their neighbourhood; so that Byzacium would naturally be peopled
by them to a considerable extent, without its being necessary to infer
from that circumstance that all Libyphcenices were Byzacians.
We may add that Strabo does not seem to be aware of any fertility
in the soil of the Byzacium; for he continues to state (after the passage
above quoted from the Second Book of his Geography) that all
the country between Carthage and the columns of Hercules is fertile
—not including, of course, either the Byzacium, or the region of the
Cinyphus *.
The extent of the territory which is supposed by Signor Della
Celia to have been included in the province of Byzacium, that is,
(as we have stated above) from the country of the Massaesyli, on
the western side, to the Cephalas Promontorium on the east, would
occupy a coast-line of no less than 700 miles, exclusive of its
limits in a southerly direction; and it will more readily be seen
how much this extent differs, from that of the actual Byzacium,
by comparing it with the dimensions which Pliny has given of the
country, in the passage which Signor Della Celia has partially quoted
above f- We shall there find that the district of Byzacium was
comprehended within a circuit of no more than 250 Roman miles ;
so that it is difficult to imagine how Pliny could have intended to
extend its limits, either eastward or westward, to the points which
the Doctor has claimed for it: since the historian’s intentions
* I I staa. o’ « amo Kjzgxn&nos fJ&Xf1 feXan» eyiv Suu/muv-
*t Libyphcenices vocantur qui Byzacium incolunt. Ita appellatur regio c c l . M. P.
circuito, fertilitatis eximia', &c,— (Nat. Hist. lab . v. c. 4.)
TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 71
must have been sadly at variance with his assertions, had he really
meant to bestow upon Byzacium so much more than he has stated
it to contain *.
The region of the Cinyphus has still the same peculiarities which
it has been stated to possess by Herodotus; there we still find the
rich and dark-coloured soil, and the abundance of water which he
mentions: but every thing degenerates in the hand of the Arab,
and the produce of the present day bears no proportion to that
which the historian has recorded. The average rate of produce of
this fine tract of country (so far, at least, as we could learn from the
Arabs who inhabit it) is now scarcely more than ten for one ; and
the lands in the neighbourhood of Zeliten and Mesurata are the
only places cultivated to the eastward of the Cinyphus. The produce,
in grain, is principally barley, with a moderate proportion only
of wheat; but the date-tree and the olive are very generally distributed,
and their crops are extremely abundant. We were informed
that there was usually a considerable overplus of dates, olive-oil, and
barley, both at Mesurata and Zeliten; and that the Arabs of the
western parts of the Syrtis draw their principal supplies from the
former of these places.
The country to the west of the Cinyphus is, to all appearance,
* The interpretation which follows (in this part of Signor Della Celia’s work) of a
passage which he has quoted from Scylax, and the adoption which he there proposes of
the word xoropwr instead of voXtr, do not seem to rest, we fear, on any better foundation.
(See Viaggio da Tripoli, &c., p. 48—9.)
The concluding words sr* 5s egn/AOr, rather appear to relate to the desert tract between
Lebida and Tagiura, than to the country in the neighbourhood of the Cinyphus.