Chap, a] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, 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 
G-aramantes, 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 short 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 tbe 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 
Adyrmachidse, and, after them, the Mareotae. The di- 
stance from Catabathmos to Paraetonium is eighty-six 
travellers Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, where, confinriing the 
statement here made by Pliny, they found (juartz, jasper, onyx, agates, 
and cornelian^. 
1 Mentioneid by Tacitus, B, iv. c. 50. The town of (Ea has been 
alluded to by Pliny in C. 4. 
2 "Past the head of the rock." Marcus suggests that this is the 
Gibel-G-elat or Rock of Gelat spoken of by the Enghsh travellers Den- 
ham, Clapperton, and Oudney, forming a portion of the chain of Gruriano 
or Gryr. He says, that at the foot of this mountain travellers have to 
pass from Old and New TripoH on their road to Missolat, the Maxala of 
Pliny, and thence to Grerama or Oherma, 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 properly that portion of 
territory which extended from that Gidf 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 modern 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. 2 J) 
