I.

After the Danube had received the waters of C H A P. the Teyfs and the Save, it acquired, at least among the Greeks, the name of Ifter ". It for- Mafia and merly divided Mæfia and Dacia, the latter of Dacia. which, as we have already feen, was a conqueft of Trajan, and the only province beyond the river. If we enquire into the present state of those countries, we shall find that, on the left hand of the Danube, Temefwar and Tranfylvania have been annexed, after many revolutions, to the crown of Hungary; whilft the principalities of Moldavia and Walachia acknowledge the fupremacy of the Ottoman Porte. On the right hand of the Danube, Mæfia, which, during the middle ages, was broken into the barbarian kingdoms of Servia and Bulgaria, is again united in Turkish flavery.

Macedo

The appellation of Roumelia, which is ftill Thrace, bestowed by the Turks on the extenfive countries nia, and of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, preferves Greece. the memory of their ancient ftate under the Roman empire. In the time of the Antonines, the martial regions of Thrace, from the mountains of Hamus and Rhodope, to the Bosphorus and the Hellefpont, had affumed the form of a province. Notwithstanding the change of mafters and of religion, the new city of Rome, founded by Constantine on the banks of the Bofphorus, has ever fince remained the capital of a great monarchy. The kingdom of Macedonia, which,

81 The Save rifes near the confines of Iftria, and was confidered by the more early Greeks as the principal ftream of the Danube.

I.

CHA P. under the reign of Alexander, gaye laws to Asia, derived more folid advantages from the policy of the two Philips: and with its dependencies of Epirus and Theffaly, extended from the Ægean to the Ionian fea. When we reflect on the fame of Thebes and Argos, of Sparta and Athens, we can scarcely perfuade ourselves, that fo many immortal republics of ancient Greece were loft in a fingle province of the Roman empire, which, from the fuperior influence of the Achæan league, was ufually denominated the province of Achaia.

Afia Mi

nor.

Such was the state of Europe under the Roman emperors. The provinces of Afia, without excepting the tranfient conquefts of Trajan, are all comprehended within the limits of the Turkish power. But, instead of following the arbitrary divifions of defpotifm and ignorance, it will be fafer for us, as well as more agreeable, to obferve the indelible characters of nature. The name of Afia Minor is attributed with fome propriety to the peninfula, which, confined betwixt the Euxine and the Mediterranean, advances from the Euphrates towards Europe. The most extensive and flourishing diftrict, weftward of mount Taurus and the river Halys, was dignified by the Romans with the exclufive title of Afia. The jurifdiction of that province extended over the ancient monarchies of Troy, Lydia, and Phrygia, the maritime countries of the Pamphylians, Lycians, and Carians, and the Grecian colonies of Ionia, which equalled in arts, though not in arms, the glory of their parent. The kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus poffeffed the northern fide

I.

of the peninfula from Conftantinople to Trebi- CHA P. zond. On the oppofite fide, the province of Cilicia was terminated by the mountains of Sy. ria: the inland country, feparated from the Roman Afia by the river Halys, and from Armenia by the Euphrates, had once formed the independent kingdom of Cappadocia. In this place we may obferve, that the northern fhores of the Euxine, beyond Trebizond in Afia, and beyond the Danube in Europe, acknowledged the fovereignty of the emperors, and received at their hands either tributary princes or Roman garrifons. Budzac, Crim Tartary, Circaffia, and Mingrelia, are the modern appellations of thofe favage countries $2.

82

Phoenicia,

Under the fucceffors of Alexander, Syria was Syria, the feat of the Seleucida, who reigned over Up- and Palefper Afia, till the fuccefsful revolt of the Par- tine. thians confined their dominions between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. When Syria became fubject to the Romans, it formed the eastern frontier of their empire; nor did that province, in its utmost latitude, know any other bounds than the mountains of Cappadocia to the north, and towards the fouth, the confines of Egypt, and the Red Sea. Phoenicia and Paleftine were fometimes annexed to, and fometimes feparated from the jurifdiction of Syria. The former of thefe was a narrow and rocky coaft; the latter was a territory fcarcely fuperior to

82 See the Periplus of Arrian. He examined the coafts of the Euxine, when he was governor of Cappadocia.

CHAP. Wales, either in fertility or extent. Yet Phot I. nicia and Paleftine will for ever live in the me

Egypt.

mory of mankind fince America, as well as Europe, has received letters from the one, and religion from the other 3. A fandy defert alike deftitute of wood and water fkirts along the doubtful confine of Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. The wandering life of the Arabs was infeparably connected with their independence; and wherever, on fome spots lefs barren than the reft, they ventured to form any fettled habitation, they foon became fubjects to the Roman empire "4.

The geographers of antiquity have frequently hefitated to what portion of the globe they should afcribe Egypt. By its fituation that celebrated kingdom is included within the immenfe peninfula of Africa; but it is acceffible only on the fide of Afia, whofe revolutions, in almost every period of history, Egypt has humbly obeyed. A Roman præfect was feated on the fplendid throne of the Ptolemies; and the iron fceptre of the

83 The progrefs of religion is well known. The use of letters was introduced among the favages of Europe about fifteen hundred years before Chrift; and the Europeans carried them to America about fifteen centuries after the Chriftian æra. But in a period of three thousand years, the Phœnician alphabet received confiderable álterations, as it paffed through the hands of the Greeks and Ro

mans.

8 Dion Caffius, lib. lxviii. p. 1131.

85 Ptolemy and Strabo, with the modern geographers, fix the Ifthmus of Suez as the boundary of Afia and Africa. Dionyfius, Mela, Pliny, Salluft, Hirtius, and Solinus, have preferred for that purpose the western branch of the Nile, or even the great Catabathmus, or defcent, which laft would affign to Afia, not only Egypt, but part of Libya.

Mama

I.

41

Mamalukes is now in the hands of a Turkish C H A P. pafha. The Nile flows down the country, above five hundred miles from the tropic of Cancer to the Mediterranean, and marks, on either fide, the extent of fertility by the measure of its inundations. Cyrene, fituate towards the west, and along the fea-coaft, was firft a Greek colony, afterwards a province of Egypt, and is now loft in the defert of Barca.

From Cyrene to the ocean, the coaft of Africa Africa. extends above fifteen hundred miles; yet fo clofely is it preffed between the Mediterranean and the Sahara, or fandy defert, that its breadth feldom exceeds fourfcore or an hundred miles. The eastern divifion was confidered by the Romans as the more peculiar and proper province of Africa. Till the arrival of the Phoenician colonies, that fertile country was inhabited by the Libyans, the most savage of mankind. Under the immediate jurifdiction of Carthage, it became the center of commerce and empire; but the republic of Carthage is now degenerated into the feeble and diforderly ftates of Tripoli and Tunis. The military government of Algiers oppreffes the wide extent of Numidia, as it was once united under Maffiniffa and Jugurtha: but in the time of Auguftus, the limits of Numidia were contracted; and, at leaft, two thirds of the country acquiefced in the name of Mauritania, with the epithet of Cæfarienfis. The genuine Mauritania, or country of the Moors, which, from the ancient city of Tingi, or Tangier, was diftinguished by the appellation of Tingi

tana,