Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/356

338 AUGUSTA. margin of the Great Desert. His distance of 10 days' W. of the oasis of Ammon is oonfirmed by Honemann, who made the journey with great speed in 9 days; but the time nsnally taken by the cam- vans is 13 days. In the time of Herodotns the oasis belonged to the Nabamonbs, who then dwelt along the shore fhnn Egypt to the Great Syrtis; and who, in the Stammer time, left their flocks (m the coast, and migrated to Angila to gatiier the dates with which it aboonded. (Herod, iv. 172. 182: in the latter passage some MSS-have kXyiXeu) It was not, however, nninhabited at other seasons, for Herodotns expressly says, ical ftyOpwffoi wfpl a^^ oUtowu Mela and Pliny, in abridging the state- ment of Herodotus, have transferred to the Augilae (by a carelessness which is evident on comparison) what he says of the Nasamones. (Mela, i. 4, 8 ; Plin. V. 4, 8.) They place them next to the Gara- mantes, at a distance of 12 days* joum^. (Plin.) Ptolemy (iv. 5. § 30) mentions the Augilae and the Nasamones together, in sudi a manner as to lead to the inference that the Nasamones, when driven back from the coast by the Greek colonists, had made the oasb of Aogila their chief abode. Ste- phanus Byzantinus calls Augila a dty. The oasis, which still retains its ancient name, forms one of the chief stations on the caravan route from Cairo to Fezzan. It is placed by Rennell in 30° 3' N. lat, and 22° 46' E. long., 180 miles SE. of Barca, 180 W. by N. of Siwah (the Ammonium), and 426 E. by N. of Mourzouk. Later authorities pbce AujUah (the village) m 29° 15' N. lat and 21° 55' E. long. It consists of three oases, that of AujUah properly so called, and those of Jalloo (Pacho: Mojabray Homemann) and Lesfikemhy a little E. and N£. of the former, containing several villages, the chief of which is called Attjilah^ and supporting a population of 9000 or 10,000. Each of these oases is a small hill (the KoXwds of Hero- dotus), covered with a forest of palm-trees, and rising out of an unbroken plain of red sand, at the S. foot of the mountain range on the S. (^ Cyrenaica. The sands around the oasis are impregnated with salts of soda. They are connected with the N. coast by a series of smaller oases. Augila is still famous for the palm-trees menticned by Herodotus and by the Arabian geographer Abulfeda. An interesting parallel to HerodotWs story of the gathering of the date har- vest by the Nasamones occurs in the case of a simi- lar oasis further to the E., the dates of which are gathered by the people of Dema on the coast According to Procopius {Atdif, vi, 1), there were temples in the oasis, which Justinian converted into Chxistian churches. There are still some traces of ruins to be seen. (Rennell, Geographif of Eerodotm^ vol. ii. pp. 209, 212, 213, 271 ; Homemann, JournaX of Tra- veUfrom Cairo to Mourzouk; Heeren, Researches j &c., African NattonSy vol. i. p. 213; Pacho, Voyage dans la Marmariquey p. 272.) [P. S.] AUGUSTA (,Eth, Augustanus, Steph. B. s, v, Aiiyovara)j a Cilician town, in the interior. (Plin. V. 27.) The name shows that it was eitiier founded under the patronage of some Roman emperor, or a new Roman name was given to an old place. Ptolemy places this town in a district named Btyelice. [G. L.J AUGUSTA AUSCORUM (Auch)y tiie chief town of the Ausci, a people of Aquitania. Augusta was oiiginally Glimberrum (Mela, iii. 2), which seems to be a Basque name. Like many other Gallic towns named Augusta, it obtained tiiis appellation under AUGUSTA EMERITA. Augustus or some of his successors. It was on tho road from Bordeasix to Toulouse, It appears in the Table under the name EUberre; and in the Anto- nine Itin., on the route from Aginnnm (^Agtn) to Lugdunum in Aquitania, under the name of CUm- beiTum. Auch is the chief town of the department of GerSy and on the river GtrSy a tributary of the Garonne, [Acbci.] [G. L.] AUGUSTA ASTURICA. [AartnucA Au- gusta.] AUGUSTA EMEHITA (Afryoifcrra 'H/iepfra: Meriday Ru.), the chief dty of Lusitania in Spain, was built in b. c. 23, by Pnblius Carisins, the legate of Augustus, who colonized it with the vete- rans of the 5th and 10th legions whose term of service had expired (emeriifi), at the close of the Cantabrian War. (Dion Cass. liiL 26; Strab. iii. pp. 151, 166.) It was, of course, a colonia from the first, and at a later period it is mentioned as having the jus Italicum. (Paullus, Dig, viii. de Cens.) It was the seat of one of the three juridical divisions of Lusitania, the coftrenAw EmeriUauis. (Plin. iv. 22. s. 35.) It speedily became the capital of Lusitania, and one of the greatest cities of Spain. (Mda, ii. 6.) Ausonius cekbrates it in the follow- ing verses (^Ordo NobiL Urb, viii., l^[emsdorf, EfieU LaU Mm, vol. v. -p. 1329):-<|e*^, JCt-it^/^^^-?;. t-^ " Clara mihi post has memorabere^ nomen Iberum,' ' " . ' Emerita aequoreus quam praeterlabitur anmis, Submittit cui tota suos Hispania fasces. Corduba non, non arce potens tibi Tarraoo certat, Quaeque sinu pelagi jactat se Bracara dives.** Emerita stood on the N. bank of the Anas ((rcio- diana)j but a part of its territory lay on the S. side of the river, on which account Hyginus places it m Baeturia. (Hygin. Lim. Const, p. 154.) From its position on the borders of Lusitania and Baetica, we have various statements c^ the people and district to which it belonged. Strabo assigns it to the Turduli, a part of whom oertably dwelt at one time on the right bank of the Anas (comp. Plin. I c); Prudentius to the Vettones (^Hgmn. in EuhU. ix. 186). Ptolemy simply mentions it as an inland city of the Lusitani (ii. 5. § 8). It is (Hie of his points of astronomical observation, having 14 hrs. 15 min. in its longest day, and being 3^ hours W. of Alex- andria (viii. 4. § 3). Emerita was tiie centre of a great number of roads branching out into the three provinces oS Spain; the chief distances along which were, 162 M. P. to Hispalis; 144 to Corduba; 145, 161, and 220, by different routes, to Olisipo; 313 to the noouth of the Anas; 632 to Caesaraugusta, w 348 by a shorter route, or 458 by the route through Lusitania. {Itin. Ant. pp. 414, 415, 416, 418, 419, 420, 431, 432, 433, 438, 444.) Its territory was of great fertility, and produced the finest dives. (Plin. xv. 3. s. 4 ) Pliny also mentions a kind of cochineal (coccus) as found in its neighbourhood and most highly esteemed (iv. 41. s. 65). The coins of Emerita are very numerous, most of them bearing the heads of the Augustan family, with epigraphs referring to the origin of the city, and celebrating its founder, in some cases witii divine honours. A frequent type is a city gate, generally bearing the inscription EuERrrA AuGuerrx, a device which has been aidopted as the cognizance of the modem dty. (Florez, Med, vol. i. p. 384 ; Eckhel, Doctr. Num, Vet. vol. i. pp. 12, 13.) And well may Merida, though now but a poor