Listed 24 sub titles with search on: Various locations for wider area of: "LIBYA Country NORTH AFRICA" .
APOLLONIA (Ancient city) KYRINAIKI
Naustathmus (Naustathmos), an anchorage on the coast of Cyrenaica,
100 stadia from Apollonia. (Scylax, p. 45; Stadiasm. § 56; Strab. xvii. p. 838;
Ptol iv. 4. § 5; Pomp. Mela, i. 8. § 2.) It is identified with El-Hilal, which
Beechey (Exped. to the N. Coast of Africa, p. 479) describes as a point forming
a bay in which large ships might find shelter. The remains which have been found
there indicate an ancient site. (Comp. Pacho, Voyage, p. 144; Barth, Wanderungen,
pp. 461, 495; Thrige, Res Cyrenens. p. 103.).
EVESPERIDES (Ancient city) KYRINAIKI
Lathon (Lathon, Strab. xvii. p. 836, where the vulgar reading is Ladon;
comp. xiv. p. 647, where he calls it Lethaios; Ptol. iv. 4. § 4; Lethon, Ptol.
Euerg. ap Ath. ii. p. 71; Fluvius Lethon, Plin. v. 5; Solin. 27; Lethes Amnis,
Lucan ix.355), a river of the Hesperidae or Hesperitae, in Cyrenaica. It rose
in the Herculis Arenae, and fell into the sea a little N. of the city of Hesperides
or Berenice: Strabo connects it with the harbour of the city (limen Hesperidon:
that there is not the slightest reason for altering the reading, as Groskurd and
others do, into limne, will presently appear); and Scylax (p. 110, Gronov.) mentions
the river, which he calls Ecceius (Ekkeios), as in close proximity with the city
and habour of Hesperides. Pliny expressly states that the river was not far from
the city, and places on or near it a sacred grove, which was supposed to represent
the Gardens of the Hesperides (Plin. v. 5: nec procul ante oppidum fluvius Lethon,
lucus sacer, ubi Hesperidum horti memorantur). Athenaeus quotes from a work of
Ptolemy Euergetes praises of its fine pike and eels, somewhat inconsistent, especially
in the mouth of a luxurious king of Egypt, with the mythical sound of the name.
That name is, in fact, plain Doric Greek, descriptive of the character of the
river, like our English Mole. So well does it deserve the name, that it escaped
the notice of commentators and geographers, till it was discovered by Beechey,
as it still flows concealed from such scholars as depend on vague guesses in place
of an accurate knowledge of the localities. Thus the laborious, but often most
inaccurate, compiler Forbiger, while taking on himself to correct Strabo's exact
account, tells us that the river and lake (Strabo's harbour) have now entirely
vanished ; and yet, a few lines down, he refers to a passage of Beechey's work
within a very few pages of the place where the river itself is actually described!
(Forbiger, Handbuch der alten Geographie, vol. ii. p. 828, note.)
The researches made in Beechey's expedition give the following results:
- East of the headland on which stands the ruins of Hesperides or Berenice (now
Bengazi) is a small lake, which communicates with the harbour of the city, and
has its water of course salt. The water of the lake varies greatly in quantity,
according to the season of the year; and is nearly dried up in summer. There are
strong grounds to believe that its waters were more abundant, and its communication
with the harbour more perfect, in ancient times than at present. On the margin
of the lake is a spot of rising ground, nearly insulated in winter, on which are
the remains of ancient buildings. East of this lake again, and only a few yards
from its margin, there gushes forth an abundant spring of fresh water, which empties
itfelf into the lake, running along a channel of inconsiderable breadth, bordered
with reeds and rushes, and might be mistaken by a common observer for an inroad
of the lake into the sandy soil which bounds it. Moreover, this is the only stream
which empties itself into the lake; and indeed the only one found on that part
of the coast of Cyrenaica. Now, even without searching further, it is evident
how well all this answers to the description of Strabo (xvii. p. 836) : - There
is a promontory called Pseudopenias, on which Berenice is situated, beside a certain
Lake of Tritonis (para limnen tina Tritoniada), in which there is generally (malista)
a little island, and a temple of Aphrodite upon it: but there is (or it is) also
the Harbour of Hesperides, and the river Lathon falls into it. It is now evident
how much the sense of the description would be impaired by reading limne for limen
in the last clause; and it matters but little whether Strabo speaks of the river
as falling into the harbour because it fell into the lake which communicated with
the harbour, or whether he means that the lake, which he calls that of Tritonis,
was actually the harbour (that is, an inner harbour) of the city. But the little
stream which falls into the lake is not the only representative of the river Lathon.
Further to the east, in one of the subterranean caves which abound in the neighbourhood
of Bengazi, Beechy found a large body of fresh water, losing itself in the bowels
of tile earth; and the Bey of Bengazi affirmed that he had tracked its subterraneous
course till he doubted the safety of proceeding further, and that he had found
it as much as 30 feet deep. That the stream thus lost in the earth is the same
which reappears in the spring on the margin of the lake, is extremely probable;
but whether it be so in fact, or not, we can hardly doubt that the ancient Greeks
would imagine the connection to exist. (Beechey, Proceedings, &c. pp. 326,
foll.; Barth, Wanderungen, &c. 387.)
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Augila (ta Augila: Eth. Augilitai, Steph. B.; Augilai, Ptol.; Augilae
or Augylae, Mela and Plin.: Aujelah), an oasis in the desert of Barca, in the
region of Cyrenaica, in N. Africa, about 3 1/2° S. of Cyrene. Herodotus mentions
it as one of the oases formed by salt hills (olonoi halos), which he places at
intervals of 10 days' journey along the ridge of sand which he supposes to form
the N. margin of the Great Desert. His distance of 10 days' W. of the oasis of
Ammon is confirmed by Hornemann, who made the journey with great speed in 9 days;
but the time usually taken by the caravans is 13 days. In the time of Herodotus
the oasis belonged to the Nasamones who then dwelt along the shore from Egypt
to the Great Syrtis; and who, in the summer time, left their flocks on the coast,
and migrated to Augila to gather the dates with which it abounded. (Herod. iv.
172. 182: in the latter passage some MSS. have Aigila.) It was not, however, uninhabited
at other seasons, for Herodotus expressly says, kai anthropoi peri auton oikeousi.
Mela and Pliny, in abridging the statement of Herodotus, have transferred to the
Augilae (by a carelessness which is evident on comparison) what he says of the
Nasamones. (Mela, i. 4, 8; Plin. v. 4, 8.) They place them next to the Garamantes,
at a distance of 12 days' journey. (Plin.) Ptolemy (iv. 5. § 30) mentions the
Augilae and the Nasamones together, in such a manner as to lead to the inference
that the Nasamones, when driven back from the coast by the Greek colonists, had
made the oasis of Augila their chief abode. Stephanus Byzantinus calls Augila
a city.
The oasis, which still retains its ancient name, forms one of the
chief stations on the caravan route from Cairo to Fezzan. It is placed by Rennell
in 30° 3' N. lat. and 22° 46' E. long., 180 miles SE. of Barca, 180 W.
by N. of Siwah (the Ammonium), and 426 E. by N. of Mourzouk. Later authorities
place Aujilah (the village) in 29° 15' N. lat. and 21° 55' E. long. It
consists of three oases, that of Aujilah, properly so called, and those of Jalloo
(Pacho: Mojabra, Hornemann) and Leshkerrehi, a little E. and NE. of the former,
containing several villages, the chief of which is called Aujilah, and supporting
a population of 9000 or 10,000. Each of these oases is a small hill (the kolonos
of Herodotus), covered with a forest of palm-trees, and rising out of an unbroken
plain of red sand, at the S. foot of the mountain range on the S. of Cyrenaica.
The sands around the oasis are impregnated with salts of soda. They are connected
with the N. coast by a series of smaller oases. Augila is still famous for the
palm-trees mentioned by Herodotus and by the Arabian geographer Abulfeda. An interesting
parallel to Herodotus's story of the gathering of the date harvest by the Nasamones
occurs in the case of a similar oasis further to the E., the dates of which are
gathered by the people of Derna on the coast.
According to Procopius (Aedif. vi. 1), there were temples in the oasis,
which Justinian converted into Christian churches. There are still some traces
of ruins to be seen.
(Rennell, Geography of Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 209, 212, 213, 271; Hornemann,
Journal of Travels from Cairo to Mourzouk; Heeren, Researches, &c., African Nations,
vol. i. p. 213; Pacho, Voyage dans la Marmarique, p. 272.)
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Automala (Automala, Strab. ii. p. 123; Automalax, Ptol. iv. 4. § 3; Automalaka, Steph. B., Eth. Automalakites and Automalakeus; Automalai, Diod. Sic. xx. 41), a border fortress of Cyrenaica, on the extreme W. frontier, at the very bottom of the Great Syrtis, E. of the Altars of the Philaeni; very probably the Anabucis of the Antonine Itinerary, 25 M. P. E. of Banadedari (the Arae Philaenorum, p. 65). Modern travellers have discovered no vestige of the place. It is mentioned by Diodorus, in connection with the difficult march of Ophellas, to support Agathocles in the Carthaginian territory; and in its neighbourhood was a cave, said to have been the abode of the child-murdering queen Lamia. (Diod. l. c.)
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(ta Ouelpa ore, Ptol. iv. 4. § 8), a range of mountains on the W. borders of Cyrenaica,
in which were the sources of the river Lathon.
Giglius (to Giglion oros, vulgo GigioW), a mountain in the interior
of Cyrenaica. (Ptol. iv. 3. § 20.)
LIBYA (Country) NORTH AFRICA
Tritonian Lake in Libya.
(Kinups). The modern Wad-Khakan or Kinifo; a small river on the northern coast of Africa, between the Syrtes, and forming the eastern boundary of the proper territory of the African Tripolis. The district about it was called by the same name, and was famous for its fine-haired goats. The Roman poets use the adjective Cinyphius in the general sense of Libycus or Africus.
Cinyps: Perseus Encyclopedia
a date-growing place in Libya, on the caravan route from Egypt to the west
Mandrus Mons (to Madron, e Mandrou oros), one of the chief mountains of Libya, from whence flow all the streams from Salathus to Massa; the middle of the mountain has a position of 14° E. long. and 19° N. lat., assigned to it by Ptolemy (iv. 6. § 8). Afterwards (§ 14) he describes the river Nigeir as uniting, or yoking together (epizeugnuon), Mount Mandrus with Mount Thala. (Comp. London Geogr. Journ. vol. ii. p. 19; Donkin, Dissertation on the Niger, p. 81.) Ptolemy (§ 17) places the following tribes in the neighbourhood of this mountain: the Rabii (Pabioi), the Malcoae(Malkoai), and the Mandori (Mandoroi).
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Massitholus (Massitholos), a river of Libya, the source of which Ptolemy (iv. 6. § 8), places in the mountain called Theon Ochema, and its embouchure (§ 9) in the Hesperian bay, between Hesperium Ceras and the Hypodromus of Aethiopia, in E. long. 14° 30‘, N. lat. 6° 20‘. It has been identified with the Gambia, which can be no other than the ancient Stachir or Trachir; one of the rivers which flow into the Atlantic, between the Kamaranca and the Mesurado, is the probable representative of the Massitholus.
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Nigeir or Nigir (Nigeir, Ptol. iv. 6. § 14; Nigir, Agathem. ii. 10;
Niger, gen. Nigris, Plin. v. 4, 8, viii. 32), a great river of interior Libya,
flowing from W. to E. It has long been a moot point among geographers whether
the Nigeir of the ancients should be identified with the river now known as the
Djoliba or Quorra, which, after taking its course through the vast plains or lowlands
of Central Africa, turns southwards towards the Bight of Benin, where it enters
the sea. For instance, Gosselin (Geographie des Anciens, vol. i. pp. 125-135)
came to the conclusion that the ancients possessed no knowledge of NW. Africa
to the S. of the river Nun. Walckenaer (Recherches Geographiques sur l'Interieur
de l'Afrique Septentrionale, Paris, 1821) also, who has carefully discussed this
point, sums up the result of his inquiries by asserting that none of Ptolemy's
rivers can be the same as the Djoliba or any other stream of the Biledu-l-Sudan,
as that region was quite unknown to antiquity, and was, in reality, discovered
by the Arabs. Following in the same track, Mr. Cooley (Claudius Ptolemy and the
Nile, London, 1854) regards the Nigeir as a hypothetical river, representing collectively
the waters of the Biledu-l-Jerid. On the other hand, Colonel Leake (Journ. Geog.
Soc. vol. ii. pp. 1-28), whose views are adopted in the present article, considers
that Ptolemy's information on the Djoliba or Quorra, although extremely imperfect,
was real. There seems, indeed, to be reason for believing that its discovery may
be placed at a much earlier period, and that its banks were reached by the young
Nasamones. Ptolemy's statements (l. c.) are annexed, from which it will be seen
that the arguments in favour of the identity of his Nigeir with the Quorra are
very strong. He believed that the earth was spherical; he divided the great circle
into 360°; of these degrees he placed the same number in the breadth of N. Africa,
that modern observations confirm; in the length of the same country he erred only
one-tenth in excess. While in the interior, proceeding from a point of the W.
coast, where his positions approximate to modern geography, he placed a great
river, flowing from W. to E., exactly in the latitude where the Quorra flows in
that direction.1
In considering the exact meaning of this passage, it should be remembered
that the word ektrope, translated divergent, simply indicates the point of junction
of two streams, without any reference to the course of their waters. At present,
our acquaintance with the Quorra is too limited to identify any of its divergents;
and even were there data, by which to institute a comparison, the imperfection
of Ptolemy's information will probably leave these particulars in obscurity. After
having stated that the Geir and Nigeir are the two principal rivers of the interior,
he describes the one, as yoking together (epizeugnuon the Garamantic Pharanx with
Mt. Usargala; and the latter, as uniting in the same way Mt. Mandrus with Mt.
Thala. It is plain that he considers them to be rivers beginning and ending in
the interior, without any connection with the sea. If two opposite branches of
a river, rising in two very distant mountains, flow to a common receptacle, the
whole may be described as joining the two mountains. Of the general direction
of the current of the Nigeir there can be no doubt, as the latitudes and longitudes
of the towns on its banks (§§ 24-28) prove a general bearing of E. and W.; and
from its not being named among the rivers of the W. coast (§ 7), it must have
been supposed to flow from W. to E. The lake Libye, to which there was an E. divergent,
though its position falls 300 geog. miles to the NW. of Lake Tschad, may be presumed
to represent this, the principal lake of the interior; it was natural that Ptolemy,
like many of the moderns, should have been misinformed as to its position, and
communication of the river with the lake. It is now, indeed, known that the river
does not communicate with Lake Tschad, and that it is not a river of the interior
in Ptolemy's sense; that its sources are in a very different latitude from that
which he has given; and its course varies considerably from the enormous extent
of direction to the E., which results from his position of the towns on its banks.
But recent investigations have shown that the difference of longitude between
his source of the river and the W. coast is the same as that given by modern observations,--that
Thamondacana (Thamondakana, § 28), one of his towns on the Nigeir, coincides with
Timbuktu, as laid down by M. Jomard from Caillie, - that the length of the course
of the river is nearly equal to that of the Querra, as far as the mountain of
Kong, with the addition of the Shadda or Shary of Funda, - while Mt. Thala is
very near that in which it may be supposed that the Shadda has its origin. In
the imperfect state of our information upon the countries between Bornu and Darfur,
it would be hazardous to identify the lakes Chelonides and Nuba. In comparing
Ptolemy's description of the central country between the Nile and Nigeir, there
are reasons for concluding that he had acquired an obscure knowledge of it, similar
to that which had reached Europe before the discoveries of Denham, Clapperton,
and Lander. The other great river, the Geir or Gir (Teir, § 13), is the same as
the river called Misselad by Browne, and Om Teymain, in Arabic, by Burckhardt;
while the indigenous name Djyr recalls that of Ptolemy, and which takes a general
course from SE. to NW. Burckhardt adds, that this country produces ebony, which
agrees with what is stated by Claudian (Idyll. in Nilum, 19), who, as an African,
ought to be an authority, though, like an African, he confounds all the rivers
of his country with the Nile; but, in another passage (I. Consul. Stilich. i.
252), he represents the Gir as a separate river, rivalling the Nile in size. Claudian
could not have intended by this river, the Ger of Pliny (v. 1), at the foot of
Mt. Atlas, and a desert of black sand and burnt rocks (Nun?), at which Paullinus
arrived in a few days' journey from the maritime part of Mauretania; though it
is probable that he may have intended, not the Geir of Ptolemy, but the Nigeir.
The termination Ger was probably a generic word, applied to all rivers and waters
in N. Africa, as well as the prefix Ni; both were probably derived from the Semitic,
and came through the Phoenicians to the Greeks. By a not unnatural error, the
word became connected with the epithet Niger, and thus the name Nigritae or Nigretes
was synonymous with Sudan (the Blacks); the real etymology of the name tends to
explain the common belief of the Africans, that all the waters of their country
flow to the Nile. It is from this notion of the identity of all the waters of
N. Africa that Pliny received the absurd account of the Nile and Niger, from the
second Juba of Numidia. He reported that the Nile had its origin in a mountain
of Lower Mauretania, not far from the Ocean, in a stagnant lake called Nilis;
that it flowed from thence through sandy deserts, in which it was concealed for
several days; that it reappeared in a great lake in Mauretania Caesariensis; that
it was again hidden for twenty days in deserts; and that it rose again in the
sources of the Nigris, which river, after having separated Africa from Aethiopia,
and then flowed through the middle of Aethiopia, at length became the branch of
the Nile called Astapus. The same fable, though without the Nigeir being mentioned,
is alluded to by Strabo (xvii p. 826; comp. Vitruv. viii. 2. § 16); while Mela
(iii. 9. § 8) adds that the river at its source was also called Dara, so that
the river which now bears the name El-Dhara would seem to be the stream which
was the reputed commencement of the Nile. The Niger of Pliny was obviously a different
river, both in its nature and position, from the Ger of the same author. It was
situated to the S. of the great desert on the line separating Africa from Aethiopia;
and its magnitude and productions, such as the hippopotamus and crocodile, cannot
be made to correspond to any of the small rivers of the Atlas. Neither do these
swell at the same season as the Nile, being fed, not by tropical rain, falling
in greatest quantity near the summer solstice, but by the waters of the maritime
ridges, which are most abundant in winter. The Niger is not mentioned by the Geographer
of Ravenna, nor the Arabs, until the work of Joannes Leo Africanus - a Spanish
Moor - which was written at Rome, and published in Latin, A.D. 1556. Though his
work is most valuable, in being the only account extant of the foundation of the
Negro empires of Sudan, yet he is in error upon this point, as though he had sailed
on the river near Timbuktu; he declares that the stream does not flow to the E.,
as it is known to do, but to the W. to Genia or Jenne. This mistake led Europeans
to look for its estuary in the Senegal, Gambia, and Rio Grande. The true course
of the river, which has now been traced to its mouth, confirms the statements
of the ancients as to the great river which they uniformly describe as flowing
from W. to E.
1 In the interior of Libya, says Ptolemy, the two greatest rivers
are the Geir and the Nigeir.
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Nuius (Nouiou ekbolai, Ptol. iv. 6. § 6; in the Latin translation, Nunii ostia ), a river of Interior Libya, which discharged itself into the sea to the S. of Mauretania Tingitana. It has been identified with that which is called in the Ship-journal of Hanno, Lixus (Lixos, Geog. Graec. Min., p. 5, ed. Muller), and by Scylax of Caryanda (if the present text be correct), Xion (Xion, p. 53), and by Polybius (ap. Plin. v. 1), Cosenus. The Lybian river must not be confounded with the Mauretanian river, and town of the same name, mentioned by Scylax (I. c.; comp. Artemidorus, ap. Strab. xvii. p. 829; Steph. B. s. v. Linx; Liza,, Hecat. Fr. 328; Lix, Ptol. iv. 1. § § 2, 13; Pomp. Mela, iii. 10. § 6; Plin. v. 1), and which is now represented by the river called by the Arabs Wady-el-Khos, falling into the sea at El-‘Arisch, where Barth (Wanderungen, pp. 23-25) found ruins of the ancient Lixus. The Lixus of Hanno, or Nuius of Ptolemy, is the Quad-Dra (Wady-Dra), which the S. declivity of the Atlas of Marocco sends to the Sahara in lat. 32°: a river for the greater part of the year nearly dry, and which Renou (Explor. de l'Alg. Hist. et Geogr. vol. viii. pp. 65-78) considers to be a. sixth longer than the Rhine. It flows at first from N. to S., until, in N. lat. 29° and W. long. 5°, it turns almost at right angles to its former course, runs to the W., and after passing through the great fresh-water lake of Debaid, enters the sea at Cape Nun. The name of this cape, so celebrated in the Portuguese discoveries of the 15th century, appears to have a much older origin than has been supposed, and goes back to the time of Ptolemy. Edrisi speaks of a town, Nul or Wadi Nun, somewhat more to the S., and three days' journey in the interior: Leo Africanus calls it Belad de Non. (Humboldt, Aspects of Nature, vol. i. pp. 118-120, trans.)
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Ryssadium (Rhussadion oros, Ptol. iv. 6. § 8), a mountain of Interior Libya, from which flows the Stacheir (Gambia), making near it the lake Clonia; the middle of the mountain (or lake?) 17° E. long., 11° N. lat. (Ptol. l. c.) This mountain terminated in the headland also called Ryssadium (Rhussadion akron), the position of which is fixed by Ptolemy (iv. 6. § 6) at 8° 30? E. long., and 11° 30? N. lat. We assume, with Rennell and Leake, that Arsinarium is C. Verde, a conjecture which can be made with more confidence because it is found that Ptolemy's difference of longitude between Arsinarium and Carthage is very nearly correct, -according to that assumption this promontory must be looked for to the N. of the mouth of the Gambia. The mountain and lake must be assigned to that elevated region in which the Senegal and the Gambia take their rise, forming an appendage to the central highlands of Africa from which it projects northwards, like a vast promontory, into the Great Sahara.
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Usargala (Ousargala, Ptol. iv. 6. § 7, &c.), a very extensive mountain chain in
the country of the Garamantae on the N. border of Libya Interior, and S. of Numidia
and Mauretania, stretching in a NW. direction as far as Atlas. It is in this mountain
that the river Bagradas has its source.
SYRTIKE (Ancient area) LIBYA
Triton (ho Triton potamos, Ptol. iv. 3. § 19, &c.), a river of Libya,
forming, according to Ptolemy, the boundary of the Regio Syrtica towards the W.
It rose in Mount Vasalaetus, and, flowing in a northerly direction, passed through
three lakes, the Libya Palus, the lake Pallas, and the lake Tritonitis (he Tritonitis
limne, Ib.); after which it fell into the sea in the innermost part of the Syrtis
Minor between Macmada and Tacape, but nearer to the latter.
The lake Tritonitis of Ptolemy is called, however, by other writers Tritonis
(he Tritonis limne, Herod. iv. 179). Herodotus seems to confound it with the Lesser
Syrtis itself; but Scylax (p. 49), who gives it a circumference of 1000 stadia,
describes it as connected with the Syrtis by a narrow opening, and as surrounding
a small island,--that called by Herodotus (Ib. 178) Phla (Phlha), which is also
mentioned by Strabo (xvii. p. 836), as containing a temple of Aphrodite, and by
Dionysius. (Perieg. 267.) This lake Tritonis is undoubtedly the. present Schibkah-el-Lovdjah,
of which, according to Shaw (Travels, i. p. 237), the other two lakes are merely
parts; whilst the river Triton is the present El-Hammah. This river, indeed, is
no longer connected with the lake (Shaw, Ib.); a circumstance, however, which
affords no essential ground for doubting the identity of the two streams; since
in those regions even larger rivers are sometimes compelled by the quicksands
to alter their course. (Cf. Ritter, Erdkunde, i. p. 1017). Scylax (l. c.) mentions
also.another island called Tritonos (Tritonos) in the Syrtis Minor, which last
itself is, according to him, only part of a large Sinus Tritonites (Tritonites
kolpos).
Some writers confound the lake Tritonis with the lake of the Hesperides,
and seek it in other districts of Libya; sometimes in Mauretania, in the neighbourhood
of Mount Atlas and the Atlantic Ocean, sometimes in Cyrenaica near Berenice and
the river Lathon or Lethon. The latter hypothesis is adopted by Lucan (ix. 346,
seq.), the former by Diodorus Siculus (iii. 53), who also attributes to it an
island inhabited by the Amazons.. But Strabo (l. c.) especially distinguishes
the lake of the Hesperides from the lake Tritonis.
With this lake is connected the question of the epithet Tritogeneia, applied
to Pallas as early as the days of Homer and Hesiod. But though the Libyan river
and lake were much renowned in ancient times (cf. Aeschyl. Eum. 293; Eurip. Ion,
872, seq.; Pind. Pyth. iv.. 36, &c.), and the application of the name of Pallas
to the lake connected with the Tritonis seems to point to these African waters
as having given origin to the epithet, it is nevertheless most probable that the
brook Triton near Alalcomenae in Boeotia has the best pretensions to that distinction.
(Cf. Pausan. ix. 33. § 5; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 109,. iv. 1315; Muller,
Orchomenos, p. 355; Leake, Northern Greece vol. ii. p. 136, seq.; Kruse, Hellas,
vol. ii. pt. 1 p. 475.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KYRINAIKI (Ancient country) LIBYA
Boreum, Borion (Boreion akron), (Ras Teyonas), a promontory on the
W. coast of Cyrenaica, forming the E. headland of the Greater Syrtis, and the
W. boundary of the Cyrenaic Pentapolis, being a little SW. of Hesperides or Berenice.
(Strab. xvii. p. 836; Plin. v. 4.; Ptol. iv. 4. § 3; Stadiasm. p. 447, where the
error of 700 for 70 is obvious; Barth, Wanderungen, &c. p. 365). Adjacent to the
promontory was a small port; but there was a much more considerable sea-port town
of the same name, further S., which was inhabited by a great number of Jews, who
are said to have ascribed their temple in this place to Solomon. Justinian converted
the temple into a Christian church, compelled the Jews to embrace Christianity,
and fortified the place, as an important post against the attacks of the barbarians
(Itin. Ant. p. 66; Tab. Peut.; Stadiasm. l. c.; Procop. Aedif. vi. 2). The exact
position of this southern Boreum is difficult to determine. (Barth, l. c. Syrtes.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Trierum (Trieron or Trieron akron, Ptol. iv. 3. § 13), a headland of the Regio
Syrtica in Africa, Propria. Ritter (Erdk. i. p. 928) identifies it with the promontory
of Cephalae mentioned by Strabo p. 836), the present Cape Cefalo or Mesurata.
Ptolemy indeed mentions this as a separate and adjoining promontory; but as Cefalo
still exhibits three points, it is possible that the ancient names may be connected,
and refer only to this one cape. (See Blaquiere, Letters from the Mediterranean,
i. p. 18; Della Cella, Viaggio, p. 61.)
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