29.

In the interval is Gadaris,621 which the Jews have appropriated to themselves, then Azotus and Ascalon.622 From Iamneia to Azotus and Ascalon are about 200 stadia. The country of the Ascalonitæ produces excellent onions; the town is small. Antiochus the philosopher, who lived a little before our time, was a native of this place. Philodemus the Epicurean was a native of Gadara, as also Meleagrus, Menippus the satirist, and Theodorus the rhetorician, my contemporary.

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[CAS. 759]30. Next and near Ascalon is the harbour of the Gazæi. The city is situated inland at the distance of seven stadia. It was once famous, but was razed by Alexander, and remains uninhabited. There is said to be a passage thence across, of 1260 stadia, to the city Aila623 (Aelana), situated on the innermost recess of the Arabian Gulf. This recess has two branches, one, in the direction of Arabia and Gaza, is called Ailanites, from the city upon it; the other is in the direction of Egypt, towards Heroopolis,624 to which from Pelusium is the shortest road (between the two seas). Travelling is performed on camels, through a desert and sandy country, in the course of which snakes are found in great numbers.