Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/88

 72 AFRICA. which lasted till the time of Jnstiiuaii, under whom the conntrj was recovered for the Eastern Empire, and the Vandals almost exterminated, by Belisariiui, A. D. 533 — 534. (For an acooont of the Vandal kings of Africa, see Vaxdau : for the histoiy of this period, the chief authority is Procopius, Bell.Vand,) Of the state and constitntion of Africa under Justinian, we have most interesting memorials in two rescripts, addressed by the emperor, the one to Archelaus, the praetorian pniefect of Africa, and the other to Belisarias himself. (Booking, NoHt. Diffn. vol. iL pp. 154, foil.) From the fonner we learn that the ieven African provinces, of which the island of Sardinia now made one, were erected into a separate pracfecture, under a Pratfectus Praetorio Magnificm; and the two rescripts settle their civil and military constitution respectively. It should be observed that Mauretania Tingitana (from the river Mulucha to the Ocean), which had formerly be- longed to Spain, was now included in the African province of Mauretania Caesariensis. [Comp. Mau- retania.] The seven African provinces were (from E. to W.J, (1) Tripolis or Tripditana, (2) BjTzadum or Byzacena, (3) Africa or Zeugis or Carthago, (4) Numidia, (5) Mauretania Sidfensis or Zaba, (6) Mauretania Caesariensis, and (7) Sar- dinia: the first three were governed by ConsulareSj the last four by I^aendea. The history of Africa under the E. empire con- sists of a series of intestine troubles arising frt>m court intrigues, and of Moorish insurrections which became more and more diflScult to repel. The splendid edifices and fortifications, of which Jus- tinian was peculiarly lavish in this part of his dominions, were a poor substitute for the vital energy which was almost extinct. (Procop. deA edif, Justin.) At length the deluge of Arabian invasion s^vept over the choicest parts of the Eastern Em- pire, and the conquest of Eg3rpt was no sooner completed, than the Caliph Othman sent an army under Abdallah against Africa, A. d. 647. The praefect Gregory was defeated and slxdn in the great battle of Sufetula in the centre of Byzacena ; but the Arab force was inadequate to complete the con- quest. In 665 the enterprize was renewed by Akbah, who overran the whole oountxy to the shores of the Atlantic; and founded the great Arab dty of Al-Ktsvnoan (i. e. Ihe carcman)^ in tlie heart oS Byzacium, about 20 miles S. W. of the ancient Iladrumeturo. Its inland position protected it from the fleets of the Greeks, who were still masters of the coast. But the Moorish tribes made common cause with the Africans, and the forces of Akbah were cut to pieces. His successor, Zuheir, gained several battles, but was defeated by an army sent from Constantinople. The contest was prolonged by the internal dissensions of the successors of the pniphet ; but, in A. d. 692, a new force entered Africa under Hassan, the governor of Egypt, and Carthage was taken and destroyed in 698. Again were the Arabs driven out by a general insurrection of the Moors, or, as we now find them called, by the name ever since applied to the natives of N. Africa, the Berbers (from fidpSapoi) ; but the Greeks and Bomans of Africa found their domination more intolerable than that of the Arabs, and welcomed the return of their conquerors under Musa, who subdued the country finally, and enlisted most of the Moors under the faith and standard of the pro- phet, A. D. 705 — 709. With the Arab conquest ends the ancient history of Africa. [P. S.] AGATHYBNA. AGANIPPE FONS. [Hbucok.] A'GARI (^Ayapot)^ a Scythian people of Saimatia Europaea, on the N. shore of the Palus Maeotts (&a o/Agov)f about a promontory Agarum and a river Agarus, probably not far £. of the Isthmus. Thej were sldlfiil in medicine, and are snid to have cored wounds with serpents' venom! Some of them al- ways attended on Mithridates the Ghreat, as j^j- sicians. (Ay^aXL MithrSS; Ptol. iii. 5. § 13.) A fungus called Agaricum (prob. German ti$tder), much used in ancient medidne, was said to grow in their country (Plin. zxv. 9. s. 57 ; Dioscor. iil 1 ; Galen, defac, simp, med, p. 150). Diodoms (xx. 24), mentions Agsuns, a kmg of the Scythians, near the Cimmerian Bosporus, b. c. 240. (Bockh, Cor- pus Inscr. voL iL p. 82; Ukert, yoL iii. pt 2, pp. 250, 433.) [P. S.] AGASSA or AGASSAE, a town in Pieria in Macedonia, near the river Mitys. Livy, in relating the campaign of b. a 169 against Perseus, sajs that the Boman consul made three days' march beyond Dium, the first of which terminated at the river Mitys, the second at Agassa, and the third at the river Asoordus. The last appears to be the same as the Acerdos, which occurs in the Tabular Itinerary, though not marked as a river. Leake supposes that &d Mitys was the river of JTafertaa, and that Acerdos was a tributary of the Haliacmon. (Liv. xliv. 7, xlv. 27; Leake, Northern (Treeoe, vol. iii. p. 423, seq.) AGATHUSA. [Tklob.] AGATH VRNA or AGATHYRITUM QkyiBvpm, Polyb. ap. Steph.Byz.'A7a0i{f>yoy,PtQl.: Agathyma, Sil. ItaL xiv.259; Liv.; Agi^ymum, Plin.), a dty on the N. coast of Sicily between Tyndaris and Calacte. It was supposed to have derived its name from Agathymus, a son of Aeolus, who is said to have settled in this part of Sicily (Diod. v. 8). But though it may be inferred from hence that it was an andent city, and probably of Sicelian origin, we find no mention of it in history until after Sicily became a Boman province. Ihuing the Second Ptmic War it became the head-quarters of a band of robbers and freebooters, who extended their ravages over the neighbouring country, but were reduced by the con- sul Laevinus in b. c. 210, who transported 4000 of them to Rhegium. (Liv. zxvL 40, xxvii. 12.) It very probably was deprived on this occasion of the municipal rights conceded to most of the Sicilian towns, which may account for our finding no notice of it in Cicero, though it is mentioned by Strabo among the few cities still subsisting on the N. coast of Sicily, as well as afterwards by Pliny, Ptolemy and the Itineraries. (Strab. vi. p. 266; Plin. iiL 8; PtoL iii. 4. § 2 ; Itin. Ant. p. 92 ; Tab. Pent) Its situation has been much disputed, on account of the great discrepancy between the authorities just dted. Strabo places it 30 Boman miles from Tyndaris, and the same distance from Alaesa. The Itinerary gives 28 M. P. firom Tyndaris and 20 from Calacte: while the Tabula (of which the numbers seem to be mors trustworthy for this part of Sicily than those (^ the Itineraiy) gives 29 from Tyndaris, and only 12 from Calacte. If this last measurement be supposed correct it would exactly coincide with the diistaDce from Caronia (Calacte) to a place near the sea- coast called ^c^tie Zhlci below ^S'. Fiiadelfo (called on recent niape S. Fratello) and about 2 miles W. of Sta Agataj where Fazello describes ruins of con- siderable magnitude as extant in his day: but which he, in common with Cluverius, regarded as the re«