Chron. iv. 18). Beth-Ya is followed by Tapun, which was fortified by the
Greeks after the death of Judas Maccabaeus (1 Macc. ix. 50), by the Abel
of Yertu or Yered, perhaps the district of the Jordan, by Halkal, and by
Jacob-el, a name formed in the same way as that of Joseph-el. We may see
in it an evidence that the memory of the patriarch was kept alive in the
south of Palestine. The next two names are unknown, but they are
followed by Rabatu or Rabbah of Judah, Magharatu, the Ma'arath of Josh,
xv. 59, 'Emequ, "the valley" of Hebron, Sirta and Bârtu, the _Bar
has-Sirak_, or "Well of Sirah" of 2 Sam. iii. 26. Then come Beth-sa-el
or Beth-el in its Babylonian dress; Beth-Anta or Beth-Anath (Josh. xv.
59), where the Babylonian goddess Anatu was worshipped; Helkath (2 Sam.
ii. 16); the Spring of Qan'am; Gibeah of Judah (2 Sam. vi. 3, 4; see
Josh. xviii. 28); Zelah (Josh. xviii. 28), called Zilu by Ebed-Tob of
Jerusalem; and Zafta, the Biblical Zephath (Judges i. 17). The last
three names in the catalogue--Barqna, Hum, and Aktomes--have left no
traces in Scriptural or classical geography.

The geographical lists of Thothmes III. served as a model for the
Pharaohs who came after him. They also adorned the walls of their
temples with the names of the places they had captured in Palestine, in
Northern Syria, and in the Soudan, and when a large space had to be
filled the sculptor was not careful to insert in it only the names of
such foreign towns as had been actually conquered. The older lists were
drawn upon, and the names which had appeared in them were appropriated
by the later king, sometimes in grotesquely misspelt forms. The climax
of such empty claims to conquests which had never been made was reached
at Kom Ombo, where Ptolemy Lathyrus, a prince who, instead of gaining
fresh territory, lost what he had inherited, is credited with the
subjugation of numerous nations and races, many of whom, like the
Hittites, had long before vanished from the page of history. The last of