( 5 o8 )

clude to be more thatn 4.2 Foot High, and the Circumference Propor-tionale. Upon the Body thereof is the following Infeription :

H BOTAH KAI O AHMOC AAIAaM£NA nANOr MOKIMOTTOT AIPANOX TOT MA00A KAI AIPANHN TON 7IATEPAATTOT ^TC 6 B 6 ICKAI 4 IAOI 1 ATPIAAC K [Ai] NANTI TPOH»[ 6 t]C 6 M<uC AP 6 CANTACTH PATPIC1 KAI riATPIOlC06OIC T 6 IMHC XAPIN 6 TOYC N T A MHNOC ~ ANAlCOr.

It seems Evident by this and forne following lnscriftions, thatThcy werea Free State Govern’d by a Senate and People , though perhaps under theProtection ofGreaterEwpirer; the Tarthiam^ it is probable, first, and af-terwards the Romans, who lor a long time Contended for the Mallery herein the East. And this Government rnight Continue among them lill aboutthe Time of Aurelia», who Demulilht the Place, and Led Zenobia, Wife ofOdenatsu, Captive to Rome: who, though fhe be call’d J$u:cn, yet I sindnot that ever her Husband had the Title of King ; but was only one ofthe Chief Inhabitants, a LfadingMan in the Senate fas ’tis probable theseAlilamanes and Airanes were before him) who while the Romans werebusied in bnrope, made himstlf great here, and by his own Force repell’d thefartbians ; who having Master’d whatcver was hcld by the Romans on theother side of Eupbrates, made an Incurlion into Syn.r, but were by O denatasdriven back beyond the Rivcr. In the Course of these Wars Odenatus wasSlain but his Wife Zenobia , bcing a Woman of a Masculine Spirit, notonly kcpt herGround against herEnemies Abroad, butmaintain’d her Au-thority at Home, kecping the Government in her Hands. Afterwards outof aDesireto cast off the Rcptan Yoke, fhe Catis’d the whole Garrifön whichwas lest there by Aurclian , to be Barbaroufly Cut off. Which bringingAurelian back witli his Army, he quickly took the City, and Destroy’d it,putting the Inhabitants to the Sword, and car'rying Zenobia Captive toRome\ which was the Fatal Period oftheGlory of that Place. This Cu-stom of theirs of runuing up thcir Genealogies or Tedigrees to the ^th or ythGeneration, fhtws them to have Borrow’dsomeoftheir Fafhions from theirNeighbours the 'stetv, with whom it is not unlikely they had of Old greatCom merce ; and ptrhaps trany of them were Deseended from that People,Zenobia hei seif bcing seid to have been a Jeiz’eß : Or eise, this must havebeen the Männer of all the basiern Nations. Their ts£ra, er Account ofTime, they begin from the Death of Alexander the Great, as the Syrians ge-nerally do: the very Christians at this Day following the fämellfage. Yetthough they Mark the Date of the Year by GreekL<tters, you may Observethey place them a D.fffrent way from the Greeks, setting the Leiser Num-ber first, as if they were to be Read Backward, from the Right Hand to theLest; NX here, Dcnoting 450 . The 3 d Letter A, I take to stand for theDay of the Mtnth, viz,. the Last of Xandicus which is with us April-, thisand other Namcs of Months which are found in other Infcriptions, beingEorrow’d from the Macedoniam with very little Variation. That they

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