Pomponius Mela is the name of the first Roman geographer who wrote a short geographical work called 'De Situ Orbis' - which has been translated as 'The Description of the World' - in and around AD 43 (although this dating is contested). (1) What is interesting to us about what Pomponius Mela had to say is that he agrees with Herodotus' description of Syria being a geographical territory composed of many parts which differed from each other.
Now while Herodotus does not mention Judea: Pomponius Mela does when he states matter of factly that:
'Syria holds a broad expanse of the littoral, as well as lands that extend rather broadly into the interior, and it is designated by different names in different places. For example, it is called Coele, Mesopotamia, Judea, Commagene, and Sophene. It is Palestine at the point where Syria abuts the Arabs, then Phoenicia, and then – where it reaches Cilicia – Antiochia, which was powerful long ago and for a long time, but which was most powerful by far when Semiramis held it under her royal sway. Her works certainly have many distinctive characteristics. Two in particular stand out: Babylon was built as a city of amazing size, and the Euphrates and Tigris were diverted into once dry regions.
In Palestine, however, is Gaza, a mighty and very well fortified city. This is why the Persians call it their treasury (and from that fact comes the name): when Cambyses headed for Egypt under arms, he had brought here both riches and the money for war. Ascalon (2) is no less important a city. Iope (3) was founded, as they tell it, before the flood. Iope is where the locals claim that Cepheus was king, based on the proof that particular old altars -altars with the greatest taboo – continue to bear an inscription of that man and his brother Phineus. What is more, they even point out the huge bones of the sea-monster as a clear reminder of the event celebrated in song and legend, and as a clear reminder of Andromeda, who was saved by Perseus.' (4)
Mela continues his description by detailing Phoenicia and its cities - particularly Sidon - completely missing out the supposed 'wonders' of Jerusalem as simply being insignificant and not worthy of notice. This might be attributed to Mela's preference for Phoenicia as the origin of much that was Greek, but - as Batty implies - (5) this cannot be the case given that the jews should have been of particular to interest to Mela (given their odd customs and obvious Phoenician/Canaanite connections) but yet are simply ignored as being unworthy of notice or more likely simply as unimportant barbarians.
Furthermore, Mela clearly locates cities such as Azotus (6) as being in Arabia, bordering the Syria province of Palestine and not part of Judea. (7) He also clearly tells us - as quoted above - that Syria was divided into many provinces such as Mesopotamia (i.e., Iraq) and that Judea was simply a very small and unimportant component of this greater whole. Given that Palestine - which remember jews routinely deny existed historically - is clearly mentioned with praise about its people and cities (i.e., with geographical locators to tell us what Mela means by his use of 'Palestine') then Judea must have been rather small and unimportant.
This is especially so as what Mela tells us is that Phoenicia (i.e., modern Lebanon and coastal Syria) and Arabia (i.e., beneath Gaza City today) were connected by an important and wealthy province called Palestine. Mela also clearly tells us that modern Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Ashkelon were all major cities along with Gaza of this Palestinian province.
Indeed, Mela makes it clear in his view that Syria itself was a province of two halves: one that was wealthy and historically important with many ancient religious connections (Palestine and Mesopotamia) while the other half is filled with barbarians unworthy of notice who have contributed nothing - or at least very little - to the advancement of civilization and the betterment of mankind (Judea).
Mela notices that the Phoenicians have contributed much towards the betterment of the world by - in his view - teaching the Greeks to write and being the distributors of practical and religious knowledge. In essence Mela sees the Phoenicians as a major civilization, but then ignores the jews who likely originated from the Phoenicians/Canaanite and split off as a sectarian group singly devoted to the worship of Yahweh (the Canaanite King of Heaven) and the goddesses associated with him such as Asherah (who; with Astarte, is the origin of the 'Shekhina' in Judaism).
This tells us something quite important in so far as it acts as a contradiction to Josephus' advocacy of a Judeocentric view of the ancient world where the jews were supposedly acknowledged masters of philosophy, war and invention as well as allegedly being admired by all persons of consequence in religious matters. In essence Mela is telling us that Josephus' view - which infected later classical writers and has acted as a lodestone around the neck of the study of the classics ever since - of the jews as - to use a German term - 'world-historical' people (8) is nonsense as the jews were not inventors of anything much, but rather liked to let other people do it and then claimed all the credit.
It is tempting to point out that while there is much controversy over whether Mela knew of Strabo's 'Geography' or not given that some of what he says conforms with it, while other statements conflict with it. It is possible that Strabo's remarks - that the jews were a nation of treacherous thieves who claimed much but did little - significantly influenced Mela's position, but we should also point out that Mela is actually placing the jews in their proper position in the history of the classical Middle East as a people of little consequence who believed they mattered far more than everyone else thought they did.
It is also worth mentioning that the jews only come to historical importance and significant notice by ancient and classical writers once they had begun their bloody and fanatical rebellions against Roman rule leading to Roman authors to take an increased interest in the history of these people who refused to - in a manner of speaking - take a bath as opposed to yelling loudly that being unclean and smelling like a cesspit was a divine commandment.
We can take three things away from reading what Mela has to say - or rather doesn't say - in that firstly the Greeks and Romans clearly understood that Palestine was a very different entity to Judea: more related to Phoenicia and Arabia than the kingdom of the jews.
Secondly that the jews of Mela's time - which is also pointed to by Herodotus and Strabo's comments on Syria/Palestine and the jews respectively - were an insignificant people in a backwater province in Syria who contributed in contrast to the Biblical narrative very little if anything to the world.
Thirdly that the jewish claim to the boundaries of the modern state of Israel is extremely tenuous given that all the non-jewish sources are unanimous in their suggestion that the original 'jewish kingdom' was simply the area around Jerusalem. Nothing more and nothing less: indeed, the classical sources suggest that the coastline of modern Israel is actually part of historically non-jewish territory before the jews decided that their claims trumped everyone else's regardless of common sense or sanity.
References
(1) Roger Batty, 2000, 'Mela's Phoenican Geography', The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 90, p. 71
(2) Modern Ashkelon
(3) Modern Tel Aviv/Jaffa
(4) Frank Romer, 1998, 'Pomponius Mela's Description of the World', 1st Edition, The University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, pp. 52-53 (Pomp. Mel. 1:62-64)
(5) Batty, Op. Cit., pp. 80-83
(6) Biblical Ashdod
(7) Romer, Op. Cit., p. 52 (Pomp. Mel. 1:61)
(8) Meaning a people who define and significant shape their historical age.