South-east of the Aegean was situated the opulent Rhodes, the handsomest and strongest port in the Mediterranean, provided with fine harbour buildings, a seat of learning, and so full of art that it contained no less than 3000 statues.  In the somewhat desolate interior of Asia Minor were spacious runs for sheep and horses, but wheat also was grown, and the country could at least produce tall and sturdy slaves.  In northern Galatia the common people had not yet forgotten the Celtic tongue which they had brought from Gaul over three centuries ago.  In the south-east, opposite Cyprus, lay Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, a city which combined the art of manufacturing goats’ hair into tent-cloth with the pursuit of what may be called a university instruction in philosophy, science, and letters.  In both these local avocations the apostle employed his youth to good purpose.  Across the water Cyprus produced the copper which still bears its name.

[Illustration:  FIG. 7.—­PLAN OF ANTIOCH.]

Of Syria, rich in corn and fruits, the chief city—­the third in the empire—­was Antioch, a town splendidly laid out upon the Orontes in a strikingly modern fashion.  A broad street with colonnades extended in a straight line through and beyond the city for four miles, and was crossed by others at right angles.  This street is said to have been lighted at nights, while the Roman streets remained dark and dangerous.  In the neighbourhood of the city was the celebrated park called Daphne, where the voluptuous and almost incredible dissipation of the ancient world perhaps reached its acme.  Like Alexandria, Antioch was furiously addicted to horseracing.

Further down the coast Sidon produced its famous glass, and Tyre its famous purple dye.  Inland from these lay the handsome city of Damascus, famed for its gardens and for its work in fine linen.  Still farther south was Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem, of which it is perhaps not necessary here to give details.  Its population was reckoned at a quarter of a million.

On the coast of Egypt, after you had caught sight, some thirty miles away, of the first glint from the huge marble lighthouse standing 400 feet high upon the island of Pharos, you arrived at Alexandria, the second city of the Roman world and the great emporium for the trade of Egypt, of all Eastern Africa as far as Zanzibar, and of India.  From it came the papyrus paper, delicate glass-work, muslin, embroidered cloths, and such additions to luxury as roses out of season.  Alexandria, built like Antioch on a rectangular plan, with its chief streets 100 feet in width, contained a Jewish quarter, controlled by a Jewish headman and a Sanhedrin; an Egyptian quarter; and a Greek quarter, in which were the splendid buildings of the Library with its 600,000 volumes, and the University, devoted to all branches of learning and science—­including medicine—­and provided with botanical and zoological gardens.  Here also were the temple of Caesar and the fine harbour buildings.  Its population, exceedingly money-loving and pleasure-loving, and comprising representatives of every Oriental people, may have numbered three-quarters of a million.  The circuit of the city was about thirteen miles, and its chief street some four miles in length.