A 1" R 



ATllA, in GiO^'i/ipf.-y, a ftrong callle on the frontier'* 

 of Oiiai-aiil Africa, built by Chciif Mahoiuincd, kinjj oi 

 ijur, X. lat. :o" 20'. E. long. 2}^ to'^ 



A IRA, ill F.iiiomo/ozy, a fpccios of Papilio, with 

 bnnva wings, lix ocelli, and the hinder wings marked 

 with cinereous veins; found in the fouthcrn dcferts of 

 Rull'ia. 



A.VR ANIUS, I., in Bi\i;rapky, a Latin comic poet, who 

 flourillud about the year U. C. 65+, or a century beforeChriit. 

 Cicero (de CUar. Orat. npud Oper. t. i. p. 434, Ed. Olivet.) 

 f.ivs, tiiat he imitated C. Titius, and con-miends him for 

 the acntencfs of his ge^iius and the fluency of his llyle. Ho- 

 race (Epid. 1. ii. ep. I. V. y;) reprefeuls him as rcfenibling 

 Menandcr. Qiiim-tiliaii, (1. x. c. I. t. ii. p. gi.?) v.hillt 

 he c>.lebrate3 his talents for comedy, exprcffes a wifli that he 

 had nut fullied his performances by impure and unnatural 

 love-adventures, which were declaratory of his own manners. 

 Suetonius in his life of Nero, (apud Opcr. t. ii. p. 743. Ed. 

 Pitifc.) mentions a comedy of Afranius, intitled //jfraf/Zam 

 or Conffagration, on the exhibitions of which the houfe that 

 was burned was devoted to be pillaged by the actors. Some 

 .fragments of this poet's vvarks are preferved in Mattaire's 

 Corpus Poetarum, Loud. 1713, fol. 



AFRICA, in Geography and H\j}ory, was anciently one 

 of the three parts of the known world, which was divided 

 into Europe, Aha, and Africa, and called by the Greeks 

 i:T.'if'i, conthiaits ; and is now one of the four quarters of the 

 globe. Bochart (Geog. Sac. apud op. tom. i. col. 48S.) 

 after enmnerating feveral etymologies of the name Africa, 

 which he difapproves, deduces it from a Punic word fcric, 

 fignifying an ear of corn, and referring to the fertility of 

 this country. Dr. Hyde fuppofes it to be derived from the 

 Phienician or Pvmic Havarca, or Avreca ; i. e. the Barca, 

 or country of Barca, which was one of the molt remarkable 

 parts of this continent. Servius in Virgil (^En. v. v. 128. 

 tom. ii. p. 618. Ed. Burm.) deduces it from avsu ^^doij, 

 Jim frigore, and the appellation expreffes tlie heat of the 

 chmate. Africa, called by the ancients Libyi'., was divided 

 by them into Africa propria, and Africa interior. Africa 

 propria, or the territory of Carthage, has had various li- 

 mits affigned to it by the ancient geographers. Mela (1. i. 

 ■c. 7.) and Ptokmy (1. iv. c. 3.) comprehend under this 

 appellation all the countries fituated between the river 

 Ampfaga and the borders of Cyrenaica, which, according 

 to Pliny (H. N. 1. V. c. 4.) were inhabited by twenty-fix 

 different nations ; and thus they would include Numidia 

 and the Regio Syrtica, which are countries dillinft from 

 the proper territory of Carthage. Its true limits feem to 

 have been (See Cellar. Ant. Geog. tom. ii. p. 85.) the river 

 Tulca, or boundary of Numidia, on the well ; the Medi- 

 terranean, or African Sea on the north ; the frontiers of the 

 Garamantes and dcferts of Libya interior on the fouth ; 

 and the Mediterranean, with the Leifer Syrtis, on the call. 

 It comprehended two provinces, t/'z. the Reglo Zeugi- 

 TANA and Byzacium, with which the kingdom of Tunis, 

 as it is divided by Dr. Shaw (Travels, p. 73.) into the 

 fummcr and winter circuits, nearly corrcfponds. The chief 

 likes of this region, noticed by the ancientSj are Hipponttii, 

 the Paliis Sifara, the Palus Tritonis, the Palus Pallas, and 

 the Palus Libya: the moft famous river was the Baqrada; 

 and the principal illands on the coaft. of Africa propria were 

 the Cossyra, thcTARicHiff, Lopadusa, Agvs&, the 

 Larunesi/e, Dracomtia, Galata, and JEgimurus. 



Africa was firft peopled, principally by Ham and his de- 

 fcendants. Mizraim peopled Egypt. (See Gen. x. 6. 13.) 

 The Pathnifim, the Naphtalim, the Cafluhim, and the Ludim 

 took poffcffion of other parts : though their refpedive fitua- 



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lions are not precifcly known. Some have fuppofjd that 

 the Lehabim fettled in Libya, and Pluit betwcea Numidia 

 and Libya, along the Mediterranean, and that many of ' 



the Canaanites, when they were driven out of th^ir country 

 bv Jolhua, retired into Africa. At a later period, tl:e in- 

 habitants of this connti-y were the Aules, whofe chief city 

 was AuzA, the Maxyes and Machlyes both Libyan na- 

 tions, the Zaueces, and the Zygantes, who cultivated bees, 

 and made honey. All thele were, probably, a mixture of 

 old Libyans and Phanicians, and in feveral refpeds refem- 

 bled both thefe nations. 



Africa interior comprehended thofe remoter and more 

 fouthern countries of Africa, luoll of which were little 

 known to the Greeks and Romans otliei-wife than by un- 

 certain and fabulous report. The wcftern part of this di- 

 vifion was called Libya interior, and it was chiefly inhabited 

 by the Gitiuli, Garamantes, Nigrit^, and Hefperian JEthiop>i- 

 ans. The eaftern part was denominated by Ptolemy JEthi- 

 opia fub JF.gypto. See Abyssinia, Egypt, and Ethi- 

 opia. The Romans do not feem to have extended their 

 conquefls and intercourfe beyond the tropic of Cancer> 

 The kingdoms with which they were more immtdiately 

 connefted were Numidia, Mauritania, and Gxtulia. As 

 for the inhabitants of the more retired and foutherly parts, 

 they were ignorant even of their names, and much more of 

 their charader and manners. Some account will be given 

 of the notions that prevailed refpeding them in their pro- 

 per places, under the real or fabulous appellations by which 

 they were dillinguifhed, as AJlacuri, Blemmycs, CaJupi, Do- 

 lopes, Elephantophagi, Ichtkiopliagi, Lotophagi, &c. &c. 



The ignorance of the ancients, concerning the extent of 

 Africa, appear.s from their difagreement in afcertaining its 

 jull limits ; whilft fome, as Sallull, (Jugurth. Bell. c. 20. 

 toiu. i. p. 26. Ed. Haverc.) Mela, (1. i. c. 8.) Phny (1. iii. 

 c. I. tom. i. p. 135. Ed. Hard.) Dionyims, (Perieg. v. 18.) 

 Hirtius, (De Alex. Bell. c. 14.) Polybius, (Hill. 1. iii. 

 p. 191. Ed. Cafaub.) and Solinus, have preferred for this 

 purpofe the weftern branch of the Nile, or even the great 

 Catabathmus or defert ; which laft would aflign to Afia, 

 not only Egypt, but part of Libya : others, as Ptolemy, 

 (1. iv. c. 5.) and Strabo, (1. i. tom. i. p. 61.} with the mo- 

 dern geographers, fix the ifthmus of Suez, aiid the Ara- 

 bian gulf, as the boundaries of Afia and Africa. This, 

 fays Strabo, is a more natural limit than the Nile ; and • 

 thus, fays Ptolemy, the whole of Egypt is included lU Af- 

 rica. But the knowledge both of Ptolemy and Strabo 

 comprehended only a fmall part of Africa. Strabo was 

 only acquainted with that part of it which the Roiuans had 

 reduced under their power, and this was fcarcely a tenth 

 part of it, and he feems not to have knov/n any thing with 

 certainty concerning the form and ftate of the fouthern 

 parts of Africa (1. xvi. t. ii. p. 1 180. ); and though Ptokmy 

 was acquainted with fome other parts, which were not 

 known to the Romans, yet by the divifion which he hath 

 made of it into twelve regions, we may conceive that nearly 

 one half of it was unknown to him. This mquultive and 

 learned geographer appears to have been unacquainted with 

 any part of Africa, fituuted a few degrees beyond the 

 equinodial line ; for he fuppofes that this great continent 

 was not furrounded by the fea, but that it II retched, with- 

 out interruption, and increaCng in its breadth, towards the 

 fouth. Geog. 1. 4. c. 9. Leo Africanus, who was an 

 eminent African geographer, after all his (Indies, travels, 

 and refearches, appears to have been impcrfedly acquainted 

 with this country ; for by dividing it merely into four parts, 

 tv'a. Barbary, Numidia or Biledulgerid, Libya, and Nigritia 

 or Ncgrcland, he txcludcs from it the whole kingdom of 



Egypt 



