Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "MARATHOS Ancient city SYRIA" .
MARATHOS (Ancient city) SYRIA
Marathus (Marathos: Eth. Marathenaios al. Marathenos), a city on the
coast of Syria, north of Aradus, placed by Ptolemy in the district of Cassiotis,
which extended as far north as Antioch. It is joined with Enydra, and was a ruin
in Strabo's time. It was on the confines of Phoenice, and the district was then
under the dominion of the Aradians (Strab. xvi. p. 753; comp. Plin. v. 20), who
had been foiled in a former attempt to reduce it to their power. The story, as
given in a fragment of Diodorus (lib. xxxii. vol.x. p.76-78, ed. Bipont; vol.
ii. p. 593, ed. Wess.), is as follows. The people of Aradus having seized what
they considered a favourable opportunity for the destruction of the people of
Marathus, sent privately to Ammonius, prime minister of Alexander Balas, the king
of Syria, and bribed him with the offer of 300 talents to deliver up Marathus
to them. The unfortunate inhabitants of the devoted city attempted in vain to
appease their enemies. The Aradians violated the common laws of suppliants, broke
the very ancient images of the local deities,- which the Maratheni had brought
to add solemnity to their embassy, - stoned the ambassadors, and cast them into
prison: according to another account, they murdered some, and forged letters in
their names, which they sealed with their seals, promising succour to Marathus,
with a view of introducing their troops into the city under this pretence. But
discovering that the citizens of Marathus were informed of their design, they
desisted from the attempt. The facts of its final subjugation to Aradus are not
preserved. Pliny (v. 20) places Marathus opposite to the island of Aradus, which
he says was 200 passus (=1000 Roman feet) from the coast. Diodorus (l. c.) states
the distance between Aradus and Marathus to be 8 stadia; which need not be inconsistent
with the statement of Pliny, as the latter may be supposed to measure to the point
on the mainland nearest to Aradus, the former the distance between that island
and the town of Marathus. The fact, however, is, that even the statement of Diodorus
is too short for the nearest point on the coast; for this island is, according
to Maundrell (March 7, p. 19), about a league distant from the shore. And Pococke,
who crossed the strait, says it is reckoned to be about two miles from the continent.
(Observations on Syria, p. 201.) The 20 stadia of Strabo is therefore much more
correct than either of the other authorities. He says that the island lay off
an exposed coast (rhachiodous kai alimenou), between its port (Caranus lege Carnos)
and Marathus: and what was the respective situation of these towns he intimates
in another passage, where, reckoning from the north, he enumerates Balanaea, Carnos,
Enydra, Marathus. Pococke takes Tortosa to be without doubt Caranus (Carnos) the
port of Aradus on the continent; and as this is two miles north of Aradus, he
properly looks for Marathus to the south,--identifying Enydra with Ein-el-Hye
(the Serpent's Fountain), directly opposite to Aradus (p. 203), and suggesting
that some ruins which he observed on a raised ground, at the northern extremity
of a plain, about 7 miles south of Tortosa, might possibly be Marathus (p. 204).
These conjectures may be admitted with some slight modifications. Thus, e. g.,
instead of identifying Tortosa with Carnos, this naval arsenal of the Arvadites
must be placed about 2 1/2 miles north of Tortosa, where a late traveller has
discovered extensive ruins, called by the Arab peasants Carnoon,- the site, doubtless,
of the Carnos or Caranus of the ancients. The people from Arvad still quarry stones
from these ruins; and below it, on the north, is a small harbour, which appears
to have been fortified like that of Tortosa. (Thompson, in Bibliotheca Sacra,
vol. v. p. 254.) A fresh-water spring in the sea, is mentioned by Strabo; and
a mile to the south, between Carnoos and Tortosa, a few rods from the shore, an
immense fountain, called ‘Ain Ibrahim (Abraham's fountain), boils up from the
bottom. Tortosa, then, will be, as many mediaeval writers maintained, Antaradus,
which Arabic geographers write Antartus and Antarsus; whence the common Arabic
name Tartus, in Italian Tortosa (l.c. p.247, n. 1). ‘Ain-el-Hiyeh, written by
Pococke Ein-el-Hye, is certainly the Enydra of Strabo; the geographer, or his
informant, having in this, as in so many other instances, retained the first half
of the native name, and translated the latter half,- En being the usual Greek
and Latin equivalent for the Semetic ‘Ayn =fountain, and the hydra a sufficiently
close representative of the Semetic Hiyeh = serpent. South of this fountain are
very extensive quarries, five or six miles to the south of Tortosa. This neighbourhood
is called by the Arabs Amreed or Maabed Amreet ` the fane of Amreet.' This name
the Greeks probably changed into Marathus, and the old vaults, foundations, sarcophagi,
&c., near ‘Ain-el-Hiyeh (Serpent's Fountain), may mark the precise locality of
ancient Marathus. (Thompson, l. c. p. 250.) Pococke describes here a rock-hewn
temple, and monolithic house and chambers; besides a kind of semicircle, which
he thinks might serve for some sports to divert the people of Aradus and Antaradus,
or of the ancient Marathus, if that was near. It was probably a circus (p. 203).
It was the more necessary to identify these sites, as D'Anville placed
the ancient Marathus at the modern Marakiah, which is, doubtless, the representative
of Mutatio Maraccas of the Jerusalem Itinerary, on the confines of Syria and Phoenice,
13 M. P. south of Balaneas (now Baneas), and 10 M. P. north of Antaradus: and
this error is perpetuated in Arrowsmith's map.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
(Marathos). An important city on the coast of Phoenicia, opposite to Aradus and near Antaradus.
Site on the coast, 5 km S of Tartus, the ancient Antaradus. In the
time of Alexander the Great Marathos was the principal mainland city of the Phoenician
confederation of Arados. Captured by Arados at the end of the Hellenistic period,
it declined during Roman times.
The ruins show Phoenician traditions combined with Egyptian, Persian,
and Greek influences. Near the tell is a rock-cut sanctuary, the maabed. A small
cubic chapel, open on one side only, stands in the middle of a pool fed by a spring;
it served as a canopy for the cult image. Porticos, supported by monolithic limestone
pillars, encircled the basin on three sides. The monument dates from the 4th c.
B.C.
To the N the stadium, dating from the 3d c. B.C., is likewise cut
in the rock, and to the S the necropolis has many rock-cut tombs. Some of them
are topped by towers, placed along the axis of the stairs which descend to the
sepulchral vaults. The towers are round or square and sometimes capped by domes
or pyramids. The most remarkable of these funerary monuments (which date from
the 4th c. B.C.) are the two high meghazil (spindles), and the borj el-bezzak
(the snail tower), farther SE. One of the spindles has a cubic base, the other
a cylindrical base cantoned by the foreparts of four lions. The snail tower is
a cube without a top.
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 bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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