G e o g r a p h i c a l R e m a r k s o n t h e T o w n s a n d D i s t r i c t o f T r i p o l y .
The town of Tripoly has been usually considered to occupy
the site of the ancient Oea ; one of the cities which, with Sabrata
and Leptis Magna, the Tripoli Vecchia and Lebidaof modern times,
composed the three principal towns of a district which took from
them the appellation of Tripolis.
At what precise period this tract of country assumed the title of
Tripolis does not appear to be clearly ascertained ; but we may probably
conclude that it acquired it in the reign, either of Titus, or of
his successor Domitian ; soon after the building of Sabrata and Oea,
which may be supposed to have taken place before the middle of the
first century*.
* We find both these cities mentioned by Pliny ; and one of them (Oea) by Pompami
» Mela, while nothing is said by Strabo either of the cities or the district Pliny
died A D 79 • Mela is supposed to have floarislmd about the middle of the first century,
and. Strabo in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. We.may infer, from the silence
o f Strabo on thd subject, that neither. Sabrata nor Oea existed m Ins-time ; and as
Pliny, though he mentions both cities, appears to have been unacquainted with the
name of the district in question, w e may also perhaps infer th a t it was bestowed u pon,it
after his time. What is stated by Cellari™ on the subject of Tripolis, appears to confirm
this opinion : for he tells us th a t he knew of 110 one before the time of Solinus, who
made any mention in 'Africa of the name*; and that he only applied the term . to the
district, and not to any particular city.
Solinus is known to have written after Pliny, towards the close of th e first century ;
and we may therefore, perhaps, conclùde, th a t the district called Tripolis, received that
appellation between the times of Pliny and Sólinus.
■ Nec qui ante Solinum, non antiquisshnum scriptorem, mentinnem vocis Tripolis in Africa fecent suc-
currit nobis ; qui vero, non urbem, sed triuin oppidorum regiouem inteliexit. (Lib. iv. cap. 3. $ 18.)
I t seems to be still more uncertain when the name of the district
was bestowed upon the cities of Tripoly; for although Tripoli Vec-
chia (which we have already called Sabrata) has been said to be the
first which assumed it, there does not appear to be any other proof in
favour of this supposition, (at least we are not ourselves acquainted
with it,) than that which may be inferred from the epithet vecckia,
by which this town has been for centuries distinguished. Both cities
appear to have flourished together under the Romans; and were in
all probability destroyed at the same time, in the Saracen invasion of
the country. As Sabrata, however, continued to remain in ruins,
while a new town sprung up on the site of the ancient Oea, the name
of Tripoly may have, perhaps, been first assumed by the latter;
while Sabrata, from the circumstance of its being ifi ruins, was distinguished
by the epithet which it retains.
We are not aware of any proof that either Sabrata or Oea had
changed their names before their destruction by the Saracens; and as
no town appears to have been erected on the ruins of the former,
there was no necessity for distinguishing it by another. When a
new town arose on the ruins of Oea, it is probable that the appellation
by which it is at present known to the Moors, and which is
merely a corruption of the Roman term for the district *, was the first
* Trablis, the Moorish name of the town, is not, however, properly a corruption of
Tripolis; it is merely'the same word articulated through the medium of Arab pronunciation.
Some authors have imagined an early African name Tarabilisy or Trebilis, from
which the Roman name Tripolis was derived ; but this is merely imaginary, since the
meaning of Tripolis clearly points out its origin to be Greek.
* E