BOOK V. IV. 26-29 



multitude of wild beasts, and further inland desolate 

 haunts of elephants, and then a vast desert, and 

 beyond it the Garamantes ° tribe, at a distance of 

 twelve days' journey from Aujelah, Beyond these 

 was formerly the Psylh tribe, and beyond them 

 Lake Lynxama, surrounded by desert. Aujelah 

 itself is situated almost in the middle, at an equal 

 distance on either side from the Ethiopia that 

 stretches westward and from the region lying between 

 the two Syrtes. But by the coast between the two 

 Syrtes it is 250 miles ; here are the independent 

 city of Oea, the river Cinyps and the district of that 

 name, the toAVTis of NeapoHs, Taphra, Habrotonum 

 and the second Leptis, called Great Leptis. Then 

 comes the Greater Syrtis, measuring 625 miles 

 round and 312 wide at the entrance, near which 

 dwells the race of the Cisippades. At the end of 

 this Gulf was once the Coast of the liOtus-oaters, 

 the people called by some the Machroae, extending 

 to the Altars of the Phihieni — these are formed of 

 heaps of sand. After these, not far from tho shore 

 of the mainland, there is a vast swamp into which 

 flows the river Tritonis, the name of which it bears ; 

 Callimachus calls it the Lake of Pallas.^ He places 

 it on the nearer side of the Lesser Syrtis, but many 

 writers put it between the two Syrtes. The promon- 

 tory shutting in the Greater Syrtis is called Cape 

 Trajuni ; beyond it is the province of Cyrene. 



Between the rivoi- Ampsaga and this boundary 

 Africa contains 516 peoples that accept allegiance 

 to Rome. These include six colonies, Uthina and 

 Thuburbi, in addition to those already mentioned ; §§ 22, 24. 

 15 towns with Roman citizenship, among which in 

 the interior must be mentioned those of Absurae, 



239 



