Chap. 6.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 401 



an inscription stating that this was the place where precious 

 stones were produced. 



Up to the present time it has been found impracticable 

 to keep open the road that leads to the country of the 

 Garamantes, as the predatory bands of that nation have filled 

 up the wells with sand, which do not require to be dug for 

 to any great depth, if you only have a knowledge of the 

 locality. In the late war^ however, which, at the beginning 

 of the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, the Romans carried 

 on with the people of (Ea, a snort cut of only four days' 

 journey was discovered ; this road is known as the " Prseter 

 Caput Saxi'*." The last place in the territory of Cyrenaica 

 is Catabathmos, consisting of a town, and a valley with a 

 sudden and steep descent. The length of Cyrenean Africa, 

 up to this boundary from the Lesser Syrtis, is 1060 miles ; 

 and, so far as has been ascertained, it is 800' in breadth. 



CHAP. 6. (6.) — LIBYA MAEEOTIS. 



The region that follows is called Libya Mareotis^, and 

 borders upon Egypt. It is held by the Marmaridae, the 

 Adyrmachidae, and, after them, the Mareotae. The di- 

 stance from Catabathmos to Paraetonium is eighty-six 



travellers Denhain, Clapperton, and Oudney, where, confirming the 

 statement here made by Pliny, they found quartz, jasper, onyx, agates, 

 and cornelians. 



• Mentioned by Tacitus, B. iv. c. 50. The town of (Ea haa been 

 alluded to by Pliny in C. 4. 



2 "Past the head of the rock." Marcus suggests that this is the 

 Gibel-Gelat or Rock of Gelat spoken of by the English traveDers Den- 

 ham, Clapperton, and Oudney, forming a portion of the chain of Guriano 

 or Gyr. He says, that at the foot of this mountain travellers have to 

 pass from Old and New Tripoli on their road to Missolat, the Maxala of 

 Pliny, and thence to Gerama or Gherma, the ancient capital of Fezzan. 



3 As Marcus observes, this would not make it to extend so far south 

 as the sixteenth degree of north latitude. 



* The Mareotis of the time of the Ptolemies extended from Alexandria 

 to the Gulf of Plinthinethes ; and Libya was |)roperly that portion of 

 territory which extended from that Grdf to Catabathmos. PHny is in 

 error here in confounding the two appellations, or rather, blending them 

 into one. It includes the eastern portion of the modem Barca, and the 

 western division of Lower Egypt. It most probably received its name 

 from the Lake Mareotis, and not the lake from it. 



TOL. I. '21) 



