echo of the title _Rabbath_ borne by this goddess
from the earliest times.

Half a dozen obscure cities flourished here, Arka,* Siani,** Mahallat,
Kaiz, Maiza, and Botrys,*** some of them on the seaboard, others inland
on the bend of some minor stream. Botrys,**** the last of the six,
barred the roads which cross the Phaniel headland, and commanded the
entrance to the holy ground where Byblos and Berytus celebrated each
year the amorous mysteries of Adonis.

* Arka is perhaps referred to in the tablets of Tel el-
Amarna under the form Irkata or Irkat; it also appears in
the Bible (Gen. x. 17) and in the Assyrian texts. It is the
Cassarea of classical geographers, which has now resumed its
old Phoenician name of Tell-Arka.

** Sianu or Siani is mentioned in the Assyrian texts and in
the Bible; Strabo knew it under the name of Sinna, and a
village near Arka was called Sin or Syn as late as the XVth
century.

*** According to the Assyrian inscriptions, these were the
names of the three towns which formed the Tripolis of
Graeco-Roman times.

**** Botrys is the hellenized form of the name Bozruna or
Bozrun, which appears on the tablets of Tel el-Amarna; the
modern name, Butrun or Batrun, preserves the final letter
which the Greeks had dropped.

Gublu, or--as the Greeks named it--Byblos,* prided itself on being the
most ancient city in the world. The god El had founded it at the dawning
of time, on the flank of a hill which is visible from some distance
out at sea. A small bay, now filled up, made it an important shipping
centre. The temple stood on the top of the hill, a few fragments of its
walls still serving to mark the site; it was, perhaps, identical with
that of which we find the plan engraved on certain imperial coins.**

* _Gublu_ or _Gubli_ is the pronunciation indicated for this
name in the Tel el-Amarna tablets; the Egyptians transcribed
it _Kupuna_ or _Kupna_ by substituting _n_ for _l_. The
Greek name Byblos was obtained from Gublu by substituting a
_b_ for the _g_.

** Renan carried out excavations in the hill of Kassubah
which brought to light some remains of a Graeco-Roman temple:
he puts forward, subject to correction, the hypothesis which
I have adopted above.

Two flights of steps led up to it from the lower quarters of the town,
one of which gave access to a chapel