We have by no means any wish to detract from the merits of this
gentleman, who deserves every credit for the spirit of inquiry which
l’abbandono, qualunque rie fosse la cagione, di questa città, desse luogo alla formazione
di quella che attualmente ne porta il nome, e che in quell’ epoca fu chiamata Tripoli il
nuovo', o la nuova c ittà, e da’ Greci N smtoXi ì . In questa opinione consente la-vera;
lezione di Tolommeo, ove leggesi NeasroXir a xoù TgrwoXir. (Neapóli che dicesi anche
Tripoli.) Ho detto la vera lezione di Tolommeo, perchè io ho per apocrifa quella
adottata dal Cellario, dove in vece di TgwroXis, avendo sostituito A evtis, tutto rimane
alterato e confuso. Con Tolommeo concorda Plinio che ha .per due città .diverse
Neapoli e Leptis Magna, e tra queste due tramette Gaffara e Abrotono ; è Plinio,
per lè cognizione che poteva attinger nella c ittà, e ne’ tempi ne’ quali scriveva, merita
sopra ogni altro credenza intorna alla geografia di questa parte dell’ Africa.”—( Viaggio
da Tripoli, &c. p. 41.)
I t will not here be very evident how the modern town of Tripoly can, on the authority
of Pliny, be supposed to be the same with Neapolis. For Tripoly is identified by
the best authorities with Oea ; and Neapolis is mentioned, in the passage alluded to, as
situated between Oea and Taphra, (the Graphara and Garapha of Scylax and Ptolemy.)
But supposing it to be, as Signor della Celia has stated, that the decay of the “ Tripoli
degli antrichi geografi” had really given occasion to the building of the present one,
under the title he has conferred upon it of Neapolis; it follows that the former city
must have borne the name of Tripolis in the time of Pliny, who, so fer from knowirig
any town of th a t name, does not even recognise the district under the title.
I t must, however, be confessed, that the introduction of Neapolis, in the situation which
Pliny has assigned to it, is by no means very easily accounted for. At the same time
it is certain, tha t the position in question is directly in opposition to the authority of
Strabo, as well as to that of Scylax and of Ptolemy ; who, all of them, identify Neapolis
with Leptis Magna, as will be seen by a reference to Cellarius. This author, who insists
very properly upon the authority of Strabo, &c., th a t Neapolis is Leptis Magna,
supposes, with Hardouin, that Pliny has adopted the passage above quoted from Mela,
whom he censures for having brought together places so distant from each other. But
Mela is evidently speaking of th e country to the westward of the Lesser Syrtis ; of
Leptis Parva, and the Neapolis Colonia of Ptolemy , situated near the extremity of the
Mercurii Promontorium, in the vicinity of Clypea ; so that, although the towns and
cities which he enumerates do not come in the proper succession, they all of them belong
to the p a rt of the country which he is describing ; and not, as Cellarius imagines, to both
sides of the river Triton, which would have made a much more serious confusion. I t is
has led him to encounter the fatigues and privations of a journey
like that which he has accomplished. He is the first European who
has crossed the Greater Syrtis since the occupation of Northern
Africa by the Romans ; ;at least he is the only one that we know of
since that period, who has published any account of such a journey;
and he is therefore entitled to the merit of having afforded us- the
only information which has been given for many centuries of an interesting
and extensive tract of country. Rut as we shall frequently
have occasion to refer to his w.ork in the course of the present narrative,
we trust that we shall not be suspected of undervaluing its
merits,, because we may sometimes find it necessary to point out
what we conceive to be its errors.
In considering the modern town of Tripoly as Oea, one difficulty
will however present itself: Oea is no where mentioned as a port,
that we have been able to discover ;; whereas Tripoly must always
have been one. But as many cities are mentioned as ports by -one
therefore less easy to imagine whence Pliny has derived his Neapolis, or what is his
authority for the order in which he places the other cities of the district; if indeed he
intended them to.be in order a t all, which from his mention'of Oea (the civitas Oeensis)
conjointly with the river Cinyphus”, we might probably be authorized in denying. We
fihd Abrotonum also introduced by Cellarius', instead of Acholla, in the passage which
he has quoted from Mela: - the proper reading is—-Hadrumetum, Leptis, Clypea, Acholla,
Taphrureb, Neapolis, hinc ad- Syrtim adjacent, u t inter ignobilia celeberrimse.
- vThe Taphrure of Mela most not be confounded-with Pliny’s-Taphra, which is the same with Graphara
.or Garapha#
b Mela has however done the same (ultra est Oea oppidum, et Cinypus fluvius, per uberrima arva
decidens.. .) and the difficulty is increased by what follows;—turn Leptis altera, &c..; both accounts are very
confused, and open to much discussion, hut this is not the place for it, and we have already perhaps said too
much upon the'subject.