Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/192

 176 LIBYA. habitants the fjcnoral name of Aetliiopes, the dark or black coloured men. Between b. c. 630 — 620, Battus of Thera, being commanded by the oracle to lead a colony Into Libya, inquired anxiously " where Libya was," although at that time the position of Aegypt, and probably that of the Phoenician Car- thage also, was well known to the Greeks. Hence we may conclude that, in the 7th century b. c, the name Libya, as the generic appellation of a continent within sight of Sicily, and within a few days' sail from Peloponnesus, was either partially adopted by or wholly unknown to the Greeks. The Phoenicians were among the first explorers, as they were among the earliest colonisers of Libya ; but they concealed their knowledge of it with true commercial jealousy, and even as late as the 6th century B.C. interdicted the Roman and Etruscan mariners from sailing be- yond the Fair Promontory. (Polyb. iii. 22.) About sixty years before the journey of Herodotus to Aesypt, i. e. b. c. 523, Cambyses explored a portion of the western desert that lies beyond Elepliantine: but his expedition was too brief and disastrous to afford any extension of geographical acquaintance with the interior. Herodotus is the first traveller whose ac- counts of Libya are in any way distinct or to be relied upon ; and his information was probably de- rived, in great measure, from the caravan guides with whom he conversed at Memphis or Naucratisin the Delta. By the term Libya, Herodotus under- stood sometimes the whole of ancient Africa (iv. 42), sometimes Africa exclusive of Aegypt (ii. 17, 18, iv. 167). He defined its proper eastern boundary to be the isthmus of Suez and the Red sea, in opposi- tion to those who placed it along the western bank of the Nile. In this opinion he is supported by Strabo (i. pp. 86, 174) and Ptolemy (ii. 1. § 6, iv. 5. § 47) ; and his description of the Great Desert and other features of the interior prove that his narrative generally rests upon the evidence of travellers in that region. The next step in discovery was made by the Macedonian kings of Aegypt. They not only re- quired gold, precious stones, ivory, and aromaties, for luxury and art, and elephants for their wars, but were also actuated by a zeal for the promotion of science. Accordingly, Ptolemy Philadelphus (Diod. i. 37 ; Plin. vi. 29) and Ptolemy Euergetes (b. c. 283 — 222) sent forth expeditions to the coast and mouth of the Red sea, and into the modern Nubia Their investigations, however, tended more to ex- tending acquaintance with the country between the cataracts of the Nile and the straits of Bah-el- Mandeb than to the examination of Western Libya. About 200 years before our era, Eratosthenes described Libya, but rather as a mathematician than a geographer. He defines it to be an acute angled triangle, of which the base was the Jlediterranean, and the sides the Red sea, on the east, and on the west an imaginary line drawn from the Pillars of Hercules to the Sinus Adulitanus. The wars of Rome with Carthage, and the destruc- tion of that city in b. c. 146, tended considerably to promote a clearer acquaintance with Libya Interior. Polybius, commissioned by his ftiend and commander, ScipioAemilianus, visited Aegypt and many districts of the northern coast of Africa, and explored its western shores also, as far as the river Bambotus, perhaps Cape Non, lat. 28° N., where he found the crocodile and hippopotamus. Unfortunately, the record of his journey has perished, although it was extant in the 1st century A. d., and is cited by Pliny (vi. 1) and Stephaims of Byzantium (s. cv. LIBYA. 'iTrTrtif, Ta§paKa, Xa^x*'") BufofTej; comp. Gosse- lin, liecherches sur les Geographie Ancienne, torn. ii. pp. 1—30). The events of the Jugurthine War (b. c. Ill — 106) led the Romans further into the interior. The historian Sallust, when praetor of Numidia, assiduously collected information respecting the in- digenous races of Libya. He mentions the Gaetuli as the rude Aborigines, who fed on the flesh of wild beasts, and on the roots of the earth. They dwelt near the torrid zone ('' hand procul ab ardoribus "), and their huts (mapalia) resembled inverted boats. Li B. c. 24, Aelius Gallus conducted, by the com- mand of Augustus, an expedition into Aethiopia and Nubia, and extended the knowledge of the eastern districts. The difficulties of the road and the trea- chery of his guides, indeed, rendered his attempt unprosperous ; but in the year following, Petronius repulsed an inroad of the Aethiopians, and established a line of military posts south of Elephantine (Strab. xvii. p. 615; Dion Cass. liv. 6). In B.C. 19, L. Cornelius Balbus attacked the Garamantes with success, and ascertained the names at least of many of their towns. (Flor. iv. 12 ; Plin. v. 75.) The information then acquired was employed by Strabo in his account of Libya. Again, in Nero's reign, an exploring party was desjiatclied to the Abyssinian highlands, with a view of discovering the sources of the Nile. (Plin. vi. 32 ; Senec. Nat. Quaest vi. 8.) But the Romans became acquainted with portions of the Libyan desert, less through regular attempts to penetrate it on either side, than from their desire to procure wild beasts for the amphitheatre. Under the emperors, especially, the passion fur exhibiting rare animals prevailed: nor have we reason to suspect that these were found in the cultivated northern provinces, whence they must have been driven by the colonial herdsmen and farmers, even while Cy- rene and Carthage were independent states. At the secular games exhibited by the emperor Philip the Arabian (a. d. 248), an incredible number of Libyan wild beasts were slaughtered in the arena, and the Roman hunters who collected them must have visited the Sahara at least, and the southern slope of Atlas: nor, since the hippopotamus and the alligator are mentioned, is it improbable that they even reached the banks of the Senegal. Of all the ancient geographers, however, Claudius Ptolemy, who flourished in the second century a.d., displays the most accurate and various acquaintance with Libya Interior. Yet, with the works of his predecessors before him, the scientific labours of the Alexandrians, and the Roman surveys, Ptolemy pos- sessed a very inadequate knowledge of the form and extent of this continent. His tables show that its western coast had been explored as far as 11° lat. N. ; and he was aware of the approxitnate posi- tion of the Fortunate Islands (now the Canaries), since from them, or some point in them, he calcu- lates all his eastern distances or longitudes. He was also better acquainted than any of his precursors with the eastern coast, and with the tracts which intervened between the left bank of the Nile and the Great Desert. He mentions an expedition con- ducted by a Roman officer named Jiaternus, who, setting forth from Tripoli, advanced as far south- ward as the neighbourhood of the lake Tchad, and, perhaps, even of Timbuctoo. He has also given, with probable correctness, the position of a number of places in the interior, along a river which lie calls