Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/413

 NAPATA. ever, generally placed at the E. extremity of that great bend of the Nile, which skirts the desert of Ba- hiotida [Nubae], and near Jlount Birlel {Gebel-el- Birkel), a site which answers nearly to the descrip- tion of Napata, iu Pliny {I. c.)- Napata was the furthest point S. beyond Egypt, whither the arms of Rome penetrated, and it was taken and plundered by Petronius, the lieutenant of Augustus, in b. C. 22. (Dion Cass. liv. 5.) Nor does Napata seem ever to have recovered its earlier greatness; for Nero's sur- veyors found only an inconsiderable town there, and afterwards all traces of this city vanish. The govern- ment of Napata, like that of Meroe, was often com- mitted to the hands of women, who bore the title of Candace {Acts of Apost. viii. 27; Euseb. Hist. Eccles. ii. 1 ; Tzetzes, Chiliad, iii. v. 885); and in the kingdom of Schendy, Burckhardt found in the present century a similar regimen. Napata, if not a colony, was probably at one time among the dependencies of Meroe. The government and religion were the same in both ; and from the monuments discovered in either, both seem to have been in a similar state of civilisation. If Merawe, indeed, represent the ancient Napata, it seems to follow that the latter city was the second capital of the Mesopotamian region of Meroe. Napata owed much of its wealth and importance to its being the terminus of two considerable cara- van routes: — (1) One crossing the desert of Bahi- ouda; (2) The other further to the N. running from the city to the island Gagaudes in the Nile (Plin. vi. 35), the modern Argo. (Russegger, Karte von Nubien.') Although Napata was suirounded by Nomade hordes, its proper population was probably as civilised as that of Jleroe, at least its wealth pre- supposes settlement and security. Its commerce consisted in an interchange of the products of L'loya and Arabia, and it was near enough to the marshes of the Nile to enjoy a share in the profitable trade in ivory and hides which were obtained from the chase of the hippopotamus and elephant. If the ruins which are found near Mount Birkel represent Napata, the city can have been second only to the golden city of the Aethiopians, Sleroe itself. (Dio- dor. liii. 6.) On the western bank of the Nile are found two temples and a considerable necropolis. The former were dedicated to Osiris and Ammon ; and the sculptures respresenting the Ammonian and Osirian worship, are inferior in execution and design to none of the Nubian monuments. Avenues of sphinxes lead up to the Ammonium, which exhibits in its ruins the plan of the great temples of Aegypt. On the walls of the Osirian temple, which Calli- and {L'Isle de Meroe) calls a Typhonium, are re- presented Ammon-Ea and his usual attendants. The intaglios exhibit Ammon or Osiris receiving gifts of fruit, cattle, and other articles, or ofl'ering sacrifice ; strings of captives taken in war are kneeling before their conqueror. On the gateway leading to the court of the necropolis, Osiris was cai-ved in the act of receiving gifts as lord of the lower world. The pyramids themselves are of con- siderable magnitude; but having been built of the sandstone of Mount Birkel, have suffered greatly from the periodical rains, and have been still more injured by man. 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 of Amuntuonch. They were brought to England by Lord Prudhoe, and now stand at the entrance to the NARAGGERA. 397 Gallery of Antiquities in the British JIuseuni. The style and execution of these figures belong to the most perfect period of Aegyptian art, the xviiith dynasty of the Pharaohs. Whether these lions once marked the southern limit of the dominions of Aegypt, or whether they were trophies brought from Aegypt, by its Aethiopian conquerors, cannot be determined. (Hoskins, Travels, pp. 161. 288; Calliaud, Lisle de Meroe; Transact, of Royal Sue. Lit. 2nd Sen vol. i. p. 54.) [W. B. D.] NAPETI'NUS SINUS (5 NairTjTTcos k6itos) was the name given by some writers to the gulf on the W. coast of Bruttium more commonly known as the Terinaeus Sinus, and now called the Gulf of St. Eufemia. We have no account of the origin of the name, which is cited from Antiochus of Syracuse both by Strabo and Dionysius. (Strab. vi. p. 255 ; Dionys. i. 35.) Aristotle calls the same gulf the Lametine Gulf (o Aa/xTjriws koAttos, Arist. Pol. vii. 10), from a town of the name of Lametium or Lametini ; and in like manner it has been generally assumed that there was a town of the name of Nape- tium, situated on its shores. But we have no other evidence of this ; an inscription, which has been frequently cited to show that there existed a town of the name as late as the time of Trajan, is almost certainly spurious. (Mommsen, Inscr. Regn. Neap, App. No. 93C.) [E. H. B.] NAPHTALI. [Palaestdja.] NAPOCA. [Dacia, Vol. I. p. 744, b.] NAR (6 Nap, Strab. : Nerd), a considerable river of Central Italy, and one of the principal tributaries of the Tiber. It rises in the lofty group of the Apennines known as the Monti della Sibilla (the Mons P"iscellus of Pliny), on the confines of Um- bria and Picenum, from whence it has a course of about 40 miles to its confluence with the Tiber, which it enters 5 miles above Ocriculum, after flowing under the walls of Interamna and Narnia. (Strab. V. pp. 227, 235; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Lucan. i. 475; Vib. Seq. p. 15.) About 5 miles above the former city, it receives the tributary stream of the Velinus; a river as large as itself, and which brings down the accumulated waters of the Lacus Velini, with those of the valleys that open out at Eeate. The Nar and Velinus together thus drain the whole western declivity of the Central Apennines through a space of above 60 miles. The Nar is remarkable for its white and sulphuieous waters, which are alluded to by Ennius and Virgil as well as Pliny. (Ennius, Ann. vii. Fr. 19; Virg. Jem. vii. 517; Plin. iii. 12. s. 17.) It is singular that the last writer has confounded the Nar with the Velinus, and speaks of the former as draining the Lacus Velini, into which it falls near Reate. Both Cicero and Tacitus, on the contrary, correctly repre- sent the waters of the lake as carried off into the Nar, which is now eflected by an artificial cut forming the celebrated Cascade of the Velino, or Falls of Terni. This channel was first opened by M'. Curius, about b. c. 272, but there must always have been some natural outlet for the waters of the Velino. (Plin. I. c; Cic. ad Ait. iv. 15; Tac. Ann. i. 79.) The Nar was reckoned in ancient times navigable for small vessels; and Tacitus speaks of Piso, the murderer of Germanicus, as embarking at Narnia, and descending from thenco by the Nar and the Tiber to Rome. (Tac. Ann. iii. 9; Strab. V. p. 227.) ^ [E. H. B.] NARAGGERA, a town of Numidia, near which P. Cornelius Scipio pitched his cuwip, and had an