TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
229 
Automala, it is true, has been laid down by this geographer at the 
innermost part of the gulf, which must be taken as the most south- 
ern point of it ; and the coast had already begun to bend to the 
northward before we arrived at Braiga. But a place which would 
answer to the description here given of Automala, could scarcely 
have disappeared altogether ; and there is no place of any kind at 
the bottom of the gulf before the occurrence of Braiga. The coin 
of Augustus, which was found among the ruins of Braiga, would 
afford some proof of its having existed in the time of that emperor, 
and the form and solidity of the buildings which are found there 
sufficiently point it out as a fortified position. No fortified place 
is however mentioned to have existed in this neighbourhood, except 
Automala; and if Braiga may not be considered as the remains of 
that fortress, it has been wholly overlooked by the ancient authori- 
If it could be positively ascertained from what point of the Cyrenaica the army of 
Ophelias set out on their journey across the Syrtis, we shoidd have the position of 
Automala sufficiently well ascertained ; but the historian merely states, that when everv- 
thing was prepared for the expedition, Ophelias set his army in motion, without men- 
tioning the precise point from which they set out, and that the distance which they 
accomplished in eighteen days, as far as Automala, was three thousand stadia. Had 
there been any point in the bottom of the gulf which could be decidedly fixed upon as 
the fj:.uxos, or innermost recess of it, in which Strabo has placed Automala, there would 
be no occasion for any other evidence of its jiosition ; but the coast is so straight at the 
bottom of the gulf, that it is not possible to fix with accuracy upon any one point which 
may be taken as the /x-ex,or in question. Sachreen is certainly the most southern point, 
but the difference of latitude between this place and the other parts of the coast which 
form the bottom of the gulf is so trifling, that it can scarcely be said to amount to 
anything at all. 
Braiga is the nearest place to Sachreen where any remains are found which will 
answer to Automala, and that is twenty miles distant from it, in making the circuit of 
the coast. 
