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NOW all those Galileans who, after the taking of Jotapata, had revolted
from the Romans, did, upon the conquest of Taricheae, deliver themselves
up to them again. And the Romans received all the fortresses and the cities,
excepting Gischala and those that had seized upon Mount Tabor; Gamala also,
which is a city ever against Tarichem, but on the other side of the lake,
conspired with them. This city lay Upon the borders of Agrippa's kingdom,
as also did Sogana and Scleucia. And these were both parts of Gaulanitis;
for Sogana was a part of that called the Upper Gaulanitis, as was Gamala
of the Lower; while Selcucia was situated at the lake Semechouitis, which
lake is thirty furlongs in breadth, and sixty in length; its marshes reach
as far as the place Daphne, which in other respects is a delicious place,
and hath such fountains as supply water to what is called Little Jordan,
under the temple of the golden calf, 1
where it is sent into Great Jordan. Now Agrippa had united Sogana and Seleucia
by leagues to himself, at the very beginning of the revolt from the Romans;
yet did not Gamala accede to them, but relied upon the difficulty of the
place, which was greater than that of Jotapata, for it was situated upon
a rough ridge of a high mountain, with a kind of neck in the middle: where
it begins to ascend, it lengthens itself, and declines as much downward
before as behind, insomuch that it is like a camel in figure, from whence
it is so named, although the people of the country do not pronounce it
accurately. Both on the side and the face there are abrupt parts divided
from the rest, and ending in vast deep valleys; yet are the parts behind,
where they are joined to the mountain, somewhat easier of ascent than the
other; but then the people belonging to the place have cut an oblique ditch
there, and made that hard to be ascended also. On its acclivity, which
is straight, houses are built, and those very thick and close to one another.
The city also hangs so strangely, that it looks as if it would fall down
upon itself, so sharp is it at the top. It is exposed to the south, and
its southern mount, which reaches to an immense height, was in the nature
of a citadel to the city; and above that was a precipice, not walled about,
but extending itself to an immense depth. There was also a spring of water
within the wall, at the utmost limits of the city.
1 Here we have the exact situation of of Jeroboam's "at the exit of Little Jordan into Great Jordan, near the place called Daphne, but of old Dan. See the note in Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 8. sect. 4. But Reland suspects flint here we should read Dan instead of there being no where else mention of a place called Daphne.
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