Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/750

 73» CYBA. which the Table places 7 miles from Sinope od t)ie road to Amunu, mider the name of Cloptasa. Ha- milton (^ResearcheSf fe. vol i. p. .'306) snpposes that it maj be a place on the coast now called Chobari' lar. [G. L.] CYRA [Cyrebchata]. CYRAUNIS. [Cbrcina,] CYRBE (KJp«i}: Eth. Kup^oTof), a city of Pam- phytiaf mentioned by Hecataeua in hia^dna. (Steph. B. *. V.) [G. L.] CYRENAEI. [Cykewaica.] CYKENA'ICA (^ Kvpfiyalri x^^ Herod, i?. 199 ; h Kvpritfala^ Strab. zvii. p. 837 ; V Kv/nj- vautil hrapxioy PtoL iv. 4; Cyrenalca Provinda, Gyrenaxca Africa, and Cyrenaica simply, Mela, i. fi. § 1 ; Plin. V. 6, &c.; Adj. KvpqroiicSs, especially with reference to the philosophic sect foonded by Aristippus, ri KufrtiyaXidi ^Xoao^fo, Strab. zvii. p. 837; Diog. Laert. ii. 85; Kvfnivcuos, Cyienalcns, Cyreuaens, Cyrenensis), a district, and, under the Romans, a proviRoe of N. Africa, also called, from the time of the Ptolemies, Pemtapous (neyrdS«-oAif , PtoL; Agathem. iL 5), Pbhtapous Libtak (n*vrdwott Aitf^f, Joseph, vii. 38; Sezt Rof. 13), and PxHTAPOUTAifA Rboio (Plin. I. c.}.* The former name was derived from CrRBins, Uie capital of the district; and the latter from its five chief cities, namely, Cybenb, Babca, Teucheisa (aft Arsinoe), Hbbperidbs (aft. Berenice), and Apollonia, which was at first the port of Gyrene. The names may, however, be distingnished from one another; Cjrrenaica denoting the whole district or province ui its widest sense, and Pentapolis being a collective name for the five cities with their respec- tive territories. In its widest sense the term includes the whole of the ooontiy which was subject to Gyrene, when that city was most flourishing, from the borders of Carthage on the W. to those of Egypt on the £. On both sides, as was natural from the character of the intervening deserts, the boundaries varied. On the E. they seem never to have been perfectly de- fined, being placed at the GnEitaoirEsus Magna {Ras-et^Tin)f or at the Gatabathmus Majob {Maraa SoUom or Ahabet et Kebira, the present boundary of Tripoli and Egypt), according as Mabmarica was included in Gyrenaica or not On the W. the boundazy was fixed, after long dis- putes, at the bottom k the Great Syrtis. [Arab PiiiLAENORUX.] On the S. the nominal limits of the country reached as far as the oasis of Phaza- KiA (Feason). (Scylax, p. 45; Strab. xvii. p. 838; Stadiam. p. 451 ; Sail. Jug. 19 ; Mela, Plin. IL cc). On the N. the shore was washed by that part of the Mediterranean which was called the Libyan Sea (LiBTCUM Marb), and on the W. by the Greater Syrtis. But the district actually occuped by the Greek colonists comprised only the table land, known as tlio plateau of Barca, with the subjacent coast It may be considered as beginning at the N. limit of the sandy shores of the Great Syrtis at Borbum pB. (Rat TegonaSj S. of Ben'Ghtm)^ between which and the Ghersonesus Magna the country pro- jects into the Mediterranean in the form of a seg- ment of a circle, whose chord is above 150 miles Gass. liiL 12, K^tfirri re fitrci Ai€6r}s Tfjs x«pi Kupiivriv; Act. Apost. ii. 10, rd ti4pri rrfs Ai€u7is GYRENAICA. long, and its arc above 200, lying directly opposite to the Peloponnesus, at the distance of about 200 miles. From its position, fonnatioo, climate, and soil, this region is perhaps one of the most delightful on the surface of the globe. Its centre isLoccupied bj a moderately elevated table-land, whose edge nina parallel to the coast, to which it smks down In a succession of tannces, clothed with vendnre, inter- sected by monntam streams running through ravinea filled with the richest v^etation, well watered by frequent rains, exposed to the cool sea-breezes from the N., and sheltered by the mass of the mountain from the sands and hot winds of the Saiara, The various terraces rajoyed a great diversity of cli- mates, and produced a corresponding variety of flowers, vegetables, and firuits, and the saocesaive harvests, at the difierent elevations, lasted for eight months out of the twelve. (Herod, iv. 198, 199; Diod.iiL 50; Arrian. Jnd. 43; Eustath. ad Mm. Perieg. 312.) The table Und extends some 70 or 80 miles in breadth between the Sakara and the coast, but it is only on its N. and NW. alopea that it enjoys the physiaU advantages now described, and on account of which it is oiled to this day Jebd Ahdar — i. e. the Grten MomUam. Among its products are enumerated com, oil, wine, all ianiM of fruits, especially dates, figs, and almonda (ScyL p. 46 ; Diod. iiL 49 ; Plin. xiil. 4. s. 9, zvu. 30. § 4; Synes. Epitt. 133, 147); cucumbers (Plin.xz. 1. s. 3), trufiles (juav, Ath. ii. p. 62; Plin. xix. 3. s. 12); cabbage (Ath. L p. 27, iii. p. 100), bos (Theophr. Hist, PianL iiL 15), saffim (Ath. zv. p. 682; Plin. xxi.^6. s. 17; Synes. EpigL 133), flowers from which exquisite perfumes were extracted (Theophr. H. P. vi. 6; Ath. zv. p. 689; Plin. xxi, 4. s. 10) ; and a very rare plant, for which the f country was especially celebrated, namely, SUpkimmj > or Uuerpitium, the pknt which produced tlw gum I resin, called later (owbs Kt^voZos), which was in the highest esteem among the ancient physicians ' (Herod, iv. 169; Dioscor. iii. 84; Theophr. H. P, vL 3; Arrian. Anab. iii. 28; Strab. iL p. 131 ; Plin. ix. 3. 8. 15, xix. 3. s. 1, xxiL 23; Plaut Rvd. iiL 2. 16 ; Eckhel, Doctr. Num. VeL voL iv. p. 119; Mionnet, JJetor. de Med, voL vi. pp. 373, iblL: the plant, which had already become scarce in the time  of the Romans, is now found in abundance: Delia { Gella, Viaggio da Tripoli^ &c; Pacho, Voffoge dant la Marmarique, &c., p. 250). The di^xict was also famous for its honey (Synes. EpitL 147); its horses, large studs of which were kept at Gyrene and at Barca (Pind. Pyth. iv. 2; Ath. iii. p. 100; Dionys. Perieg. 213; Synes. EpitL 40; Diod. xviL 49; Strab. xviL p. 837; Steph. B. p. 155), and its ostriches (Synes. Epitt, 133). As some check upon all these advantages, the country was terribly subject to the annual ravages of locusts (Plin. zL 29. s. 35; Liv. Epit Ix.; JuL Obseq. 90; Oraa. v. 11 ; Synes. EpitL 58); and the great abundance of natund gifts disposed the inhabitants to luxury. The native Libyan tribes, who are mentioDed aa inhabiting the country in the earliest known times, were the Auschisab oq the W., the Asbtstab in the centre, and the Giuoammab oq the £.; but in the time of Herodotus these peoples had already been driven into the interior by the Greek settters ; and, during the whq|e period of ancient hiatoiy, Cyr»> naica is essentially a part of the Hellonio world. (A few other tribes are mentioned by Ptolemy, iv. 4. 8. 10.) The first Greek settlement, of which we
 * It b also called " Libya about Gyrene" (Dion