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brings us, it will be seen, in close contact with the
Chichester inscription. The Claudia who was a foreigner
had been born among the blue-eyed Britons. If the
king, Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, had had a daughter,
her name would have been Claudia. And in close and
friendly relations with that chieftain we find the name
of Pudens as the giver of a site (the gift implies pro-
perty in the king's territory) on which a temple is
erected. Were we concerned only with Martial and the
inscription, we might trace in this the commencement
of the affection which began while Pudens was on his
service in the North, and issued in the marriage of
which he speaks so warmly. But we can go further. |
Cogidubnus was, we learn from Tacitus (Agricola,
c. xiv.), the faithful ally of Rome in the reign of
Claudius, when Aulus Plautius was
governor of
Britain (A.D. 43-52). The right to use the imperial
name, as by a kind of adoption, was, in all likelihood,
the reward of his fidelity. That his daughter should
be sent over to Rome as a security for its continuance
was entirely in accord with Roman policy. And if so,
there was no one under whose care she was so likely to
be placed as the wife of the general who was com-
manding in the territory of Cogidubnus.

And here we come across a fresh link in the chain. A strange, sad history attaches to that wife of Aulus Plautius. He returned to Rome in the full blaze of triumph, and then in four short years (A.D. 57) was called upon, according to Roman law, to sit as judge in foro domestico, his wife, Pomponia Græcina, being the accused. The crime alleged against her was that of having adopted a foreign superstition. No other guilt was laid to her charge. Her husband pronounced a formal acquittal, and no punishment was inflicted, but her life for forty years from that date was one of continual sorrow. Her mode of life, in its simplicity and sadness, presented a strange contrast to the luxury and splendour of other Roman matrons. She went through the remainder of her life as one dead to the world and its allurements. We are now advancing to a hypothesis which, at least, includes and explains all the phenomena of the case. Assume what has been shown to be highly probable, that Claudia was at Rome under Pomponia's care, that from her, as connected with the Rufi,' she took the name of Rufina, and the whole story is coherent. The "foreign superstition," the austere and gloomy life, what was this but the aspect which a conversion to the faith and life of Christians would present to the outer world? Claudia would be exposed, directly and indirectly, to the same influences. Pudens, who had known her father, and served under Pomponia's husband, would be naturally drawn within the sphere of the same attraction, would hear their teachers, come to love one in whom he found a purity and sweetness so rare at Rome, be joined with her first in affection and afterwards in wedlock. That he may have been

1 Some such connection is implied in Martial's epithalamium being addressed to one of that family.

before his conversion among those whom Martial knew and jested with was, of course, natural enough. It did not follow that that conversion should lead to an abrupt termination of his friendship, great as must have been the gap made by it. On this hypothesis even the epigrams which speak of heathen vows made by an attached young slave, and which were meant to suggest, it must be owned, an impure attachment, may have been only the satirist's foul-mouthed jest on a vow like that of a Nazarite, taken in the ardour of youthful enthusiasm, after the manner of devout Jews, and, probably (remembering Timothy's abstinence from wine), after the example of St. Paul's favourite disciple as well as of the Apostle himself. The epithet which he sportively but not scornfully applies to Pudens, "sanctus maritus," may have been at once a tribute to his faithfulness as a husband, and to his having become one of those who spoke of each other as having joined the company of the saints. Traces of the growing repugnance which Pudens felt for the "jesting which was not convenient" may be found in Martial's halfbantering complaint that his friend grew weary of his epigrams, and wanted him to correct them (iv. 29; vii. 11).

2

Two more strange coincidences have to be added, and this singular romance of early Christian life reaches its completion. Among those who were named in mediæval tradition as having taken part in the following generation in the conversion of the Britons we find the name of Timotheus the son of Pudens, and among the most ancient Churches of Rome is one dedicated to St. Pudentiana, who is said to have been the daughter of Pudens, a Roman senator, converted by the preaching of St. Paul. Uncertain as may be the historical evidence to these facts, it is at least probable that a noble Roman convert should have had an eminent Christian daughter, and that if Pudens owed his higher life to Timothy, he should name one of his sons after him; and that a son of his should go to his mother's native land, and become a preacher of the faith in which she and those dearest to her had found peace and blessedness.

It may be enough to state, in conclusion, that the view here taken is adopted in its main features by Collier in his Church History (i. 15), by Dean Alford, Dean Howson, Archdeacon Williams, and many others. It is questioned by Canon Lightfoot on the ground that the Epigrams of Martial belong for the most part to a later date (A.D. 66-100) than the Pastoral Epistles, and that they imply heathen practices and vices. It may, however, be answered (1) that individual epigrams in the collection may have been of an earlier date; and (2) that the jesting, bantering tone of Martial, while it adds to the weight of any admission of a higher life than his own as belonging to his friends, diminishes that of mere playful insinuations which were flung broadcast in the very wantonness of sport.

2 See Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. Paul, on 2 Tim, iv. 21.

EASTERN GEOGRAPHY OF THE BIBLE.

BY THE REV. H. W. PHILLOTT, M.A., RECTOR OF STAUNTON-ON-WYE, AND PRÆLECTOR OF HEREFORD CATHEDRAL.

HE remaining names belonging to Eastern Geography of the Bible will, perhaps, be best taken alphabetically.

AHAVA (Ezra viii. 15).—" The river that runneth to Ahava" is either the Euphrates, or, more probably, a wady which enters that river from the west a short distance above Hit; and Ahava, from its mention in later times in connection with bitumen, is probably Hit, a place about 170 miles by the river above Babylon, where bitumen still abounds, and is used for covering boats, and making them impervious to water. (Ainsworth, Res., p. 85; Chesney, i. 54; Rawlinson, Herod. i. 316.)

ARAM.-This word is used, except in two instances of mere proper names, only twice in our version: (1) in Gen. x. 22, where it denotes a son of Shem, i.e., a people of Semitic origin; (2) a word of place near to or identical with the mountains of the East," from which Balaam came (Numb. xxiii. 7). The original word is almost always rendered “ Syria," and its derivative "Syrian." It means "to be high," and appears to denote the country lying to the north-east of Palestine, which extended as far east as the upper part of Mesopotamia. Strabo informs us that the people of this region called themselves Aramæans, but that the Greeks and Romans called them Syrians (Strabo, i. 42). If we knew the exact position of Pethor, from which Balaam came, we might determine more exactly the situation of Aram, which it is not quite possible to do, though from the subsequent combination of the word with Naharaim, "Aram of two rivers," rendered in our version "Mesopotamia," and generally taken to represent its upper part, we may infer that the Aram from which Balaam came was near or between two rivers, and that these rivers were probably the Tigris and Euphrates. (See PADAN-ARAM, Zobah.)

ASHKENAZ.-Mentioned as son of Gomer, and grandson of Japheth (Gen. x. 3), and as a kingdom in connection with Minni and Ararat, i.e., in Upper Armenia (Jer. li. 27). (See BIBLE EDUCATOR, I. 233.) The name has been thought to be recognised in the name Ascanius, on the north coast of Asia Minor. Some have connected it with the old name of the Euxine Sea, and some have traced it in the name Scandinavia. Modern Jews give the name to the German nation. If so, the races originally seated in the part of Asia near Mount Ararat have, as is very probable, migrated westwards, and given their name, wholly or in part, to districts or nations of Europe. (Clark, Bible Atlas, p. 2.)

AVA.-One of the places from which settlers were sent to re-people Israel (2 Kings xvii. 24). It is, perhaps, the same place as Ivah (2 Kings xviii. 34), but has also been identified with Ahava. (See IVAH.)

CANNEH is, perhaps, the same as Calneh, which reading is found in one MS. If so, it is represented by Niffar (BIBLE EDUCATOR, I. 266), but its mention in

connection with Haran and Eden (Fzek. xxvii. 23) seems to point to a more northerly position. (See the next article.)

CARCHEMISH, or CHARCHEMISH (2 Chron. xxxv. 20) is mentioned as the place on the Euphrates at which Nebuchadnezzar defeated Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah (2 Kings xxiii. 29; Jer. xlvi. 2), B.C. 605. It had been taken by Necho in the campaign in which he defeated Josiah at Megiddo (Magdolus), B.C. 608. Carchemish was formerly identified with the town whose Greek name was Circesium, and its Latin Cercusium, or Circessus, situated in the fork of the confluence of the Abora (Khabour) with the Euphrates on the west side of the former river. It was a position of great importance, and was strongly fortified by Diocletian. A town called Karkisia, whose situation answers fairly to this, was visited by Benjamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century A.D., and the ruins of a town called Kerkisiyah still exist, connected by a bridge with those of another town, which has been supposed to represent Calneh, or Calno (Gen. x. 10; Isa. x. 9); but this is now usually regarded as represented by Niffar (BIBLE EDUCATOR, I. 266), nor is there any reason for placing the two cities near each other. (Amm. Marc. xxiii. 5; Zosimus, iii. 12; Eutrop.-ix. 2; Early Trav., p. 94; Chesney, Exp., i. 52; Layard, Nin. and Bab., p. 284.) The name Carchemish probably means "citadel of Chemosh" (Ges., Com. on Isa. x. 9), and its site has of late been placed much higher up on the west side of the river Euphrates, not far from the much-used ferry at the modern town of Bir, at the ruins of the town Hierapolis, or Mabog, where Julian assembled his forces before his advance into Assyria, and which Assyrian inscriptions show to have been a town of the Hittites, or Syrians, whose dominion extended as far as Bir (Layard, Nin. and Bab., pp. 142, 354). This opinion is recommended (1) by the fact that the approach to Circesium would lead an invading army by the almost impassable route of the desert; (2) by the Assyrian inscriptions, which place Carchemish much more to the north than Kerkisiyah, and (3) give to that place the name Sirki, with which Carchemish has no connection. (Rawlinson, Herod. i. 251; Anc. Mon. ii. 67.)

CASIPHIA.-Only mentioned in Ezra viii. 17, a place on the road from the Euphrates to Jerusalem. If Ahava be the same as Hit, it would probably be on the south-west of that place; but its situation is not known certainly, though some have connected its name with that of the Caspian Sea, which is quite out of the road to Jerusalem.

CHEBAR (RIVER OF).-Mentioned by Ezekiel as a station of the Jewish captives (Ezek. i. 1; iii. 15), thought by some to be the river Khabour, which flows into the Euphrates from the east at Kerkisiyah; but as Chaldæa, in which it is placed by Ezekiel, scarcely

reached so far to the north as this point, it is thought by others, from the meaning of its name, "great," to be the Nahr-malcha, or royal canal joining the Tigris and Euphrates about thirty miles above Babylon, and said to be the work of Nebuchadnezzar (Euseb., Pr. Evang. x. 41; Plin. vi. 120; Strabo, xvi. 747). The name Chebar has also been identified with Habor, a river or place near which some of the captives from Israel were placed by Sargon, king of Assyria (2 Kings xviii. 11; BIBLE EDUCATOR, II. 331); but this would seem to be farther to the north than the place of Ezekiel's captivity, and, besides this, it may be mentioned that Ezekiel has been long believed to be buried at a place called Keffil, about twelve miles south of Hillah, where a building exists said to contain his tomb, a tradition which there seems no good reason to doubt. (Early Trav., p. 101; Rich, Memoir, p. 11; Loftus, p. 35.)

CHARRAN.--See HARAN. CHILMAD.-A name mentioned in Ezek. xxvii. 23, and rendered in the Septuagint version Charman, which gives some support to the opinion that it denotes a place named by Xenophon Charmande, which must have been on the west side of the Euphrates, not far from the Babylonian frontier. It is also identified with Kalwadha, a place very near Bagdad, but its exact position is not known. (Xen., Anab., i. 5, 10; Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., i. 21.)

CUSHAN, if it be not the name of a person, which seems unlikely to be the case, is probably the name of the same country as that which is described by Cush, i.e., a region either of Southern Arabia, or of the eastern side of the Persian Gulf. (Hab. iii. 7; BIBLE EDUCATOR, I. 152.)

CUTH, or CUTHAH.—The name of a place, or district, from which settlers were brought by the king of Assyria, either Sargon or Esarhaddon, but probably the former, to dwell in Samaria, after the conquest by Sargon (2 Kings xvii. 24, 30). It is said by Josephus to have been in the interior of Media and Persia, and that there was a river there named Cuthus, but he gives no further clue to its locality. A warlike mountain tribe, called Cossaei, are mentioned by Arrian and Strabo as having been subdued by Alexander, and these have been thought, from their name, to answer to the Cutheans. Possibly the Assyrian monarch may have gained some advantage over these troublesome mountaineers, and have found it convenient to transplant some of them to the distant region of Samaria; but there is no direct evidence to support this opinion (Arr., Exp., vii.; Strabo, xi. 524; xvi. 744). But the name Cutha is mentioned by Arabian writers as being in the neighbourhood of Babylon, at which Abraham is said in the Talmud to have been imprisoned by Nimrod; and bricks inscribed with the name Cutha have been found at Toweibah, or Tiggaba, a place about fifteen miles northeast of Babylon. Moreover, Assyrian inscriptions show that the special deity of the Cutheans was Nergal, the one whom the men of Cuth are said in the Book of Kings to have introduced into Samaria, a circumstance which seems to fix the true locality of Cutha. (2 Kings

xvii. 30; Ainsworth, Researches, p. 166; Sale, Koran, c. xxi., p. 269; Rawlinson, Herod., i. 632; Anc. Mon. i. 136.)

DEDAN.-A name belonging to two distinct tribes, (1) the one mentioned as sons of Raamah, son of Cush (Gen. x. 7); (2) the other as sons of Jokshan, son of Abraham by Keturah (Gen. xxv. 3). The former is associated with Sheba, a descendant of Ham (x. 7), while farther on Sheba is mentioned as a descendant of Shem (ver. 28). Thus there was a Cushite Dedan, and a Semitic Dedan, as well as a Cushite and a Semitic Sheba. The settlements of the two Dedanim were not very distant from each other, but their occupations were very different. One of them, perhaps the Semitic Dedanim, were neighbours of the Idumeans (Jer. xlix. 8), and were probably a pastoral people, for we find Dedan mentioned as supplying Tyre with chariot clothes, no doubt a woollen manufacture (Ezek. xxvii. 20); while another Dedan, perhaps the Cushite race, traded with the Syrians in foreign productions, ivory and ebony, the produce not of Arabia, but of India and Ceylon; and thus they were clearly a commercial people (Ezek. xxvii. 15), inhabiting, probably, the western shores of the Persian Gulf.

DURA, PLAIN OF, in the province of Babylon, in which Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden image (Dan. iii. 1), formerly thought to be represented by a place called Imam Dour, situate in a plain on the left (east) bank of the Tigris, about fifteen miles below Tekrit, but believed by M. Oppert with greater probability, as being more distinctly within the province of Babylon, to be on the western bank of the Euphrates, about six miles S.S.E. from Hillah. The pedestal of a statue exists there, which may, perhaps, be thought to represent the site of the image. (Rich, Res., ii. 148; Layard, Nin. and Bab., p. 469; Oppert, Exp., pp. 85, 239.)

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EDEN, mentioned in connection with Haran and Rezeph (2 Kings xix. 12; Isa. xxxvii. 12). It is said there to have been the abode of a tribe, the " Eden," who "(were) in Thelasar," and who had been subdued by the Assyrians. Ezekiel mentions Eden in connection with Haran, Canneh, Asshur, and Chilmad, as trading with Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 23). A city called Beth-Adina, inhabited by a tribe of this name, appears from inscriptions to have been captured by the Assyrians in the ninth century B.C. The same authority states that the conqueror built in the neighbourhood a town, which he named after the god Asshur; thus Thelasar, or Tel-Assur, probably means "hill of Asshur." (Rawlin· son, Anc. Mon., ii. 88.)

EPHAH, mentioned in Gen. xxv. 4 as a son of Midian, and in Isa. lx. 6 as a name either of person or place sending gold, probably from Arabia, as an offering to the City of God.

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the Chaboras. It lay between lat. 35° and 37° in the north of Mesopotamia. In verification of its implied subjection to Assyrian dominion, Assyrian remains were found by Mr. Layard at Arban, a town on the Khabour. (Ptol., v. 18, 3; Layard, Nin. and Bab., pp. 275, 283. See also above under ECBATANA.)

HABOR.-As seen in the preceding article, this name denotes (1) the river Chaboras, called by Strabo Aborras, of which the true source is at Ras el-Ain (head of the spring), in lat. 36° 35', long. 40° 9′, and which, having run in a somewhat circular course for about one hundred and forty miles, enters the Euphrates near Kerkisiyah; (2) also a town called Chabora, mentioned by the same geographer as being in Mesopotamia, near the Euphrates. Benjamin of Tudela mentions the Khabour as identical with Habor of the Book of Kings, but he is incorrect in his description of its course. In 2 Kings xvii. 6, and xviii. 11, our translation has "Habor by the river of Gozan." The word "by" should be omitted, and the name Habor would then denote properly the principal river of Gozan, on whose banks the captive Israelites were placed by their conquerors. The name of the town mentioned by Ptolemy may, perhaps, indicate a district adjoining the river, and called by its name. The beauty and fertility of the country on the banks of the Khabour are spoken of in high terms by Mr. Layard. There is also another Khabour river, which runs into the Tigris on its eastern bank, but the one described above is no doubt the true Habor. (Ptol. v. 18, 6; Strabo, xvi. 747; Layard, Nin. and Bab., pp. 235, 275, 308; Nieb., Voy., ii. 316.)

HALAH, mentioned above in connection with Habor and Gozan as one of the settlements of the captive Israelites. The name, spelt in Hebrew Chalach, seems to agree with that of a district named by Ptolemy Chalcitis, and placed by him north-west of Gauzanitis, described above. He also mentions a town of Mesopotamia called Eleia, though without specifying its position; but the name given in the Septuagint version of 2 Kings xvii. 6, and xviii. 11, Elae or Alae, agrees fairly with this in sound, as well as with the general position which his list of towns, containing among others, Carrhæ, Nisibis, and Edessa, seems to assign to it. Mr. Layard also mentions, in the neighbourhood of the Khabour, a remarkable mound, called Gla or Kalah (castle), which, no doubt, covers the site of an ancient town or fortress. It must be noticed, however, that the Septuagint version of both these Scripture passages, and the Latin (Vulgate) of the latter one, appear to regard Halah as the name of a river. They say, "Halah and Habor, rivers of Gozan." Now in the east part of Gauzanitis, or rather in Mygdonia, is a river, anciently called Mygdonius, but now Nahr al Huali, which runs into the Khabour. Thus Halah, like Habor, may be the name both of a river and a place, which may be said with certainty to be in the upper part of Mesopotamia, but whether on the eastern or western side of it is not quite certain. (Ptol. v. 18, 4, and 12; Layard, Nin. and Bab., p. 312; Dict. of Geog., “Nisibis.”)

HARAN.-The name of the place to which Abram

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removed with his father and family when he left Ur of the Chaldees, where Terah died, and where his brother Nahor remained after Abram's second removal into the land of Canaan. It is said to have been in the land of Padan-aram, in Mesopotamia, i.e., in the “cultivated district of Aram, between the two rivers." (Gen. xi. 31, 32; xxiv. 10; xxviii. 2, 5; xxix. 4; Stanley, Sinai and Pal., p. 129; Pusey, On Amos, i. 5.) In the Septuagint version, and in the Acts of the Apostles, it is called "Charran,” which agrees with the orthography of the original word (Charan) better than our rendering, Haran. The mention of a place of this name in connec tion with Gozan, lately described, as having been overrun by the Assyrians, and also its name, which is said to mean 'road," i.e., a highway of intercourse, seem to place it in that neighbourhood; and a very early and uniform tradition has connected the city of Nahor with a town now much decayed, called Harrán, on the river Belilk, the ancient Bilichus, which falls into the Euphrates near Rakka. It is situated in long. 39°, lat. 36° 39′, and answers, no doubt, to the town of Carrha, near which Crassus was defeated by the Parthians, B.C. 53. Benjamin of Tudela describes it as "the ancient place of Haran," containing twenty Jewish inhabitants, and a synagogue built by Ezra. "Nobody," he says, "is allowed to construct any building on the spot where the house of our father Abraham was situated; even the Mohammedans pay respect to the place, and resort thither to pray." Niebuhr and other travellers have also described the place, and the former mentions particularly the wells, which connect the local features of the neighbouring district, if not of the place itself, with the history of Jacob's sojourn therein. (Gen. xxix. 2-4; 2 Kings xix. 12; Isa. xxxvii. 12; Dio Cass. xl. 25, 27; Strabo, xvi. 747; Ptol. v. 18, 12; Plin. v. 86; Early Trav., p. 93; Nieb. ii. 333; Ainsworth, Res., p. 153.)

But within the last few years a suggestion has been made that the true site of Haran is to be found at a village about sixteen miles south-east of Damascus, called Harrán el-Awâmid, so called from three Ionic columns standing there, of whose history nothing whatever is known. This view is recommended chiefly by the following considerations :-(1) That Abraham in his first removal is said to have come out of the land of the Chaldeans to dwell in Charran (Gen. xi. 31; Acts vii. 4), implying, it would seem, a more entire departure from Chaldean territory than migration to the Mesopotamian Haran; (2) Haran, to which Jacob went in his exile, was in the land of the "sons of the East," whose haunts were chiefly, not on the eastern, but on the western side of the Euphrates (Gen. xxix. 1; Judg. vii. 12; viii. 10); (3) the journey of Jacob from Haran, or its neighbour. hood, to Mount Gilead, where he was overtaken by Laban, over a distance of more than three hundred miles, could not have been effected by him in a space of time so short as ten days, encumbered as he was by many cattle of various kinds, and scarcely even by Laban in seven days (Gen. xxxi. 21-23; xxxii. 5; xxxiii. 13); (4) the position of the Syrian Harrán agrees well with the hitherto unex

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