Four Beasts in One; The Homo-Camelopard
ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES is very generally looked upon as the Gog of the prophet Ezekiel.
This honor is, however, more properly attributable to Cambyses, the son of Cyrus. And,
indeed, the character of the Syrian monarch does by no means stand in need of any
adventitious embellishment. His accession to the throne, or rather his usurpation of the
sovereignty, a hundred and seventy-one years before the coming of Christ; his attempt to
plunder the temple of Diana at Ephesus; his implacable hostility to the Jews; his pollution
of the Holy of Holies; and his miserable death at Taba, after a tumultuous reign of eleven
years, are circumstances of a prominent kind, and therefore more generally noticed by the
historians of his time than the impious, dastardly, cruel, silly, and whimsical
achievements which make up the sum total of his private life and reputation.
Let us suppose, gentle reader, that it is now the year of the world three thousand eight
hundred and thirty, and let us, for a few minutes, imagine ourselves at that most
grotesque habitation of man, the remarkable city of Antioch. To be sure there were, in
Syria and other countries, sixteen cities of that appellation, besides the one to which I
more particularly allude. But ours is that which went by the name of Antiochia
Epidaphne, from its vicinity to the little village of Daphne, where stood a temple to that
divinity. It was built (although about this matter there is some dispute) by Seleucus
Nicanor, the first king of the country after Alexander the Great, in memory of his father
Antiochus, and became immediately the residence of the Syrian monarchy. In the
flourishing times of the Roman Empire, it was the ordinary station of the prefect of the
eastern provinces; and many of the emperors of the queen city (among whom may be
mentioned, especially, Verus and Valens) spent here the greater part of their time. But I
perceive we have arrived at the city itself. Let us ascend this battlement, and throw our
eyes upon the town and neighboring country.
"What broad and rapid river is that which forces its way, with innumerable falls,
through the mountainous wilderness, and finally through the wilderness of buildings?"
That is the Orontes, and it is the only water in sight, with the exception of the
Mediterranean, which stretches, like a broad mirror, about twelve miles off to the
southward. Every one has seen the Mediterranean; but let me tell you, there are few who
have had a peep at Antioch. By few, I mean, few who, like you and me, have had, at the
same time, the advantages of a modern education. Therefore cease to regard that sea, and
give your whole attention to the mass of houses that lie beneath us. You will remember
