[Footnote 45: (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. iii. p. 211.) The
character and position are so correctly apposite, that I am
surprised how this curious passage should have been read
without notice or application. Yet this famous temple had
been overlooked by Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, p. 58, in
Hudson, tom. i.,) whom Diodorus copies in the rest of the
description. Was the Sicilian more knowing than the
Egyptian? Or was the Caaba built between the years of Rome
650 and 746, the dates of their respective histories?
(Dodwell, in Dissert. ad tom. i. Hudson, p. 72. Fabricius,
Bibliot. Graec. tom. ii. p. 770.)
Note: Mr. Forster (Geography of Arabia, vol. ii. p. 118, et
seq.) has raised an objection, as I think, fatal to this
hypothesis of Gibbon. The temple, situated in the country
of the Banizomeneis, was not between the Thamudites and the
Sabaeans, but higher up than the coast inhabited by the
former. Mr. Forster would place it as far north as Moiiah.
I am not quite satisfied that this will agree with the whole
description of Diodorus - M. 1845.]