Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 263

3316 Or New Town.

3317 Scylax calls it Thapsus; Ammianus Marcellinus, Tiposa. According to Mannert it was situate in the vicinity of the modern Damas.

3318 Or Icosium. It has been identified by inscriptions discovered by the French as standing on the same site as the modern Algiers. D’Anville, Mannert and others identify it with Scherchell or Zershell, thus placing it too far west. Mannert was evidently misled by an error in the Antonine Itinerary, whereby all the places along this coast are, for a considerable distance, thrown too far to the west; the researches however which followed the French conquest of the country have revealed inscriptions which completely set the question at rest.

3319 According to Mannert, this was situate on the modern Cape Arbatel. Marcus thinks that the Hebrew ros, or Arab ras, “a rock,” enters into the composition of the word.

3320 Now Hur according to D’Anville, Colcah according to Mannert.

3321 The modern Acor, according to Marcus.

3322 The modern Pedeles or Delys, according to Ortellius and Mannert, Tedles according to D’Anville.

3323 The modern Jigeli or Gigeri. It was probably in ancient times the emporium of the surrounding country.

3324 Destroyed, according to Hardouin, and probably by the incursions of the sea. At the mouth of the Ampsaga (now called the Wad-El-Kebir or Sufjimar, and higher up the Wadi Roumel) there is situate a small sea-port called Marsa Zeitoun.

3325 Near the present Mazuaa, according to Mannert.

3326 The modern Burgh, according to D’Anville and Mannert, but more probably considerably to the east of that place.

3327 The modern El-Herba, according to Mannert.

3328 Marcus suggests that this is the Chinalaph of Ptolemy, and probably the modern Schellif.

3329 The same that is called Savis by Ptolemy, who places Icosium on its banks.

3330 By Mela called the Vabar. Marcus supposes it to be the same as the modern Giffer.

3331 By Ptolemy called the Sisar; the Ajebbi of modern geographers, which falls into the Mediterranean, near the city of Budja.

3332 Brotier says that this reading is incorrect, and that 222 is the proper one, that being the true distance between the river Ampsaga or Wad-el-Kebir and the city of Cæsarea, the modern Zershell.

3333 It was not only Numidia that bore this name, but all the northern coast of Africa from the frontiers of the kingdom of Carthage near Hippo Regius to the Columns of Hercules. It was thus called from the Greek metagonos, a “descendant” or “successor;” as the Carthaginians established a number of small towns and villages on the coast, which were thus posterior in their origin to the large cities already founded there.

3334 Hardouin says that the Moors in the interior still follow the same usage, carrying their houses from pasture to pasture on waggons.

3335 Now Chollum or Collo.

3336 The modern Sgigada or Stora, according to Mannert, D’Anville, and Shaw.

3337 The modern Constantina occupies its site. Numerous remains of the ancient town are still discovered. Sitius was an officer who served under Cæsar, and obtained a grant of this place after the defeat of Juba.

3338 Called Urbs, or Kaff, according to D’Anville and Shaw; the latter of whom found an inscription there with the words Ordo Siccensium.

3339 Or ‘Royal Bulla’; which epithet shows that it was either a residence or a foundation of the kings of Numidia, and distinguishes it from a small place called Bulla Mensa, south of Carthage. Bulla Regia was four days’ journey south-west of Carthage, on a tributary of the river Bagrada, the valley of which is still called Wad-el-Boul. This place was one of the points of Ptolemy’s recorded astronomical observations, having its longest day fourteen hours and one-eighth, and being distant from Alexandria two hours to the west.

3340 The modern Tamseh, according to Shaw and Mannert, and Tagodet, according to D’Anville.

3341 Its ruins are south of the modern Bona. It received the name of Regius or ‘Royal’ from being the residence of the Numidian kings. It was also famed as being the see of St. Augustine. It was a colony of Tyre, and stood on the bay now forming the Gulf of Bona. It was one of the most flourishing cities of Africa till it was destroyed by the Vandals A.D. 430.

3342 Now the Mafragg, according to Mannert.

3343 Still called Tabarca, according to Hardouin.

3344 Now the Zaina, according to Marcus.

3345 For the character of the Numidian marble, see Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 7.

3346 Extending from the river Tusca, or Zaina, to the northern frontiers of Byzacium. It corresponds with the Turkish province or beylik of Tunis.

3347 He says this not only to distinguish it from Africa, considered as one-third of the globe, but also in contradistinction to the proconsular province of the Roman empire of the same name, which contained not only the province of Zeugitana, but also those of Numidia, Byzacium, and Tripolis.

3348 Candidum: now Ras-el-Abiad.

3349 The references to this headland identify it with Cape Farina, or Ras Sidi Ali-al-Mekhi, and not, as some have thought, the more westerly Cape Zibeeb or Ras Sidi Bou-Shoushe. Shaw however applies the name of Zibeeb to the former.

3350 Now Cape Bon, or Ras-Addar.

3351 More properly called Hippo Diarrhytus or Zaritus, a Tyrian colony, situate on a large lake which communicated with the sea, and received the waters of another lake. Its situation exposed it to frequent inundations, whence, as the Greeks used to state, the epithet διάῤῥυτος. It seems more probable however that this is the remnant of some Phœnician title, as the ancients were not agreed on the true form of the name, and of this uncertainty we have a further proof in the Hippo Dirutus of our author.

3352 This is placed by Ptolemy to the south-east of Hippo, and near the southern extremity of Lake Sisar.

3353 This important city stood on the north part of the Carthaginian Gulf, west of the mouth of the Bagrada, and twenty-seven Roman miles N.W. of Carthage; but the site of its ruins at the modern Bou-Shater is now inland, in consequence of the changes made by the Bagrada in the coast-line. In the Third Punic war Utica took part with the Romans against Carthage, and was rewarded with the greater part of the Carthaginian territory.

3354 Now called the Mejerdah, and though of very inconsiderable size, the chief river of the Carthaginian territory. The main stream is formed by the union of two branches, the southern of which, the ancient Bagrada, is now called the Mellig, and in its upper course the Meskianah. The other branch is called the Hamiz.

3355 Or the “Cornelian Camp.” The spot where Cornelius Scipio Africanus the Elder first encamped, on landing in Africa, B.C. 204. Cæsar describes this spot, in his description of Curio’s operations against Utica, B. C. b. ii. c. 24, 25. This spot is now called Ghellah.

3356 This colony was first established by Caius Gracchus, who sent 6000 settlers to found on the site of Carthage the new city of Junonia. The Roman senate afterwards annulled this with the other acts of Gracchus. Under Augustus however the new city of Carthage was founded, which, when Strabo wrote, was as prosperous as any city in Africa. It was made, in place of Utica, which had favoured the Pompeian party, the seat of the proconsul of Old Africa. It stood on the peninsula terminated by Ras-Sidi-Bou-Said, Cape Carthage or Carthagena. As Gibbon has remarked, “The place might be unknown if some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the inquisitive traveller.”

3357 The original city of Carthage was called ‘Carthago Magna’ to distinguish it from New Carthage and Old Carthage, colonies in Spain.

3358 Now Rhades, according to Marcus.

3359 Marcus identifies it with the modern Gurtos.

3360 By the Greeks called ‘Aspis.’ It derived its Greek and Roman names from its site on a hill of a shield-like shape. It was built by Agathocles, the Sicilian, B.C. 310. In the first Punic war it was the landing-place of Manlius and Regulus, whose first action was to take it, B.C. 256. Its site is still known as Kalebiah, and its ruins are peculiarly interesting. The site of Misua is occupied by Sidi-Doud, according to Shaw and D’Anville.

3361 Shaw informs us that an inscription found on the spot designates this place as a colony, not a free city or town. Its present name is Kurbah.

3362 The present Nabal, according to D’Anville.

3363 Zeugitana extended from the river Tusca to Horrea-Cælia, and Byzacium from this last place to Thenæ.

3364 As sprung partly from the Phœnician immigrants, and partly from the native Libyans or Africans.

3365 Pliny says, B. xvii. c. 3, “A hundred and fifty fold.” From Shaw we learn that this fertility no longer exists, the fields producing not more than eight- or at most twelve-fold.

3366 The modern Lempta occupies its site.

3367 Originally a Phœnician colony, older than Carthage. It was the capital of Byzacium, and stood within the southern extremity of the Sinus Neapolitanus or Gulf of Hammamet. Trajan made it a colony, under the high-sounding name, as we gather from inscriptions, of Colonia Concordia Ulpia Trajana Augusta Frugifera Hadrumetana, or, as set forth on coins, Colonia Concordia Julia Hadrumetana Pia. The epithet Frugifera refers to the fact that it was one of the chief sea-ports for the corn-producing country of Byzacium. It was destroyed by the Vandals, but restored by the Emperor Justinian under the name of Justiniana or Justinianopolis. The modern Sousa stands on its site; and but slight traces of the ancient city are to be found.

3368 Situate in the vicinity of the modern Monastir.

3369 Shaw discovered its ruins at the modern town of Demas.

3370 Now Taineh, according to D’Anville. This place formed the boundary between the proconsular province of Africa and the territory of the Numidian king Masinissa and his descendants.

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

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

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

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

3375 Micipsa, 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.

3376 The 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.

3377 Marcus 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.

3378 Those 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.

3379 In 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.

3380 Augylæ, 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.

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

3382 Now Lake Lynxama, according to Marcus.

3383 Marcus 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.

3384 The modern Tripoli.

3385 A 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.

3386 Now called the Wady-el-Quaham.

3387 Mannert 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.

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

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

3390 Now called Lebida. It was the birth-place of the Emperor Septimius Severus. It was almost destroyed by an attack from a Libyan tribe A.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.

3392 Two 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.

3393 The Lake Tritonis mentioned in note 3391, p. 393.

3394 Now called El Hammah, according to Shaw.

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

3396 The modern Cape of Tajuni.

3397 Now called Udina, according to Marcus.

3398 Now called Tabersole, according to Marcus.

3399 In 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.

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

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

3402 According to Marcus the present Porto Tarina.

3403 Also 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.

3404 Now called El-Jemma, according to Marcus.

3405 From it modern Tunis takes its name.

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

3407 In 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.”

3408 There 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 of Regia or 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.’

3409 The 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.

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

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

3412 The 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.

3413 The Quorra most probably of modern geographers.

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

3415 Where 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.

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

3417 Previously 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.

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

3419 Its 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.

3420 Its 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.

3421 The 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.

3422 In C. 1 of 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.

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

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

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

3426 This 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.

3427 So called from the peculiar features of the locality, the Greek word καταβαθμὸς, 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.

3428 This 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.

3429 Now 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.

3430 So called from the words Matâ-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.

3431 From μεσὸς “the middle,” and ἄμμος “sand.”

3432 See note 3421 in p. 396.

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

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

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

3436 From the Greek word τρωγλοδύται, “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.