BOZRAH. There are, according to the more usual opinion, two places of this name mentioned in Scripture, one a city of Edom, and the other a city of Moab. About the identification of these cities there has been much discussion, some maintaining that the former occupied the site of the modern village of el-Buseirah, about 25 miles S.E. of the Dead Sea, and that the latter was the city afterward known to the Romans as Bostra and at present as Busrah; while others suppose that the various passages of the Scriptures all refer to one place, and others again that there are two places, but that neither of them is to be identified with Bostra. The first view seems to be freer from difficulties than the other two. Bozrah, or el-Buseirah, is now a small village with a strong fortress on the top of a hill. It is the centre of a pastoral district, and its inhabitants, who number between 100 and 200, are all shepherds. Bozrah, Buzrah, or Bostra, on the other hand, is a very extensive collection of ruins of various ages, situated about 80 miles S. of Damascus. The area within the walls is about a mile and a quarter in length, and nearly a mile in breadth, while extensive suburbs lie without, to the east, north, and west. The principal buildings that can still be distinguished are a temple, an aqueduct, a large theatre (enclosed by a castle of much more recent workmanship), several baths, a triumphal and other arches, three mosques, and what are known as the church and convent of the monk Boheira. In 105 a.d., the city was beautified and perhaps restored from ruin by Trajan, who made it the capital of the province of Arabia. In the reign of Alexander Severus it was made a colony, and in 245 a native of the place, Philippus, ascended the imperial throne. By the time of Constantine it ...