28 
JOURNEY FROM 
We have by no means any wish to detract from the merits of this 
gentleman, who deserves every credit for the spirit of inquiry which 
I’abbandono, qualunque ne fosse la cagione, di questa citta, desse luogo alia formazione 
di quella che attualmente ne porta il nome, e che in quell’ epoca fu chiamata Tripoli il 
nuovo, o la nuova citta, e da’ Greci NsaTroXis-. In questa opinione consente la vera 
lezione di Tolommeo, ove leggesi NgaTroXir ^ xal T|i7roXis-. (Neapoli che dicesi anche 
Tripoli.) Ho detto la vera lezione di Tolommeo, perche io ho per apocrifa quella 
adottata dal Cellario, dove in vece di TgiTroXir, avendo sostituito A-e-nns, tutto rimane 
altei-ato e confuso. Con Tolommeo concorda Plinio che ha per due citta diverse 
Neapoli e Leptis Magna, e tra queste due tramette Gaffara e Abrotono; e Plinio, 
per le cognizione che poteva attinger nella citta, e ne’ tempi ne’ quali scriveva, merita 
sopra ogni altro credenza intorna alia geografia di questa parte dell’ Africa.” — ( Viaggio 
da Tripoli, &c. p. 41.) 
It will not here be vei-y evident how the modern town of Tripoly can, on the autho- 
rity of Pliny, be supposed to be the same with Neapolis. For Tripoly is identified by 
the best authorities with Oea ; and Neapolis is mentioned, in the passage alluded to, as 
situated between Oea and Taphra, (the Graphara and Garapha of Scylax and Ptolemy.) 
But supposing it to be, as Signor della Celia has stated, that the decay ofithe “ Tripoli 
degli antrichi geografi” had really given occasion to the building of the present one, 
under the title he has conferred upon it of Neapolis; it follows that the former city 
must have borne the name of Tripolis in the time of Pliny, who, so far from knowing 
any town of that name, does not even recognise the district under the title. 
It must, however, be confessed, that the introduction of Neapolis, in the situation which 
Pliny has assigned to it, is by no means very easily accounted for. At the same time 
it is certain, that the position in question is directly in opposition to the authority of 
Strabo, as well as to that of Scylax and of Ptolemy ; who, all of them, identify Neapolis 
with Leptis Magna, as will be seen by a I'eference to Cellarius. This author, who in- 
sists very properly upon the authority of Strabo, &c., that Neapolis is Leptis Magna, 
supposes, with Hardouin, that Pliny has adopted the passage above quoted from Mela, 
whom he censures for having brouglit together places so distant from each other. But 
Mela is evidently speaking of the country to the Avestward of the Lesser Syrtis ; of 
Leptis Parva, and the Neapolis Colonia of Ptolemy, situated near the extremity of the 
Mercurii Promontorium, in the vicinity of Clypea ; so that, although the towns and 
cities which he enumerates do not come in the proper succession, they all of them belong 
to the part of the country which he is describing ; and not, as Cellarius imagines, to both 
sides of the river Triton, which would have made a much more serious confusion. It is 
