Note 59 — LIFE OF CRASSUS.

Hierapolis or the 'Holy City' was also called Bambyke and Edessa. Strabo places it four schoeni from the west bank of the Euphrates. The goddess who was worshipped here was called Atargatis or Astarte. Lucian speaks of the goddess and her temple and ceremonial in his treatise 'On the Syrian Goddess' (iii. p. 451, ed. Hemsterhuis). Lucian had visited the place. Josephus adds (Jewish Antiq. xiv. 7) that Crassus stripped the temple of Jerusalem of all its valuables to the amount of ten thousand talents. The winter occupation of the Roman general was more profitable than his campaign the following year turned out.