Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/84

 rocco and Algier, and was an equally important frontier in ancient times. The next point of reference is a headland at about 4° E. long., the site of the ancient city of. E. of this, again, somewhat beyond 6° E. long., is another frontier river, the (Wady el Kebir): further on, near 8° E. long., another river, the  (Wady Seibous), at the mouth of which stood  (Bonah); and, about 1° further E., the river  (Wady-ez-Zain). The last great river of this coast, W. of the great turning point (C. Bon), is the (Majerdah), falling into the sea just below C. Farina, the W. headland (as C. Bon is the eastern) of the great Gulf of Tunis, near the centre of which a rocky promontory marks the site of Carthage. Lastly, let us note the bottom of the great gulf called the Lesser Syrtis, at the S. extremity of the E. coast already noticed, with the neighbouring great salt-lake of Al-Sibkah, the ancient Palus Tritonis, between 33° and 34° N. lat.; N. and NW. of which the country is for the most part desert, as far as the SE. slopes of the Atlas chain. The country immediately around the lake itself forms the E.-most of a series of oases, which stretch from E. to W. along the S. foot of the Atlas chain, and along the N. margin of the Sāhǎra, and thus mark out a natural S. frontier for this portion of N. Africa.

In the earliest times recorded, the whole N. coast of the continent W. of Egypt was peopled by various tribes of the great Libyan race, who must be carefully distinguished from the Ethiopian or negro races of the interior. S. of the Libyan tribes, and on the N. limits of the Sāhǎra, dwelt the and, and S. of these, beyond the desert, the proper Ethiopians or negroes. The Libyans were of the Caucasian family of mankind, and for tho most part of nomade [sic] habits. At periods so early as to be still mythical to the Greeks, colonists from the W. coasts of Asia settled on the shores of Africa, and especially on the part now treated of. Sallust has preserved a curious tradition respecting the earliest Asiatic colonists, to which a bare reference is enough (Jugurth. 18). The chief colonies were those of the Phoenicians, such as, , , , , and above all, though one of the latest,. In these settlements, the Phoenicians established themselves as traders rather than conquerors; and they do not seem to have troubled themselves about bringing the native peoples into subjection, except so far as was needful for their own security. Carthage, which was built on the most commanding position on the whole coast, gradually surpassed all the other Phoenician colonies, and brought them, as allies, if not as subjects, to acknowledge her supremacy. She also founded colonies of her own along the whole coast, from the Straits to the bottom of the Great Syrtis. The question of the extent and character of the Carthaginian dominion belongs to another article []; but it is necessary here to advert briefly to its condition when the Romans first became acquainted with the country. At that time the proper territory of Carthage was confined within very narrow limits around the city itself. The sea-coast W. and S. of C. Bon, as far as the river Rubricatus and Hippo Regius on the W. and a point N. of Hadrumetum (about 36° N. lat.) on the S., and the parts inland along the river Bagradas, and between it and the sea, appear to have formed the original territory of Carthage, corresponding nearly to the region after-wards known as, but reaching further along the W. coast, and not so far inland on the SW. This, or even less, was the extent of country at first included by the Romans under the name of Africa, and to this very day it bears the same name, Frikiah  or Afrikeah. It is remarkable that, neither in the wars of Agathocles nor of the Romans with Carthage in Africa, does any mention occur of military operations out of this limited district. But still, before the wars with Rome, the territory of Carthage had received some accession. On the E. coast, S. of 36° N. lat., flourishing maritime cities had been established, some — as Leptis and Hadrumetum — even before Carthage, and some by the Carthaginians. These cities were backed by a fertile but narrow plain, bounded on the W. by a range of mountains, which formed the original, a district, according to Pliny, 250 Roman miles in circuit, and extending S.-wards as far as Thenae, opposite the island of Cercina (in about 34° 30' N. lat), where the Lesser Syrtis was considered to begin. This district had been added to the possessions of the Carthaginians, and Polybius (iii. 23) speaks of their anxiety to conceal it from the knowledge of the Romans, as well as their commercial settlements further along the coast, called. This word, Emporia, though afterwards used as the name of a district, denoted at first, according to its proper meaning, settlements established for the sake of commerce ; and it appears to have included all the Phoenician and Carthaginian colonies along the whole coast from the N. extremity of the Lesser Syrtis to the bottom of the Greater Syrtis. Any possession of the E. part of this region, in a strictly territorial sense, would have been worthless from the nature of the country, but the towns were maintained as centres of commerce with the inland tribes, and as an additional security, besides the desert, against any danger from the Greek states of Cyrenaica.

Such was the general position of the Carthaginian dominion in Africa at the time of the Punic Wars; extending over their own immediate territory to about 80 miles S. of the capital, and along the E. coast of Tunis and isolated points on the W. part of the coast of Tripoli. The whole inner district in the central and SW. parts of the later province of Africa was in the possession of the Libyan tribes, whose services as mercenaries Carthage could obtain in war, but whom she never even attempted to subdue. These tribes are spoken of by Greek and Latin writers under a general name which describes their mode of life as wandering herdmen, , or, in the Latin form,. They possessed the country along the N. coast as far W. as the Straits; but those of them that were settled to the W. of the river Mulucha were called by another name,, perhaps from a greater darkness of complexion, and, after them, the Romans called the country W. of the Mulucha ; while that E. of the Mulucha, to the W. frontier of Carthage, and also SW. and S. of the Carthaginian possessions as far as the region of the Syrtes, was included under the general designation of. In this region, at the time of the Second Punic War, two tribes were far more powerful than all the rest, namely, in the W.and larger portion, between the rivers Mulueha and Ampsaga, the, occupying the greater part oi the modern Algier; and E. of them, from the river Ampsaga and round the whole inland frontier of Carthage, the , the residence of whose chieftain, called by the Romans