the cruel and oppressive exactions of the Romans, the patient submission, but at last the obstinate desperation of the injured Carthaginians, and the conflagration of their city, which was twenty-four miles in circumference, and continued burning seventeen days. It was afterwards rebuilt by Augustus, and became a flourishing city, till it was finally destroyed by the Arabs, under the Kaliphat of Abdel-Melek, towards the end of the seventh century. A little below it was Tunetum, now Tunis. Below the Hermæum Promontorium is Aspis, or Clypea, now Aklibea: below this place the coast takes the name of Zeugitana; and not quite half-way between the Promontorium Hermæum and Syrtis Minor was Hadrumetum, a very considerable city of that part of Africa Propria called Byzacium, or Emporia, which comprized the fertile country adjacent to the Syrtis Minor, and may be considered as the principal granary of * Rome. Below Hadrumetum is Leptis Minor, or Lemta, and below it Thapsus, now Demsas, memorable for the victory we have already mentioned obtained there by Cæsar over Metellus Scipio and the remnant of Pompey's' party who escaped from the wreck of Pharsalia. Below Thapsus was Turris Hannibalis, from which Hannibal departed for Asia, when he was banished by his factious and ungrateful countrymen from Carthage. In the interior of Africa, on the Numidian side, are two cities, not far from each other, the one, Tagaste, or Tajelt, in fact a Numidian city, which was the birth-place of St. Augus * Frumenti quantum metit Africa. Quicquid de Lybicis verritur areis. Hor. Sat. II, 3, 87. Hor. Od. I. 1, 10. tine, the other Madaurus, the birth-place of Apuleius: near to which is Sicca, and South East of it, about the center of the province is Zama, the memorable scene of the victory obtained by Scipio Africanus the elder over Hannibal, B. C. 202, A. U. C. 552. In the interior of Byzacium was Capsa, now Cafsa, in which Jugurtha deposited his treasures: we find from Sallust that it was a very strong city, in the midst of deserts very difficult of access, and below it were two lakes, much celebrated in antiquity under the names of the Palus Tritonis and Palus Lybia, now Faro-oun and El-Loudeah. On the former of these Minerva is said to have first appeared, whence she is called Tritonia. Near the latter the Gorgons are feigned to have had their abodes. * These lakes are in the neighbourhood of what is now called Beled-ul-Gerid, Beledulgerid, or the region of grasshoppers. Tripolis was bounded by Africa Propria on the West, of which it originally formed a part, by the Mediterranean on the North, by Cyrenaica on the East, and by Phazania, or Fezzan, on the South. It still retains its name which it originally received from three cities on the coast, Sabrata, now Sabart, Ea, now Tripoli, and Leptis Magna, the ruins of which are still called Labida. It lies between the Syrtis Minor, or Gulph of Cabes, so called from the city Tacape, which was at the head of it, and the Syrtis Major, or, as it is now corruptly called, the Gulph of Sidra. The Syrtes were very dangerous * Jam summas arces Tritonia, respice, Pallas Virg. Æn. II. 615. ** to mariners, from the shoals and quicksands, and a peculiar inequality in the motion of the waters, by which they drew in and engulphed vessels, whence they derived their name. Towards the Syrtis Major is the small river Cinyphs, the goats of which are mentioned by Virgil, as proverbially shaggy+: it is now called the Wad-Quaham. Inland is the town of Gerisa, or Gherze, fabled to be petrified, with its inhabitants, which probably arose from some statues of men and animals remaining there, which have been thus misrepresented by the ignorant natives. South of Fhazania were the Garamantes, who derived their name antiently from the city of Garama, now Gharmes. They were faintly known to the Romans under Augustus, in whose time some claim was made to a triumph over them, on which account they are mentioned by Virgil. At the extremity of the Syrtis Major are the Philænorum Aræ, * ̓Απὸ τὸ σύρειν. The Syrtis Minor is mentioned by Virgil, in his account of the storm which dispersed the fleet of Æneas. Tres [naves] Eurus ab alto In brevia et Syrtes urget, miserabile visu, + Nec minus interea barbas incanaque menta Virg. En. I. 110. Virg. Georg. III. 311. Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti sæpius audis, Saturno quondam. Super et Garamantas et Indos Virg. Æn. VI. 791. altars erected to mark the boundary between the territories of Carthage and Cyrene, on the spot where two Carthaginian brothers suffered themselves for this purpose to be buried alive. The story may be seen in Sallust.` Bell. Jugurth. C. 79. Next to Tripolis is Libya properly so called, which contained the two countries of Cyrenaica and Marmarica, together with a very extensive unknown region in the interior. Cyrenaica is bounded on the West by Tripolis, on the North by the Mediterranean, on the East by Marmarica, and on the South by the deserts of Libya, the North Western part of which was inhabited by the Nasamones, a barbarous people, who lived by the plunder of the vessels shipwrecked in the Syrtis Major, and who almost destroyed the nation of the Psylli, so celebrated in antient and even modern times for the power they appear to possess in charming serpents, and curing the bite by sucking the wound. They are mentioned by Lucan, in his noble description of the serpents which infested the army of Cato during his march between the Syrtes. * The province of Cyrenaica was called Pentapolis, from five principal cities which it contained. After the coast of the Syrtis Major has bent towards the North East, is Berenice, or Hesperis, now Bernic. where some have placed the gardens of the Hesperides. Above it is Barce, or Barca, and Ptolemais, now Tolo * Vix miseris serum tanto lassata periclo meta. The extreme Northern point of the coast was called Phycus Promontorium, now Cape Rasat; East of it was Apollonia, now Marza Susa, or Sosush, which was the port of Cyrene, that city being a little inland: it was founded by Battus, who led thither a Lacedæmonian colony from Thera, one of the Cyclades, B. C. 630, Ol. 37, 3, and the kingdom was bequeathed to the Romans, B. C. 97, A. U. C. 657, by the last of the Ptolemies, surnamed Apion; it was by them formed into a province with Crete. Some vestiges of it still remain under the name of Curin; East of it, on the coast, is the fifth city, Darnis, now Derne. A place called the Catabathmus Magnus, now Akabetossolom, separated Marmarica from Cyrenaica on the West. It was bounded by Egypt on the East, the Mediterranean on the North, and the Hammonii and Libya Interior on the South. We need only notice here Parætonium, now Al-Baretoun, which was considered as a sort of advanced frontier of Egypt. South of Marmarica, in the midst of the sands of the Libyan Desert, was a amall and beautiful spot, or Oasis, as it is called, refreshed by streams and shade, and luxuriant with verdure, in which was the celebrated temple of Jupiter Hammon, said to have been founded by Bacchus, in gratitude to his father Jupiter, who appeared to him in the form of a ram, and showed him a fountain, when himself and his army were perishing with thirst. Here was the Fons Solis, whose waters were cold at noon and hot at night. * Here was the antient and much-famed *Esse apud Ammonis fanum fons luce diurna Lucret. VI. 848. |