Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/314

 298 MAUEETANIA. (Melilah.) W. of Cap Tres Foveas, which is a termination of an offshoot of tlie secondary cliain of the Atlas, was the district of the Metagonitae, extendinsj to Abyla (Jehel-el-Mina). From here to TiNGis {Tangier) the coast is broken by alternate cliffs and coves; and, still standing to the W., a bold shore presents itself as far as the fine headland of Ampelusia {Cape Spartel; Ras-el-Shiihknr of the natives). From Cape Spartel to the SSW. as far as ZiLis (Arzila), the coast-line is a fiat, sandy, and shingly beach, after which it becomes more bold as it reaches Lixus {Al-Ifardtch or Laraichc). (Smyth, The Mediterranean, pp. 94 — 99.) A description of the SW. coast is given in the article Libya. (Comp. C. Miillcr, Tab. ad Gear/. Graec. Minores, ed. Didot, Paris, 1855; West Coast of Africa surveyed, by Arlett, Vidal, and Boteler, 1 832 ; Cote occidentak de VAfrique au Depot de la Ma- rine, Paris, 1852 ; Carte de V Empire de Maroc, par E. Renou, 1844; Barth, Karte vom Nord Afrikanischen Gestadeland, Berlin, 1849.) III. History and Political Geography/. The Romans first became acquainted with this country when the war with Hannibal was transferred to Africa; Mauretania was the unknown land to the W. of the Mulucha. In the Jugurthine War, Boc- chus, who is called king of JIauretania, played the traitor's part so skilfully that he was enabled to hand o^er his kingdom to his two sons Bogudes and Boc- choris, who were associated upon the throne. These princes, from their hostility to the Pompeian party, were confirmed as joint kings of Mauretania by J. Caesar in b. c. 49. During the civil war between M. Antonius and Octavius, Bocchus sided with the latter, while Bogudes was allied with Antonius. When Bogudes crossed into Spain, Bocchus seized upon his brother's dominions ; a usurpation which was ratified by Octavius. In b. c. 25, Octavius gave to Juba II., who was married to the daughter of Cleopatra and Antonius, the two provinces of Mau- retania (afterwards called Tingitana and Caesarien- sis) which had formed the kingdom of Bogudes and Bocchus, in exchange for Numidia, now made a Roman province. Juba was succeeded by his son Ptiilemy, whom Selene, Cleopatra's daughter, bore to him. (Strab. xvii. pp. 828, 831, 840.) Ti- berius loaded Ptolemy with favours on account of the assistance he gave the Romims in the war with Tacfarinas (Tac. A7in. iv. 23 — 26); but in a. D. 41 he was put to death by Caligula. (Dion Cass. lix. 25 ; Suet. Cal. 26; Seneca, de Tranq. 11.) For coins of these native princes, see Eckhel, vol. iv. pp. 154—161. In A.D. 42, Claudius divided the kingdom into two provinces, separated from each other by the river Mu- lucha, tile ancient frontier between the territories of Bocchus and Jugurtha; that to the W. was called Mauretania Tingitana, and that to the E. Mau- retania Caesakiensis. (Dion Cass. Ix. 9 ; Plin. V. 1.) Both were imperial provinces (Tac. Hist. i. 1 1, ii. 58; Spart. Iladr. 6, " Mauretaniae praefectura"), and were strengthened by numerous Roman " co- loniae." M. Tingitana contained in the time of Pliny (I. c.) five, three of which, Zilis, Babba, and Banasa, as they were founded by Augustus when Maurct.ania was independent of Rome, were reckoned as belonging to Baetica. (Plin. I. c; Pomp. Mela, iii. 10. § 5.) Tingi and Lixus were colo- nies of Claudius (Plin. I. c); to which were added in later times RrsADiu and Volubilis {Itiii. Ant.). MAURETANIA. M. Caesariensis contained eight colonies founded by Augustus, Cartenna, Gunugi, Igilgili, Rus- CONIAE, RusAzus, Salde, Succabar, TuBUSUr- TUS; two by Claudius, Caesareia, formerly loL, the capital of Juba, who gave it this name in honour of his patron Augustus, and Oppidum Novum; one by Nerva, Sitifis ; and in later times, Arse- NAELV, BiDA, SiGA, AqUAE CaLIDAE, QulZA, RusucuRRiuM, AuziA, GiLVA, IcosiUM, and Ti- PASA, in all 21 well-known colonies, besides several " municipia" and " oppida Latina." The Notitia enumerates no less than 1 70 episcopal towns in the two provinces. (Comp. Morcelli, Africa Christiana, vol. i. pp. 40 — 43.) About A. d. 400, Mauretania Tingitana was under a " Praeses," in the diocese of Spain; while Mauretania Caesariensis, which still re- mained in the hands of the diocese of Africa, was divided into Mauretania I. or Sitifensis, and MauretjVNia II. or Caesariensis. The emperor Otho had assigned the cities of Mauretania to Baetica (Tac. Hist. i. 78); but this probably applied only to single places, since we find the two Mauretaniae re- mained unchanged down to the time of Constantine. Marquardt, in Becker's Ilandbuch der Rom. Alt. pp. 230 — 232 ; Morcelli, Africana Christiana, vol. i. p. 25.) In A. D. 429, the Vandal king Genseric, at the invitation of Comit Boniface, crossed the straits of Gades, and Mauretania, with the other Afi-ican pro- vinces, fell into the hands of the barbarian con- querors. Belisarius, " the Africanus of New Rome," destroyed the kingdom of the Vandals, and Maure- tania again became a Roman province under an Eastern exarch. One of his ablest generals, John the Patrician, for a time repressed the inroads of the Moors upon Roman civilisation ; and under his successor, the eunuch Solomon, the long-lost pro- vince of Mauretania Sitifensis was restored to the empire; while the Second Mauretania, with the ex- ception of Caesareia itself, was in the hands of Mas- tigas and the floors. (Comp. Gibbon, cc. xli. xliii.; Le Beau, Bos Empire, vol. viii.) At length, in A. D. 698 — 709, when the Arabs made the final conquest of Africa, — desolated for 300 years since the first fury of the Vandals, — the Moors or Berbers adopted the religion, the name, and the origin of their conquerors, and sunk back into their more congenial state of Mahometan savages. Pliny (/. c.) makes out the breadth of the two Mauretaniae as 467 M. P.; but this will be too much even for Tingitania, where ]Iount Atlas lies more to the S., and more than 300 M. P. beyond the utmost extent of any part of Caesariensis. The same author gives 170 M. P., which are too few for Tingitania, and 879 M. P., which are too many for Caesariensis. (Shaw, Trav. p. 9.) The following tribes are enumerated by Pto- lemy (iv. 2. §§ 17 — 22) in I. Mauretania Caesariensis : — Toducae (TohovKai), on the left bank of the Ampsaga ; to the N. of these, CoEDAMUSii (KoiSafjLovffioi), and still more to the N., towards the coast, and to the E. on the Ampsaga, Mucuni (Movkovvoi) and Chituae (XiToCoi); to the W. of the latter, Tulensii (Tou- XTffvffioi) and B.VNIURI {Baviovpoi); S. of these, Machures (MaxoSpes), Salassii {'S.aXacaiot), and Malchubii (VlaXxovSioi); NW. of the Tu- lensii, and to the E. of Zalacus M., and on the coast, Macchukebi (MaKxovpriSoi); W. of these, and N. of Zalacus, on the mouth of the Chinalapli, Maciiusii (Moxowioi); below them on the other