Chapter 261

3371The present Mahometa, according to Marcus, El Mahres according to D’Anville.

3372Now Cabès, according to D’Anville, giving name to the Gulf of Cabès. Marcus calls it Gaps.

3373Now Tripoli Vecchio; also called Sabart according to D’Anville.

3374Scipio Æmilianus, the son-in-law of Æmilius Paulus.

3375Micipsa, the son of Masinissa, and his two legitimate brethren. Scipio having been left by Masinissa executor of his will, the sovereign power was divided by him between Micipsa and his two brethren Gulussa and Mastanabal. On this occasion also he separated Numidia from Zeugitana and Byzacium, by a long dyke drawn from Thenæ, due south, to the borders of the Great Desert, and thence in a north-westerly direction to the river Tusca.

3376The Syrtes or ‘Quicksands’ are now called, the Lesser Syrtes the Gulf of Cabès, and the Greater the Gulf of Sydra. The country situate between the two Syrtes is called Tripoli, formerly Tripolis, a name which, according to Solinus, it owed to its three cities, Sabrata, Leptis, and Œa.

3377Marcus observes with reference to this passage, that both Hardouin and Poinsinet have mistaken its meaning. They evidently think that Pliny is speaking here of a route to the Syrtes leading from the interior of Africa, whereas it is pretty clear that he is speaking of the dangers which attend those who approach it by the line of the sea-coast, as Cato did, on his march to Utica, so beautifully described by Lucan in his Ninth Book. This is no doubt the same route which was taken by the caravans on their passage from Lebida, the ancient Leptis, to Berenice in Cyrenaica.

3378Those which we find at the middle of the coast bordering upon the Greater Syrtis, and which separate the mountains of Fezzan and Atlas from Cyrenaica and Barca.

3379In its widest sense this name is applied to all the Libyan tribes inhabiting the Oases on the eastern part of the Great Desert, as the Gætulians inhabited its western part, the boundary between the two nations being drawn at the sources of the Bagrada and the mountain Usargala. In the stricter sense however, and in which the term must be here understood, the name ‘Garamantes’ denoted the people of Phazania, the modern Fezzan, which forms by far the largest oasis in the Grand Desert of Zahara.

3380Augylæ, now Aujelah, was an oasis in the desert of Barca, in the region of Cyrenaica, about 31⁄2° south of Cyrene. It has been remarked that Pliny, here and in the Eighth Chapter of the present Book, in abridging the account given by Herodotus of the tribes of Northern Africa, has transferred to the Augylæ what that author really says of the Nasamones. This oasis forms one of the chief stations on the caravan route from Cairo to Fezzan. It is placed by Rennell in 30° 3′ North Lat. and 22° 46′ East Long., 180 miles south-east of Barca, 180 west by north of Siwah, the ancient Ammonium, and 426 east by north of Mourzouk. Later authorities, however, place the village of Aujelah in 29° 15′ North Lat. and 21° 55′ East Long.

3381For an account of the Psylli see B. vii. c. 2. They probably dwelt in the vicinity of the modern Cape Mesurata.

3382Now Lake Lynxama, according to Marcus.

3383Marcus observes that in order properly to understand this passage we must remember that the ancients considered Africa as terminating north of the Equator, and imagined that from the Straits of Hercules the western coast of Africa ran, not towards the south-west, but slanted in a south-easterly direction to the Straits of Babelmandel.

3384The modern Tripoli.

3385A flourishing city with a mixed population of Libyans and Sicilians. It was at this place that Apuleius made his eloquent and ingenious defence against the charge of sorcery brought against him by his step-sons. According to some writers the modern Tripoli is built on its site, while other accounts make it to have been situate six leagues from that city.

3386Now called the Wady-el-Quaham.

3387Mannert is of opinion that this was only another name for the city of Leptis Magna or the “Greater Leptis” here mentioned by Pliny. There is little doubt that his supposition is correct.

3388The more common reading is Taphra or Taphara. D’Anville identifies it with the town of Sfakes.

3389Scylax identifies it with Neapolis or Leptis, and it is generally looked upon as being the same place as Sabrata or Old Tripoli.

3390Now called Lebida. It was the birth-place of the Emperor Septimius Severus. It was almost destroyed by an attack from a Libyan tribeA.D.366, and its ruin was completed by the invasion of the Arabs. Its ruins are considerable.

3391“Men of sea complexion,” is the meaning of this Greek name. According to Marcus they dwelt between the Greater Leptis and the Lake Tritonis, at the present day called Schibkah-el-Loudeah. For a further account of the Lotophagi, see B. xiii. c. 32.

3392Two brothers, citizens of Carthage, who in a dispute as to their respective territories with the people of Cyrene, submitted to be buried alive in the sand, at the boundary-line between the two countries. Sallust (Jugurthine War) is the main authority for the story. It is also related by Pomponius Mela, B. i. c. 7, and Valerius Maximus, B. v. c. 6, but from the Greek name of the brothers, meaning “lovers of praise,” it is doubtful whether the story is not of spurious origin.

3393The Lake Tritonis mentioned in note3391, p. 393.

3394Now called El Hammah, according to Shaw.

3395According to some accounts the goddess Pallas or Minerva was born on the banks of Lake Tritonis.

3396The modern Cape of Tajuni.

3397Now called Udina, according to Marcus.

3398Now called Tabersole, according to Marcus.

3399In the north of Byzacium, near the Bagrada and the confines of Numidia. It was the station of a Roman garrison, and considerable remains of it are still visible near the modern Zanfour.

3400Called Cannopissæ by Ptolemy, who places it to the east of Tabraca.

3401There is great doubt as to the correct orthography of these places, most of which can be no longer identified.

3402According to Marcus the present Porto Tarina.

3403Also called Achilla and Achulla, the ruins of which are to be seen at the modern El Aliah. It stood on the sea-coast of Byzacium, a little above the northern extremity of the Lesser Syrtis. It was a colony from the island of Melita, now Malta.

3404Now called El-Jemma, according to Marcus.

3405From it modern Tunis takes its name.

3406The birth-place of St. Augustin. It was to the north-west of Hippo Regius.

3407In the vicinity of this place, if it is the same as the Tigisis mentioned by Procopius, there were two columns to be seen in his day, upon which was written in the Phœnician language, “We fled from before the robber, Joshua the son of Nun.”

3408There were two towns of this name in the proconsular province of Africa. The first was situate in the country of Zeugitana, five days’ journey west of Carthage, and it was here that Scipio defeated Hannibal. The other bore the surname ofRegiaor Royal, from being the frequent residence of the Numidian kings. It lay in the interior, and at the present day its site bears the name of ‘Zowarin’ or ‘Zewarin.’

3409The ruins of Capsa still bear the name of Cafsa or Ghafsah. It was an important city in the extreme south of Numidia, situate in an oasis, in the midst of an arid desert abounding in serpents. In the Jugurthine war it was the treasury of Jugurtha, and was taken and destroyed by Marius; but was afterwards rebuilt and made a colony.

3410They dwelt between the river Ampsaga or Wady-El-Kebir and the Tusca or Wady-Zain, the western boundary of the Carthaginian territory.

3411Dwelling to the east of the mountain Zalycus, now known as the Wanashrise, according to Shaw.

3412The ancients called by the name of ‘Gætulians’ all the people of Africa who dwelt south of the Mauritanias and Numidia, as far as the line which, according to their ideas, separated Africa from Æthiopia.

3413The Quorra most probably of modern geographers.

3414So called, as mentioned below, from its five principal cities.

3415Where Jupiter Ammon or Hammon was worshiped under the form of a ram, the form he was said to have assumed when the deities were dispersed in the war with the Giants. Ancient Ammonium is the present oasis of Siwah in the Libyan Desert.

3416The same that has been already mentioned in B. ii. c.106. It is mentioned by Herodotus and Pomponius Mela.

3417Previously called Hesperis or Hesperides. It was the most westerly city of Cyrenaica, and stood just beyond the eastern extremity of the Greater Syrtis, on a promontory called Pseudopenias, and near the river Lethon. Its historical importance only dates from the times of the Ptolemies, when it was named Berenice, after the wife of Ptolemy III. or Euergetes. Having been greatly reduced, it was fortified anew by the Emperor Justinian. Its ruins are to be seen at the modern Ben Ghazi.

3418So called from Arsinoë, the sister of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Its earlier name was Taucheira or Teucheira, which name, according to Marcus, it still retains.

3419Its ruins may still be seen at Tolmeita or Tolometa. It was situate on the N.W. coast of Cyrenaica, and originally bore the name of Barca. From which of the Ptolemies it took its name is not known. Its splendid ruins are not less than four miles in circumference.

3420Its ruins are still to be seen, bespeaking its former splendour, at the modern Marsa Sousah. It was originally only the port of Cyrene, but under the Ptolemies it flourished to such an extent as to eclipse that city. It is pretty certain that it was the Sozusa of the later Greek writers. Eratosthenes was a native of this place.

3421The chief city of Cyrenaica, and the most important Hellenic colony in Africa, the early settlers having extensively intermarried with wives of Libyan parentage. In its most prosperous times it maintained an extensive commerce with Greece and Egypt, especially in silphium or assafœtida, the plantations of which, as mentioned in the present chapter, extended for miles in its vicinity. Great quantities of this plant were also exported to Capua in Southern Italy, where it was extensively employed in the manufacture of perfumes. The scene of the ‘Rudens,’ the most picturesque (if we may use the term) of the plays of Plautus, is laid in the vicinity of Cyrene, and frequent reference is made in it to the extensive cultivation of silphium; a head of which plant also appears on the coins of the place. The philosophers Aristippus and Carneades were born here, as also the poet Callimachus. Its ruins, at the modern Ghrennah, are very extensive, and are indicative of its former splendour.

3422In C.1of the present Book. It was only the poetical fancy of the Greeks that found the fabled gardens of the Hesperides in the fertile regions of Cyrenaica. Scylax distinctly mentions the gardens and the lake of the Hesperides in this vicinity, where we also find a people called Hesperidæ, or, as Herodotus names them, Euesperidæ. It was probably in consequence of this similarity of name, in a great degree, that the gardens of the Hesperides were assigned to this locality.

3423Now called Ras-Sem or Ras-El-Kazat. It is situate a little to the west of Apollonia and N.W. of Cyrene.

3424According to Ansart, 264 miles is the real distance between Capes Ras-Sem and Tænarum or Matapan

3425As already mentioned, Apollonia formed the harbour of Cyrene.

3426This was called the Chersonesus Magna, being so named in contradistinction to the Chersonesus Parva, on the coast of Egypt, about thirty-five miles west of Alexandria. It is now called Ras-El-Tin, or more commonly Raxatin.

3427So called from the peculiar features of the locality, the Greek wordκαταβαθμὸς, signifying “a descent.” A deep valley, bounded east and west by ranges of high hills, runs from this spot to the frontiers of Egypt. It is again mentioned by Pliny at the end of the present Chapter. The spot is still known by a similar name, being called Marsa Sollern, or the “Port of the Ladder.” In earlier times the Egyptian territory ended at the Gulf of Plinthinethes, now Lago Segio, and did not extend so far as Catabathmos.

3428This name was unknown to Herodotus. As Marcus observes, it was probably of Phœnician origin, signifying “leading a wandering life,” like the term “nomad,” derived from the Greek.

3429Now called El Bareton or Marsa-Labeit. This city was of considerable importance, and belonged properly to Marmaria, but was included politically in the Nomos Libya of Egypt. It stood near the promontory of Artos or Pythis, now Ras-El-Hazeit.

3430So called from the wordsMatâ-Ammon, “the tribe of Ammon,” according to Bochart. The Nasamones were a powerful but savage people of Libya, who dwelt originally on the shores of the Greater Syrtis, but were driven inland by the Greek settlers of Cyrenaica, and afterwards by the Romans.

3431Fromμεσὸς“the middle,” andἄμμος“sand.”

3432See note3421in p. 396.

3433Herodotus places this nation to the west of the Nasamones and on the river Cinyps, now called the Wadi-Quaham.

3434In most of the editions they are called ‘Hammanientes.’ It has been suggested that they were so called from the Greek wordἄμμος“sand.”

3435This story he borrows from Herodotus, B. iv. c. 158.

3436From the Greek wordτρωγλοδύται, “dwellers in caves.” Pliny has used the term already (B. iv. c.25) in reference to the nations on the banks of the Danube. It was a general name applied by the Greek geographers to various uncivilized races who had no abodes but caves, and more especially to the inhabitants of the western coasts of the Red Sea, along the shores of Upper Egypt and Æthiopia.

3437At the beginning of C.4.

3438Which gives name to the modern Fezzan.

3439Now called Tanet-Mellulen, or the station of Mellulen, on the route from Gadamez to Oserona.

3440Zaouila or Zala, half way between Augyla and Mourzouk.

3441Now Gadamez, which, according to Marcus, is situate almost under the same meridian as Old Tripoli, the ancient Sabrata.

3442According to Marcus this range still bears the name of Gibel-Assoud, which in the Arabic language means the “Black Mountain.”

3443In a southerly direction. He alludes probably to the Desert of Bildulgerid.

3444This spring is also mentioned by Pliny in B. ii. c.106. Marcus suggests that the Debris of Pliny is the same as the Bedir of Ptolemy. He also remarks that the English traveller Oudney discovered caverns hewn out of the sides of the hills, evidently for the purposes of habitation, but of which the use is not known by the present people. These he considers to have been the abodes of the ancient Troglodytæ or “cave-dwellers.” In the Tibesti range of mountains, however, we find a race called the Rock Tibboos, from the circumstance of their dwelling in caves.

3445Cornelius Balbus Gaditanus the Younger, who, upon his victories over the Garamantes, obtained a triumph in the yearB.C.19.

3446L. Cornelius Balbus the Elder, also a native of Gades. He obtained the consulship inB.C.40, the first instance, as we find mentioned by Pliny, B. vii. c. 44, in which this honour had been conferred upon one who was not a Roman citizen.

3447On the occasion of a triumph by a Roman general, boards were carried aloft on “fercula,” on which were painted in large letters the names of vanquished nations and countries. Here too models were exhibited in ivory or wood of the cities and forts captured, and pictures of the mountains, rivers, and other great natural features of the subjugated region, with appropriate inscriptions. Marcus is of opinion that the names of the places here mentioned do not succeed in any geographical order, but solely according to their presumed importance as forming part of the conquest of Balbus. He also thinks that Balbus did not penetrate beyond the fifteenth degree of north latitude, and that his conquests did not extend so far south as the banks of Lake Tchad.

3448The site of Garama still bears the name of ‘Gherma,’ and presents very considerable remains of antiquity. It is four days’ journey north of Mourzouk, the capital of Fezzan.

3449Now Tibesti, according to Marcus.

3450Marcus suggests that this is probably the Febabo of modern geographers, to the N.E. of Belma and Tibesti.

3451Discera was the Im-Zerah of modern travellers, on the road from Sockna to Mourzouk, according to Marcus, who is of opinion that the places which follow were situate at the east and north-east of Thuben and the Black Mountain.

3452Om-El-Abid, to the N.W. of Garama or Gherma, according to Marcus, and Oudney the traveller.

3453The same, Marcus thinks, as the modern Tessava in Fezzan.

3454Marcus suggests that this may be the modern Sana.

3455The town of Winega mentioned by Oudney, was probably the ancient Pega, according to Marcus.

3456The modern Missolat, according to Marcus, on the route from Tripoli to Murmuck.

3457According to Marcus, this was the Mount Goriano of the English travellers Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, where, confirming the statement here made by Pliny, they found quartz, jasper, onyx, agates, and cornelians.

3458Mentioned by Tacitus, B. iv. c. 50. The town of Œa has been alluded to by Pliny in C.4.

3459“Past the head of the rock.” Marcus suggests that this is the Gibel-Gelat or Rock of Gelat spoken of by the English travellers Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, forming a portion of the chain of Guriano or Gyr. He says, that at the foot of this mountain travellers have to pass from Old and New Tripoli on their road to Missolat, the Maxala of Pliny, and thence to Gerama or Gherma, the ancient capital of Fezzan.

3460As Marcus observes, this would not make it to extend so far south as the sixteenth degree of north latitude.

3461The Mareotis of the time of the Ptolemies extended from Alexandria to the Gulf of Plinthinethes; and Libya was properly that portion of territory which extended from that Gulf to Catabathmos. Pliny is in error here in confounding the two appellations, or rather, blending them into one. It includes the eastern portion of the modern Barca, and the western division of Lower Egypt. It most probably received its name from the Lake Mareotis, and not the lake from it.

3462This was a seaport town on the northern coast of Africa, probably about eleven or twelve miles west of Parætonium, sometimes spoken of as belonging to Egypt, sometimes to Marmorica. Scylax places it at the western boundary of Egypt, on the frontier of the Marmaridæ. Ptolemy, like Pliny, speaks of it as being in the Libyan Nomos. The distances given in the MSS. of Pliny of this place from Parætonium are seventy-two, sixty-two, and twelve miles; the latter is probably the correct reading, as Strabo, B. xvii., makes the distance 100 stadia. It is extremely doubtful whether the Apis mentioned by Herodotus, B. ii. c. 18, can be the same place: but there is little doubt, from the words of Pliny here, that it was dedicated to the worship of the Egyptian god Apis, who was represented under the form of a bull.

3463Now called Zerbi and Jerba, derived from the name of Girba, which even in the time of Aurelius Victor, had supplanted that of Meninx. It is situate in the Gulf of Cabes. According to Solinus, C. Marius lay in concealment here for some time. It was famous for its purple. See B. ix. c. 60.

3464Now called Kerkéni, Karkenah, or Ramlah.

3465Now Gherba. It was reckoned as a mere appendage to Cercina, to which it was joined by a mole, and which is found often mentioned in history.

3466Still called Lampedusa, off the coast of Tunis. This island, with Gaulos and Galata, has been already mentioned among the islands off Sicily; see B. iii. c.14.

3467Now Pantellaria. See B. iii. c.14.

3468A lofty island surrounded by dangerous cliffs, now called Zowamour or Zembra.

3469In the former editions the word “Aræ” is taken to refer to the Ægimuri, as meaning the same islands. Sillig is however of opinion that totally distinct groups are meant, and punctuates accordingly. The “Aræ” were probably mere rocks lying out at sea, which received their name from their fancied resemblance to altars. They are mentioned by Virgil in the Æneid, B. i. l. 113, upon which lines Servius says, that they were so called because there the Romans and the people of Africa on one occasion made a treaty.

3470The greater portion of this Chapter is extracted almost verbatim from the account given by Mela. Ptolemy seems to place the Liby-Egyptians to the south of the Greater and Lesser Oasis, on the route thence to Darfour.

3471Or “White Æthiopians,” men though of dark complexion, not negroes. Marcus is of opinion that the words “intervenientibus desertis” refer to the tract of desert country lying between the Leucæthiopians and the Liby-Egyptians, and not to that between the Gætulians on the one hand and the Liby-Egyptians and the Leucæthiopians on the other.

3472Meaning to the south and the south-east of these three nations, according to Marcus. Rennel takes the Leucæthiopians to be the present Mandingos of higher Senegambia: Marcus however thinks that they are the Azanaghis, who dwell on the edge of the Great Desert, and are not of so black a complexion as the Mandingos.

3473Probably the people of the present Nigritia or Soudan.

3474Marcus is of opinion that Pliny does not here refer to the Joliba of Park and other travellers, as other commentators have supposed; but that he speaks of the river called Zis by the modern geographers, and which Jackson speaks of as flowing from the south-east towards north-west. The whole subject of the Niger is however enwrapped in almost impenetrable obscurity, and as the most recent inquirers have not come to any conclusion on the subject, it would be little more than a waste of time and space to enter upon an investigation of the notions which Pliny and Mela entertained on the subject.

3475Fromγυμνὸς, “naked.”

3476Mentioned in C.1of the present Book.

3477He refers to the words in the Odyssey, B. i. l. 23, 24.—Αἰθίοπας τοὶ δίχθα δεδαιάται, ἔσχατοι ἄνδρων·Οἱ μὲν δυσομένου Ὑπερίονος, οἱ δ’ ἀνιόντος.“The Æthiopians, the most remote of mankind, are divided into two parts, the one at the setting of Hyperion, the other at his rising.”

3477He refers to the words in the Odyssey, B. i. l. 23, 24.—

Αἰθίοπας τοὶ δίχθα δεδαιάται, ἔσχατοι ἄνδρων·Οἱ μὲν δυσομένου Ὑπερίονος, οἱ δ’ ἀνιόντος.

Αἰθίοπας τοὶ δίχθα δεδαιάται, ἔσχατοι ἄνδρων·

Οἱ μὲν δυσομένου Ὑπερίονος, οἱ δ’ ἀνιόντος.

“The Æthiopians, the most remote of mankind, are divided into two parts, the one at the setting of Hyperion, the other at his rising.”

3478A tribe of Æthiopia, whose position varied considerably at different epochs of history. Their predatory and savage habits caused the most extraordinary reports to be spread of their appearance and ferocity. The more ancient geographers bring them as far westward as the region beyond the Libyan Desert, and into the vicinity of the Oases. In the time however of the Antonines, when Ptolemy was composing his description of Africa, they appear to the south and east of Egypt, in the wide and almost unknown tract which lay between the rivers Astapus and Astobores.

3479Mela speaks of this race as situate farthest to the west. The description of them here given is from Herodotus, B. iv. c. 183-185, who speaks of them under the name of “Atarantes.”

3480The people who are visited by no dreams, are called Atlantes by Herodotus, the same name by which Pliny calls them. He says that their territory is ten days’ journey from that of the Atarantes.

3481This also is borrowed from Herodotus. As some confirmation of this account, it is worthy of remark, that the Rock Tibboos of the present day, who, like the ancient Troglodytæ, dwell in caves, have so peculiar a kind of speech, that it is compared by the people of Aujelah to nothing but the whistling of birds. The Troglodytæ of Fezzan are here referred to, not those of the coasts of the Red Sea.

3482Mela says that they look upon the Manes or spirits of the departed as their only deities.

3483This is said, in almost the same words, of the Garamantes, by Herodotus. The mistake was probably made by Mela in copying from Herodotus, and continued by Pliny when borrowing from him.

3484So called from their supposed resemblance in form to the Satyrs of the ancient mythology, who were represented as little hairy men with horns, long ears, and tails. They were probably monkeys, which had been mistaken for men.

3485Half goat, half man. See the Note3254relative to Ægipan, in C. 1 of the present Book, p.378.

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