into his power, and forced Clitus, the author of the sedition, to cut off one of his own hands, may be numbered amongst the most ingenious of the whole war, fertile as it was in contriving to deceive; and his commentator thinks it the finest that ever was invented and executed by. any warrior whatever. †

In the further details of this historian's active part in the events of these times, we gather that there was a proseucha, or open place of public prayer, within the city of Tiberias, though such proseuchæ, as his commentator observes, were usually without the cities, as the synagogues or houses of prayer were within them. ‡ Of this, however, we could find no unequivocal traces within the modern town, or among the ruins to the southward of it, though in each there were many open spaces that might have been conjectured to mark the place of it. In the account of the same affair, which is given more at large in his entertaining history, the place where Jo. sephus harangued the, people of Tiberias, who had revolted, is called the stadium; but of this it was as difficult to fix the place at present, as it was to discover that of the proseucha.

* Life of Josephus, s. 3. 33. 34.

+ Whiston's Notes. Wars of the Jews, 1. ii. c. 22. s. 10. Whiston's Notes on Josephus.

We learn from the details of the war, that Tarichea was within a night's march of Tibe rias*, and that it was of consideration enough to possess a hippodromos. † Pliny fixes this city on the south of the lake‡; so that, under all these considerations, it probably stood near the present village of Sumuk; but we could obtain no account of that place, though so near to it, that would at all elucidate the question without our visiting the spot itself. §

The importance of Tiberias in the succeeding wars of the Saracens and Christians may be seen from the contests for its possession, described in the history of the Crusades; and after its frequent reductions and subsequent repairs, all that remains of it now may be considered as purely Mohammedan, at least all that is included within the modern walls; the sepulchres on the north, and the ruins on the south, being unquestionably of an earlier date.

After our ramble through the town, we set out on an excursion to the hot baths to the southward of it, our host promising to procure

*Joseph. Wars of the Jews, b. ii. c. 21. s. 6.

† Ibid. b. ii. c. 21. s. 3.

Pliny Nat. Hist. b. v. c. 15.

§ Tiberiada et Tarichæas, distare stadiis 30. iii. de urbibus et vicis Palæstinæ, p. 1038.

Reland, lib.

for us, if possible, during our absence, a dish of fish from the lake, on condition that we would turn in on our way back and partake of it, to which we assented. Leaving the town at the western gate, we pursued our course southerly along its wall, and came in half an hour to an old dome-topped building, called Setty Skené. We were about to enter into the outer court of this, where we saw an Arabic inscription on a tablet in the wall; but some Moslems, who were employed in interring a corpse on a high burying-ground near, perceiving that our guide was a Nazarene, hailed us aloud to let no Christian enter these hallowed precincts. We accordingly gave them an evasive answer, and passed on; learning, however, from this incident, that the place was even now reverenced, and was probably the tomb of some sheikh or saint of the Mohammedan faith.

From hence, pursuing our course still southerly, we came to some scattered ruins of the old city of Tiberias, among which we observed many foundations of buildings, some fragments of others still standing, and both grey and red granite columns, some portions of the latter being at least four feet in diameter; but among the whole we saw neither ornamented capitals nor sculptured stones of any kind, though the

city is known to have been a considerable

*

one.

In our way, we passed an old tree standing amid these ruins, and observed its branches to be hung with rags of every hue and colour, no doubt the offerings of those who either expected or had received benefit from the springs in the road to which it lay. Throughout the cliffs of the overhanging mountain, on the west, are rude grottoes at different heights; and opposite to the tree are two arched caves, one of them having a square door of entrance beneath the arch, and both of them being apparently executed with care. We had not time to examine them, though we conceived them to have been, most probably, ancient sepulchres.

In less than an hour after our leaving the town, we arrived at the baths. The present building, erected over the springs here, is small and mean, and is altogether the work of Mohammedans. It is within a few yards of the edge of the lake, and contains a bath for males and a bath for females, each with their separate apartment annexed. Over the door of the former is an Arabic inscription; ascending to this door by a few steps, it leads to an outer room, with an open window, a hearth for pre

* Tiberias metropolis et terminus Decapoleos regionis, urbiumque ejus maxima, nomen ab Imp. Rom. Tiberio traxit ; et ab ipsa vicinum mare Tiberiadis. Cluverius, l. v. c. 21. p.369.

paring coffee, and a small closet for the use of the attendant. Within this is the bath itself, a square room of about eighteen or twenty feet, covered with a low dome, and having benches in recesses on each side. The cistern for containing the hot water is in the centre of this room, and is sunk below the pavement; it is a square of eight or nine feet only, and the spring rises to supply it through a small head of some animal; but this is so badly executed, that it is difficult to decide for what it was intended. My thermometer rose here instantly to 130°, which was its utmost limit; but the heat of the water was certainly greater. It was painful to the hand as it issued from the spout, and could only be borne gradually by those who bathed in the

cistern.

There is here only an old man and a little boy to hold the horses and make coffee for the visitors; and those who bathe strip in the inner room and wash themselves in the cistern, without being furnished with cloths, carpets, cushions, or any of the usual comforts of a Turkish bath. The whole establishment, indeed, is of the poorest kind, and the sight of the interior is rather disgusting than inviting.

Ammianus Marcellinus, in his brief description of Palestine, after remarking the number of fine cities it contains, and observing that the