this time subject
to Rezon, a vassal of Hadarezer. (1 Kings, xi. 23-25.) Subsequently to the division
of the Hebrew kingdom, cir. B.C. 900, we find a Hebrew quarter in Damascus ceded
by treaty to Ahab by Benhadad (1 Kings, xx. 34), and the city was at length recovered
to Israel by Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel (cir. B.C. 822). (2 Kings,
xiv. 28.) The alliance of Syria with Israel against Judah led Ahaz to call in
the aid of Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria, who, in consequence, went up against
Damascus and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir (cir. B.C. 740),
according to the prophecy of Amos, delivered about fifty years before the event.
(2 Kings, xvi. 9; Amos, i. 5.) From this time it followed the fortunes of the
Assyrian empire, but does not appear at any time to have had much importance in
a military view. Besides which, its political and commercial importance after
the time of Alexander the Great was eclipsed by Antioch and other cities founded
by the Seleucidae; which may further account for the scanty notices of it that
occur in classical authors. Strabo describes it as polis axiologos, schedon ti
kai epiphanestate ton tautni kata ta Persika (xvi. p. 756). Pliny says that according
to some it was reckoned as one of the cities of the Dccapolis (v. 18). He only
further mentions it for its alabaster (xxxvi. 18). It is, however, strange that
so renowned a city, the subject of such extravagant eulogy in the poems and romances
of the Orientals, should be almost unnoticed in the classical poets; the ventosa
Damascus of Lucan - certainly not a well-chosen epithet - being the sum of their
tribute to this most remarkable and beautiful city (iii. 215).
In the annals of the church it is noted for the conversion and first
preaching of the apostle St. Paul, which synchronised with the occupation of the
city by the ethnarch of Aretas, the king apparently of Arabia or Petra. (2 Cor.
xi. 32.) As the event is not chronicled by any historian, the circumstances under
which this petty king had come into possession of so important a place are very
doubtful; but it is certain that it was subject to the Roman rule until the reign
of Heraclius, when it was taken by the Saracens in the 13th year of the Hejira
(A.D. 634), from which time, as if to compensate for its temporary eclipse, it
has been the delight and glory of the East, and celebrated by the Arabian poets
as the terrestrial Paradise.
Damascus, now called Es-Sham, is situated at the distance of two days'
journey, or about 60 miles from the coast of the Mediterranean, not far from the
eastern base of the range of Antilibanus, and at the western extremity of the
great desert of El-Hauran (Auranitis), which extends westward to the Euphrates,
and southward to the Arabian peninsula. It presents the peculiar phenomenon of
a city in the midst of gardens, watered by numerous streams. It is surrounded
by a wall, which is however in a state of ruinous decay, and scarcely defines
the limits between the city and its suburbs. In 1843, the population of Damascus
was stated at 111.552, of which number about 12.000 were Christians, and 5000
Jews. It is governed by a pasha, whose rule extends from the Euphrates to the
Jordan, and from the vicinity of Aleppo to the confines of Arabia.
The Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, are of Scripture celebrity
(2 Kings, v. 12), and both Strabo and Pliny mention the Chrysorroa, to which the
latter ascribes the fertility of the soil ( Damascum ex epoto riguis amne Chrysoroa
fertilem); and Strabo remarks that its waters are almost entirely consumed in
irrigation, for that it waters a large extent of deep soil. There are, in fact,
as the writer ascertained, two copious sources in the eastern roots of Antilibanus,
the Barada and the Phege. Of these, the Barada is far the most copious, and being
divided into numerous rivulets on emerging from the mountains above the city,
waters its innumerable gardens. The water, however, is not good for drinking,
and the inhabitants of the villages along its course in the Wady Barada are subject
to goitre. Even the poor of Damascus do not ordinarily drink this water. This
is probably the Abana of Scripture. The Pharpar is represented by the Phege, a
smaller stream of delicious water, whose source was explored by Pocock. It emerges
from the mountain range through the same valley as the Barada, and is conducted
by aqueducts and pipes to all parts of the city for the purpose of supplying the
inhabitants with drinking water. The scanty surplus of the two streams forms a
small lake below the city, called Bahr-el-Merj.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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