TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
25 
It seems to be still more uncertain when the name of the district 
was bestowed upon the cities of Tripoly ; for although Tripoli Vec- 
chia (which we have already called Sabrata) has been said to be the 
first which assumed it, there does not appear to be any other proof in 
favour of this supposition, (at least we are not ourselves acquainted 
with it,) than that which may be inferred from the epithet vecchia, 
by which this town has been for centuries distinguished. Both cities 
appear to have flourished together under the Komans ; and were in 
all probability destroyed at the same time, in the Saracen invasion of 
the country. As Sabrata, however, continued to remain in ruins, 
while a new town sprung up on the site of the ancient Oea, the name 
of Tripoly may have, perhaps, been first assumed by the latter; 
while Sabrata, from the circumstance of its being in ruins, was dis- 
tinguished by the epithet which it retains. 
Il^e are not aware of any proof that either Sabrata or Oea had 
changed their names before their destruction by the Saracens ; and as 
no town appears to have been erected on the ruins of the former, 
there was no necessity for distinguishing it by another. When a 
new town arose on the ruins of Oea, it is probable that the appella- 
tion by which it is at present known to the Moors, and which is 
merely a corruption of the Koman term for the district *, was the first 
* Trablis, the Moorish name of the town, is not, however, properly a corruption of 
Tripolis ; it is merely the same word articulated through the medium of Arab pronun- 
ciation. 
Some authors have imagined an early African name Tarabilis, or Trebilis, from 
which the Roman name Tripolis was derived j but this is merely imaginary, since the 
meaning of Tripolis clearly points out its origin to be Greek. 
E 
