misinterpreted the name, and then forged these legendary stories to support
their [376]mistake. Had they understood the term, they would have been
consistent in their history. Gau, and, as it was at times expressed, Cau,
certainly signifies a house, or temple: also a cave, or hollow; near which
the temple of the Deity was founded. For the Amonians erected most of their
sacred edifices near caverns, and deep openings of the earth. Gaugamela was
not the house of a camel, as Plutarch and Strabo would persuade us,
notwithstanding the stories alleged in support of the notion: but it was
the house and temple of Cam-El, the Deity of the country. Arbela was a
place sacred to Bel, called Arbel, [Hebrew: AWR BL] of the Chaldeans. It
was the same as Beth Arbel of [377]Hosea: and Gaugamela is of the same
purport, relating to the same God under different titles. The Grecians were
grossly ignorant in respect to foreign events, as Strabo repeatedly
confesses: and other writers do not scruple to own it. Lysimachus had been
an attendant upon Alexander during the whole series of his conquests in
Asia: there had been nothing of moment transacted, in the success of which
he had not partaken. Yet even in his days, when he was king of Thrace, the
accounts of those great actions had been so misrepresented, that when a
history of them was read in his presence, they seemed quite new to him. It
is all very fine, says the prince; but where was I when all this happened?
There was a series of events exhibited, with which the person most
interested was least acquainted. We may then well imagine, that there
existed in the time of Plutarch many mistakes, both in respect to the
geography of countries very remote, and to the [378]language of nations,
with whom the Romans were little acquainted. The great battle, of which we
have been speaking, was confessedly fought at Gaugamela. Ptolemy Ceraunus,
who was present, averred it: as did Aristobulus: and it has been recorded
by Plutarch and others. It is also adjudged to Arbela by persons of equal
credit: and it must certainly have been really there transacted: for
notwithstanding the palliating excuse of Plutarch, it is utterly incredible
in respect to so great a victory, that the scene of action should be
determined by this place, if it were sixty, or, as some say, seventy miles
out of the way. But in reality it was at no such distance. Diodorus Siculus
says, that Alexander immediately after the victory atta