PREFACE. 
viii 
It would seem, from the evidence regarding Petra which may be 
collected in ancient history, that neither in the ages prior to the 
Zadagasta of the Table, or Zodocatha of the Notitiæe dignitatum Imperii. See Reland 
Palæst. p. 230. Most of the other places mentioned on the three roads of the Table are 
noticed by Ptolemy or in the Notitiæe. 
And here, the Editor may be permitted to add a few words on a third Roman route 
across these deserts, (having travelled the greater part of it three times,) namely, that from 
Gaza to Pelusium. In the Itinerary of Antoninus, the places, and their interjacent dis 
tances are stated as follows, Gaza, 22 M. P. Raphia, 22 M. P. Rhinocolura, 26 M.P. 
Ostracine, 26 M. P. Casium, 20 M. P.Pentaschœnus, 20 M. P. Pelusium. The Theodo 
sian Table agrees with the Itinerary, but is defective in some of the names and distances; 
Gerrhæ, placed by the Table at 8 M. P. eastward of Pelusium, is confirmed in this situ 
ation by Strabo and Ptolemy. Strabo confirms the Itinerary in regard to Raphia, omits 
to notice Ostracine, and in placing Casium at three hundred stades from Pelusium, differs 
not much from the 40 M. P. of the Itinerary, or the ten schœenes indicated by the word 
Pentaschœenus, midway. 
The name of Ráfa is still preserved near a well in the desert, at six hours march to 
the southward of Gaza, where among many remains of ancient buildings, two erect gra 
nite columns are supposed by the natives to mark the division between Africa and Asia. 
Polybius remarks (1. 5, c. S0), that Raphia was the first town of Syria, coming from 
Rhinocolura, which was considered an Egyptian town. Between Raphia and the eastern 
most inundations of the Nile, the only two places at which there is moisture sufficient to 
produce a degree of vegetation useful to man, are El Arish and Kátieh. The whole 
tract between these places, except where it has been encroached upon by moving sands, is 
a plain strongly impregnated with salt, terminating towards the sea in a lagoon or irrup 
tion of the sea anciently called Sirbonis. As the name of Kátieh, and its distance from 
Tineh or Pelusium, leave no doubt of its being the ancient Casium, the only remaining 
question is, whether El Arish is Rhinocolura, or Ostracine? A commentary of St. Jerom, 
on the nineteenth chapter of Isaiah, v. 18, suggests the possibility that the modern name 
El Arish may be a corruption of the Hebrew Ares, which, as Jerom observes, means 
oorgaxov, and alludes to Ostracine. Jerom was well acquainted with this country; but 
as the translators of Isaiah have supposed the word not to have been Ares, and as Jerom 
does not state that Ares was a name used in his time, the conjecture is not of much weight. 
It is impossible to reconcile the want of water so severely felt at Ostracine (Joseph, de 
Bel. Jud. 1. 4, ad fin. Plutarch, in M. Anton. Gregor. Naz. ep. 46.), with El Arish, 
where there are occasional torrents, and seldom any scarcity of well water, either there or at 
Messudieh, two hours westward. Ostracine, therefore, was probably near the éxgryua of the