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478 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Toussain Tract two years at the University of Berlin (1866-68), was professor of Greek in Furman University, Greenville, S. C., in 1868-69. From 1869 to 1879 he was professor of Hebrew in Southern Baptist Theo logical Seminary, which was located first at Green ville and after 1877 at Louisville, Ky., and since 1880 has been professor of Hebrew and oriental lan guages at Harvard University. Besides his work as editor of the Hellenistic department of the Jewish Encyclopedia, he has written History of the Religion of Israel (Boston, 1882); Quotations in, the New Tes tament (New York, 1884); Judaism and Christians ', ity (Boston, 1890); and Commentary on Proverbs (New York, 1899), and likewise prepared the He brew text and English translation of Ezekiel for the Polychrome Bible (New York, 1899). TRACHONITIS, trac"o-nai'tis (TRACHON): A district of Palestine belonging to the Tetrarch Philip, son of Herod the Great (Luke iii. 1). The name, which is Greek and signifies " rough country," is sometimes used in the Targums and other Jewish writings to render the Argob of Dent. iii. 4, 13-14; I Kings iv. 13. Josephus, who repeatedly mentions Trachonitis, beside Auranitis (the Hauran) and Batanea (Bashan), describes it (Ant., XV., x. 1) as a rocky inaccessible region, abounding in arti ficial reservoirs and caves and infested with robbers. It evidently lay to the east and northeast of Bashan, and an inscription found at al-Mismiyah, the site of the ancient Phiena, between twenty-five and twenty eight miles south of Damascus, describes the place as " the chief village of Trachon." This point is situated on the northern edge of the Lejjah. The Onomasticon of Eusebius locates Trachonitis be yond Bostra in the desert south of Damascus, and Ptolemy (V., xv. 26) places the Arabs of Trachonitis east of Batanea. In 1858 J. G. Wetzstein studied the two Trachons, or rugged tract, to the southeast and south of Damascus mentioned by Strabo (IL, ii. 755-756). Of these only the latter has any con nection with Bible history. It is now called al Lejjah, or " place of refuge," and is a lava plateau, extending for twenty-eight miles northwest from the range of the Hauran. The upper surface, whose outer edge averages thirty-three feet above the sur rounding region, is a sharply undulating plain of lava-stones, covered with heaps of basalt block. The jagged surface is rent by abrupt ravines. The intense humidity has made vegetation possible, while the winter rains are preserved in subterra nean reservoirs easily concealed. The entire region corresponds closely to the description of Josephus, the name Trachon itself being possibly an equiva lent of the Arabic wa'r, " stony, inaccessible dis trict," which is applied to the Safah in the east and the Lejjah in the west. After the death of Lysanias, king of Ituraea (36 B.C.), Zenodorus leased the southern parts of his domain from Cleopatra, and seems to have remained tributary ruler after her death in 30. They were located between Trachonitis and Galilee, and in cluded Ulatha and Panias (Ant., XV., x. 3). To increase his revenues Zenodofvs had the inhabi tants of Trachonitis make forays, especially against the people of Damascus. Augustus accordingly
commanded that Trachonitis, Batanea, and Auranitis be assigned to the interests of Herod the Great (23 B.C.), to whom he also gave the domain of Zenodorus at his death (20 B.C.). Attempts to make the nomads of the country an agricultural people meeting with scant success, Herod settled 3,OC0 Idumceans there (10-9 B.C.). A few years later he likewise placed a colony of 600 Babylonian Jews in Trachonitis, and built for their leader Zamaris the fortress of Barthyra (probably the modern Bait Ari in the Jaulan). On the death of Herod (4 B.C.), Augustus made his son Philip ruler of Trachoniiis, Batanea, Auranitis, and a part of the territory of Zenodorus (hence tetrarch of Trachonitis). At. Philip's death (34 A.D.), his territory was incorporated with Syria, but in 37 was given by Caligula to King Agrippa, a grandson of Herod, who ruled it until h13 death m 44 A.D. (see HEROD AND His FADfILY). The district then came under the control of Roman procurators until, in 53 A.D., Claudius gale it to Agrippa IL, who seems to have held it until his death (100 A.D.). Under Roman rule Trachonitis and the surrounding territory seems to have reached a·high degree of prosperity, which was apparently destroyed by the Persian invasions about 615.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of Palestine, pp. 629 aqq., London and New York, 1896; J. L. Porter, Five Years in Damascus, 2 vols., London, 1855; idem, Giant Cities of Baahan, pp 12 aqq., New York, 1871; J. G. Wetzstein, ReiaeberichE fiber Hauran and die Trachonen, Berlin, 1860; M. de Vogue, Syrie Centrale, 2 vols., Paris, 1866-77; P. Le Bas and W. H. Waddington, Inscriptions grecques et latines, voh iii., nos. 2524, 2396, Paris, 1870; S. Merrill, East of the Jordan, pp. 10 sqq., new ed., New York, 1883; H. Hildesheimer, Beitrtige zur Geographic Pal6stinaa, pp. 55-57, Berlin, 1886; A. Stubels, "Journey to Tulul and Hauran, 188.x," ed. H. Guthe, in ZDPV, xii (1889), 225-302; Maj.-Gen. A. HeberPercy. A Visit to Bashan and Arpob, London, 1895; G. Rindfleiach, in ZDPV, sai (1898), 1-48; Scharer, Geachichte, i. 425 sqq., E.ng. tranal., L, ii. 11 sqq.; DB, iv. 801; EB, iv.5142-46.
TRACT: [In general literary use, a small work in which some subject of small range, or some aspect of a subject, is discussed (Lat. tractare, " to treat a subject "). It is distinguished from a treatise by being shorter, and by its persuasive as distinguished from its pedagogical aim. In its religious sense its Latin equivalent was much used in the Middle Ages, and continued to be used after the Reformation. In its modern use the word designates a brief exhorta tion to a religious life (see TRACT SOCIETIES)]. Liturgically it is an extension of the Gradual (q.v.) by a number of verses, especially from the Psalms, used from Septuagesima to Easter on Sundays and festivals, and also after Ash Wednesday on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, except in masses for the dead. The tract, like its name, seems to date back to the early Church.. It essentially implies humility, and its designation is explained (as by the Pseudo Alcuin, De divinis officiis, ix., in MPL, ci. 1186) as due to the fact " that it is sung slowly or sadly (tractim), and signifies the groaning of holy mother Church." (A. HAUCK.)TRACT AND COLPORTAGE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. See TRACT SOCIETIES, IIL, 3
