Asphaltites: The Romanized Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Joseph Ben Matthias, ca. 37–100 CE) used the Latin name Asphaltites for the Dead Sea, the traditional location of the biblical cities Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by God for their wickedness. Sir Thomas Browne repeated the Latin word in Pseudodoxia Epidemica, where Melville likely saw it.