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tower to the westward. Here is however nothing certain but the 
existence of a boundary, and that of a town a little to the westward 
of it ; and it remains to be determined how far the facts which we 
have stated may be received as proofs of the positions which have 
been suggested for the tower of Euphrantas and the trading town of 
Charax, both of which must be looked for between Aspis and the 
bottom of the gulf, and to the westward of the Philasnean altars and 
the fortress of Automala*. 
In alluding to the sale of the silphium at Charax, which he places 
as we have already stated at Zaffran, Signor Della Celia has indulged 
himself in his favourite practice of emendation, and has proposed a 
new reading in the passage of Strabo which mentions this town and 
its commerce f. 
“ I will not speak to you of the silphium (says the Doctor) till 
I arrive in the place which produces it. ...but I cannot conceal from 
you that I have allowed myself to read, in translating this passage of 
Strabo, omv rov riXpiov, juice of the silphium, instead of otov kcu tri'kcptov, 
juice and silphium.” “We know that from this plant, pecuhar to 
the soil of the Cyrenaica, the Cyreneans extracted a most valuable 
liquid which was particularly celebrated in those times. The juice 
of this plant alone was sold on account of the state, and it was of 
this liquid only that the contraband trade consisted which is men- 
* For, after mentioning Charax, Strabo adds — nh' oi (ptXMvav /Soptoi, xai /ji.era, rovrovs 
A.urofxaXa (p^ovqiov, (puXax.m s')qov, iSgo/XEVOi/ Kara rov f/.vy(pv rou koXhov itavrns' Here we 
find the fortress of Automala placed in the innermost recess of the gulf, which is much 
fai-ther to the eastward than the point to which we are at present arrived. 
t Page 79, Italian edition. 
