st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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DAMASCUS. 3
found there by Pliny, and the somewhat strange
epithet of "windy" applied to it by Lucan, are the
chief allusions to be met with in classical authors 1 .
When Pompey overran Syria, it was brought under
Roman sway. In the time of St. Paul it was subject
to the rule of the King of Petra, having lately been
transferred to that government by Caligula. To the
Apostle Paul no spot could be fraught with associa
tions of intenser interest than Damascus. Near its
walls was the scene of that heavenly vision which
changed the whole life of the man who changed the
world. No perils that he afterwards went through
seem to have made a deeper impression on his mind
than his escape as a fugitive from its battlements.
The "street that is called Straight"
still remains,
running for the length of a mile due east and west j
but alas ! how changed. In those days
it was one
hundred feet in width, and divided by Corinthian
colonnades into three avenues while ; midway along
its course the wayfarer passed under a Roman
triumphal arch of noble proportions. Now, remains
of the colonnades and gates may still be traced, but
time has destroyed every vestige of their original
1
See article "Damascus" in Smith s "Dictionary of Geo
It may perhaps be said in defence of Lucan s
graphy."
epithet ventosa Damascus," iii. 215), that it is not quite
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certain whether he may not have meant to refer to the cha
racter of its inhabitants, as when Cicero spoke of "homo
ventosissimus," Epp. ad. Fam. xi. 9. If it be a literal imita
tion of Homer s windy Ilium," it is not impossible to find a
justification for it in what travellers tell us of the fierce hurri
canes of wind that traverse the deep ravines leading to the
garden-like plain of Damascus itself.
B 2