e preference. [68] The heat of
the climate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea and mountains, by the
plenty of wood and water; and the produce of a fertile soil affords the
subsistence, and encourages the propagation, of men and animals. From
the age of David to that of Heraclius, the country was overspread
with ancient and flourishing cities: the inhabitants were numerous and
wealthy; and, after the slow ravage of despotism and superstition, after
the recent calamities of the Persian war, Syria could still attract
and reward the rapacious tribes of the desert. A plain, of ten days'
journey, from Damascus to Aleppo and Antioch, is watered, on the western
side, by the winding course of the Orontes. The hills of Libanus and
Anti-Libanus are planted from north to south, between the Orontes and
the Mediterranean; and the epithet of hollow (Coelesyria) was applied to
a long and fruitful valley, which is confined in the same direction,
by the two ridges of snowy mountains. [69] Among the cities, which are
enumerated by Greek and Oriental names in the geography and conquest
of Syria, we may distinguish Emesa or Hems, Heliopolis or Baalbec, the
former as the metropolis of the plain, the latter as the capital of the
valley. Under the last of the Caesars, they were strong and populous;
the turrets glittered from afar: an ample space was covered with public
and private buildings; and the citizens were illustrious by their
spirit, or at least by their pride; by their riches, or at least by
their luxury. In the days of Paganism, both Emesa and Heliopolis were
addicted to the worship of Baal, or the sun; but the decline of their
superstition and splendor has been marked by a singular variety of
fortune. Not a vestige remains of the temple of Emesa, which was
equalled in poetic style to the summits of Mount Libanus, [70] while
the ruins of Baalbec, invisible to the writers of antiquity, excite the
curiosity and wonder of the European traveller. [71] The measure of the
temple is two hundred feet in length, and one hundred in breadth: the
front is adorned with a double portico of eight columns; fourteen may be
counted on either side; and each column, forty-five feet in height, is
composed of three massy blocks of stone or marble. The proportions
and ornaments of the Corinthian order express the architecture of the
Greeks: but as Baalbec has never been the seat of a monarch, we are at
a loss to conceive how the expense of these magnific