[868] Bekneseh.
[869] This fish, a species of sturgeon, received its name from the shape of the head (sharp-pointed), and was said to have been produced from the blood of the wounded Osiris. Ælian. Hist. Animal. x. 46.
[870] Eshmoon.
[871] Babout.
[872] The ruins are supposed to be at the modern hamlet of Mensieh.
[873] ὁλόλιθον, probably an interpolation. Kramer.
[874] Il. i. 528.
[875] Hu.
[876] Dendera.
[877] Keft.
[878] The ruins are situated lat. 23° 56’ N., and about 35° 34’ E.
[879] After σταθμοὺς, in the text, follows ὥσπερ τοὶς ἐμπορίοις ὁδεύμασι καὶ διὰ τῶν καμήλων, which Kramer considers to be an interpolation. Groskurd corrects, and reads σταθμοὺς προσφόρους τοῖς ἐμπόροις ὁδεύουσι καὶ πεζῇ καὶ διὰ τῶν καμήλων, “stations for the service of travellers on foot and on camels.”
[880] Near old Kosseir; the “Veneris Portus” of Pliny. It was founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, B. C. 274. The Greek name may signify, “Harbour of the Mouse,” but more probably it means the “Harbour of the Mussel,” (μύειν, to close, e. g. the shell,) since on the neighbouring coast the pearl-mussel is collected in large quantities. It is uncertain whether the ruins at the village of Abuschaar, represent the site of the ancient Myos Hormus. See Smith’s Dict., art. Myos Hormus
[881] Il. ix. 383.
[882] Il. ix. 381.
[883] For θήκαις, “tombs,” in the text, Kramer is of opinion that we should read Θήβαις, Thebes, which is also the translation of the passage by Guarini.
[884] The meaning of the passage is clear, and can be understood, as critics have already explained, only as implying the intercalation of a 366th day every fourth year. Some have asserted that Julius Cæsar adopted this method of intercalating a day from the civil practice of the Alexandrines; others, on the contrary, appear disposed to believe that J. Cæsar was the first to give an idea of it, according to the advice of Sosigenes. There is truth and error in both these opinions. On the one hand, it is certain that Strabo, who visited Egypt a short time after the conquest of the country by the Romans, would not have omitted to attribute to them the institution of this year, if it really belonged to them. So far from doing so, he says (above, § 29) distinctly, that this method of intercalation was known and practised by the priests of Heliopolis and Thebes. Diodorus Siculus, who visited Egypt just at the time of the first arrival of the Romans, gives the same account as Strabo. Can we therefore believe that the Egyptians before this period were ignorant of the bissextile intercalation? On the other hand, it is not less certain that this method of intercalation was only introduced into civil use at Alexandria from the time of Julius Cæsar: before this period, the incomplete year of 365 days was adopted throughout the whole of Egypt, as is attested by a host of authorities, and confirmed by the date of the Rosetta stone, which only applies to this method of reckoning. Hence we see (I.) that Julius Cæsar really obtained the idea of a fixed year of 365-1/4 days from the Egyptians, where it was employed for scientific or religious purposes only, whilst the incomplete year was the vulgar and common year; (II.) that he made this fixed year the common year, both among the Romans and Alexandrines, who were a people most readily disposed to adopt foreign innovations. It is, however, probable that the rest of Egypt preserved the ancient use of the incomplete year.
[885] Strabo, I think, is the only author who places Crocodilopolis and Aphroditopolis in this part of Egypt. Letronne.
[886] For καὶ τῶν ἡμερῶν of the text, Casaubon reads τεκμηρίων, “signs.” Coray proposes καὶ μέτρων, “measures.” The expression in the text is obscure, and the translation is a conjecture of the meaning.
[887] This was the general opinion of antiquity, and was reproduced by Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, and others; in short, by all the Alexandrine school. At the time of Eratosthenes, the obliquity of the ecliptic was 23° 45’ 17”. Syene was therefore 20’ 6” from being exactly under the tropic; for 24° 5’ 23” (latitude of Syene)—23° 45’ 17” = 20’ 6”. This would be the distance of the centre of the sun from the zenith of Syene; whence it follows that the northern limb of the sun was about 5’ from it. In the time of Strabo, the obliquity was only 23° 42’ 22”; the difference between the zenith of Syene and the northern limb of the sun was about 8’. Lastly, about 140 of the vulgar era, the obliquity was reduced to 23° 41’ 7”. Syene was then 24’ 16” from the tropic, and its zenith was about 10’ from the northern limb of the sun; when the shadows of gnomons of any tolerable size must have been perceptible, and Syene could not have been any longer considered as lying under the tropic. As regards the well which served to ascertain the instant of the solstice, Pliny and Arrian both mention it. The formation of it no doubt belonged to a very remote period. In the time of Strabo, the rays of the sun could not have reached entirely to the bottom, but the shadow was so small that it was not sufficient to shake the ancient opinion. In fact, the angle being about 8’, and supposing the depth to have been 50 feet, the northern side would have projected a shadow of about 18 lines; the rest would have remained in full light, and the reflexion would have caused the whole circumference of the well to appear illuminated. Letronne.
[888] Kramer considers the passage between brackets to be an interpolation, as the same sense is conveyed in the passage which immediately follows.
[889] The number here given is nearly twice too great. Kramer quotes G. Parthey (de Philis insula) for correcting the error to 50 stadia, and for perceiving that it arose from the very frequent substitution in manuscripts of the letter P (100) for N (50).
[890] Unhewn stones, with a head of Mercury upon them.
[891] Herod. ii. 28, who, however, seems to doubt the veracity of his informant.
[893] B. C. 28.
[895] The modern hamlet of Dakkeh occupies a portion of the site of ancient Pselchis.
[896] Called Primis by Ptolemy and Pliny. It is placed by the former beyond Napata, and just above Meroë. Hence it is identified with Ibrim.
[897] There is great difficulty in determining the true position of Napata, as our author places it much farther north than Pliny; and there is reason for supposing that it is the designation of a royal residence, which might be moveable, rather than of a fixed locality. Ritter brings Napata as far north as Primis and the ruins at Ipsambul, while Mannert, Ukert, and other geographers, believe it to have been Merawe, on the farthest northern point of the region of Meroë. It is, however, generally placed at the east extremity of that great bend of the Nile which skirts the desert of Bahiouda, and near Mount Birkel. Among the ruins which probably cover the site of the ancient Napata are two lions of red granite, one bearing the name of Amuneph III., the other Amuntuonch. They were brought to England by Lord Prudhoe, and now stand at the entrance of the Gallery of Antiquities in the British Museum. See Smith’s Dict., art. Napata.
[899] This name was common to the queens of Ethiopia. Acts viii. 27.
[901] Groskurd corrects the text, and translates, “the inhabitants also are small.”
[902] The translation follows the proposed correction of the text by Kramer.
[903] ταῖς συμβολαῖς. The passage presents a great difficulty, because Strabo has before asserted that Meroë is surrounded by these rivers, and that their union takes place below, that is, to the north, and not to the south of the city and island; and this notion corresponds with all the ancients have said on the subject. I declare, without hesitation, that I do not understand my author. Letronne. Groskurd attempts to avoid the difficulty by translating, “is within the compass of.”
[904] The Tacazze.
[905] Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue River.
[906] Reading διαπλεκομένων ἢ πλίνθων for διαπλεκόμεναι τοίχων ἢ πλίνθων.
[907] The trees called persiai (or perseai) produce a fruit of great sweetness, which was introduced from Ethiopia by the Persians, when Cambyses conquered that country. Diod. Sic. i. 34.
[908] Tsana.
[909] According to Diod. Sic. iii. 9, this was Jupiter.
[910] Above, c. i. § 15.
[911] The sturgeon.
[912] Cyprinus bynni.
[913] Perea Nilotica. Cuvier, Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, xii. 5.
[914] Silurus anguillaris. Linn.
[915] Pliny, xxxii. 5. Coracini pisces Nilo quidem peculiares sunt. Athenæus, b. vii. c. 83, p. 484. Bohn’s Classical Library.
[916] Called by the Arabs gamor-el-Lelleh, or star of the night. Cuvier.
[917] The shad.
[918] The mullet.
[919] About six feet. Nicander is the author of two Greek poems that are still extant, and of several others that have been lost. He may be supposed to have been in reputation for about fifty years, cir. B. C. 185-135. The longest of his poems that remains is named Theriaca. It treats (as the name implies) of venomous animals, and the wounds inflicted by them, and contains some curious and interesting zoological passages, together with numerous absurd fables. The other treats of poisons and their antidotes. His works are only consulted by those who are interested in points of zoological and medical antiquities. He is frequently quoted by Athenæus. See Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Biography, art. Nicander.
[920] Herod. ii. 36.
[921] Strabo does not appear to have been acquainted with the plant from which these tissues were made. Their true name seems to have been cucina, and were made from a palm-tree (the Doum palm), called by Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 4, 2) κουκιοφόρον, and by Pliny “cuci” (b. xiii. 9): “At e diverso, cuci in magno honore, palmæ similis, quando et ejus foliis utuntur ad textilia.”
[925] Cape Spartel, or Espartel. Ampelusia, vine-clad, was the Greek name,—a translation of the native name.
[926] Groskurd reads Tinx, and also with Letronne observes that our author has mistaken two places for one. Tinx, or Trinx=Tangiers. Lixus = Al-Harâtch, or Laraiche.
[927] Cadiz.
[928] Situated between the town Sala (Salee) and Lixus (El-Harâch).
[929] Tyrwhitt reads Apellas, for Ophellas of the text. Apellas was a Cyrenæan navigator, whose Periplus is mentioned by Marcianus of Heracleia. There was an Ophellas of Cyrene, who advanced at the head of an army along the coast, to unite himself to Agathocles, who was then besieging Carthage, B. C. 310. He was put to death by Agathocles soon after his arrival, and no Periplus of his said to have existed; his course also to Carthage was by land.
[930] A people on the west coast of N. Africa, about the situation of whom Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy are in perfect agreement with one another, if the thirty days’ journey of Strabo between them and Lixus on the west coast of Morocco, to the south of Cape Spartel, be set aside, as an error either of his information or of the text; which latter is not improbable, as numbers in MSS. are so often corrupt. Nor is this mere conjecture, because Strabo contradicts himself, by asserting in another place (b. xvii. c. 3. § 7) that the Pharusii had a great desert between them and Mauretania. When Ezekiel prophesies the fall of Tyre, it is said, (xxvii. 10,) “The men of Pheres (the common version reads Persia) and Lud and Phut were in thine armies.” These Pheres thus joined with Phut, or Mauretanians, and the Ludim, who were nomads of Africa (the Septuagint and the Vulgate understand the Lydians), may be reasonably supposed to belong to the same region. Without the vowel points, the name will represent the powerful and warlike tribe whom the Greeks call Pharusii. Smith, art. Pharusii.
[931] Arum esculentum (snake-weed), and arum dracunculus.
[932] Parsnip (?).
[933] Fennel.
[934] Artichoke.
[935] Groskurd reads Hypsicrates.
[936] The rhinoceros.
[937] About six quarts, according to the lowest value of the (chœnix).
[938] Arzila.
[939] Tiga in the text.
[940] The Septem-Fratres of Pliny.
[941] Jebel-el-Mina, or Ximiera, near Ceuta (a corruption of ἑπτὰ, or septem?).
[942] Ape mountain.
[943] The Muluwi, which now forms the frontier between Morocco and Algeria, as it did anciently between the Mauretanians and Numidians.
[944] Cape Hone, or Ras-el-Harsbak. Groskurd corrects the text, and translates: “Near the river is a large promontory, and a neighbouring settlement called Metagonium.” Kramer’s proposed correction is followed.
[945] Numidia is the central tract of country on the north coast of Africa, which forms the largest portion of the country now occupied by the French, and called Algeria, or Algérie. The continuous system of highlands which extends along the coast of the Mediterranean was in the earliest period occupied by a race of people consisting of many tribes, of whom the Berbers of the Algerine territories, or the Kabyles or Quabaily, as they are called by the inhabitants of the cities, are the representatives. These people, speaking a language which was once spoken from the Fortunate Islands in the west to the cataracts of the Nile, and which still explains many names in ancient African topography, and embracing tribes of quite different characters, whites as well as blacks (though not negroes), were called by the Romans Numidæ; not a proper name, but a common denomination from the Greek form, νομάδες. Afterwards Numida and Numidia became the name of the nation and the country. Sometimes they were called Maurusii Numidæ, while the later writers always speak of them under the general name of Mauri. The most powerful among these tribes were the Massyli, whose territories extended from the river Ampsaga to Tretum promontory; and the Massæsyli, occupying the country to the west, as far as the river Mulucha. Smith, Dict. art. Numidia.
[946] Cartagena.
[947] Marseilles.
[948] The words περιτραχήλια ξύλινα offer some difficulty. Paul Louis Courier, who is of authority on this subject, says that Strabo, having little experience in horses, has mistaken the first word for another, and intended to speak of the horse’s nose, and not his neck. Letronne and Groskurd both agree that ξύλινα is rightly to be translated, “of cotton.”
[949] Constantine.
[950] The Pharusii, and not the Mauretanians, came with Hercules from the East, according to Pliny, Mela, and Sallust; hence Letronne conjectures that we should read here Pharusii.
[951] A. D. 18 or 19 at latest, but the exact date is uncertain.
[952] Groskurd corrects the text, and translates, “there existed in the Bay Emporicus very many Phœnician cities.”
[953] Plutarch. Sertorius.
[954] Ebba-Ras.
[955] Probably Tafna.
[956] Jama.
[957] According to Shaw, who however did visit the place, its ruins are still to be seen by the present Tucumbrit; others identify it with Areschkul of the Arabs, at the mouth of the Tafna near Rasgun.
[958] In the text μεγέθει δὲ ἑπτασπονδύλων, scorpions “of seven joints” in the tail; the correction of Letronne, which Kramer supports, is adopted. Groskurd however retains the text, and reads μεγέθει δὲ [ὑπερβαλλόντων καὶ ἐσθ’ ὅτε ἑπτασπονδύλων, “of enormous size, and sometimes of seven joints.”
[959] Cherchell, a corruption of Cæsarea-Iol.
[960] Ebba Ras (the seven capes) or Bougaron.
[961] Bougie.
[962] Shaw has the merit of having first pointed out the true situation of this celebrated city. Before his time it was sought sometimes at Biserta, sometimes at Farina, but he fixed it near the little miserable “Douar,” which has a holy tomb called Boushatter, and with this view many writers have agreed. Adherbal, however, was besieged and captured in Cirta (Constantine), B. C. 109.
[963] An unknown name. Letronne supposes Thisica to be meant, mentioned by Ptolemy, iv. 3.
[964] Vaga or Vacca, now Bayjah.
[965] Shaw takes Ferreanah to have been the ancient Thala or Telepte, but Lapie seeks it at Haouch-el-Khima.
[966] Cafsa.
[967] Jama.
[968] Probably near the ruins of Leptis Parva.
[969] El Aliah.
[970] Karkenah or Ramlah.
[971] Hippo Regius, Bonah; and Hippo Zaritus, Bizerta.
[972] Wady Mejerdah.
[973] Letronne corrects this reading to 2000, which is the number given by Polybius and Arrian.
[974] By the Romans, Numidæ.
[975] Pantellaria.
[976] Marsala.
[977] Kramer is of opinion that this passage from the beginning of the section is an interpolation. Cossura (the island Pantellaria) is nowhere else spelt Corsura; Cossuros is the spelling observed immediately below. Its distance from Aspis is differently stated in b. vi. c. ii. § 11, to be 88 miles from Aspis. Ægimurus is the small island Zembra, near Cape Bon; near it is also another small low rocky island. From the shape and appearance of the former, more especially in some positions, we may attribute the name Aræ (altars), given to them, as in Pliny: “Ægimuræ Aræ, scopuli verius quam insulæ;” and they are the “Aræ” of Virgil, Æn. i. 108.
[978] i. e. sacred to Mercury. Cape Bon.
[979] Cape Aclibia, from the Latin Clypea. B. vi. c. 2, § 11.
[980] Malta.
[981] Sousah.
[982] Demass.
[983] Lampedusa.
[984] Kramer’s proposed emendation is followed.
[985] Gulf of Cabes.
[986] Jerba or Zerbi. It produced the “lotus-zizyphus” or the carob, now common in the islands of the Mediterranean and on the continent.
[987] Od. ix. 84.
[988] Sabrata?
[989] Lebida.
[991] The Cinifo or Wadi-Quasam.
[992] Cape Canan or Mesrata.
[994] Its position, like that of so many places on the Great Syrtis, can hardly be determined with certainty. A full discussion of these localities will be found in Barth’s Wanderungen.
[995] About the middle of the fourth century, B. C., according to a story in Sallust, these monuments commemorated the patriotic sacrifice of two Philæni, Carthaginian envoys.
[996] Gulf of Suez.
[997] Ben Ghazi. Berenice previously bore the name Hesperides, which name seems to have been derived from the fancy which found the fabled Gardens of the Hesperides in the fertile terraces of Cyrenaïca.