The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

SUPPLEMENTAL ENCYCLOPAEDIAof that island. When Caesar invaded the island in 55 B.C, he found in it two different peoples the interior wasoccupied by the primitive or indigenous Celtic inhabitants,who had been driven back from the coasts by a people ofprobable Gothic descent. The latter had colonized thesoutheast part of the island, and were less numerous thanthe Celtic Britons. Caesar was the first who gave thename Britannia to this island, which before his time wascalled Albion. The language of the southern Celtic Britonswas very similar to the present Welsh. "The Gauls andBritons," says R. G. Lotham, "are fundamental populationsof the British Isles." The Picts were either aboriginalor intrusive. If aboriginal, they were, like the Gauls andBritons, Celtic. The religion of the island was Druidism.Byblos A seaport and district of Phoenicia, north ofBeyroot, whose Scriptural or Hebrew name was Gebal.The inhabitants were called Giblites, and denoted in theHebrew word rendered "stone-squarers" in I.Kings v.18. Their land and all Lebanon were assigned to theIsraelites, but never fully possessed. It was an importantplace, and the seat of the worship of Thammuz.Caesarea A city situated on the coast of the MediterraneanSea, between Joppa and Tyre. It was anciently asmall place called the Tower of Strato, but rebuilt withgreat splendor, and strongly fortified by Herod the Great,who formed a harbor by constructing a vast breakwater,adorned the city with many stately buildings, and namedit Caesarea in honor of Caesar. This city was the capitalof Judea during the reign of Herod the Great and of HerodAgrippa I., and was also the seat of the Roman powerwhile Judea was governed as a province of the empire. Itis now a heap of ruins.Canaan The land peopled by Canaan, the son of Hamand grandson of Noah (Gen. ix. 18). His numerous pos-170