« Sal. Jug. 18 | Sal. Jug. 19 | Sal. Jug. 20 | About This Work »
19Later the Phoenicians, sometimes for the sake of ridding themselves of the superfluous population at home, sometimes from desire for dominion tempting away the commons and others who were desirous of a change, founded Hippo, Hadrumetum, Leptis, and other cities on the coast. These soon became very powerful and were in some cases a defence and in others a glory to the mother city. 2As to Carthage, I think it better to be silent rather than say too little, since time warns me to hasten on to other topics.
3In the neighbourhood, then, of the Catabathmos, the region which separates Egypt from Africa, the first city as you follow the coast is Cyrene, a colony of Thera, and then come the two Syrtes with Leptis between them. Next we come to the altars of the Philaeni, the point which the Carthaginians regarded as marking the boundary between their empire and Egypt; then other Punic cities. 4The rest of the region as far as Mauretania is held by the Numidians, while the people nearest Spain are the Moors. 5South of Numidia, we are told, are the Gaetulians, some of whom live in huts, while others lead a less civilized nomadic life. 6Still farther to the south are the Aethiopians, and then come the regions parched by the sun’s heat.
7Now at the time of the war with Jugurtha the Romans were governing through their officials nearly all the Punic cities, as well as the territory which in their latter days had belonged to the Carthaginians. The greater number of the Gaetulians, and Numidia as far as the river Muluccha, were subject to Jugurtha. All the Moors were ruled by king Bocchus, who knew nothing of the Roman people save their name and was in turn unknown to us before that time either in peace or in war.
8This account of Africa and its peoples is enough for my purpose.
« Sal. Jug. 18 | Sal. Jug. 19 | Sal. Jug. 20 | About This Work »