Emperor Hadrian's father, i. e., Ælius Hadrianus few long or easily-navigated rivers.-The Greeks Afer. would seem to have been acquainted, from a very ear AFRANIUS, I. a Latin comic poet, who flourished ly period, with the Mediterranean coast of this counabout 100 B.C. Cicero (Brut., 45) says, that he imita- try, since every brisk north wind would carry their ted C. Titius, and praises him for acuteness of percep-vessels to its shores. Hence we find Homer already tion, as well as for an easy style. (" Homo perargutus, evincing a knowledge of this portion of the continent. in fabulis quidem etiam, ut scitis, disertus.") Horace (Od., 4, 84.) A tawny-coloured population roamed speaks of him as an imitator of Menander. (Epist., along this extensive region, to whom the name of Lib2, 1, 57.-Compare Cic., de Fin., 1, 3.) Afranius yans (Aibveç) was given by the Greeks, a corruption, himself admits, in his Compitales, that he derived probably, of some native term; while the country ocmany even of his plots from Menander and other cupied by them was denominated Libya (n Aibún). Greek writers. In other instances, however, he made To this same coast belonged, in strictness, the lower the manners and customs of his own country the basis portion of Egypt; but the name of this latter region of his pieces. Quintilian (10, 1, 100) praises the tal- had reached the Greeks as early as, if not earlier than, ents of Afranius, but censures him, at the same time, that of Libya, and the two therefore remained always for his frequent and disgusting obscenities. Of all his disunited. Egypt, in consequence, was regarded as a works, only some titles, and 266 verses remain, which separate country, until the now firmly-established idea are to be found in the Corpus Poëtarum of Maittaire, of three continents superinduced the necessity of atLond., 1713, fol., and also in the Collectio Pisaurensis. taching it to one of the three. By some, therefore, it (Bahr, Gesch. Röm. Lit., vol. 1, p. 111.-Schöll, Hist. was considered as a part of Asia, while others made Lit. Rom., vol. 1, p. 139.)-II. Nepos, a commander the Nile the dividing limit, and assigned part of Libya who had served under Pompey, and was named by him to Egypt, while the portion east of the Nile was made consul, A.U.C. 694, a period when Pompey was be- to belong to the Asiatic continent. As regarded the ginning to dread the power and ambition of Cæsar. extent of Libya inland, but little was at that time known. Afranius, however, performed nothing remarkable at Popular belief made the African continent of small dithis particular time, having a distaste for public affairs. mensions, and supposed it to be washed on the south Fourteen years later, when Pompey and Cæsar had by the great river Oceanus, which encircled also the come to an open rupture, Afranius was in Spain, as the whole of what was then supposed to be the flat and lieutenant of the former, along with Petreius, who held circular disk of the earth. In this state, or very nearly a similar appointment. Cæsar entered the country at so, Herodotus found the geographical knowledge and this period, and the two lieutenants, uniting their for- opinions of his contemporaries. The historian oppoces, awaited his approach in an advantageous position ses many of the speculations of the day on this subject near Ilerda (the modern Lerida). Cæsar was defeat-(4, 36, seqq.); he rejects the earth-encompassing Oceed in the first action, and two days afterward saw anus, as well as the idea that the earth was round as himself blockaded, as it were, in his very camp, by the if made by a machine. He condemns also the division sudden rise of the two rivers between which it was into Europe, Asia, and Africa, on account of the great situate. His genius, however, triumphed over every disproportion of these regions. Compelled, however, obstacle, and he eventually compelled the two lieu- to acquiesce in the more prevalent opinions of the day, tenants of Pompey to submit without a second encoun- he recognises Libya as distinct from Egypt, or, more ter. They disbanded their troops and returned to It-properly speaking, makes the Nile the dividing line, aly, after having promised never to bear arms against Cæsar for the future. Afranius, however, either forgetful of his word, or having in some way released himself from the obligation he had assumed, took part with Pompey in the battle of Pharsalia, being intrusted with the command of the right wing, although his capitulation in Spain had laid him open to the charge of having betrayed the interests of his chief. After the battle of Thapsus, Afranius and Faustus Sylla moved along the coast of Africa, with a small body of troops, in the design of passing over to Spain, and joining the remains of Pompey's party in that quarter. They were encountered, however, by Sittius, one of the partisans of Cæsar, who defeated and made them prisoners. It was the intention of Sittius to have saved their lives, but they were both massacred by his soldiers. (Cas., Bell. Civ., 1, 38.-Cic., ep. ad Att., 1, 18.—Plut., Vit. Pomp-Sueton., Vit. Cæs., 34.-Florus, 4, 2.)-III. Potitus, a plebeian, in the reign of Caligula, who, in a spirit of foolish flattery, bound himself by an oath, that he would depart from existence in case the emperor recovered from a dangerous malady under which he was labouring. Caligula was restored to health, and Potitus compelled to fulfil his oath. (Dio Cass., 59, 8.-Compare the remarks of Reimar, ad loc., on the belief prevalent throughout the ancient world, that the life of an individual could be prolonged, if another would lay down his own in its stead.) though, from his own private conviction, it is easy to perceive that he himself takes for the eastern limit of Africa, what is regarded as such at the present day. None of the later geographers, down to the time of Ptolemy, appear to have disturbed this arrangement. Eratosthenes, Timosthenes, and Artemidorus, all adopt it; Strabo also does the same, though he considers the Arabian Gulf, with the isthmus to the north, as affording the far more natural boundary on the east. As Alexandrea, however, was built to the west of the mouths of the Nile, the canal which led off to this city was regarded as a part of the eastern boundary of the continent, and hence we find the city belonging on one side to Libya, and on the other to Asia. (Hierocles, Bellum Alexandr., c. 14.) The Romans, as in most of their other geographical views, followed here also the usages of the Greeks, and hence Mela (1, 1) remarks," Quod terrarum jacet a freto ad Nilum, Africam vocamus." As, however, in their subdivisions of territory, the district of Marmarica was added to the government of Africa, they began gradually to contract the limits of Libya, and to consider the Catabathmus Magnus as the dividing point. Hence we find the same Mela remarking (1, 8), "Catabathmus, vallis devera in Ægyptum, finit Africam." In consequence of this new arrangement, Egypt on both sides of the Nile began to be reckoned a part of the continent of Asia. (Egyptus Asia prima pars, inter CatabathAFRICA, one of the main divisions of the ancient mum et Arabas."-Mela, 1, 9.) Ptolemy laid aside, world, known to history for upward of three thousand in his day, all these arbitrary points of separation, and, years; yet, notwithstanding its ancient celebrity, and assuming the Arabian Gulf as the true and natural dinotwithstanding its vicinity to Europe, still in a great viding line on the east, made Egypt a part of Africa, measure eluding the examination of science. Modern and added to the same continent the whole western observation and discoveries make it to be a vast penin-coast of the same gulf, which had before been regardsula, 5000 miles in length, and almost 4600 in breadth, ed as an appendage of Arabia. (Mannert, 10, pt. 2, presenting in an area of nearly 13,430,000 square miles, p. 1, segg.)-The name of Africa seems to have been originally applied by the Romans to the country around Carthage, the first part of the continent with which they became acquainted, and the appellation is said to have been derived from a small Carthaginian district on the northern coast, called Frigi. (Ritter, Erdkunde, 1, p. 955, 2d ed.) Hence, even when the name had become applied to the whole continent, there still remained, in Roman geography, the district of Africa Proper, on the Mediterranean coast, corresponding to the modern kingdom of Tunis, with part of that of Tripoli. The term Libya, on the other hand, though used by the Greeks to designate the entire country, became limited with the Romans to a part merely; and thus we have with the latter, the region of Libya, extending along the coast from the Greater Syrtis to Egypt, and stretching inland to the deserts.-The knowledge which Herodotus possessed of this continent was far from extensive. He considered Africa as terminating north of the equinoctial line; and, even in these narrow limits, Egypt alone, ranking it as a part of Africa in fact, is clearly described. If we exclude Egypt, the acquaintance possessed by the historian relative to the other parts of the continent, and which is founded on the information imparted by others, follows merely three lines of direction: one proceeds along the Nile, and reaches probably the limit of modern discoveries in that quarter; another, leaving the temple and Oasis of Ammon, loses itself in the great desert; while a third advances along the Mediterranean coast as far as the environs of Carthage. (Malte-Brun, 1, p. 26, Brussels ed.) The natives of Africa are divided by Herodotus into two races, the Africans, or, to adopt the Greek phraseology, Libyans, and the Ethiopians; one possessing the northern, the other the southern part (4, 197). By these appear to be meant the Moors, and the Negroes, or the darker-coloured nations of the interior. The common boundary of the Africans and Ethiopians in ancient times may be placed at the southern border of the Great Desert. Hanno found the Ethiopians in possession of the western coast, about the parallel of 19°; and Pliny (5, 31) places them at five journeys beyond Cerne. At present the negroes are not found higher up than the Senegal river, or about 17°, and that only in the inland parts. (Rennell, Geography of Herodotus, p. 427, seqq.) Nothing, however, can be more indeterminate than the terms Ethiopia and Ethiopian; and it is certain that many distinct races were included under the latter denomination. (Vid. Ethiopia.) The whole of Africa, except where it is joined to Asia, was known by the ancients in general to be surrounded by the sea; but of its general figure and extension towards the south they had no accurate knowledge. There is strong reason, however, to believe, that, at an era anterior to the earliest records of history, the circumnavigation of Africa was accomplished by the Phoenicians in the service of Necho, king of Egypt. Herodotus, to whom we are indebted for the knowledge of this interesting fact, speaking of the peninsular figure of the continent of Africa, says (4, 42): "This discovery was first made by Necho, king of Egypt, as far as we are able to judge. When he had desisted from opening the canal that leads from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf, he sent certain Phoenicians in ships, with orders to pass by the Columns of Hercules into the sea that lies to the north of Africa, and then to return to Egypt. These Phoenicians thereupon set sail from the Red Sea, and entered into the Southern Ocean. On the approach of autumn, they landed in Africa, and planted some grain in the quarter to which they had come when this was ripe and they had cut it down, they put to sea again. Having spent two years in this way, they in the third passed the Columns of Hercules, and returned to Egypt. Their relation may obtain credit from others, but to me it seems impossible to be believed; for they affirmed, that, as they sailed around the coast of Africa, they had the sun on their right hand." The report which Herodotus thought so strange as to throw discredit on the whole narrative, namely, that in passing round Africa the navigators had the sun to the right, affords to us, as has been well remarked, the strongest presumption in favour of its truth, since this never could have been imagined in an age when astronomy was yet in its infancy. The Phonicians must of course have had the sun on their right after having passed the line. (Larcher; ad Herod., l. c.— vol. 3, p. 458.-Compare Rennell, Geography of Herodotus, p. 718.) Many writers, however, have laboured to prove that the voyage, in all probability, never took place; that the time in which it is said to have been performed was too short for such an enterprise at that early day; in a word, that the undertaking was altogether beyond any means which navigation at that era could command. (Gossellin, Recherches, &c., vol. 1, p. 199, seqq.-Mannert, 1, p. 21, seqq.-Malte-Brun, 1, p. 30.) But the learned arguments of Rennell impart to the tradition a strong aspect of probability. (Rennell, Geography of Herodotus, p. 672, seqq.-Compare Larcher, ad Herod., I. c., vol. 3, p. 458, seqq.-Murray, Account of discoveries in Africa, 1, p. 10, segg.) The date of this first circumnavigation of Africa is supposed to be about 600 B.C. In that rude stage of the art of navigation, however, the knowledge of a passage by the Southern Ocean was as unavailable for any mercantile or practical purposes, as the discovery of a northwest passage in modern days. The precarious and tardy nature of the voyage, as well as the great expense attending it, would necessarily preclude its being made the channel of a regular commerce; nor was there any sufficient inducement for repeating the attempt, as the articles of merchandise most in request were to be had much nearer home. Exaggerated representations, moreover, of the frightful coast, and of the stormy and boundless ocean into which it projected, would naturally concur in intimidating future adventurers. Accordingly, we are informed by Herodotus (4, 43), that Sataspes, a Persian nobleman, who was condemned by' Xerxes to be impaled, had his sentence commuted for the task of sailing round the African continent. He made the attempt from the west, passing the Columns of Hercules, and sailing southward along the western coast for several months; till baffled probably by the adverse winds and currents, or finding himself carried out into an immense and apparently boundless sea, he in despair abandoned the enterprise as impracticable, and returned by the way of the Straits to Egypt; upon which the monarch ordered the original sentence to be executed upon him. These attempts to circumnavigate Africa were made under the direction of the most powerful monarchs of the age; the next was undertaken by a private adventurer. We are informed by Strabo (98), who cites Posidonius as his authority, that a certain Eudoxus, a native of Cyzicus, having been deputed by his fellow-citizens to convey their solemn offering to the Isthmian celebration at Corinth, went, after having executed this commission, to Egypt, and had several conferences with the reigning monarch, Euergetes II., and also with his ministers, respecting various topics, but particularly concerning the navigation of the Nile in the upper part of its course. man was an enthusiast in topographical researches, and not wanting in erudition. It happened that, about this same time, the guard-vessels on the coast of the Arabian Gulf picked up an Indian, whom they found alone in a bark and half dead. He was brought to the king; but no one understanding his language, the monarch ordered him to be instructed in Greck; and when he could speak that tongue, the Indian stated that, having set sail from the coast of India, he had lost his way, and had seen all his companions perish through famine. He promised, if the king would send him back, to show 79 This the way to India to those whom the monarch should | left on some desert island; and the latter, having dis charge with this commission. Euergetes assented, and covered this, escaped into the Roman province, and Eudoxus was one of those directed to go on this er- thence passed over into Spain. Here he constructed rand. He sailed with a cargo of various articles calcu- two vessels, one intended to keep near the coast, the lated for presents, and brought back in exchange aro- other to sail in deep water; and, having taken on board matics and precious stones. He was disappointed, agricultural implements, various kinds of grain, and however, in the expectations of profit which he had en- skilful artificers, he set sail on a second voyage, resolvtertained, since the king appropriated all the return-ing, if the navigation became too long, to winter in the cargo to himself. After the death of Euergetes, Cleo-island which he had previously discovered. At this patra, his widow, assumed the reins of government, and point, unfortunately, the narrative of Posidonius, as sent Eudoxus on a second voyage to India with a rich- detailed by Strabo, stops short, leaving us totally in the er supply of merchandise than before. On his return, dark as to the result. Pomponius Mela (3, 9, 10) tells he was carried by the winds to the coast of Ethiopia, us, on the alleged authority of Cornelius Nepos, that where, landing at several points, he conciliated the na- Eudoxus actually made the circuit of Africa, adding tives by distributing among them corn, wine, and dried some particulars of the most fabulous_description figs, things of which until then they had been ignorant. respecting the nations whom he saw. But no deHe received in exchange water and guides. He noted pendance can be placed on this doubtful authority; down also some words of their language; and found, whereas the narrative of Posidonius bears every mark moreover, in this quarter, the extremity of a ship's prow, of authenticity. (Compare Murray, 1, p. 13, seqq., carved in the shape of a horse's head. This fragment, and Malte-Brun, 1, p. 68, where the voyage of Eudoxus he was told, had belonged to a shipwrecked vessel that is defended against the remarks of Gossellin in his Recame from the west. Having reached Egypt, he found cherches, &c., 1, p. 217, segg.) These are the only the son of Cleopatra on the throne, and he was again instances on record in which the circumnavigation of despoiled of the fruits of his voyage, being charged Africa was either performed or attempted by the anwith having converted many things to his own use. cients. Other voyages were, however, undertaken As regards the fragment of the shipwrecked vessel with a view to the exploration of certain parts of its brought home with him, he exposed it in the market- unknown coasts. The most memorable is that perplace for the examination of pilots and masters of ves- formed along the western coast by Hanno, about 570 sels, who informed him that it must have belonged to years before the Christian era. The Carthaginians a ship from Gades (Cadiz). The grounds of their be- fitted out this expedition with a view partly to colonilief were as follows: the traders of Gades, according zation and partly to discovery. The armament conto them, nad large vessels; but the less wealthy, small-sisted of sixty ships, of fifty oars each, on board of which er ones, which they called horses, from the ornament were embarked persons of both sexes to the number of on their prows, and which they used in fishing along 30,000. After two days' sail from the Columns of the coasts of Mauritania as far as the river Lixus. Hercules, they founded, in the midst of an extensive Some shipmasters even recognised the fragment as hav- plain, the city of Thymiaterium. In two days more ing belonged to a certain vessel of this class, which, they came to a wooded promontory, and, after sailing with many others, had attempted to advance beyond round a bay, founded successively four other cities. the Lixus, and had never after been heard of. From They then passed the mouth of a great river, called the these statements Eudoxus conceived the possibility of Lixus, flowing from lofty mountains inhabited by incircumnavigating Africa. He returned home, disposed hospitable Ethiopians, who lived in caves. Thence of all his effects, and put to sea again with the money they proceeded for three days along a desert coast to a thus obtained, intending to attempt the enterprise in small island, to which they gave the name of Cerne, question. Having visited Dicearchia, Massilia, and and where they founded another colony; and afterward other commercial cities, he everywhere announced his sailed southward along the coast, till their farther progproject, and collected funds and adventurers. He was ress was arrested by the failure of provisions. (Hann. at length enabled to equip one large and two small ves- Peripl., in Geogr. G. Min., ed. Gail., 1, p. 113, sels, well-stored with provisions and merchandise, man- seqq.) With regard to the extent of coast actually exned chiefly by volunteers, and carrying, moreover, a plored by this expedition, the brief and indistinct narpoinpous train of artisans, physicians, and young slaves rative affords ample room for learned speculation and skilled in music. Having set sail, he was carried on his controversy. According to Rennell (Geogr. of Herod., way at first by favourable breezes from the west. The p. 719, seqq.), the island of Cerne is the modern Arcrews, however, became fatigued, and he was compell-guin, the Lixus is the Senegal, and the voyage extended, though reluctantly, to keep nearer the shore, and ed a little beyond Sierra Leone. M. Gossellin, on the soon experienced the disaster which he had dreaded, other hand (Recherches, &c., 1, p. 61, seqq.), contends his ship grounding on a sandbank. As the vessel did that the whole course was along the coast of Mauritanot immediately go to pieces, he was enabled to save nia; that the Lixus was the modern Lucos, Cerne was the cargo and great part of her timbers. With the Fedala, and the voyage extended little beyond Cape latter be constructed another vessel of the size of one Nun. Malte-Brun (1, p. 33, Brussels ed.) carries of fifty oars. Resuming his route, he came to a part Hanno as far as the bays called the Gulf dos Medaios, inhabited by nations who spoke the same language, as and the Gulf of Gonzalo de Cintra, on the shore of the he thought, with those on the eastern coast whom he desert: and he is induced to assume this distance, in had visited in his second voyage from India, and of some degree, from the fact of Himilco, another Carwhose tongue he had noted down some words. Hence thaginian, having advanced in the same direction as he inferred that these were a part of the great Ethio- far to the north as the coasts of Britain, a voyage much pian race. The smallness of his vessels, however, in- longer and more perilous than that said to have been duced him at length to return, and he remarked on his performed by Hanno along the African coast. (Plin., way back a deserted island, well supplied with wood 7, 67-Fest. Avien. Ora Marit., v. 80, seqq.) A and water. Having reached Mauritania, he sold his translation of the Periplus, however, will be found unvessels and repaired to the court of Bocchus, and ad- der the article Hanno, from which the student may vised that king to send out a fleet of discovery along draw his own conclusions. At a much later period the coast of Africa. The monarch's friends, however, this part of the coast excited the curiosity of the Roinspired him with the fear that his kingdom might, in man conquerors. Polybius, the celebrated historian, this way, become gradually exposed to the visits and was sent out by Scipio on an exploratory voyage in incursions of strangers. He made fair promises, there- the same direction; but, from the meager account prefore, to Eudoxus, but secretly intended to have him served by Pliny, M. Gossellin infers that he did not sail quite so far as the Carthaginian navigator had done. | length to the continent in question. His knowledge -Let us now turn our attention, for a moment, to the of the western coast is far from extensive or accurate. interior of the country. We have already alluded in In passing the straits, we find, according to him, a general terms to the knowledge possessed by Herodo-mountain called by the Greeks Atlas, and by the bartus of Africa. To what we have stated on this sub- barians Dyris: advancing thence towards the west, ject may be added the following curious narrative, we see Cape Cotes, and afterward the city of Tinga, which we receive from the historian himself (2, 32). situate opposite to Gades in Spain. To the south of "I was also informed," says Herodotus, "by some Tinga is the Sinus Emporicus, where the Phoenicians Cyreneans, that in a journey they took to the oracle of used to have establishments. After this the coast Ammon, they had conferred with Etearchus, king of bends in, and proceeds to meet the extremity of the the Ammonians; and that, among other things, dis-perpendicular line on the opposite side. We may coursing with him concerning the sources of the Nile, pardon Strabo for too lightly rejecting the discoveries as of a thing altogether unknown, Etearchus acquaint- of the Carthaginians along the western coast, since ed them, that certain Nasamones, a nation of Libya in-nothing proves him to have read the periplus of Hanno. habiting the Syrtis, and a tract of land of no great ex- An error, however, which cannot be excused, is that tent eastward of the Syrtis, came into his country, and, of placing Mount Atlas directly on the straits, since he being asked by him if they had learned anything touch- might have learned from the account of Polybius, that ing the Libyan deserts, answered that some petulant this mountain was situate far beyond, on the western young men, sons to divers persons of great power coast, and giving name to the adjacent ocean. With among them, had, after many extravagant actions, re-regard to the eastern shores of Africa, Strabo cites a solved to send five of their number to the coast of periplus of Artemidorus, from the Straits of Dira Libya, to see if they could make any farther discov-(Bab-el-Mandeb) to the Southern Horn, which, from eries than others had done. The young men chosen a comparison of distances as given by Ptolemy and by their companions to make this expedition, having Marinus of Tyre, answers to Cape Bandellans, to the furnished themselves with water and other necessary south of Cape Gardafui. (Gossellin, Recherches, vol. provisions, first passed through the inhabited country; 1, p. 177, seqq.) Here a desert coast for a long time and when they had likewise traversed that region which arrested the progress of maritime discovery on the abounds in wild beasts, they entered the deserts, ma- part of the Greeks.-The knowledge of the day then, king their way towards the west. After they had trav-respecting the eastern and western coasts of Africa, elled many days through the sands, they at length saw appears to have extended no farther than 120 north some trees growing in a plain, and they approached, latitude, or perhaps 12° 30′. The two sides were and began to gather the fruit which was on them; and supposed to approximate, and between the Hesperii while they were gathering, several little men, less than Ethiopes to the west, and the Cinnamomifera regio, men of middle size, came up, and, having seized them, to the east, the distance was supposed to be comparacarried them away. The Nasamones did not at all tively small. (Strabo, 119.) This intervening space understand what they said, neither did they understand was exposed to excessive heats, according to the comthe speech of the Nasamones. However, they conduct- mon belief, and which forbade the traveller's penetraed them over vast morasses to a city built on a great river ting within its precincts; while, at a little distance running from the west to the east, and abounding in beyond, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans were thought crocodiles; where the Nasamones found all the inhab- to unite. The hypothesis which we have here stated itants black, and of no larger size than their guides. made Africa terminate at about one half of its true To this relation Etearchus added, as the Cyreneans length, and represented this continent as much smalle assured me, that the Nasamones returned safe to their than Europe. (Plin., 2, 108.-Id., 6, 33.—Pomp. own country, and that the men to whom they had thus Mela, 1, 4.) Still it was the one generally adoptcome were all enchanters." (Compare the remarks ed by the Alexandrean school. (Eratosthenes, ap. under the article Nasamones.) Rennell (Geogr. of Strab., passim.-Crates, ap. Gemin., Elem. Astron., Herod., p. 432) observes, that it is extremely probable c. 13.-Aratus, Phænom., v. 537.—Cleanthes, ap, that the river seen by the Nasamones was that which, Gemin., l. c.— -Cleomedes, Meteor., 1, 6, &c.) On according to the present state of our geography, is the other hand, the opinion of Hipparchus, which united known to pass by Tombuctoo, and thence eastward eastern Africa to India (Hipp., ap Strab., 6), remained through the centre of Africa (in effect, the river com- for a long period contemned, until Marinus of Tyre monly known by the name of Niger). What is called and Ptolemy had adopted it. This adoption, however, the inhabited country in this narrative, he makes the did not prevent the previous hypothesis from keeping same with the modern Fezzan, in which also he finds its ground, in some measure, in the west of Europe the sandy and desert. region traversed by the Nasa- (Macrob., Somn. Scip., 2, 9.—Isidor., Orig., 14, 5), mones. It appears certain to him, as well as to Larcher, where it contributed to the discovery of the route by that the city in question was the modern Tombuctoo. the Cape of Good Hope. (Malte-Brun, 1, p. 67, Malte-Brun, however (1, p. 28, Brussels ed.), thinks it seqq., Brussels ed.)-Africa, according to Pliny (6, impossible that Tombuctoo can be the place alluded 33), is three thousand six hundred and forty-eight Roto, since it is separated from the country of the Nasa- man miles from east to west. This measure, estimamones by so many deserts, rivers, and mountains.-In ted in stadia of seven hundred to a degree, would seem the days of Strabo, the knowledge possessed by the to represent the length of the coast from the valley of ancients of Africa was little, if at all, improved. The the Catabathmus to Cape Nun, which was also the Mediterranean coast and the banks of the Nile were limit of the voyage of Polybius, according to Gossellin, the only parts frequented by the Greeks. Their opin- (Recherches, 1, p. 117, seqq.) The length of the inion respecting the continent itself was that it formed habited part of Africa was supposed nowhere to exceed a trapezium, or else that the coast from the Columns two hundred and fifty Roman miles. In passing, of Hercules to Pelusium might be considered as the however, from the frontiers of Cyrenaica across the base of a right-angled triangle (Strabo, 17, p. 825, ed. deserts and the country of the Garamantes, Agrippa Casaub.), of which the Nile formed the perpendicular (Plin., l. c.) gave to this part of the world nine bunside, extending to Ethiopia and the ocean, while the dred and ten miles of extent. This measure, which hypothenuse was the coast comprehended between the we owe, without doubt, to the expedition against the extremity of this line and the straits. The apex of the Garamantes, conducts us beyond the Agades and Bortriangle reached beyond the limits of the habitable nou, but does not reach the Niger. Whatever may be world, and was consequently regarded as inaccessible: the discussions to which the very corrupt state of the hence Strabo declares his inability to assign any precise Roman numerals in the pages of Pliny are calculated amus. [rieur de l'Afrique, Acad. des Inscr., vol. 26, p. 64.) Others declare for the Bahr-el-Misselad. (Rennell. Geogr. of Herod., p. 418.) Neither, however, of these rivers suits the description of Claudian (Laud. Stilich., 1, v. 253), reproducing the image of the Nile by the abundance of its waters: "simili mentitus gurgite Nilum." In the midst of so many contradictions, and in a region still almost unknown, the boldness of ignorance may hazard any assertion, and pretend to decide any point, while the modesty of true science resigns itself to doubt. to give rise, one thing is sufficiently evident, that the Romans knew only a third part of Africa. Pliny, moreover, gives us an account of two Roman expeditions into the interior of Africa. The first is that of Suetonius Paulinus. (Plin., 5, 1.) This officer, having set out from the river Lixus with some Roman troops, arrived in ten days at Mount Atlas, passed over some miles of the chain, and met, in a desert of black sand, with a river called Ger. This appears to have been the Gyr of Segelmessa. The second expedition was that of Cornelius Balbus. "We have subdued," says Pliny (5, 5), "the nation of the Phazanii, together AFRICANUS, I. Sextus Julius, a native of Palestine, with their cities Alcle and Cillaba: and likewise Cyd- belonging to a family that had come originally from From these a chain of mountains, called the Africa. He lived under the Emperor Heliogabalus, Black by reason of their colour, extends in a direction and fixed his residence at Emmaüs. This city havfrom east to west. Then come deserts, and afterward ing been ruined, he was deputed to wait on the emMatelgæ, a town of the Garamantes, the celebrated peror and obtain an order for rebuilding it, in which fountain of Debris, whose waters are hot from midday mission he succeeded, and the new city took the name to midnight, and cold from midnight to midday; and of Nicopolis. (Chron. Paschale, ann. 223.) About also Garama, the capital of the nation. All these A.D. 231, Julius Africanus visited Alexandrea to hear countries have been subjugated by the Roman arms, the public discourses of Heraclas. He had been and over them did Cornelius Balbus triumph." Pliny brought up in paganism, but he subsequently embraced then enumerates a large crowd of cities and tribes, the Christian faith, attained the priesthood, and died whose names were said to have adorned the triumph. at an advanced age. He was acquainted with the Malte-Brun, after a fair discussion of this subject, is Hebrew tongue, applied himself to various branches of opinion that Balbus must have penetrated as far as of scientific study, but devoted himself particularly to Bornou and Dongala, which appear to coincide with the perusal and investigation of the sacred writings, on the Boin and Daunagi of Pliny. The black mountains which he published a commentary. The work, howwere probably those of Tibesti. (Malte-Brun, 1, p. ever, that most contributed to his reputation, was a 85, Brussels ed.)—Marinus of Tyre, who came before Chronography in five books (IIevτábibλiov xpovodo Ptolemy, pretended to have read the itinerary of a Ro- yikóv), commencing with the Creation, which he man expedition under Septimius Flaccus and Julius fixes at 5499 B.C., and continued down to A.D. 221. Maternus. (Ptol., 1, 8, seqq.) These officers set This calculation forms the basis of a particular era, of out from Leptis Magna for Garama, the capital of the which use is made in the Eastern Church, and which Garamantes, which they found to be 5400 stadia from is styled the Historical Era, or that of the Historians the former city. Septimius, after this, marched di- of Alexandrea. Fragments of this work are preserved rectly south for the space of three months, and came by Eusebius, Syncellus, Joannes Malala, Theophanes, to a country called Agyzimba, inhabited by negroes. Cedrenus, and in the Chronicon Paschale. Photius Marinus, after some reasoning, fixes the position of says of this production, that, though concise, it omits this country at 24° south of the equator. A strict nothing important. (Biblioth., vol. 1, p. 7, ed. Bekker.) application of the laws of historical criticism will con- Eusebius has most profited by it, and, in his Chronogsign to the regions of fable this Roman expedition, un-raphy, often copies him. He has preserved for us known even to the Romans themselves. How can we also a letter of Africanus, addressed to Aristides, the possibly admit, that a general executed a march more object of which is to reconcile the discrepance between astonishing than even that of Alexander, and that no St. Matthew and St. Luke on the question of our Sacontemporary writer has preserved the least mention viour's genealogy. We have also another letter of of it! At what epoch, or under what reign, are we his, addressed to Origen, in which he contests the auto place this event? How, moreover, could an army, thenticity of the story of Susanna. Africanus likewise in three months, traverse a space equal to eleven hun- composed a large work in nine, or, according to others, dred French leagues? (Malte-Brun, 1, p. 128, Brus-in fourteen, or even twenty-four books, entitled KεOTOL, sels ed.) The form of Africa was totally changed by "Cestuses." This name was given it by the author, Ptolemy. We have seen that Strabo and Pliny re- because, like the Cestus of Venus, his collection congarded this part of the world as an island, terminating tained a mingled variety of pleasing things selected within the equinoctial line. The Atlantic Ocean was from numerous works. In it were discussed questions thought to join the Indian Sea under the torrid zone, of natural history, medicine, agriculture, chemistry, the heats of which were regarded as the most powerful &c. In the part that principally remains to us, and barrier to the circumnavigation of Africa. Ptolemy, which appears to have been extracted from the main who did not admit the communication of the Atlantic work in the eighth century, the art of war forms the with the Erythrean or Indian Sea, thought, on the topic of consideration. It is printed in the Mathematcontrary, that the western coast of Africa, after having ici veteres, Paris, 1693, fol., and also in the seventh formed a gulf of moderate depth, which he calls Hes- volume of the works of Meursius, Florence, 1746. It pericus ('Eoneрikós), extended indefinitely between has also been translated by Guischardt in his Mémoires south and west, while he believed that the eastern Militaires des Grecs et des Romains, 1758, 4to. From coast, after Cape Prasum, proceeded to join the coast some scattered fragments of other portions of the same of Asia below Catigara. (Ptol., 7, 3.) This opinion, work, it would appear to have been, in general, of no which made the Atlantic and Indian Oceans only large very valuable character. For example, in order to basins, separated the one from the other, had been prevent wine from turning, we are directed to write on supported by Hipparchus. The interior of Africa pre- the bottom of the vessel the words of the psalmist, sents, in the pages of Ptolemy, a mass of confused no- "Taste and see how sweet is the Lord!" Again, in tions. And yet he is the first ancient writer that an- order to drink a good deal of wine with impunity, we nounces with certainty the existence of the Niger, ob- must repeat, on taking the first glass, the 170th verse scurely indicated by Pliny. The most difficult point of the 8th book of the Iliad, "Jove thundered thrice to explain in the Central Africa of Ptolemy, is to know from the summits of Olympus." He gives us also what river he means by the Gyr. (Ptol., 4, 6.) Some other precepts for things less useful than curious in are in favour of the river of Bornou, or the Bahr-al- their natures, and which may serve to amuse an agriGazel. (D'Anville, Mem. sur les fleuves de l'inte-culturist; as, for example, how to force fruits to as |