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JOURNEY FROM 
Geographical Eemarks on the Towns and District of Tripoly. 
The town of Tripoly has been usually considered to occupy 
the site of the ancient Oea ; one of the cities which, with Sabrata 
and Leptis Magna, the Tripoli Vecchia and Lebidaof modern times, 
composed the three principal towns of a district which took from 
them the appellation of Tripolis. 
At what precise period this tract of country assumed the title of 
Tripolis does not appear to be clearly ascertained; but we may pro- 
bably conclude that it acquired it in the reign, either of Titus, or of 
his successor Domitian ; soon after the building of Sabrata and Oea, 
which may be supposed to have taken place before the middle of the 
first century*. 
* We find both these cities mentioned by Pliny ; and one of them (Oea) by Pom- 
poniiis Mela, while nothing is said by Strabo either of the cities or the district. Pliny 
died A.D. 79 ; Mela is supposed to have flourished about the middle of the first cen- 
tury, and Strabo in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. We may infer, from the silence 
of Strabo on the subject, tliat neither Sabrata nor Oea e.xisted in his time ; and as 
Pliny, though he mentions both cities, appears to have been unacquainted with the 
name of the district in question, we may also perhaps infer that it was bestowed upon it 
after his time. What is stated by Cellarius on the subject of Tripolis, appears to con- 
firm this opinion : for he tells us that he knew of no one before the time of Solinus, who 
made any mention in Africa of the name*; and that Ae only applied the term to the 
district, and not to any particular city. 
Solinus is known to have written after Pliny, towards the close of the first century ; 
and we may therefore, perhaps, conclude, that the distinct called Tripolis, received that 
appellation between the times of Pliny and Solinus. 
“ Nec qui ante Solinum. non antiquissinium scriptorem, mentionem vocis Tripolis in Africa fecerit suc- 
currit nobis ; qui vero, non urbem, sed trium oppidorum regionein intellexit. — (Lib. iv. cap. 3. ^ 18.) 
