Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

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  CHAP. 2. (3.)

  NUMIDIA.

  At the river Ampsaga Numidia begins, a country rendered illustrious by the fame of Masinissa. By the Greeks this region was called Metagonitis; and the Numidians received the name of “Nomades” from their frequent changes of pasturage; upon which occasions they were accustomed to carry their mapalia, or in other words, their houses, upon waggons. The towns of this country are Cullu and Rusicade; and at a distance of forty-eight miles from the latter, in the interior, is the colony of Cirta, surnamed “of the Sitiani;” still more inland is another colony called Sicca, with the free town of Bulla Regia. On the coast are Tacatua, Hippo Regius, the river Armua, and the town of Tabraca, with the rights of Roman citizens. The river Tusca forms the boundary of Numidia. This country produces nothing remarkable except its marble and wild beasts.

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  CHAP. 3. (4.)

  AFRICA.

  Beyond the river Tusca begins the region of Zeugitana, and that part which properly bears the name of Africa. We here find three promontories; the White Promontory, the Promontory of Apoll, facing Sardinia, and that of Mercury, 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 Dirutus, 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 Theudalis, a town exempt from tribute. We then come to the Promontory of Apollo, and upon the second gulf, we find Utica, a place enjoying the rights of Roman citizens, and famous for the death of Cato; the river Bagrada, the place called Castra Cornelia, the co- lony of Carthage, founded upon the remains of Great Carthage, the colony of Maxula, the towns of Carpi, Misua, and Clypea, the last a free town, on the Promontory of Mercury; also Curubis, a free town, and Neapolis.

  Here commences the second division of Africa properly so called. Those who inhabit Byzacium have the name of Libyphœnices. 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-fold. Here are the free towns of Leptis, Adrumetum, Ruspina, and Thapsus; and then Thenæ, Macomades, Tacape, and Sabrata 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 Africanus and the kings, and extended to Thenæ, which town is distant from Carthage 216 miles.

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  CHAP. 4.

  THE SYRTES.

  A third Gulf is divided into two smaller ones, those of the two Syrtes, 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 way 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 wastes, and beyond them the Garamantes, distant twelve days’ journey from the Augylæ. Above the Garamantes was formerly the na- tion of the Psylli, and above them again the Lake of Lycomedes, surrounded with deserts. The Augylæ themselves are situate almost midway between Æthiopia which faces the west, and the region which lies between 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 Œa, the river Cinyps, and the country of that name, the towns of Neapolis, Graphara, and Abrotonum, and the second, surnamed the Greater, Leptis.

  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 Alachroæ, extending as far as the Altars of the Philæni; these Altars are formed of heaps of sand. On passing these, not far from the shore there is a vast swamp which receives the river Triton and from it takes its name: by Callimachus it is called Pallantias, 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 Borion; 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 Uthina and Tuburbi, 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 Assuræ, Abutucum, Aborium, Canopicum, Cilma, 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 Cornelia. The free towns are thirty in number, among which we may mention, in the interior, those of Acholla, Aggarita, Avina, Abzirita, Cano- pita, Melizita, Matera, Salaphita, Tusdrita, Tiphica, Tunica, Theuda, Tagasta, Tiga, Ulusubrita, a second Vaga, Visa, and Zama. 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 Capsitani, the Musulami, the Sabarbares, the Massyli, the Nisives, the Vamacures, the Cinithi, the Musuni, the Marchubii, and the whole of Gætulia, as far as the river Nigris, which separates Africa proper from Æthiopia.

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  CHAP. 5. (5.)

  CYRENAICA.

  The region of Cyrenaica, also called Pentapolis, is rendered famous by the oracle of Hammon, which is distant 400 miles from the city of Cyrene; also by the Fountain of the Sun there, and five cities in especial, those of Berenice, Arsinoë, Ptolemais, Apollonia, and Cyrene itself. Berenice is situate upon the outer promontory that bounds the Syrtis; it was formerly called the city of the Hesperides (previously mentioned), according to the fables of the Greeks, which very often change their localities. Not far from the city, and running before it, is the river Lethon, and with it a sacred grove, where the gardens of the Hesperides are said to have formerly stood; this city is distant from Leptis 375 miles. From Berenice to Arsinoë, commonly called Teuchira, is forty-three miles; after which, at a distance of twenty-two, we come to Ptolemais, the ancient name of which was Barce; and at a distance of forty miles from this last the Promontory of Phycus, which extends far away into the Cretan Sea, being 350 miles distant from Tænarum, the promontory of Laconia, and from Crete 225. After passing this promontory we come to Cyrene, which stands at a distance of eleven miles from the sea. From Phycus to Apollonia is twenty-four miles, and from thence to the Chersonesus eighty-eight; from which to Catabathmos is a distance of 216 miles. The Marmaridæ inhabit this coast, extending from almost the region of Parætonium to the Greater Syrtis; after them the Ararauceles, and then, upon the coasts of the Syrtis, the Nasamones, whom the Greeks formerly called Mesammones, from the circumstance of their being located in the very midst of sands. The territory of Cyrene, to a distance of fifteen miles from the shore, is said to abound in trees, while for the same distance beyond that district it is only suitable for the cultivation of corn: after which, a tract of land, thirty miles in breadth and 250 in length, is productive of nothing but laser [or silphium].

  After the Nasamones we come to the dwellings of the Asbystæ and the Macæ, and beyond them, at eleven days’ journey to the west of the Greater Syrtis, the Amantes, a people also surrounded by sands in every direction. They find water however without any difficulty at a depth mostly of about two cubits, as their district receives the overflow of the waters of Mauritania. They build hous
es with blocks of salt, which they cut out of their mountains just as we do stone. From this nation to the Troglodytæ the distance is seven days’ journey in a south-westerly direction, a people with whom our only intercourse is for the purpose of procuring from them the precious stone which we call the carbuncle, and which is brought from the interior of Æthiopia. Upon the road to this last people, but turning off towards the deserts of Africa, of which we have previously made mention as lying beyond the Lesser Syrtis, is the region of Phazania; the nation of Phazanii, belonging to which, as well as the cities of Alele and Cilliba, we have subdued by force of arms, as also Cydamus, which lies over against Sabrata. After passing these places a range of mountains extends in a prolonged chain from east to west: these have received from our people the name of the Black Mountains, either from the appearance which they naturally bear of having been exposed to the action of fire, or else from the fact that they have been scorched by the reflection of the sun’s rays. Beyond it is the desert, and then Talgæ, a city of the Garamantes, and Debris, at which place there is a spring, the waters of which, from noon to midnight, are at boiling heat, and then freeze for as many hours until the following noon; Garama too, that most famous capital of the Garamantes; all which places have been subdued by the Roman arms. It was on this occasion that Cornelius Balbus was honoured with a triumph, the only foreigner indeed that was ever honoured with the triumphal chariot, and presented with the rights of a Roman citizen; for, although by birth a native of Gades, the Roman citizenship was granted to him as well as to the elder Balbus, his uncle by the father’s side. There is also this remarkable circumstance, that our writers have handed down to us the names of the cities above-men- tioned as having been taken by Balbus, and have informed us that on the occasion of his triumph, besides Cydamus and Garama, there were carried in the procession the names and models of all the other nations and cities, in the following order: the town of Tabudium, the nation of Niteris, the town of Nigligemella, the nation or town of Bubeium, the nation of Enipi, the town of Thuben, the mountain known as the Black Mountain, Nitibrum, the towns called Rapsa, the nation of Discera, the town of Debris, the river Nathabur, the town of Thapsagum, the nation of Nannagi, the town of Boin, the town of Pege, the river Dasibari; and then the towns, in the following order, of Baracum, Buluba, Alasit, Galia, Balla, Maxalla, Zizama, and Mount Gyri, which was preceded by an inscription stating that this was the place where precious stones were produced.

  Up to the present time it has been found impracticable to keep open the road that leads to the country of the Garamantes, as the predatory bands of that nation have filled up the wells with sand, which do not require to be dug for to any great depth, if you only have a knowledge of the locality. In the late war however, which, at the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, the Romans carried on with the people of Œa, a short cut of only four days’ journey was discovered; this road is known as the “Pæter Caput Saxi.” The last place in the territory of Cyrenaica is Catabathmos, consisting of a town, and a valley with a sudden and steep descent. The length of Cyrenean Africa, up to this boundary from the Lesser Syrtis, is 1060 miles; and, so far as has been ascertained, it is 800 in breadth.

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  CHAP. 6. (6.)

  LIBYA MAREOTIS.

  The region that follows is called Libya Mareotis, and borders upon Egypt. It is held by the Marmaridæ, the Adyrmachidæ, and, after them, the Mareotœ. The distance from Catabathmos to Parætonium is eighty-six miles. In this district is Apis, a place rendered famous by the religious belief of Egypt. From this town Parætonium is distant sixty-two miles, and from thence to Alexandria the distance is 200 miles, the breadth of the district being 169. Eratosthenes says that it is 525 miles by land from Cyrene to Alexandria; while Agrippa gives the length of the whole of Africa from the Atlantic Sea, and including Lower Egypt, as 3040 miles. Polybius and Eratosthenes, who are generally considered as remarkable for their extreme correctness, state the length to be, from the ocean to Great Carthage 1100 miles, and from Carthage to Canopus, the nearest mouth of the Nile, 1628 miles; while Isidorus speaks of the distance from Tingi to Canopus as being 3599 miles. Artemidorus makes this last distance forty miles less than Isidorus.

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  CHAP. 7. (7.)

  THE ISLANDS IN THE VICINITY OF AFRICA.

  These seas contain not so very many islands. The most famous among them is Meninx, twenty-five miles in length and twenty-two in breadth: by Eratosthenes it is called Lotophagitis. This island has two towns, Meninx on the side which faces Africa, and Troas on the other; it is situate off the promontory which lies on the right-hand side of the Lesser Syrtis, at a distance of a mile and a half. One hundred miles from this island, and opposite the promontory that lies on the left, is the free island of Cercina, with a city of the same name. It is twenty-five miles long, and half that breadth at the place where it is the widest, but not more than five miles across at the extremity: the diminutive island of Cercinitis, which looks towards Carthage, is united to it by a bridge. At a distance of nearly fifty miles from these is the island of Lopadusa, six miles in length; and beyond it Gaulos and Galata, the soil of which kills the scorpion, that noxious reptile of Africa. It is also said that the scorpion will not live at Clypea; opposite to which place lies the island of Cosyra, with a town of the same name. Opposite to the Gulf of Carthage are the two islands known as the Ægimuri; the Altars, which are rather rocks than islands, lie more between Sicily and Sardinia. There are some authors who state that these rocks were once inhabited, but that they have gradually subsided in the sea.

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  CHAP. 8. (8.)

  COUNTRIES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF AFRICA.

  If we pass through the interior of Africa in a southerly direction, beyond the Gætuli, after having traversed the intervening deserts, we shall find, first of all the Liby- Egyptians, and then the country where the Leucæthio- pians dwell. Beyond these are the Nigritæ, nations of Æthiopia, so called from the river Nigris, which has been previously mentioned, the Gymnetes, surnamed Pharusii, and, on the very margin of the ocean, the Perorsi, whom we have already spoken of as lying on the boundaries of Mauritania. After passing all these peoples, there are vast deserts towards the east until we come to the Garamantes, the Augylæ, and the Troglodytæ; the opinion of those being exceedingly well founded who place two Æthiopias beyond the deserts of Africa, and more particularly that expressed by Homer, who tells us that the Æthiopians are divided into two nations, those of the east and those of the west. The river Nigris has the same characteristics as the Nile; it produces the calamus, the papyrus, and just the same animals, and it rises at the same seasons of the year. Its source is between the Tarrælian Æthiopians and the Œcalicæ. Magium, the city of the latter people, has been placed by some writers amid the deserts, and, next to them the Atlantes; then the Ægipani, half men, half beasts, the Blemmyæ, the Gamphasantes, the Satyri, and the Himantopodes.

  The Atlantes, if we believe what is said, have lost all characteristics of humanity; for there is no mode of distinguishing each other among them by names, and as they look upon the rising and the setting sun, they give utterance to direful imprecations against it, as being deadly to themselves and their lands; nor are they visited with dreams, like the rest of mortals. The Troglodytæ make excavations in the earth, which serve them for dwellings; the flesh of serpents is their food; they have no articulate voice, but only utter a kind of squeaking noise; and thus are they utterly destitute of all means of communication by language. The Garamantes have no institution of marriage among them, and live in promiscuous concubinage with their women. The Augylæ worship no deities but the gods of the infernal regions. The Gamphasantes, who go naked, and are unacquainted with war, hold no intercourse whatever with strangers. The Blemmyæ are said to have no heads, their mouths and eyes being seated in their breasts. The Satyri, beyond their figure, have nothing in common with the manners of the human race
, and the form of the Ægipani is such as is commonly represented in paintings. The Himantopodes are a race of people with feet resembling thongs, upon which they move along by nature with a serpentine, crawling kind of gait. The Pharusii, descended from the ancient Persians, are said to have been the companions of Hercules when on his expedition to the Hesperides. Beyond the above, I have met with nothing relative to Africa worthy of mention.

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  CHAP. 9. (9.)

  EGYPT AND THEBAIS.

  Joining on to Africa is Asia, the extent of which, according to Timosthenes, from the Canopic mouth of the Nile to the mouth of the Euxine, is 2639 miles. From the mouth of the Euxine to that of Lake Mæotis is, according to Eratosthenes, 1545 miles. The whole distance to the Tanais, including Egypt, is, according to Artemidorus and Isidorus, 6375 miles. The seas of Egypt, which are several in number, have received their names from those who dwell upon their shores, for which reason they will be mentioned together.

  Egypt is the country which lies next to Africa; in the interior it runs in a southerly direction, as far as the territory of the Æthiopians, who lie extended at the back of it. The river Nile, dividing itself, forms on the right and left the boundary of its lower part, which it embraces on every side. By the Canopic mouth of that river it is separated from Africa, and by the Pelusiac from Asia, there being a distance between the two of 170 miles. For this reason it is that some persons have reckoned Egypt among the islands, the Nile so dividing itself as to give a triangular form to the land which it encloses: from which circumstance also many persons have named Egypt the Delta, after that of the Greek letter so called. The distance from the spot where the channel of the river first divides into branches, to the Canopic mouth, is 146 miles, and to the Pelusiac, 166.