In the second century, Maximus of Tyre attributes to the Arabs the worship of a stone,—
(Dissert. viii. tom. i. p. 142, edit. Reiske;) and the reproach is furiously reechoed by the Christians (Clemens Alex. in Protreptico, p. 40. Arnobius contra Gentes, l. vi. p. 246).
Yet these stones were no other than the of Syria and Greece, so renowned in sacred and profane antiquity,
(Euseb. Praep. Evangel. l. i. p. 37. Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 54 - 56.)