Note 312 — Chapter XIX · CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN SYRIA. A.H. XV. A.D. 636.

Antioch, ‘Queen of the East, was the third metropolis of the world.... Its wide circuit of many miles was surrounded by walls of astonishing height and thickness, which had been carried across ravines and over mountain summits with such daring magnificence of conception as to give the city the aspect of being defended by its own encircling mountains.’ (Farrar’s St. Paul, vol. i. p. 288.) The ravages, not many years before, of the Persian invasion must have still left their mark upon this noble city, and possibly affected its means of defence. Still, we might reasonably have expected something more from tradition than the simple mention of a battle outside the famous citadel of Northern Syria, followed by its capitulation. But the history of the fall of Syria is little more than a calendar of dates and places.