Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/437

 Chap. 8.] ACCOUNT OF COTJNTEIES, ETC. 403 city of the same name. It is twenty-five miles long, and half that breadth at the place where it is the widest, but not more than five miles across at the extremity : the di- minutive island of Cercinitis which looks towards Car- thage, is united to it by a bridge. At a distance of nearly fifty miles from these is the island of Lopadusa'^, six miles in length ; and beyond it Graulos and Galata, the soil of which kills the scorpion, that noxious reptile of Africa. It is also said that the scorpion ^vill not live at Glypea ; opposite to which place lies the island of Cosyra^, with a town of the same name. Opposite to the Grulf of Carthage are the two islands known as the ^gimuri''; the Altars^ which are rather rocks than islands, lie more between Sicily and Sar- dinia. There are some authors who state that these rocks were once inhabited, but that they have gradually subsided in the sea. CHAP. 8. (8.) — COTJNTEIES ON THE OTHEE SIDE OE AFEICA. If we pass through the interior of Africa in a southerly direction, beyond the Grsetuli, after having traversed the intervening deserts, we shall find, first of all the Liby- Egyptians^, and then the country where the Leucsethio- ^ Now Gherba. It was reckoned as a mere appendage to Cercina, to which it was joined by a mole, and which is found often mentioned in history. 2 Still called Lampedusa, off the coast of Tunis. This island, with Gaulos and Galata, has been already mentioned among the islands off Sicily ; see B. iii. c. 14. 3 Now Pantellaria. See B. iii. c. 14. • or Zembra. ^ In the former editions the word "Arse" is taken to refer to the jEgimuri, as meaning the same islands. SiUig is however of opinion that totally distinct groups are meant, and punctuates accordingly. The " Arse " were probably mere rocks lying out at sea, which received their name from their fancied resemblance to altars. They are mentioned by Virgil in the jEneid,B. i. 1. 113, upon which hncs Servius says, that they were so called because there tlie Romans and the people of Africa on one occasion made a treaty. ^ The greater portion of this Chapter is extracted almost verbatim from the account given by Mela. Ptolemy seems to place the Liby- Egyptians to the south of the Greater and Lesser Oasis, on the route thence to Darfour.
 * A lofty island surrounded by dangerous cliffs, now called Zbwamour