Geography

​The writers, beginning with the voyage of Ophelas, have falsely added a great many fictions concerning the outer Libyan coast, of which we have indeed made mention somewhere before, and now speak again, asking pardon for the narration of marvels if we should be forced to fall into any such thing, as we avoid passing over everything in silence and in a way mutilating the history. Now, they say that the Gulf of Emporicus has a cave which receives the sea inside at high tides as far as seven stadia, and before this lies a low and level tract of land having an altar of Hercules, which they say is not overflowed by the tide. This I consider to be one of the fictions, and close to this is the statement that in the succeeding gulfs there are ancient settlements of the Tyrians, now deserted, consisting of no fewer than three hundred cities, which the Pharusians and the Nigritae destroyed; and they say that these people are situated at a distance of thirty days’ journey from Lynx.

​However, that Maurusia is a fertile country, except for a small desert, and is well supplied with rivers and lakes, is agreed by all. It is exceedingly large-timbered, thick-wooded, and all-productive; at any rate, it supplies the Romans with the most variegated and largest tables made of a single piece of wood. And they say that its rivers contain both crocodiles and other kinds of animals similar to those in the Nile; and some even think that the sources of the Nile are near the extremities of Maurusia. And in a certain river, they say, are bred leeches seven cubits long, having perforated gills through which they breathe. They also say this concerning the country, that a vine grows there which is hard to encircle with the arms of two men, yielding clusters about a cubit long; and all the herbage is tall, and fresh vegetables and dracontium grow there, and the stalks of wild carrots, horse-fennel, and artichokes are twelve cubits long, and four palms in thickness. The country is also a nurse of all kinds of animals: dragons, elephants, gazelles, wild oxen, and similar beasts, as well as lions and leopards. It also produces weasels equal in size and similar to cats, except that their snouts project more, and a great multitude of apes, concerning which Posidonius also says that when sailing from Gadeira to Italy, he was brought near the Libyan coast and saw a certain forest stretching along the sea full of these beasts, some on the trees and others on the ground, and some having young and giving them suck; and he laughed, therefore, on seeing some with heavy breasts, others bald, others with ruptures, and exhibiting other such defects.

​Above this, on the outer sea, is the country of the people called the Western Ethiopians, which is for the most part poorly inhabited. There, Iphicrates says, are bred both camelopards and elephants, and the animals called rhizes, which are bull-like in form, but in their habits, size, and prowess for battle resemble elephants. He also speaks of large dragons, so large that even grass grows on them; and says that the lions attack the young of the elephants, and when they have drawn blood, they flee when the mothers approach; and the mothers, when they see them bloodied, kill them; and the lions return to the carcasses and feed on the dead bodies. And Bogus, the king of the Maurusians, having gone up to the country of the Western Ethiopians, sent to his wife as presents reeds similar to the Indian ones, each joint of which held eight choinikes; and also asparagus of similar large sizes.

​To those sailing into the inner sea from Lynx, there is the city of Zelis and Tiga, then the monuments of the Seven Brothers, and the mountain lying above them, named Abily, full of wild beasts and large-timbered. The length of the strait at the Pillars is said to be one hundred and twenty stadia, and the minimum width, at the Elephas, sixty. To one sailing in, there are in order several cities and rivers as far as the river Molochath, which defines the land of the Maurusians and that of the Masaesylians. Near the river there is also a great promontory, and a place called Metagonium, a waterless and wretched place; and the mountain extending from the Koteis reaches almost to this point. The length from the Koteis to the boundaries of the Masaesylians is five thousand stadia. Metagonium is situated nearly opposite New Carthage, which is on the opposite coast; but Timosthenes is incorrect in saying that it is opposite Massalia; for the passage from New Carthage to Metagonium is three thousand stadia, while the voyage to Massalia is over six thousand.