Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/421

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Chap. 2.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 387 Tucca situate ou the sea-shore and upon the river Amp- saga. In the interior are the colony of Augusta, also called Succabar", Tubusuptus^ the cities of Timici and Ticravie'* the rivers SardabaP, Aves«, and Nabar^ the nation Sf the Macm-ebi, the river Usar^ and the nation of the JN'ababes. The river Ampsaga is distant from Csesarea 322' miles. The length of the two Mauritanias is 1038, and their breadth •iG7 miles, CHAP. 2. (3.)— NUMIDIA. At the river Ampsaga Xumidia begins, a coimtry rendered iHustrious by the fame of irasinissa. By the Greeks this region was called Metagonitis^'^ ; and the :^umidians received the name of " A^omades " from their frequent changes of pas- turage ; upon which occasions they were accustomed to carry ^^ their ma^alia, or in other words, their houses, upon waggons. 1 Destroyed, a<;cording to Hardouin, and probably by the incursions Ot the sea. At the mouth of the Ampsaga (now called the W'ad-El-Kebh- or Sufjunar and higher up the Wadi Koumel) there is situate a smaU sea-port called Marsa Zeitoun. 2 Near the present Mazuaa, according to Mannert. 3 The modem 13urgh, accordmg to D'Anville and Mannert, but more probably considerably to the east of that place. ■• The modern El-Herba, according to Mannert.

  • Marcus suggests that tliis is the Clunalaphof Ptolemy, and probably

the modern Schellif. ^ « The same that is caUed Sayis by Ptolemy, who places Icosium on its banks. 7 Ey Mela called the Vabar. Marcus supposes it to be the same as the modem Griffer. 8 By Ptolemy caUed the Sisar ; the Ajebbi of modem geographers which falls mto the Mechterranean, near tlu- city of Budja. ' ^ Brotier says that this reading is incorrect, and that 222 is the pro- per one, that being the true distance between the river Ampsaga or ^^ad- el-Kebu- and the city of Cscsarea, the modern Zershell. " 10 It was not only Nuniidia that bore this name, but all Die northern coast of Africa from the frontiers of the kingdom of Cartilage near IJipi)o Keguis to the Colunms of Hercules. It was thus called from the (J reek metaffonos, a "descendant" or "successor;" as the Carthaginians estabhshed a number of small towns and villages on the coa^^t .whieli were thus posterior in their origin to the large cities ah-eady founded there. *^ " Hardouin says that the Moors in the interior still follow the same usage, carrying their houses from pasture to pasture on wagi^c^ns. 2 c 2^