writer, while they are merely styled cities by another, this objection
may readily be waived. Garapha is by Ptolemy styled by
Scylax roXis, by Pliny, Oppidum; Abrotonum is by Strabo called màis,
by Scylax *a, hpw, by Pliny, Oppidum : Leptis Magna is rarely
mentioned as a port, although it is well known to have been one ; and
many more examples might be adduced by those who would take the
trouble to collect them.
What is now called modern Tripoly has been said by some writers
to have been built by the early inhabitants of .Northern Africa,
under the name of Tarabilis or Trebiles; and the same authors have
stated that the Roman term of Tripolis is derived from the name
which they bestowed upon it. We have already noticed the improbability
of this latter supposition ; and wé may now venture to add,
that there appears to be no proof of any town having been built upon
the site of modern Tripoly before the erection of the city of Oea.
Leptis Magna is known to have been built by the Phoenicians, on the
authority of several writers of antiquity ; but the other two Cities
composing the Tripolis have always been considered of Roman origin,
and no mention is made of any other having ever been assigned to
them in works not comparatively modern.
Leo Africanus, who may be supposed to have compiled his account
of Africa from the authority chiefly of Mahometan historians, has
given his testimony in favour of the native origin of Tripoly, while
he states that Tripoli Vecchia was built by the Romans. “ Questa,
(Tripoli Vecchia) says the African geographer, “ è una città antica
edificata pur da’ Romani f but of the other town he states, “ Tripoli
fu edificata da gli-Africani, dopo la rovina della Vecchia Tripoli”—
without any allusion whatever to the circumstance of its
having been originally a Roman city.
Whatever may ’be the earliest authority for this supposition, it
appears to be evidently founded on an imperfect knowledge of the
place; for if there were even no reason for supposing Tripoly to be
Oea, we must still have allowed it Roman origin ; or at least we
must have admitted it to have been in existence at the time when
the Romans held the country. The Roman arch, which has been
given in the work of Captain Lyon, is sufficient to establish this circumstance;
and-the inscription which it bears, also given in the same
publication, and mentioned in the Memoirs of Consul Tully *,
refers this edifice to the time of Marcus Aurelius. In stating that
Tripoly was built by the Africans, after the ruin of Tripoli Vecchia,
we might have imagined that Leo only meant to allude to its re-con-
struction tinder the Mahometans; but from the circumstance of his
having just before mentioned Tripoli Vecchia, as a city which was
built by the Romans, it seems to be probable that, had he been
* Or rather of a female relation of Consul Tully, to whom the work in question is
attributed.
I t is observed in the same work, “ When this arch was built, there were few habita-
tations nearer this place than Lebida, the Leptis Magna of the a n c i e n ts a n d farther on,
<c the Romans strayed to the spot where Tripoly now stands, to hunt wild beasts ; and
under this arch they found a welcome retreat from the burning rays of the sun.” But
the arch was erected after the middle of the second century ; and both Sabrata and Oea
were extant in the time of Pliny, who flourished in the middle of the fir st,—the conclusion
is obvious.