Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 195

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A third Gulf is divided into two smaller ones, those of the two Syrtes3376, which are rendered perilous by the shallows of their quicksands and the ebb and flow of the sea. Polybius states the distance from Carthage to the Lesser Syrtis, the one which is nearest to it, to be 300 miles. The inlet to it he also states to be 100 miles across, and its circumference 300. There is also a way3377 to it by land, to find which we must employ the guidance of the stars and cross deserts which present nothing but sand and serpents. After passing these we come to forests filled with vast multitudes of wild beasts and elephants, then desert wastes3378, and beyond them the Garamantes3379, distant twelve days’ journey from the Augylæ3380. Above the Garamantes was formerly the nation of the Psylli3381, and above them again the Lake of Lycomedes3382, surrounded with deserts. The Augylæ themselves are situate almost midway between Æthiopia which faces the west3383, and the region which lies between3384 the two Syrtes, at an equal distance from both. The distance along the coast that lies between the two Syrtes is 250 miles. On it are found the city of Œa3385, the river Cinyps3386, and the country of that name, the towns of Neapolis3387, Graphara3388, and Abrotonum3389, and the second, surnamed the Greater, Leptis3390.

We next come to the Greater Syrtis, 625 miles in circumference, and at the entrance 312 miles in width; next after which dwells the nation of the Cisippades. At the bottom of this gulf was the coast of the Lotophagi, whom some writers have called the Alachroæ3391, extending as far as the Altars of the Philæni3392; these Altars are formed of heaps of sand. On passing these, not far from the shore there is a vast swamp3393 which receives the river Triton3394 and from it takes its name: by Callimachus it is called Pallantias3395, and is said by him to be on the nearer side of the Lesser Syrtis; many other writers however place it between the two Syrtes. The promontory which bounds the Greater Syrtis has the name of Borion3396; beyond it is the province of Cyrene.

Africa, from the river Ampsaga to this limit, includes 516 peoples, who are subject to the Roman sway, of which six are colonies; among them Uthina3397 and Tuburbi3398, besides those already mentioned. The towns enjoying the rights of Roman citizens are fifteen in number, of which I shall mention, as lying in the interior, those of Assuræ3399, Abutucum, Aborium, Canopicum3400, Cilma3401, Simithium, Thunusidium, Tuburnicum, Tynidrumum, Tibiga, the two towns called Ucita, the Greater and the Lesser, and Vaga. There is also one town with Latin rights, Uzalita by name, and one town of tributaries, Castra Cornelia3402. The free towns are thirty in number, among which we may mention, in the interior, those of Acholla3403, Aggarita, Avina, Abzirita, Canopita, Melizita, Matera, Salaphita, Tusdrita3404, Tiphica, Tunica3405, Theuda, Tagasta3406, Tiga3407, Ulusubrita, a second Vaga, Visa, and Zama3408. Of the remaining number, most of them should be called, in strictness, not only cities, but nations even; such for instance as the Natabudes, the Capsitani3409, the Musulami, the Sabarbares, the Massyli3410, the Nisives, the Vamacures, the Cinithi, the Musuni, the Marchubii3411, and the whole of Gætulia3412, as far as the river Nigris3413, which separates Africa proper from Æthiopia.