Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/414

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380 plii^t's natural histoet. [Boot Y. are bordered upon by the Gsetulian Darse^ lying in the interior. Upon the coast again, we find the Ethiopian Daratit^e, and the river Bambotus^, teeming with croco- diles and hippopotami. From this river there is a con- tinuous range^ of mountains till we come to the one which is kno^^'n by the name of Theon Ochema"*, from which to the Hesperian Promontory^ is a voyage of ten days and nights ; and in the middle of this space he*' has placed Mount Atlas, which by all other writers has been stated to be in the ex- treme parts of Mauritania. The Eoinan arms, for the first time, pursued their con- quests into Mauritania, under the Emperor Claudius, when the freedman -^demon took up arms to avenge the death of King Ptolemy^, who had been put to death by Caius Caesar ; 1 Marcus believes these to have been the ancestors of the present race of the Touaricks, while the MelanogeetuU were the progenitors of the Tibbos, of a darker complexion, and more nearly resembling the negroes in bodily conformation. 2 Supposed by Gosselin to be the present river Nun, or Non. Ac- cordhig to Bochart, tlais river received its name from the Hebrew or Phoenician word behemoth or hamoth, the name by which Job (xl. 15) calls the crocodile [or rather the hippopotamus]. Bochart, however, with Mannert, BougamviUe, De Rennet, and De Heeren, is of opinion, that by this name the modern river Senegal is meant. Marcus is of opinion that it is either the Non or the modern Sobi. 3 Marcus here observes, that from Cape Alfach, below Cape Non, there are no mountains, but continual wastes of sand, bordering on the sea-shore. Indeed there is no headland, of any considerable height, between Cape Sobi and Cape Bajador. ^ " The Chariot of the Gods." Marcus is of opinion that it is the modem Cape Verde ; while, on the other hand, Gosselin takes it to be Cape Non. Brotier calls it Cape Ledo. ^ In B. vi. c. 36, Phny speaks of tliis promontory as the " Hesperian Horn," and says that it is but four days' sail from the Theon Ochema. Brotier identifies this promontory with the modern Cape Roxo. Marcus is of opinion that it was the same as Cape N6n ; but there is considerable difficulty in determining its identity. ® Alluding to Polybius ; though, according to the reading which SiUig has adopted a few hnes previously, Agrippa is the last author mentioned. Phny has here mistaken the meaning of Polybius, who has placed Atlas midway between Carthage, from which he had set out, and the Pro* montory of Theon Ochema, which he reached. 7 Ptolemy the son of Juba II. and Cleopatra, was summoned to Rome in the year a.d. 40, by Cahgula, and shortly after put to death by him, his riches having excited the emperor's cupidity. Previously to this, he