Geography

​The Greater Syrtis has a circuit of about nine hundred and thirty stadia, and a diameter to its innermost recess of one thousand five hundred, and the width of its mouth is also about the same. The danger of both this Syrtis and the Lesser is that in many places the bottom is shoaly, and at the ebbs and flows it happens that some run aground on the shallows and strand, and a vessel that is saved is a rare thing. Therefore, they make their voyage along the coast at a distance, guarding against falling into the gulfs by being caught off their guard by the winds. Yet the love of danger makes all men try it, and especially those who make coasting voyages. As one sails into the Greater Syrtis, on the right after Cephalae, there is a lake of about three hundred stadia in length and seventy in width, discharging into the gulf, having also islets and an anchorage before its mouth. After the lake is a place called Aspis, and a harbor, the finest of those in the Syrtis. Continuous with this is the Tower of Euphrantas, the boundary of the former Carthaginian territory and of the Cyrenaica under Ptolemy. Then another place called Charax, which the Carthaginians used as an emporium, bringing wine and receiving in exchange juice and silphium from those who smuggled them from Cyrene. Then the Altars of the Philaeni. And after these, Automala, a fortress with a garrison, situated at the very innermost recess of the entire gulf. The parallel of latitude passing through this innermost recess is about one thousand stadia further south than that through Alexandria, and less than two thousand further south than that through Carthage. And it would coincide on one side with Heroonpolis, situated at the innermost recess of the Arabian Gulf, and on the other with the interior of the Masaesylians and the Maurusians. From here, the remaining distance along the coast to the city of Berenice is one thousand five hundred stadia. Above this stretch of coast, extending as far as the Altars of the Philaeni, dwell the people called Nasamones, a Libyan nation. And the intervening distance has but few harbors and scarce watering-places. There is a promontory called Pseudopenias, upon which Berenice is situated, next to a certain lake Tritonis, in which there is especially an islet, and upon it a temple of Aphrodite. There is also a Lake of the Hesperides, and a river Lathon discharges into it. Further inland from Berenice is the small promontory called Boreium, which, together with Cephalae, forms the mouth of the Syrtis. And Berenice lies opposite the promontories of the Peloponnesus, opposite the so-called Ichthys, and also opposite Zacynthus, at a sea distance of three thousand six hundred stadia. From this city, Marcus Cato, leading an army of more than ten thousand men, marched around the Syrtis on foot in thirty days, having divided his forces into parts for the sake of the watering-places. And he made the march on foot through deep sand and burning heat. After Berenice is the city of Taucheira, which they also call Arsinoe. Then Barke, formerly so called, but now Ptolemais. Then the promontory Phycus, which is low-lying but projects furthest to the north compared with the rest of the Libyan coast. And it lies opposite Taenarum in Laconia, at a sea distance of two thousand eight hundred stadia. There is also a small town of the same name as the promontory. And Apollonia, the seaport of the Cyrenaeans, is not far distant from Phycus, being about one hundred and seventy stadia, and one thousand from Berenice, and eighty from Cyrene, a great city situated on a trapezoid plain, as we saw it from the sea.

​And it is a foundation of the Theræans, colonists from a Laconian island which in ancient times they also called Calliste, as Callimachus also says: ‘Calliste once, but later named Thera, mother of my horse-famed fatherland.’ The seaport of the Cyrenaeans lies opposite the western promontory of Crete, Criu Metopon, at a sea distance of one thousand stadia; and the voyage is made with the Leuconotus. And Cyrene is said to be a foundation of Battus, whom Callimachus claims as his own ancestor. And it grew prosperous because of the fertility of the country. For it is excellent for horse-rearing and highly fruitful, and it has had many remarkable men who were capable of defending their liberty in a worthy manner and of strongly resisting the barbarians who lay above them. In ancient times, then, the city was autonomous; but afterwards the Macedonians who had possessed themselves of Egypt, having increased in power, attacked them, the movement having been started by Thibron and his followers, who had put Harpalus to death. And having been ruled by kings for some time, they came under the power of the Romans, and now it is a province united with Crete. And the surrounding towns belonging to Cyrene are Apollonia, Barke, Taucheira, Berenice, and the other small towns nearby.