Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 194

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Beyond the river Tusca begins the region of Zeugitana3346, and that part which properly bears the name of Africa3347. We here find three promontories; the White Promontory3348, the Promontory of Apollo3349, facing Sardinia, and that of Mercury3350, opposite to Sicily. Projecting into the sea these headlands form two gulfs, the first of which bears the name of “Hipponensis” from its proximity to the city called Hippo Dirutus3351, a corruption of the Greek name Diarrhytus, which it has received from the channels made for irrigation. Adjacent to this place, but at a greater distance from the sea-shore, is Theudalis3352, a town exempt from tribute. We then come to the Promontory of Apollo, and upon the second gulf, we find Utica3353, a place enjoying the rights of Roman citizens, and famous for the death of Cato; the river Bagrada3354, the place called Castra Cornelia3355, the colony3356 of Carthage, founded upon the remains of Great Carthage3357, the colony of Maxula3358, the towns of Carpi3359, Misua, and Clypea3360, the last a free town, on the Promontory of Mercury; also Curubis, a free town3361, and Neapolis3362.

Here commences the second division3363 of Africa properly so called. Those who inhabit Byzacium have the name of Libyphœnices3364. Byzacium is the name of a district which is 250 miles in circumference, and is remarkable for its extreme fertility, as the ground returns the seed sown by the husbandman with interest a hundred-fold3365. Here are the free towns of Leptis3366, Adrumetum3367, Ruspina3368, and Thapsus3369; and then Thenæ3370, Macomades3371, Tacape3372, and Sabrata3373 which touches on the Lesser Syrtis; to which spot, from the Ampsaga, the length of Numidia and Africa is 580 miles, and the breadth, so far as it has been ascertained, 200. That portion which we have called Africa is divided into two provinces, the Old and the New; these are separated by a dyke which was made by order of the second Scipio Africanus3374 and the kings3375, and extended to Thenæ, which town is distant from Carthage 216 miles.