St. Jerome, in one of his Epistles, has given us the history of the adventures of St. Paula. The lives of the other saints mentioned here will be found in the large collection of the Bollandists. The abstract given here is taken from the Essay on Early Pilgrimages, by the Baron Walckenaer, inserted in Michaud's History of the Crusades.

Bede, Hist. Eccl. v. 15.

See my Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Saxon period, p. 202.

Majuvias, Saracenorum rex, qui nostra Ætate fuit, judex postulatus.

See the Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Saxon period, p. 341, 342.

Dicuil, De Mensura Orbis, vi. 3, ed. Letronne.

W. Malmesbury de Gest. Pontif., p. 282. See also my Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Norman Period, p. 38.

See, on Robert Guiscard, W. Malmesbury, Hist. book iii. pp. 294, 295. (Bohn's Antiquarian Library.)

An interesting volume of these narratives, translated into French, and accompanied with valuable notes, has recently been published under the title, "Itineraires de la Terre Sainte des xiii, xiv^e, xv^e, xvi^e, and xvii^e siÈcles, traduits de l'HÉbreu, par E. Carmoly," Brussels, 1847.

For these dates see the notes on pp. 67, 75, and 119 of the present volume. See the notes on pp. 78, 124.

See the note, p. 146 of the present volume.

"Et sachiez que je eusse mis ce livre en Latin pour plus briefment deviser; mais pour ce que plusieurs entendent mieux FranÇais que Latin, l'ai-je mis en Rommant À celle fin que chascun l'entende, et les seigneurs et chevaliers et aultres qui n'entendent pas le Latin." See on this subject, and on Maundeville's narrative, M. D'Avezac's preface to his edition of "Plan de Carpin," pp. 29-33.

Jerusalem was first captured by the Saracens, under the khalif Omar, in 637, about sixty years before it was visited by Arculf. The patriarch Sophronius, when requested by Omar to point out a place for the erection of a mosque, is said to have taken him to the ruins on the site of Solomon's Temple, which had been deserted by the Christians, and where the building known as the Mosque of Omar was subsequently built. Until Arculf's time, the Mohammedans appear, however, to have had but a rough and temporary erection, unless the worthy bishop's pious zeal would not allow him to speak of the mosque otherwise than disrespectfully.

It was a very old article of popular belief, founded on a literal interpretation of the words of Ps. lxxiv. 12, that Jerusalem was the centre, or, as it was often expressed, the navel, of the world; and it is so exhibited in nearly all the medieval maps.

Dr. Clarke is the only modern traveller who has given any notice of these subterranean chambers or pits, which he supposes to have been ancient places of idolatrous worship.

Matth. xvii. 4.

Damascus was taken by the Arabs in 634. By the capitulation, the Christians were to have seven churches; but one of the Arabian leaders having broken into the city before the capitulation was completed, it was only very partially observed.

Alexandria fell into the power of the Arabs in 640. The account given of the city by Arculf would lead us to believe that its prosperity and importance were not so suddenly reduced by that event as is generally believed.

Urbs Elephantorum. The town of Elephantina, famous for its interesting monuments, situate on the Nile, just below the cataracts. It is to be presumed that Arculf had visited this place; and perhaps he had here seen the crocodiles subsequently described, as those animals are said not to be found in Lower Egypt. It must, however, be observed, that St. Antoninus, who visited Egypt in the seventh century, appears to have seen crocodiles in Lower Egypt. See his Life, in the Act. Sanct. of the Bollandists.

The subsequent history of the supposed real cross, or rather the supposed fragments of it, which were scattered as relics over Christian Europe, would fill a volume. It was pretended that it was brought to France by Charlemagne.

Probably Terracina.

Probably this is a corruption of Neapolis, or Naples.

Now Reggio.

This evidently corresponds to the ???e?a (or Pygela) of Strabo, which he calls p????????, a little town. Stephanus and Pomponius Mela also write Pygela, but Pliny has it Phygala. The site is now, according to Hamilton, (Trav. vol. ii. p. 22,) covered with fragments of Roman tiles and pottery; and near the road is the foundation of a large marble building, apparently a temple.

Mr. Ainsworth, with whom I have consulted on this name, observes, "I can only suppose that we must read Trogilium for Strobolem, or that the latter was the native corruption of Trogilium, the name, according to Ptolemy, of the promontory which lies between Ephesus and the Meander, and which is opposite the island of Samos." In the Acts of the Apostles, xx. 15, it is written, "And we sailed thence, (Mitylena,) and came the next day over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus."

i. e. Miletus.

The passage in the original is rather obscure. The later anonymous life of St. Willibald says that they came to the mount of the Galani, which having been ravaged by war, they were distressed for want of provisions. "Navim demum ingressi, ad montem Galanorum transfretarunt; quo bellorum tempestate tunc temporis depilato sÆvam passi sunt inediam."

June 24, 722.

Tortosa, now called Tartus.

The Arca of Ptolemy, placed in the Antonine Itinerary, 18 M.P. from Tripolis, and 32 M.P. from Antaradon. Josephus (De Bel. Jud., lib. vii. c. 13) says the Gentiles called this Phoenician town ArcÆa or Arcena. It is now called Tele Arka.

i. e. Emir, or commander of the faithful. Willibald, not understanding the language, translated the title of the khalif into the name of a king, whom the biographer calls Mirmumni. In a similar manner the old Spanish and English historians frequently turned the same title into the name Miramomelin. The khalif here alluded to was YÉzid II.

In the desert of Quarantania.

Nov. 11, 722.

John, v. 8.

Matth., xxvi. 41.

Acts, i. 11.

John, iv. 20.

Lions were ever of very rare occurrence in Syria: perhaps it was some other wild animal peculiar to the country that Willibald saw. It may, however, be pointed out as a curious illustration of the words of Jeremiah (xlix. 19, and l. 44), "He shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan."

PetrÆ oleum. No doubt the writer means naphtha, bitumen, or asphaltum.

Nov. 30, 724.

Infernus Theodorici. In the legends of this age, the craters of volcanoes were believed to be entrances to hell. A hermit, who resided on the Isle of Lipari, told a friend of pope Gregory the Great that he had seen the soul of the Gothic king, Theodoric, thrown into the crater of the Isle of Vulcano (Gregor. Magn. Dialog., lib. iv. c. 30). Hence the name given to it in Willibald's narrative.

The medieval scribes made constant use of the pumice-stone, for smoothening their vellum and for making erasures.

The Saracens had established themselves at Bari in the early part of the century, and it was now the head seat of their power on the coast of Italy. Their predatory excursions into the territory of Beneventum caused the emperor Louis II. to prepare an expedition against them, and he took Bari after a siege of four years, and returned to Beneventum in 871, while his troops laid siege to Tarentum, which, however, was not taken from the Saracens till a somewhat later period. The Christian captives mentioned by Bernard, as carried in such numbers into slavery in Africa and Egypt, had been carried off in the incursions into the territory of Beneventum. To judge from the numbers embarked in one ship, they must have been packed up almost as close as negroes in a slave-ship.

This is the Egyptian Babylon, now Fostat, or, as it is often called, Old Cairo. Bagdad (Bagada) was, for many ages, the capital of the Saracen empire, and residence of the khalifs. It is doubtful what place is meant by Axinarri, which, in Mabillon's text, is called Axiam.

This was the patriarch Michael I., who ruled over the Melchite portion of the Coptic Christians from 859 to 871. There was at this time a schism among the Christians of Egypt.

Of the places here visited by Bernard, Sitinulh is perhaps Menuph; Malla is Mahalleh; and Tamnis is Tennis, or Tennesus, the field of Thanis, answering to "the field of Zoan," Psal. lxxviii. 12. Faramea (in the next page), is Farama or Pelusium. The caravanserais are perhaps al-bir (the well) and al-bÁkara (the pulley), both common names given to wells; but it is uncertain now what were the particular spots alluded to by Bernard. Alariza would seem to be Al-arish.

Charlemagne. We have no other account of Charlemagne's foundations at Jerusalem; but the khalif Haroun-er-Raschid is said to have shown great favour to the Christian pilgrims from respect for the Frankish emperor, and even to have sent him the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and of Jerusalem. A legend prevalent in the twelfth century made the emperor visit Jerusalem in person; and an Anglo-Norman poem on Charlemagne's pretended voyage to the Holy Land, composed in that century, was printed by M. Fr. Michel in 1836.

See "Bede's Ecclesiastical History," book v. chaps. 16 and 17. Bede professedly takes his account from Adamnan's narrative of the travels of bishop Arculf, and the description referred to will be found at p. 2 of the present volume.

This was a very celebrated miracle in the middle ages, and will be remembered as the cause of the persecution of the Christians in the Holy City, and of the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, by the khalif Hakem, in A.D. 1008 or 1010. An eastern Christian writer, Abulfaragius, tells us that "the author of this persecution was some enemy of the Christians, who told Hakem that, when the Christians assembled in their temple at Jerusalem, to celebrate Easter, the chaplains of the church, making use of a pious fraud, greased the chain of iron that held the lamp over the tomb with oil of balsam; and that, when the Arab officer had sealed up the door which led to the tomb, they applied a match, through the roof, to the other extremity of the chain, and the fire descended immediately to the wick of the lamp and lighted it. Then the worshippers burst into tears, and cried out kyrie eleison, supposing it was fire which fell from heaven upon the tomb; and they were thus strengthened in their faith." This miracle was probably instituted after the time when so much encouragement was given to the pilgrims under the reign of Charlemagne. It is not mentioned in the works that preceded Bernard, but it is often alluded to in subsequent writers, and continues still to be practised by the Greeks.

Theodosius was patriarch of Jerusalem from 863 to 879.

i. e. the Mosque of Omar.

The event alluded to occurred in the Temple, and not on the Mount of Olives. The notion mentioned in the text must have arisen from a wrong reading of the first verses of John, viii. It is stated in the Gospel, John, viii. 6, "But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not." This writing on the ground was worked up into a popular legend in the middle ages, according to which Christ is represented as writing on the ground the secret sins of all the persons assembled to condemn the woman; and this, we are told, was the cause that they all slunk away ashamed.

Mount St. Michel, on the coast of Brittany, which was commonly called St. Michel ad tumbam or ad tumbas, and was a place of great celebrity in the romantic, as well as in the religious, legends of the middle ages. It is more than probable that, before the foundation of the monastery, the top of the mount was occupied by a cromlech, like so many of the islands on this coast.

Sichard was a cruel and oppressive tyrant, and was deservedly hated by his subjects. At length, having attempted to violate the wife of one of his nobles, the latter excited the people of Beneventum to revolt; and they burst into his palace; and slaughtered him, towards the end of the year 839. This act of popular vengeance was succeeded by a period of domestic troubles, which favoured the designs of the Saracens, and ultimately brought Beneventum under the power or protection of the emperor Louis II., or the Germanic, (the brother of Lothaire and Charles the Bald, and grandson of Charlemagne,) who was emperor and king of Germany from 840 to 876.

Salomon III. was count of Brittany at this time; but history hardly bears out Bernard's boasts of the peace and good government of the country under his rule.

July 13, 1102.

The modern Brindisi (Brundusium of the ancients).

Die Ægyptiaca, hora Ægyptiaca. The superstitious belief in unlucky, or, as they were commonly termed, Egyptian days, was universally prevalent in the middle ages; and the days of the month believed to have this character, and on which it was unpropitious to begin or undertake any thing, are often marked in the early calendars and other manuscripts.

July 24.

See our Introduction.

M. D'Avezac conjectures this to be merely some palÆopolis, or ancient site. No such name as Polipolis can be traced in the maps.

Aug. 9.

This appears to be the place formerly called Liva d'Osta, now corrupted into Livadostro.

Aug. 23.

The modern Spili.

Stancho, the ancient Cos; Hippocrates, and not Galen, was born there.

M. D'Avezac is probably right in his conjecture that the Lido of SÆwulf represents the ruins of Cnidus, near Cape Crio; and that Asus, which immediately follows, is the little island of Syme (S??), which lies off Cnidus. It is likely enough that the local pronunciation of Cnido may have been taken by the monkish traveller for something like Lido. No detailed legend of St. Titus is preserved. What is known of him will be found in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, vol. i. p. 163.

This is a remarkable blunder, arising from a strange confusion of words and ideas. The Colossians were the inhabitants of Colossus, in Phrygia. The Persians of SÆwulf were the Saracens, who captured Rhodes in A.D. 651. It had been taken by the Persians in 616.

Mogronissi, or Macronisi, is supposed by M. D'Avezac to be the island of Kakava, on the western point of which are still traced the ruins of a town and church. The Alexandria here alluded to is of course Alexandretta, or Iskenderoon.

This is evidently Khelidonia.

This term was then applied to all the eastern part of the Mediterranean.

Sunday, Oct. 12, 1102.

These were the names of ships in the middle ages, of large dimensions, but for which it would be difficult to assign any thing like equivalents from our modern naval nomenclature. The title of palmer (palmarius) was given, from an early period, to the pilgrims to the Holy Land; it is said, on account of the palm branches or leaves which they usually brought back with them as signs that they had performed the pilgrimage.

Luke, xix. 42-44.

By the Assyrians, who are subsequently mentioned more than once, we are to understand the Syrian Christians, as distinguished from the Greeks.

Matth. xxvii. 51.

Ib. 52.

Psal. lxxiv. 12.

John, ii. 19.

It may be necessary to remind the reader that the building of which SÆwulf is here talking was the Mosque of Omar, which, during the long period that Jerusalem had remained in the hands of the Saracens, had been entirely closed from the examination of Christians. Now that the Holy City had fallen under the power of the Crusaders, it was thrown open to public inspection, and the monks appear to have laboured industriously to identify every part of the Saracenic edifice with the events of Scripture. Probably some portions of the ancient building were worked up into the Mohammedan mosque; but SÆwulf's description will show us how cautious we ought to be in receiving these traditionary identifications of the localities of Scripture history.

Matth. ix. 20.

Matth. xxvi. 38.

Luke, xxii. 41-44.

Matth. xxvi. 32. It is hardly necessary to state that the giving the name of Galilee to this church was a mere legendary blunder, originating in the desire to crowd several holy places in one spot.

John, xx. 19.

Kaiffa.

Acre.

Matth. xvii. 4.

The medieval theologians made a proper name of Architriclinius, or, as they called him popularly, St. Architriclin, whom they looked upon as the lord of the feast on the occasion alluded to, and the person in whose especial favour Christ performed the miracle. It is hardly necessary to say that architriclinus is the Latin word which, in the Vulgate, translates what the English text terms "the ruler of the feast."

Matth. xvi. 13.

May 17, 1103.

The names of these cities, in the modern nomenclature, are Arsouph, Kaisariyah, Kaiffa, Akre, Sour, Sayd, Gjobayl, Beyrout, Tortus, Gebely, Tripoli, and Laodicea, the latter of which was the place named by SÆwulf Lice. Jacobus de Vitriaco (Hist. Hierosol., cap. 44) says, "Laodicia SyriÆ nuncupata, vulgariter autem Liche nominatur." Our traveller, however, perhaps by a confusion of his memory, having no map before him, has given these places out of their right order. Perhaps, as M. D'Avezac suggests, the fear of the Saracen cruisers drove him sometimes out of his right course.

Baldwin had been made king of Jerusalem on Christmas-day, in the year 1100. Tortosa was captured by Raymond, duke of Toulouse, on the 12th of March, 1102.

Acre was not taken by the crusaders till the 15th of May, 1104, the year after our traveller's return.

Cape St. Andrea is the north-eastern point of the island of Cyprus.

i. e. Antiochetta.

Stamirra is the same place which SÆwulf has before called Myra. M. D'Avezac points out documents of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in which it is named Astamirle, Stamire, and Stamir.

June 23.

Stromlo, as M. D'Avezac observes, is evidently the ancient AstypalÆa, now called Stampali.

Tenit is the island of Tenedos.

M. D'Avezac suggests that perhaps St. Euphemius and Samthe represent the ancient Eleonta on one coast, and the ancient Æantium, near the mouth of the Xanthus, on the other.

SÆwulf's relation seems to break off abruptly here, probably by the fault of the scribe; but, unfortunately, we know of no other manuscript that might furnish us with an account of his adventures at Constantinople on his return home.

They reigned from about 1103 to about 1130.

A.D. 1108.

Valland, the west of France.

Galizo land, the province of Galicia, in the north-west of Spain.

Jacob's land. Galicia is called Jacob's land by the scald, from St. James of Compostella: the apostle James, whose relics are held in veneration at Compostella in Spain. Portugal appears to have been reckoned part of Spain, and Galicia a distinct country.

Sintre, now Cintra, in Portugal; then reckoned part of Spain.

The heathen Spain would be the parts of the Peninsula occupied by the Moors.

There is some difficulty in finding a town corresponding to this Alkassi. It cannot be Alkassir in Fez, in Africa, as some have supposed, as the context does not agree with it; nor with Algesiras, which is within the Straits of Gibraltar (NÖrfasund), and it would have been so described. Alcasser de Sal lies too far inland to have been the place. Lady Grosvenor, in her Yacht Voyage, 1841, speaks of a Moorish palace near Seville, called Alcasir, which would correspond best with the Saga account.

NÖrfa Sound, the Straits of Gibraltar; so called from NÖrfa, the first Norse viking who passed through it.

Serkland is the Saracen's land, the north of Africa; and the inhabitants bluemen, the Moors.

It appears to have been the feudal idea of the times, that a title or dignity must be conferred by a superior in title or dignity; and thus a wandering king from the north could raise Roger of Sicily to the kingly title. [The Norseman's account is a fable: the dignity of king of Sicily was given to count Roger, in 1129, by the pope.]

Kypur, Cyprus.

Kirialax. Kuriou Alexou, the emperor Alexius Comnenus.

Jorsalaland, Palestine; the land of Jerusalem.

Akersborg, Acre.

Jorsalaborg, Jerusalem.

Saide, or Sidon, was taken in December, 1110.

Engilsness, supposed to be the ness at the river Ægos, called Ægisnes in the Orkneyinga Saga, within the Dardanelles; not Cape Saint Angelo in the Morea.

Padreimr, or Padrennir, the Hippodrome where the great spectacles were given.

Place of public assembly.

It is not likely that the feats of the Asers, Volsungers, and Giukungers, were represented in the games of the Hippodrome at Constantinople; but very likely that the VÆringers, and other northmen there, would apply the names of their own mythology to the representations taken from the Greek mythology.

Fire-works, or the Greek fire, were probably used.

The expression "of blessed memory" is generally added by Jews when mentioning the "honoured dead," (see Proverbs x. 7,) and recurs frequently in the following narrative.

This city was one of great antiquity; and at this time the remains of its ancient walls appear to have been very remarkable. Destroyed at an earlier period by the Saracens, Tarragona was rebuilt in the twelfth century.

The church of St. Egidius, or Giles, in this town, was a celebrated place of pilgrimage in the middle ages. It was the birthplace and first appanage of the celebrated Raymond, count of St. Gilles and Toulouse, duke of Narbonne, and marquis of Provence, whose family were so active in the crusades. The count Raymond here mentioned, in whose household R. Abba Mari held office, was Raymond V., son of Alphonso, who had the title of count of St. Gilles during his father's life.

Alexander III., who held the papacy from 1159 to 1181. The employment of Jews in the service of the pope is a circumstance worthy of remark.

The book Aruch was a celebrated dictionary, completed by rabbi Nathan at Rome, in A.D. 1101.

These singular legends relating to the ancient buildings in Rome are chiefly taken from the writings of Josephus Ben Gorion. Some of them may be compared with similar tales which are found in Christian writers, and of which several examples are inserted in William of Malmesbury's History.

The time of the destruction of both temples at Jerusalem. The day is still one of fast and mourning to all Jews, and is celebrated as such by all synagogues.

These were ten ancient teachers of the Mishna, who suffered violent death in the period between Vespasian and Hadrian. A late legend not only connected these persecutions as one event, but assigned to the victims a common sepulchre at Rome. The legend contains a conversation of the ten martyrs with the emperor. Several of the ten were certainly not buried in Rome; the sepulchres of three, Akiba, Ishmael, and Juda Ben Thema, were shown in Palestine in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Antipatris is said by others to be the place of the sepulchre of R. Akiba. A more recent catalogue notices, as known in Palestine, the sepulchres of R. Juda, son of Baba, and Simon, son of Gamaliel, two others of the "ten martyrs."

This account of Puzzuolo is also chiefly taken from Josephus Gorionides. Modern researches prove that some Roman villas on the sea-coast are now covered by the sea; and this led to the story of the submerged city.

See Isaiah, lxvi. 19. This, it need hardly be observed, is one of the erroneous identifications of Scriptural names which have so frequently arisen from a false importance given to their similarity of sound.

This title was given to a man conversant with the Hagada, or ancient manner of expounding the holy scripture. The Hebrew appellation is "darschan."

Bari, which was taken and almost destroyed by the Greeks during the reign of William of Sicily, was called St. Nicholas, in honour of the celebrated church and priory of that saint, which are its most remarkable ornaments. They were built in 1098, and richly endowed by Roger, duke of Apulia; and they escaped the great and general destruction with which the city was visited.

This island, though for some time subject to Roger and William, kings of Sicily, was reconquered by the emperor Manuel in 1149; and the words of our author are probably intended to express that this was the first spot at which he touched after leaving the kingdom of Sicily.

This erroneous account of the foundation of Patras is taken from Josephus Gorionides.

Thebes contained, at this time, the greatest number of Jews of any city in Greece, some of whom are stated to have been eminent manufacturers, principally of silk and purple cloths. Gibbon states that artists employed upon these trades enjoyed exemption from personal taxes. "These arts, which were exercised at Corinth, Thebes, and Argos, afforded food and occupation to a numerous people: the men, women, and children were distributed according to their age and strength; and if many of these were domestic slaves, their masters, who directed the work and enjoyed the profits, were of a free and honourable condition." At present the whole population of Thebes does not amount to above 3500 individuals.

No place of this name is now known. Mr. Asher conjectures, from the Sclavonic sound of the word, that it was a town of the Wallachians, and that it has been destroyed in the perpetual wars of which this part of Greece was the scene.

Rabenica is mentioned by several medieval writers, though its exact situation is not now known. Henri de Valencienne, Chronique, edited by Buchon, p. 259, says "Ensi comme jou devant vous dys, fut li parlemens ou val de Ravenique."

Gardiki, or Cardiki, a small town on the coast of the gulf of Volo, and the seat of a bishop. The time at which it was ruined, or the occasion upon which its destruction took place, cannot be ascertained.

Armyro, also on the coast of the gulf of Volo. By the writers of the middle ages it was called Amire, Amiro, and Almyro. Poucqueville (iii. 72) mentions it as the principal town of a district which bears its name.

This place is not now known, but it is mentioned by medieval writers under the name of Vissena, Vessena, and Bezena. As our author embarked at or near this station, it cannot have been Velestino, which we meet with by following his route on a map of Greece, because, although in the vicinity of Armyro, and on the road to Saloniki, it is an inland town.

The ancient Thessalonica; the modern Saloniki, contained, at our author's time, more Jewish inhabitants than any town in Greece, Thebes alone excepted. It is stated by good authorities to contain at present 20,000 Israelites, a large proportion of the whole population, amounting altogether to but 70,000 souls. Some popular tradition probably induced our author to ascribe the origin of the city to Seleucus. The favourable situation of Saloniki, which has made it one of the most commercial towns of the Turkish empire, was probably the cause of its considerable Jewish population.

This place, which has vanished from the modern maps of Greece, was called correctly Dimitritzi, and was situated near Amphipolis, on the Cercinian Sea.

Villehardouin mentions this place as belonging to the king of Thessalonica, and calls it "Dramine el val de Phelippe." Another MS. reads Draimes, which is more in conformity with the appellation given to it by Nicephorus Gregoras, who, like our author, frequently calls it Drama. It stands in a valley, near the site of the ancient city of Philippi, the ruins of which are still to be seen.

The original word is ????????; but there can hardly be any doubt that our author wrote it so only because he did not like to mention the name of Christ. We observe this in several other instances in the course of this work. Christopoli was on the direct road from Thessalonica to Constantinople. It was situated on the frontiers of Macedonia and Thracia, on the European shore of the Propontis, opposite the island of Thaso; and here travellers from Macedonia to Constantinople generally embarked.

Manuel Comnenus, emperor from 1143 to 1180.

The best account of the imperial officers of state will be found in Gibbon, "Decline and Fall," chap. liii. The PrÆpositus magnus was one of the principal officers, governor of the city and of the forces stationed in it; the Megas Domesticus was the commander in chief of the army; the Dominus, court marshal, lord steward of the household; Megas Ducas, the commander of the naval forces, or lord high admiral of the empire; Œconomos magnus, a clerical officer of high rank.

The Hippodrome is now known by the Turkish paraphrased name of the At-Meidan, i. e. the horse-market. It was the site chosen for the display of the games by which the emperor Manuel entertained the sultan Azeddin Kilidscharslan, on his visit to Constantinople in 1159; and Mr. Asher observes that Benjamin was probably an eyewitness of the public rejoicings and games which took place in honour of the celebration of the marriage of the emperor Manuel with Maria, daughter of the prince of Antiochia, on "the birth-day of Jesus," A.D. 1161, which he seems to describe here. Compare the account of the games at Constantinople exhibited to the Northmen, pp. 60, 61.

Micah, iv. 4.

The former respect and conform with the authority of the rabbinic explanations, which are rejected by the latter.

This is the Coela of Ptolemy, and the Celus of Pliny and Mela, a sea-port-town on the eastern coast of the peninsula of Gallipoli, still bearing the Turkish name of Kilia.

The island of Chio is still celebrated for its mastic; and the population of twenty villages are employed exclusively in cultivating the tree and gathering its produce. These villages are situated in the mountainous parts; and the Christian cultivators of the mastic not only paid no tithe nor tribute, but enjoyed certain privileges.

This prince first resided with the emperor Johannes Porphyrogenitus, with whom he was a great favourite; but on his death, and the succession of Manuel Comnenus to the throne, Thoros left Constantinople, disguised as a merchant, and proceeded by water to Antioch, from whence he went to Cilicia, and with the assistance of the priests and nobles found himself at the head of a formidable army, and soon established himself on the throne of his ancestors. When these news reached Constantinople, Manuel became highly incensed; and, raising a numerous force, he sent Andronicus CÆsar into Cilicia with the command to extirpate all Armenians; but the imperial general was defeated, and Thoros was subsequently reconciled with the emperor. He died in 1167.

Malmistras is the ancient Mopsuestia, on the Pyramus, at present Messis on the Jeihan. Under the former name it appears in William of Tyre and his contemporaries.

Boemond III., prince of Antioch, surnamed le Baube (or the Stammerer), succeeded his mother in the principality of Antioch in 1163, and died in 1200.

Kharmath was a famous impostor, founder of a sect called Carmathians, very similar to that of the Assassins. One of the tenets of this sect was, that the soul of the founder transmigrates into the body of his successor, and that the person who held the office of chief among them was the personification of the original founder of the sect.

Kadmus is enumerated by Burckhardt in a list of old castles, on the mountains of Szaffyta, in the territory of the Anzeiry.

Joshua, xiii. 5. 1 Kings, v. 32.

This passage was entirely misunderstood by the earlier translators. The family of the Embriaci was one of the most ancient of the patricians of Genoa; and one of its members, Guillelmus Embriacus, was named commander of the fleet which was sent to aid the Christian princes of Syria, and which, in 1109, took Byblus, of which he became the feudal lord. The jealousy of the other patrician families was subsequently roused, but the family of the Embriaci succeeded in retaining their feudal tenure. The supreme government of the city, however, at this time, appears to have been vested in a committee of seven persons, six of whom were delegated by the republic, the place of president being always filled by one of the Embriaci. William of Tyre (xi. 9) relates the conquest of Byblus by the Genoese, and informs us that the Christian name of the Embriacus who governed when he wrote (about 1180) was Hugo, "a grandson of the Hugo who conquered it;" but all other historians call the conqueror Guillelmus, and Mr. Asher thinks that we ought to read, in Benjamin's text, ???????, which stands for William, instead of Julianus.

Joshua, xviii. 25.

It is well known from other sources that Tyre was celebrated in the middle ages for the manufacture of glass.

Isaiah, xxiii. 8.

The modern Nahr-el-Mukattua. See Judges, v. 21.

Joshua, xix. 13. Modern writers identify Kaiffa with the ancient Ephah, and not with Gath.

Kings, xviii. 30.

Joshua, xv. 44.

Judges, i. 26.

Deut. xi. 29.

To which place, according to the tenets of the Talmudic Jews, the offerings are confined, and since the destruction of which they have been discontinued.

Joshua, xxiv. 32.

Modern critics and travellers appear to confirm this statement relating to the peculiar pronunciation of the three letters by the Samaritans.

At present YÂlo.

The knights templars.

Jesus is thus called in the Talmud.

1 Kings, iv. 26.

2 Sam. xviii. 18.

2 Kings, xv. 1-7.

After the slaughter of the Jews of Jerusalem by the crusaders, the few that were saved from destruction were dispersed in all directions. Those persons who mourned over these unhappy circumstances were called "mourners of Jerusalem," and are mentioned under that title more than once by Benjamin. We find these mourners even among the Caraites about 1147. We read in several ancient Jewish writers of the danger incurred by the Jews who visited Jerusalem while it remained in the power of the Christians. Pethachia found only one Jew at Jerusalem, whereas Benjamin speaks of 200. A numerous congregation was again to be met with there about 1190; but about 1216 great discord prevailed among them in consequence of the pretensions of the different congregations.

Gen. xxxv. 19, 20.

It may be observed that most of the richer stuffs, the siclatons, &c., used in the west of Europe during the middle ages, came from the east, which accounts for the number of dyers mentioned by the traveller.

Gen. xxiii. 19.

The "House of Abraham" is still shown to travellers, about an hour's ride from Hebron, the site being occupied by the ruins of a small convent.

Joshua, xv. 44. It is the Bethogabris of the Greek and Latin writers, and supposed to be the Eleutheropolis of the early Christian fathers.

Joshua, xix. 18.

1 Sam. i. 1.

The rocks of Jonathan, mentioned (1 Sam. xiv. 5) as being between Gibeah and Michmash, and which formed a narrow path between the two places, were also seen by Robinson and Smith. "Directly between Jeba and MukhmÂs are two conical hills, not very high, which are probably the scene of Jonathan's romantic adventure against the Philistines, recorded in 1 Sam. xiv."

2 Chron. xxvi. 6.

The Azotus of the ancient geographers.

The Esdraela of the Greeks, called by the historians of the crusades Gerinum and Zarain.

Now called Sephoury.

Numbers, xxxiv. 11.

Deut. iii. 17.

During the middle ages Jews were not unfrequently employed as astrologers by the Arabian princes. R. Isaac, the son of Baruch (A.D. 1080), appears, among others, to have rendered services of this kind to Almohammad. King Alphonso of Castile also entertained Jews who were proficients in astrology. The surname ????, astrologer, was borne by Abraham in Tiberias. Eliezer, author of an astrological book of chances, lived in 1559. We also find mention of Joseph, astrologer of Seifeddin, sultan of Mosul; R. Isaac, an astronomer of the twelfth century in France; and Salomon, an astronomer in Nineveh.

Jochanan, son of Zakhai, was a celebrated teacher of the Mishna in the time of Vespasian; later catalogues mention his sepulchre in Tiberias. The Jews have a legend relating to him full of extraordinary fables. Some persons have supposed him to be the "John" mentioned in Acts iv. 6.

This identification is evidently an error, as Thimnatha was in Judea, far to the south of Tiberias, and could not be Tebnin. Benjamin falls into another error in placing here the sepulchre of Samuel, who was buried in Ramah. Mr. Asher proposes to read Simeon.

MeirÛn is still a place of pilgrimage to the Jews of the vicinity, who resort thither on certain days to say prayers on the sepulchres of some rabbis; and this corroborates our text, according to which Hillel and Shamai, the two most celebrated teachers of the Talmud, who flourished before the birth of our Saviour, are interred in a cave near MerÛn. This legend must have been very prevalent at our author's time, as it is also reported by Pethachia, who adds that a large stone vase, situated in the cave of the sepulchre, filled itself spontaneously with water whenever a worthy man entered it for the purpose of devotion, but remained empty if the visitor was a man of doubtful character. The two other persons whose sepulchres are mentioned here were celebrated teachers of the law, who flourished in the third and second centuries; but Jewish writers appear to differ as to the places of their burial. The second of them is said to have traced his descent from one of the skeletons restored to life by the prophet Ezekiel.

All the persons mentioned here were celebrated rabbis of the first century before, and the three centuries after Christ, except Barak, who is well known by the fourth chapter of the book of Judges.

This is Paneas, or Baneas, the ancient CÆsarea Philippi.

This identification is not quite correct, the ancient Dan having been situated on another small rivulet, still called Dan, and distant about four Roman miles west of Paneas on the way to Tyre. William of Tyre also identifies Dan with CÆsarea. The apparent source of the Jordan flows from under a cave at the foot of a precipice, in the sides of which are several niches with Greek inscriptions, which Benjamin has mistaken for the altar of Micha.

This is a mistake of rabbi Benjamin, as this term, used in Deut. xi. 24, means the Mediterranean.

It is hardly necessary to state that this was the celebrated sultan of Damascus, Aleppo, and Egypt, so well known in the history of the crusades. He reigned from 1145 to 1173.

2 Kings, v. 12. The ancient Greek name of the river was Chrysorrhoas; in modern Arabic it is called the Barady.

2 Kings v. 12. It is now called El Faige.

Jerem. xlix. 27; Amos, i. 4.

The earthquake alluded to visited this part of Syria in 1157, at which period Hamah, Antiochia, Emessa, Apamea, Laodicea, and many other cities, were laid in ruins. R. Benjamin calls the river Orontes Jabbok; the Arabians call it Oroad, or Asi. Rieha, or Reiha, is a name still borne by a place and mountain in this part of the road from Damascus to Aleppo. Burckhardt mentions ruins of numerous towns still visible on the mountain, among which we must look for Lamdin, mentioned in our text, but by no other traveller or geographer. The road between Damascus and Aleppo, pursued even by all modern travellers, goes by Homs and Tadmor. Burckhardt was the first to deviate from this route.

Numb. xxii. 5. Deut. xxiii. 4. It is the Barbarissus of the Romans. Bales was taken by the crusaders under Tancred in 1111.

The Dauses, or Davana, of the Greeks. In the history of the crusades, Kalat (or fort) Jiaber is often mentioned; and the circumstances alluded to
by our author are told at length by Desguignes. In Abulfeda's time this
place was a deserted ruin; but the castle, built on a mound of marl and gypsum, still stands, thirty-five miles below Bir, on the left bank of the Euphrates.

The Callinicus of the Greeks, afterwards called Nicephorium.

The CarrhÆ of the ancients. The site of the house of Abraham is still pointed out as an object of veneration. Mr. Asher observes that, from Aleppo to Racca, our author, like most modern and ancient travellers, followed the course of the Euphrates; but being probably attracted, like Marco Polo, by the considerable trade then carried on at Mosul, he proceeded thither from Racca, by way of Haran, Nisibis, and Jezireh, a route pointed out as probably used by Alexander on Rennel's map of the retreat of the Ten Thousand.

It appears that the name of a city is omitted here. Our author probably wrote "from thence to Ras-el-Ain," at which place the Khabur becomes a formidable river.

This is of course not the true Ararat. It is called Jebel Judi. The island is the ancient Bezebde.

See p. 68, note.

The ancient Erbela.

The ancient Cercusium.

All these were celebrated Jewish rabbis in the earlier centuries of the Christian era.

The khalif alluded to by Benjamin was either Moktafi, who died in 1160, or Mostanjeh-abul-Modhaffer, who reigned from his death to 1170. It is probable that Benjamin was at Bagdad in 1164.

Dar-al-Morabittan in Arabic; literally, abode of those who require being chained, i. e. of the raving mad.

The ceremony of consecration, performed by the prince of captivity, consisted in his laying his hands on the heads of the candidates.

The place where the rolls of the Pentateuch are deposited. It is generally elevated above the seats of the congregation.