Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed. From http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=africa-geo&highlight=thenae (Thenae is mentioned on pp. 2, 5 & 8) A´FRICA ( Ἀφρική: Adj. Afer, Africus, Africanus), the name by which the quarter of the world still called Africa was known to the Romans, who received it from the Carthaginians, and applied it first to that part of Africa with which they became first acquainted, namely, the part about Carthage, and afterwards to the whole continent. In the latter sense the Greeks used the name Libya ( Ἀφρική only occurring as the Greek form of the Latin Africa); and the same name is continually used by Roman writers. In this work the continent is treated of under LIBYA; and the present article is confined to that portion of N. Africa which the Romans called specifically Africa, or Africa Propria (or Vera), or Africa Provincia ( Ἀφρικὴ ἡ ἰδίως ), and which may be roughly described as the old Carthaginian territory, constituted a Roman province after the Third Punic War (B.C. 146). 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° 53 ′ 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 far 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 (S āhăra) on the S., varying greatly in breadth in 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 S āhăra; 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, forms 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 Molochath (Wady Mulwia or Mohalou ), which now forms the boundary of Marocco [1.68] and Algier, and was an equally important frontier in ancient times. The next point of reference is a headland at about 4° E. long., the site of the ancient city of SALDAE E. of this, again, some-what beyond 6° E. long., is another frontier river, the AMPSAGA (Wady el Kebir ): further on, near 8° E. long., another river, the RUBRICATUS ( Wady Seibous ), at the mouth of which stood HIPPO REGIUS (Bonah ); and, about 1° further E., the river TUSCA (Wady-ez-Zain ). The last great river of this coast, W. of the great turning point (C. Bon ), is the BAGRADAS (Majerdah ), falling into the sea just below C. Farina, the W. headland (as C. Bon is the eastern) of the great Gulf of Tunis, near the centre of which a rocky promontory marks the site of Carthage. Lastly, let us note the bottom of the great gulf called the Lesser Syrtis, at the S. ex-tremity of the E. coast already noticed, with the neighbouring great salt-lake of Al-Sibkah, the ancient Palus Tritonis, between 33° and 34° N. lat.; N. and NW. of which the country is for the most part desert, as far as the SE. slopes of the Atlas chain. The country immediately around the lake itself forms the E.-most of a series of oases, which stretch from E. to W. along the S. foot of the Atlas chain, and along the N. margin of the S āth ăra, and thus mark out a natural S. frontier for this portion of N. Africa. In the earliest times recorded, the whole N. coast of the continent W. of Egypt was peopled by various tribes of the great Libyan race, who must be care-fully distinguished from the Ethiopian or negro races of the interior. S. of the Libyan tribes, and on the N. limits of the S āhăra, dwelt the GAETULI and GARAMANTES and S. of these, beyond the desert, the proper Ethiopians or negroes. The Libyans were of the Caucasian family of mankind, and for the most part of nomade habits. At periods so early as to be still mythical to the Greeks, colonists from the W. coasts of Asia settled on the shores of Africa, and especially on the part now treated of. Sallust has preserved a curious tradition respecting the earliest Asiatic colonists, to which a bare reference is enough (Jugurth. 18). The chief colonies were those of the Phoenicians, such as HIPPO ZARYTUS, UTICA, TUNES, HADRUMETUM, LEPTIS, and above all, though one of the latest, CARTHAGO In these settlements, the Phoenicians established themselves as traders rather than conquerors; and they do not seem to have troubled themselves about bringing the native peoples into subjection, except so far as was needful for their own security. Carthage, which was built on the most commanding position on the whole coast, gradually surpassed all the other Phoenician colonies, and brought them, as allies, if not as subjects, to acknowledge her supremacy. She also founded colonies of her own along the whole coast, from the Straits to the bottom of the Great Syrtis. The question of the extent and character of the Carthaginian dominion belongs to another article [ CARTHAGO ] ; but it is necessary here to advert briefly to its condition when the Romans first became acquainted with the country. At that time the proper territory of Carthage was confined within very narrow limits around the city itself. The sea-coast W. and S. of C. Bon, as far as the river Rubricatus and Hippo Regius on the W. and a point N. of Hadrumetum (about 36° N. lat.) on the S., and the parts inland along the river Bagradas, and between it and the sea, appear to have formed the original territory of Carthage, corresponding nearly to the region afterwards known as ZEUGITANA, but reaching further along the W. coast, and not so far inland on the SW. This, or even less, was the extent of country at first included by the Romans under the name of Africa, and to this very day it bears the same name, Frikiah or Afrikeah. It is remarkable that, neither in the wars of Agathocles nor of the Romans with Carthage in Africa, does any mention occur of military operations out of this limited district. But still, before the wars with Rome, the territory of Carthage had received some accession. On the E. coast, S. of 36° N. lat., flourishing maritime cities had been established, some--as Leptis and Hadrumetum---even before Carthage, and some by the Carthaginians. These cities were backed by a fertile but narrow plain, bounded on the W. by a range of mountains, which formed the original BYZACIUM a district, according to Pliny ( Plin. Nat. 250 Roman miles in circuit, and extending S.-wards as far as Thenae, opposite the island of Cercina (in about 34° 30 ′ N. lat.), where the Lesser Syrtis was considered to begin. This district had been added to the possessions of the Carthaginians, and Polybius ( Plb. 3.23 ) speaks of their anxiety to conceal it from the knowledge of the Romans, as well as their commercial settlements further along the coast, called EMPORIA This word, Emporia, though afterwards used as the name of a district, denoted at first, according to its proper meaning, settlements established for the sake of commerce; and it appears to have included all the Phoenician and Carthaginian colonies along the whole coast from the N. extremity of the Lesser Syrtis to the bottom of the Greater Syrtis. Any possession of the E. part of this region, in a strictly territorial sense, would have been worthless from the nature of the country, but the towns were maintained as centres of commerce with the inland tribes, and as an additional security, besides the desert, against any danger from the Greek states of Cyrenaica.