374 



BOOK y. 



AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, 

 HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEO- 

 PLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED. 



CHAP. 1.— THE TWO MAUEITANIAS. 



The Greeks liave given the name of Libya' to Africa, and 

 have called the sea that lies in front of it the Libyan Sea. 

 It has Egypt for its boundary, and no part of the earth is 

 there that has fewer gulfs or inlets, its shores extending in a 

 lengthened line from the west in an oblique direction. The 

 names of its peoples, and its cities in especial, cannot pos- 

 sibly be pronounced with correctness, except by the aid of 

 their own native tongues. Its population, too, for the most 

 part dwells only in fortresses^. 



(1.) On our entrance into Africa, we find the two Mauri- 

 tanias, which, until the time of Caius Caesar^, the son 

 of Germanicus, were kingdoms; but, suffering under his 

 cruelty, they were divided into two provinces. The extreme 

 promontory of Africa, which projects into the ocean, is called 

 Ampelusia^ by the Greeks. There were formerly two tovms, 

 Lissa and Cotte", beyond the Pillars of Hercules ; but, at 

 the present day, we only find that of Tingi*, which was for- 



^ Not reckoning under that appellation the country of Egypt, which 

 was more generally looked upon as forming part of Asia. Josephus in- 

 forms us that Africa received its name from Ophir, great-grandson of 

 Abraham and his second wife, Ketiutih. 



2 ' Castella,' fortified places, erected for the purpose of defence j not 

 towns formed for the reception of social communities. 



3 The Emperor Cahgida, who, in the year 41 a.d., reduced the two 

 Mauritanias to Roman provinces, and had King Ptolemy, the son of 

 Juba, put to death. 



^ Now Cape Spartel. By Scylax it is called Hermseum, and by 

 Ptolemy and Strabo Cote, or Coteis. PHny means " extreme," with re- 

 ference to the sea-line of the Mediterranean, in a direction due west. 



* Mentioned again by Pliny in B. xxxii. c. 6. Lissa was so called, 

 according to Bochart, from the Hebrew or Phoenician word lisSy *a 

 lion.' At the present day there is in this vicinity a headland called the 

 ' Cape of the Lion.' Bochart tliinks that the name ' Cotta,' or * Cotte,' 

 was derived from the Hebrew quothef^ a * vine- dresser.' 



• The modem Tangier occupies its site. It was said to have derived 



