Strabo Geography 16.1.12

1. The name Coele-Syria, or Hollow Syria, which was properly applied to the district between Libanus and Antilibanus, was extended also to that part of Syria which borders upon Egypt and Arabia; and it is in this latter sense that Strabo here speaks of Coele-Syria. So also Diodorus Siculus, i. § 30, speaks of Joppa in Coele-Syria; and Polybius, v. 80, § 2, of Rhinocolura, the first of the cities in Coele-Syria; and Josephus, Ant. Jud. xiii. 13, § 2, of Scythopolis of Coele-Syria.

2. El-Arish.

3. El-Kas near Sebakit-Bardoil, the ancient lake Serbonis.

4. Barathra.

5. Strabo has misunderstood the meaning of Eratosthenes, who had said that the excess of the waters of the Euphrates sunk into the ground and reappeared under the form of torrents, which became visible near Rhinocolura in Coele-Syria and Mt. Casius, the Casius near Egypt. Our author properly observes that the length and nature of the course contradicts this hypothesis: but, misled by the names Coele-Syria and Casius, he forgets that the Casius of Egypt and the district bordering upon Egypt, improperly called Coele-Syria, are here in question; he transfers the first name to Coele-Syria of Libanus, and the second to Mt. Casius near Seleucia and Antioch, and adds that, according to the notion of Eratosthenes, the waters of the Euphrates would have to traverse Libanus, Antilibanus, and the Casius (of Syria), whilst Eratosthenes has not, and could not, say any such thing. The hypothesis of Eratosthenes could not, indeed, be maintained, but Strabo renders it absurd. The error of our author is the more remarkable, as the name of the city Rhinocolura ought necessarily to have suggested to him the sense in which the words Casius and Coele Syria should be understood.