Dum Assyrios penes, Medosque, et Persas Oriens fuit, despectissima pars servientium. Tacitus, The Histories, v. 8.
Herodotus, who visited Asia whilst it obeyed the last of those empires, slightly mentions the Syrians of Palestine, who, according to their own confession, had received from Egypt the rite of circumcision. See 1. ii. c. 104.