atj tf ^Qeopolia, which he fbnnded to oommemorate fab fieUKy at Actiiun, b. c. 31 ; and in his time the cDOBtiT is described by Stnbo as utterly worn oat aad fihamstied. (Stnb. p. 460.) Under the Ronam the AftoBans appear to have remained in the sane rode oonditioQ in which they had always been. Tke interior of AetoUa was probably rarely risited by the RiwMffw, for the had no road in the inland part of tl» country; and their only road was one leading from the coast of Acamania across the Achelons, hf Pleann and Calydon to Chalcis and Molycreia oe the Aetolian coast. (Comp. Biandst&ten, Die €e$ekiekten cfet Aetolis^en LandeSf VoUbu und Bmde$, Berlin, 1844.) The towns in Aetolia were: I. In Old Aetolia. 1. la the lower plain, between the sea and Moont Aneynthos, Caltdon, Puiubok, Olenus, PyLDn, Cm/LLCiB (these 5 are the Aetolian towns n^^mtmA fj Homer), Hauctbna, Elaeus, Pa»anuM or Phaxa, Pboscbium, Itboria, Cohopb (lAawards ArsinoS), Ltsdcaghia. In the npper fUa K. of Moont Aneynthos, Acrajc, Metafa, pAMPSIAyPHmUM, TbICHOMIUK, THBSrTIKllSBS, Thkbmuii. In Aetoiia Epictetos, on the seacoast, JUcmiA, MoLTCBKiUK or MoitTGBSiA : a little in the interior, on the borders of Locrisi PonDAXiA, CaocTLEiuii, Tbchiux, ABomuM: further in the interior, Caluux, Oechalia [see p.65,a.], AfeBABTiA, AoBDnuM , Ephyn, the last of which was a town of the AgraeL [Agbabi.] The site of the fbiloiang towns is quite uiknown: — Ellopiam CEAA^nor, Pol. ap. Steph. B. s. r.); Thorax (Bc^f^j a. r.); Pherae (^c^ Steph. B. <. v.). AFBIGA 67 COIN OF AKTOLZA.
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The N. coast of Africa, after trending W. and E. with a slight rise to the N., from the Straits of Gibraltar to near the centre of the Mediterranean, suddenly falls off to the S. at C. Bon (Mercurii Pr.) in 37° 4' 20" N. lat, and 10° 63' 35" E. long., and preserves this general direction for about 3° of latitude, to the bottom of the Gulf of Khabs, the ancient Lesser Syrtis; the three chief salient points of this E. part of the coast, namely, the promontories of Clypea (at the N., a little S. of C. Bon) and Caput Vada (Kapoudiah, about the middle), and the island of Meninx (Jerbah, at the S.), lying on the same meridian. The country within this angle, formed of the last low ridges by which the Atlas sinks down to the sea, bounded on the S. and SW. by the Great Desert, and on the W. extending about as for as 9° E. long., formed, roughly speaking, the Africa of the Romans; but the precise limits of the country included under the name at different periods can only be understood by a brief historical account. That part of the continent of Africa, which forms the S. shore of the Mediterranean, W. of the Delta of the Nile, consists of a strip of habitable land, hemmed in between the sea on the N. and the Great Desert (Sāhǎra) on the S., varying greatly in breadth m its E. and W. halves. The W. part of this sea-board has the great chain of Atlas interposed as a barrier against the torrid sands of the Sāhǎra; and the N. slope of this range, descending in a series of natural terraces to the sea, watered by many streams, and lying on the S. margin of the N. temperate zone, farms one of the finest regions on the surface of the earth. But, at the great bend in the coast above described (namely, about C. Bon), the chain of the Atlas ceases; and, from the shores of the Lesser Syrtis, the desert comes close to the sea, leaving only narrow slips of habitable land, till, at the bottom of another great bend to the S., forming the Greater Syrtis (Gulf of Sidra), the sand and water meet (about 19° E. long.), forming a natural division between the 2 parts of N. Africa. E. of this point lay Cyrenaica, the history of which is totally distinct from that of the W. portion, with which we are now concerned. For what follows, certain land-marks must be borne in mind. Following the coast E. of the Fretum Gaditanum (Straits of Gibraltar) to near 2° W. long., we reach the largest river of N. Africa, the Malva, Mulucha, or Molocbath (Wady Mulwia or Mohalou), which now forms the boundary of Ma- |
Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/83
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