378 BARCA. frnn iriiich the ume treat nuj In eantmnpUted : — ' " It will be recollKUid tint Id the toos of this MmgB wwiiKi the Libym blood wm intermiied with (1m GnduL PoIiIjcbI nunitj in Greece Fmper killi, bat Mldom, if erer, niDtilata. or ibedi the " ' ■ ,' (Grate, Hiitorf of Gntce, T«l. It. ^6«.) We hw Uttte Tnore of Bare*, till ita poUKca] «i- tinctian wu mn;Jet«d, nodn' the Ploknuea, by ttii nnwnl of the great body of its inhabiunts to the new dtj of Ptolkmaik, erect«d on the lite of the fiinner port <£ Bans. Indeed, the new citj wooW arem lo have ncared the name of the old after thit period the geo^phen apeak of Baira and PtolonaiB ai ideatieal. (Stisb. ivil p. 837 ; TUn. T. S; Steph. B.) Ptolernj, hsweTer, distingnishea them jvoperlj, pladng Birca unoag the inlaod cities (it. 4. § 1 1 ) ; a proof that, bowoer derated, the city Mill Fiiated in the Sod century of our em. In fact, it long BoiriTed ita more ptnrerful rival, CjnDe. Under the later empire it waa an epiMOpsI Ke, and nnder the Arnba it aeema (thoogh aane dispute this) to bate risen to renewed importance, oo accoont of its poeiticn op the roata from E)7pC to the wcglnn pMrincee of Korth Africa. (Edriai, iii. 3 ; Bacth, WattdertBigm, &c. p. 40S.) Meanwhile its niune has iiirrivBd to the peeenl day in that of the dis- trict of which it Has the capital, the ]Tonnce of Barca, m the regency of Tripoli; and it was trana- ftrrsd, onder the Romans, lo the tarbnlent Libyan people, who lived as nomads in that district (Bar- CAn- nnnp. Polyaen. vii. 38; Aen. Pgllon;. 37.) The Barcaans were celebrated for their lace of horses; and a Greek writer repeats a traditionary boast that they had lamt the breeding of hones from Pooddon, and the nae of the chariot from Athma. (Stoph. B. L c.) These were the horeca which gained the last Arceailana of Cyrene hii place in the poetry of Pindar. The poaition of Bara ia accnrateiy described by Ecylai (pp. 4S, 46, Hndson), who places its harbonr {MiJir i Karl Btlfwiir) SOO stadia from Cyicne, and G20 from Heiperidta, and the ci^ itself 100 stadia from the sea, that is, by the mott direct raule, up a ravine, for the nnd is much longer. It stood on the suTiimil of the terraces which overlook the W. coast of the Greater Syrtia, in a plain which, though lur- Toondfd by the sands of the deaert table-land (^Dttrrt ofBfcrta), is well watered, and beautifully tntile. The plain is called El-Verfeh, and the same name is often given to the mina which mark the site of Barca, hut the Anbs call them El-Mntinalt. These mina are very incnnsidenihle, which is at once ac- counted for by the teenrded fact that Ibe dty waa built of brick (Steph. B.), and, in all probability, imbnnit brick. (Barth, p. 405.) The few mina which remain are mpposed by Barth to belong to the Arab city, with the eiceptinn of those of the cisterns, on Khich this, like the other gteu cities of Africa. BABcraa WIS OiUrely built, and tt which three still remuo. Eastward of the valley in which the dty stands the route to C jrene Ilea acroas the desert, and through a narrow defile, the di^culty of which may have been one ouue ef the ease with which the power (J Barca appean to have been establbhed. (Beechey, De bi Cella, Pacho, Barth; crsnp. Cvbkhaica) The above coin reprwenis, on the obverse, tba heivt of Ammtm, aad on the reverse the ptant sil- phlum, for the growth of which Cyrenaira wae Eunons, with the legend BAPKAI in Sapnaita. (Eckbel. vol.iv. p.128.) [P. S.1 BABCA BACTRIANAE. [Bactiuama.] BABCAEA. [Babga, Bahcakl] BABCAEI (BofiKaioi), the people rf Babca. This is made a separate article for the purpose of correcting the enw of moat conpilen, wbu mention a Libyan tribe of the name on the authority of Herodotns. That the city waa in the midst of Libyan tribes, and that its population was to a great extent Libyan, ia nnqoestioaable ; but the oamt ^orcon', in Herodotni, always refers to the city and its neighbonrbood ; and it may easily be inferred from his statements that the Libyau {«aple, among whom the aty was (bunded, were the Auschisab. Uerodotos eipressly distinguiabea tba fiarcaci, to- gether with the Cjtenaeans, from the neighbouring Libyan tribes. (iiL 13,91.) It is tme that Ftidemj calls the native tribes above the Libyan Penlapoli* Babcitae (Bapanriu, It. 4. g 9), and that Virgil [Atn. iv. 43), by a poetical antidiMIiaD. nienlioni the Bairaa am«ig Ibe native peoples of N. Africa : " Hinc deseita sit! regio lateque furent«s Barcao. But snch eipreasoia belong to a period when tba natre had been long nmx erleDdnl from the city to thii district of which it was the capital, and whicb Herodotns calls Bahcaea (Sopnilii, it. 171), frum which district in torn, as usual, the Libyan inha- bitants of Uter lime received their name. (See also titeph. B. (. f . B^fpinr ; ical BapKojiHiTir tdtiir, ^offl Bo^nur Itrtt, but the reading is doubtfiil, and recent edlMrs give frsi.) It is not meant to be denied that the name may possibly have b(«D of Libyan origin; but it is some- what imporiant to otoerve that Hnodotus does not make the statement usually ascribed to him. For the argnmenta in favour <rf the eiittence of Barca lion, see Pacho ( Voyage daai la Hannanqim, 17S, foil.). [P. S.] BA'BCINO (Bofwu^r, Ptol. iL 6. § 8), BA'B- CENO (/H'm. Am. pp. 3S0, 398), in the later writers BA'BCELO (Avien. Or. Mar. 520) and BARCELONA {Geogr. Rm. iv. 42, t. 3 ; Aeth. Cotmogr. p. SO, ed. Basil. 1575), which name it still piwerves, was a city rf the Laletaiu, on the E. ooast of Hispania TarTaconensii, a little N. rf the ter Bnbricalua {Llobrtgal), and about half way be- FeentheIbetuB(£iro)andthePyrenc(a. Theonij furmaliiBi respecting its early history (nnsttts in meHative traditions referred to by the later Roman riters, to the efiect that it was fbunded by Hercukc 400 years betbrn the building of Itome, and that it ~ras nbuilt by Hamilcar Bajcas, who gave it the lameof his &mily. (Or». vii. 143; Minano, Dic- kon, vol. L ]i 391 ; Anson. Epiit. iiiv. 68, 69, uBka Barcino.) Under llis Romans It waa a lolony, with the surname of Fannlia (Plin. iii. 3. I. 4), or, in full, Colonia favtalia Mia AvguHa Pia Barciai). (inscr. op. Gruler, p.496, Dos. 5, 6.)
Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/396
This page needs to be proofread.
