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Bagrada or Bagradas (ho Bagradas, gen.-a: Mejerdah), the chief river
of the Carthaginian territory (afterwards the Roman province of Africa), had its
source, according to Ptolemy (vi. 3. § § 1, 8), in the mountain called Mampsarus,
in Numidia, and flowed NE. into the Gulf of Carthage. Though one of the largest
rivers of N. Africa, after the Malva it was inconsiderable as compared with the
rivers of other countries. It is fordable in many places near its mouth. Shaw
compares it in size to the Isis after its junction with the Cherwell.
The main stream is formed by the union of two branches, the southern
of which, the ancient Bagradas, is now called Mellag (Meskianah, in its upper
course). This is joined by the other branch, the Hamiz (which flows from the W.),
NW. of Kaf, the ancient Sicca Veneria. The Hamiz, to which the ancients give no
specific name, has its sources near Tiffesh, the ancient Tipasa E. of Cirta (Constantineh).
The united stream flows to the NE., and falls into the sea, at present, just within
the W. extremity of the Gulf of Tunis, after passing immediately under the ruins
of Utica. Its ancient course, however, was somewhat different. It fell into the
sea between Utica and Carthage, but much nearer to the latter than it now does.
Flowing through the alluvial plain of western Zeugitana, it carried down in its
turbid waters a great quantity of soil, and the deposits thus formed have enlarged
its delta and altered the coast line. The quality and operation of the river are
noticed by the ancient poets. (Lucan iv.588 :
Bagrada lentus agit, siccae sulcator arenae.
Sil. Ital. vi. 140-143:
Turbidus arentes lento pede sulcat arenas Bagrada, non ullo Libycis in finibus
amne Victus limosas extendere latius undas, Et stagnate vado patulos involvere
campos.)
The alterations thus caused in the coast-line can be traced by aid
of statements in the ancient writers; to follow which, however, a few words are
necessary on the present state of the coast. The great Gulf of Tunis is divided
into three smaller gulfs by two promontories, which stand out from its E. and
W. sides. On the latter of these promontories stood Carthage, S. by E. of the
Apollinis Pr. (C. Farina), the western headland of the whole gulf. Between Carthage
and this headland lies a bay, the coast of which is formed by a low and marshy
plain, whose level is broken by an eminence, evidently the same on which the elder
Scipio Africanus established his camp when lie invaded Africa. This hill, though
now far inland, is described by Caesar (B.C. ii. 24) as jutting out into the sea;
and its projection formed a harbour. (Appian, Pun. 25; Liv. xxx. 10.) North of
the Castra Cornelia, at the distance of a mile in a straight line, but of six
miles by the road usually taken to avoid a marsh between the two places, lay Utica,
also on the seacoast; and on the S., between the Castra Cornelia and Carthage,
the Bagradas fell into a bay which washed the N. side of the peninsula of Carthage.
But now this bay is quite filled up; the river flows no longer between Carthage
and Scipio's camp, but to the N. of the latter, close under the ruins of Utica,
which, like the hill of the camp, are now left some miles inland: the great marsh
described by Caesar has become firm land, and similar marshes have been formed
in what was then deep water, but now an alluvial plain. (Strab. xvii. p. 832;
Caes. B.C. ii. 24, 26; Liv. xxx. 25; Appian, B.C. ii. 44, 45; Mela, i. 7; Plin.
v. 3. s. 4; Ptol. iv. 3. § 6, where the Greek numbers denoting the latitudes are
corrupted; Agathem. ii. 10, p. 236, Gronov., p. 49, Huds.; Shaw, Travels, &c.
pp. 146, foll., pp. 77, foll., 2d ed.; Barth, Wanderungen, &c., pp. 81, 109, 110,
199.) Respecting the enormous serpent killed by Regulus on the banks of the Bagradas,
see Gellius (vi. 3) and Florus (ii. 2. § 21, where, as also in iv. 2. § 70, the
old editions and some MSS. read Bragadam).
Polybius (i. 75) mentions the river under the name of Macaras (Makara,
gen.), which Gesenius considers to be its genuine Punic name, derived from Mokar
the Tyrian Hercules (Monumenta Phoenicia, p. 95). That the Phoenicians, like the
Greeks and Romans, assigned divine dignity to their rivers, is well known; but
it may be worth while to notice the proof furnished, in this specific case, by
the treaty of the Carthaginians with Philip, in which the rivers of the land are
invoked among the attesting deities (Polyb. vii. Fr. 3). Of the very familiar
corruption by which the m has passed into a b, the very passage referred to presents
an example, for we have. there the various reading Bakara (Suidas gives Boukaras).
The modern name Mejerdah furnishes one among many instances, in the geography
of N. Africa, in which the ancient Punic name, corrupted by the Greeks and Romans,
has been more or less closely restored in the kindred Arabic. The conjecture of
Reichard, that the river Pagida, or Pagidas, mentioned in the war with Tacfarinas,
is the Bagradas, seems to have no adequate proof to support it. (Tac. Ann. iii.
20; Reichard, Kleine Geogr. Schriften, p. 550.)
Ptolemy places another river of the same name in Libya Interior, having
its source in Mt. Usargala, nearly in the same longitude as the former river.
(Ptol. iv. 6. § 10.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Philaeni and Philaenorum Arar (Philainou or Philainon bomoi, Scyl. p. 47; Polyb. iii. 39. § 2, x. 40. § 7; Strab. iii. p. 171, xvii. p. 836; Ptol. iv. 3. § 14, iv. 4. § 3; Stadiasm. § 84; Pomp. Mela, i. 7. § 6; Plin. v. 4), the E. frontier of Carthage towards Cyrene, in the middle of the Greater Syrtis. About the middle of the fourth century B.C., according to a wild story which may be read in Sallust (B. J. 79; comp. Val. Max. v. 6. § 4), these monuments commemorated the patriotic sacrifice of the two Philaeni, Carthaginian envoys. These pillars, which no longer existed in the time of Strabo (p. 171), continued to give a name to the spot from which they had disappeared. The locality is assigned to Ras Linouf, a headland a little to the W. of Muktar, the modern frontier between Sort and Barka. The Peutinger Table has a station of this name 25 M. P. from Anabricis; and, at the same distance from the latter, the Antonine Itinerary has a station Benadad-Ari, probably a Punic name for Philenian Altars, as they were named by the Greeks of Cyrene. (Beechey, Expedition to the Coast of Africa, p, 218; Barth, Wanderungen, pp. 344, 366, 371.)
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
Nepheris, a natural fortress situated on a rock, 180 stadia from the town of Carthage. (Strab. xvii.)
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