1. A city of Syria Cyrrhestica, situated on some hills about 16 miles south-west from the junction of the Euphrates and the Sajur. Besides the natural strength of its position, it was important as lying on the line of intercourse between Northern Syria and Mesopotamia, and was always a great trading city. Its early history is quite unknown. It is not mentioned during the Assyrian wars in this part of Syria (see Sayce, Academy, October 1876). Abul Farâz asserts that Josiah was defeated there by Pharaoh Necho (611 b.c. ) on his march towards Carchemish; but according to 2 Chron. xxxv. 20 the battle took place at Carchemish, which lay on the Euphrates a little further north on the site of the modern Jerablûs, or Jerabis; and probably Abul Farâz confounded the two cities. The same confusion perhaps has caused the statement of Ammianus that Hierapolis was identical with Ninus Vetus on the Euphrates. Jerablûs is clearly a corruption of Hierapolis, by which name therefore Carchemish must at some time have been styled by the Greeks; but it is surprising to find two great cities of the same name so near one another. No proof exists that Hierapolis was an important city before the time of the Seleucidae, and Professor Say ce suggests that it then succeeded to the trade and name of the older city, which had now decayed. Its original name is given in Greek as ⅛αpβνκη, which points back to a form Bambyg or Mambug, while the Syrian form is given by Pliny as Mabog, i.e., Mabbog for Mambog. The romance of trade by which this name has become naturalized in many European languages deserves a passing notice. As the city lay on the highway to the East, cotton and silk were important branches of its trade. Probably cotton plantations existed there in old time; and after the cultivation of silk was introduced to western Asia in the time of the Sassan ian kings, large groves of mulberry trees surrounded the city. The name Mambe was afterwards confounded with the Persian word pambe, silk; and the Greek form ^B>apβvκη also was similarly mixed up with the word β0pβvξ, γ which originally denoted the fly supposed to spin on trees the cotton or silk (for the two substances were confused by the Greeks and Romans) which men then gathered off the trees (Virg., Georg., ii. 121). Hence the “Bombycinae vestes” of the Roman writers; while the city itself is called “Bombycina urbs.” In Asia cotton seems to have been known as a distinct article, and was named after the city which was the chief seat of its manufacture, as muslin is from Mosul. By the crusaders the stuff and the name were carried to Europe, and the latter exists in English in the form “bombazine.” The Syrian goddess Atargatis, called by the Greeks Derceto, a personification of the nature power worshipped under different names over the whole of western Asia, had one of her most famous temples in the. city; and perhaps Mambe may have been a local name of the goddess. Hence in the 3d century b,c., when, under the Seleucid kings, Bambyce became a great Greek city and the most important station between Antioch and Seleucia, it was called Hierapolis or Hieropolis. The latter form is found on coins, the former is used in classical literature. The coinage of Hierapolis begins under the Seleucidae. The autonomous coins, probably for commercial reasons, imitate closely the coins of Antioch. The temple was plundered by Crassus on his Parthian expedition (53 B.C.). Under Diocletian or Constantine, Hierapolis became the capital of the new province of Euphratensis, a name which soon gave place to the older name Commagene. As paganism decayed, Hierapolis ceased to be the sacred city, and recovered its ancient name; at the same time its importance and population declined. In the time of Julian, who concentrated there the Roman troops for the fatal Parthian campaign, it was still one of the greatest cities of Syria; but under Justinian, who made some attempt to restore it, great part of its area was a desert, and the once strong fortifications were so decayed that the place was not defensible against the Parthian king Chosroes. At the Arab conquest it passed into the hands of the caliphs. Haroun-al-Raschid '(786-808) restored it and strengthened its walls, and it is mentioned about 1150 by Edrisi as a strong city. As the empire of the caliphs dwindled, Mambedj became a frontier post in the struggle between Christians and Mahometans, and its possession carried with it the rule in this part of Syria. The emperor Romanus Diogenes captured it in his gallant struggle against the Turks (1068). Recaptured by the Seljuk Turks, it soon afterwards fell into the power of the crusaders, until it was stormed by Saladin (1175). It was for some time the headquarters of the Mongol host under Hulagu Khan; and, as with many other Syrian cities, its desolation dates from this time. The ruins which still exist called Kara Bambuche or Buyuk Mambedj, have been described by Pococke and others, and most carefully by Chesney {Euphrates Expedition, i. 420).

Strabo (xvi. p. 748) confuses this Hierapolis with Edessa in Mesopotamia. A very full account of the city to supplement the brief outline here given may be found in Ritter, Erdkunde, x. 1041-65.

2. A city in Phrygia, at the junction of the Lycus and Meander, on the road from Apamea to Sardis. In it there were warm springs which had and still have a remarkable power of forming incrustations. Its name Hierapolis is due to the sanctity conferred on it by these hot springs, and by the Plutonium, a small cave under a projecting rock, from which there constantly emanated a dark vapour deadly to man and beast (Strabo, xiii. 629; Vitruv., viii. 3; Apuleius, De Mundo, p. 65). In reference to this we find sometimes on its coins Pluto carrying off Proserpine.

The water was also much used for dyeing. Nothing is known of the origin of the city; from the legend αρχηγέτη·: on coins, with a radiate head of the sun-god, Eckhel concludes that a Greek foundation was made under the guidance of Apollo; but a native city may have already existed there. The native name of the sun-god was Baιpβηvoς, which often occurs on coins; he was probably a Phrygian form of the Greek Zeus. The goddess of healthful drinking, Euposia, is also seen on coins. Cybele also, who is found on the coins, was one of the chief deities of the place. Little is known of the history of the city. The philosopher Epictetus was born there; and there St Paul founded a church (Coloss. iv. 13). The very considerable ruins which still exist, called Pambuk Kalessi (“Cottoh Castle λ ), have been described by Pococke, Leake, <fcc. The ancient theatre and gymnasium are in a state of remarkable preservation.