COELESYRIA (Ro(An This name does not occur in Scripture, but there can be little doubt that a part at least of Coelesyria was in cluded in that Valley of Lebanon' (ii=r1 rpm) mentioned by Joshua (xi. 17 ; xii. 7), the extent of which has been too much restricted by recent geographers. The name ' Valley of Lebanon' could scarcely be applied with propriety exclusively to that section of the great valley which lay at the base of Hermon, at a considerable distance from the range of Lebanon. Doubtless Baal-Gad was situated under Mount Hermon ;' but we have reason to believe that the Valley of Lebanon' in cludes the whole of that valley which separates the ridge of Hermon from that of Lebanon. It seems that at a subsequent period this valley was called by Amos, apparently in contempt, the valley of the idols (fl nypp, chap. i. 5). The name was most appropriate. The whole sides of the valley are thickly studded with old heathen temples. The writer has visited no less than fourteen of them, and he has heard of several others. Some of them were of great size and splendour, such as those of Baalbek, Mejdel, Niha, and Hibbariyeh, This appears in fact to have been the chosen house of idolatry (Porter's Damascus, 1. 12 ; II. 320 ; Rosin son, B. R. iii. 438, 492, 529 ; Handbook of S. and P., 568, 570). The modern name of the valley con firms the above view. It is called El-Bukaa I), which is strictly the same as the Hebrew Bikah (rivp;).
In the Apocryphal books the name Coelesyria frequently occurs, and is used to denote one of the political divisions of Syria under the Persian satraps (1 Esdr. ii. 17 ; iv. 48), and subsequently under the Seleucidre Maccab. x. 69 ; 2 Maccab. viii. 8). Its extent is not defined, but it appears to have embraced the whole region extending from Hamath to Beersheba, and from Phcenicia to the Arabian desert. Polybius employs the name in the same general way, and states that Coelesyria and Phoe nicia formed the chief scene and cause of the struggles between the rival dynasties of the Seleu cidm and the Ptolemies (Hut. ii. 71 1; v. 8o, etc.) Strabo gives two widely different accounts of Coelesyria. In one place he thus describes it—Sao taxis 6pn Td Ti 0/013Pra rile Kallori.t1p7 Ei,pfap, ths bs rrapci.XX77Xa, 6, re Ai apos Kai 6 'AvrEMpavos (Geog. xvi., p, 517). Here he confines Coelesyria within what appears to be its proper limits ; while, in another place, he makes it include the whole country extending from Seleucia to Egypt and Arabia (p. 520). Pliny appears to apply the name only to the valley along the eastern base of Lebanon (H. N. v. 17). Josephus includes in Coelesyria the whole valley of the Jordan, as well as that between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. He calls the Am monites and Moabites inhabitants of Coelesyria (Antiq. i. t r. 5). Ptolemy mentions as towns of Coelesyria, Damascus, Scytlaopolis, and Gerasa, thus shelving that he agreed with Josephus (v. 25,
cf. Joseph. An/iv. xiii. 13. 2 and 3).
From these various notices it will be seen that ancient writers used the name Coelesyria with great latitude of meaning. The cause of this it is not difficult to explain. After the Macedonian conquest the name was applied by the Greeks to the great valley lying between Libanus and Anti Libanus. It was descriptive of its physical aspect ----the Greek KoiXq corresponding to the Hebrew min. The Jordan valley was a continuation of Coelesyria on the south, as was the Orontes valley on the north, so that the term HoRs1 being equally applicable to them, they were subsequently in cluded. Hence those writers who had not a very accurate knowledge of the country came to apply the name indefinitely to the whole of southern Syria east of Phcenicia. Under Roman rule the bounds of Coelesyria became somewhat more contracted, the valley of the Orontes being excluded on the north, and the province of Judma on the south.
Coelesyria, properly so called, included only the valley between the parallel ranges of Libanus and Anti-Libanus. Strabo's first description of it is consequently the most accurate, he says the valley was also called Marsyas xvi.) This great valley forms the most striking feature in the physi cal geography of central Syria. It is a northern continuation of the remarkable crevasse down which the Jordan flows. It runs from S.W. to N.E., and is seventy miles long by from three to seven broad. It is quite flat, and the soil is in general rich, and abundantly watered by streams from the mountain ranges. As seen in early spring from the heights of Lebanon, it resembles a vast sea of verdure, here and there dotted with little conical mounds, like islands, on most of which villages are perched. The watershed near the centre of the plain has an elevation of about 3000 feet above the sea, and toward each end there is a very gentle but regular descent. On the north it is drained into the Orontes, and on the south into the Litany. Near the watershed, on the eastern side of the valley, lie the magnificent ruins of Baalbek. Twenty miles southward, at the base of Anti-Libanus, is the site of Chalcis, once a royal city, now a desolate heap. Opposite the latter, in a wild mountain gorge, is Zahleh, the modem capital of Lebanon. It was recently burned by the Druzes. At the extreme northern end of the plain is the great fountain of the Orontes, the Ain of Num. xxxiv. i I ; and a few miles east of it, on the banks of the Orontes, is Riblah. Not one half of Coelesyria is now under cultivation, yet it is the granary of the neighbouring mountains. Full descriptions of Coelesyria may be seen in the fol lowing works :—Robinson, B . R . iii. ; Stanley, S. and P. ; Handbook of S. and P. ; Reland, Patent/Ea; Bochart, Geogr. ; Ritter, Pal. mid Syr. J. L. P.