PSEUDO-SCYLAX°

PSEUDO-SCYLAX° (fl. c. 350 B.C.E.), pseudonym of the Greek author of a seafarers' manual (Periplus), which includes a description of the Mediterranean and Black Sea coastlines. The work, entitled "Periplus of the sea of inhabited Europe, of Asia, and of Libya," refers to Scylax of Caryanda, a contemporary of Darius I (521–485 B.C.E.). However, the work was composed about the middle of the fourth century B.C.E. It has survived in almost complete form. The author charts, inter alia, the coastal cities of Palestine and Syria, such as Joppa (Jaffa), Doris (Dora), and Ascalon (Ashkelon). The latter two are described, respectively, as a city of the Sidonians and as a royal city of the Tyrians. He also mentions a mountain and temple of Zeus, which seems to refer to Mt. Carmel. He describes the boundaries of "Coele-Syria" as extending from Ascalon to the river Thapsacus, and states the distance between them. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Mueller, Geographi Graeci Minores, 1 (1855): A. Baschmakoff, La Synthèse des Périples Pontiques (1948), text and French translation. (Solomon Rappaport)