BOOK V. III. 24-iv. 26 



famous as the scene of the death of Cato. Then 

 there is the river Merjerdah, the place called the 

 Camp of CorneUus," the colony of Carthage on the CariUage. 

 site of Great Carthagc,^ the colony of Maxula, the 

 towns of Carpi. Misua and Clypea, the last a free 

 town on Cape Mercury, where are also the free 

 towns Kurbah and Nabal. 



Thcn comes another section of Africa proper. 

 The inhabitants of Byzacium are called Libyphoeni- 

 cians, Byzacium being the name given to a region 

 measuring 250 miles round, a district of exceptional 

 fertiHty, the soil paying the farmers interest at 

 the rate of a hundredfold. Here are the free towns 

 of Lempta, Sousa, Monastir, Demas, and then 

 Taineh, Aves, ^Lahometa, Cabes and Sabart on the 

 edge of the Lesser Syrtis ; from the Ampsaga to 

 this point the length of Numidia and Africa is 580 

 miles and the breadth so far as ascertained 200 miles. 

 The part that we have called Africa is divided into 

 two provinces, the Old and the New ; the division 

 between these, as agreed between the younger 

 Scipio '^ and the Kings,<* is a dyke running right 

 tlirough to the to^™ of Tainch, which is 216 miles 

 from Carthage. 



IV. The third gulf is divided into two bays, which TheGnifof 

 are rendered formidable by the shallow tidal waters theauifof 

 of the two Syrtes. The distance between the nearest '^'^''™- 

 Syrtis, which is the smaller of the two, and Carthage 

 is said by Polybius to be 300 miles ; and he gives 

 its width across as 100 miles and its circuit as 300 

 miles. There is however also a way to it by land, 

 that can be found by observation of the stars, 

 across a desert abandoned to the sand and swarm- 

 ing with serpents. Next come forests filled with a 



237 



