HEMS

HEMS or HOMS, a noted Syrian city known to the Romans as Emesa, on the Orontes, 63 m. NE. of Tripoli; here stood in ancient times a famous temple of the Sun, one of whose priests, HELIOGABALUS, became Roman emperor (218); the Crusaders captured it from the Saracens in 1098; it does a good trade in oil, cotton, silk, &c.