Magdolum

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography

MAG´DOLUM(Μάγδολον, Hdt. 2.159; but Μάγδωλονin LXX.; the Migdolof the Old Testament (Exod. 14.2; Numb. 33.7; 2 Kings, 23.29; Jerem. 44.1, 46.14; Ezek. 29.10, 30.6; It. Anton. p. 171), a town of Lower Aegypt which stood about 12 miles S. of Pelusium, on the coast-road between Aegypt and Syro-Phoenicia. Here, according to Herodotus, (l. c.) Pharaoh-Necho defeated the Syrians, about 608 B.C. Eusebius ( Praepar. Evang. 9.18), apparently referring to the same event, calls the defeated army Syrians of Judah.That the Syrians should have advanced so near the frontiers of Egypt as the Deltaic Magdolum, with an arid desert on their flanks and rear (comp. Hdt. 3.5) seems extraordinary; neither is the suspicious aspect of the Battle of Magdolus diminished by the conquest of Cadytis, a considerable city of Palestine, being represented as its result. The Syrians might indeed have pushed rapidly along the coast-road to Aegypt, if they had previously secured the aid of the desert tribes of Arabs, as Cambyses did before his invasion of Aegypt (comp. Hdt. 3.7). Calmet's Dict. of the Bible, s. v. Megiddo;Winer, Bibl. Realwörterbuch, vol. 2. p. 93, note 2; Champollion, L'Egypte, vol. 2. p. 79. [W.B.D]