376 pLurr's katueal histoet. [Book V. 



with a serpentine channel, and, from the nature of the 

 locality, this is interpreted at the present day as having been 

 what was really represented by the story of the dragon 

 keeping guard there. This tract of water surrounds an 

 island, the only spot which is never overflowed by the tides 

 of the sea, although not quite so elevated as the rest of the 

 land in its vicinity. Upon this island, also, there is still in 

 existence the altar of Hercules ; but of the grove that bore 

 the golden fruit, there are no traces left, beyond some wild 

 olive-trees. People will certainly be the less surprised at 

 the marvellous falsehoods of the Greeks, which have been 

 related about this place and the river Lixos\ when they re- 

 flect that some of our own' countrymen as well, and that 

 too very recently, have related stories in reference to them 

 hardly less monstrous ; how that this city is remarkable for 

 its power and extensive influence, and how that it is even 

 greater than Great Carthage ever was ; how, too, that it is 

 situate just opposite to Carthage, and at an almost im- 

 measurable distance from Tingi, together with other details 

 of a simikr nature, aU of which Cornelius Nepos has believed 

 with the most insatiate credulity*. 



In the interior, at a distance of forty miles from Lixos, is 

 Babba'', sumamed Julia Campestris, another colony of Augus- 

 tus ; and, at a distance of seventy-five, a third, called Banasa*, 



' Now the Lucos. 



2 Hardouin is of opinion, that he here has a hit at Gabinius, a Roman 

 author, who, in liis Annals of Mauritania, as we learn from Strabo 

 (B. xvii.), inserted numerous marvellous and incredible stories. 



^ When we find Pliny accusing other writers of credulity, we are 

 strongly reminded of the proverb, ' Clodius accusat moechos.' 



* Or the " Julian Colony on the Plains." Marcus suggests that the 

 word Bahha may possibly have been derived from the Hebrew or Phoe- 

 nician word heah or beaba, " situate in a thick forest." Poinsinet takes 

 Babba to be the Beni-Tuedi of modem times. D'Anville thinks that it 

 is Naranja. 



* There is considerable difficulty about the site of Banasa. Moletiua 

 thinks that it is the modem Fanfara, or Pefenfia as Marmol calls it. 

 D'Anville suggests that it may be Old Mahmora, on the coast ; but, on 

 the other hand, Ptolemy places it among the inland cities, assigning to 

 it a longitude at some distance from the sea. PUny also apj^ears to 

 make it inland, and makes its distance from Lixos seventy-five miles, 

 while he makes the mouth of the Subur to be fifty miles from the 

 same place. 



