an old Roman city, situated at a few miles distance upon the N. W. side of this plain. I was informed, that a century ago, the Faradesians were the greatest cruisers and the most experienced mariners of this country; but that the greater increase of trade, and the more conveniences for navigation at Hamam-et, had, of late years, drawn thither all the inhabitants. This may be the Veneria of Solinus; or rather, from an affinity in name, the ancient Aphrodisium, placed by Ptolemy in the same latitude, but more to the W. than Adrumetum. Near the middle of the plain, our prospect is a little interrupted by an hemispherical hilloc, called Selloome, the seat formerly of some castle or village; probably one of those mentioned by Hirtius*, which Cæsar passed by in sailing towards Adrumetum. Two leagues further, near the shore, there is a large piece of marshy ground, with an adjacent lake, which is perpetually draining through it into the sea. A bridge, or sometimes a causeway only, were formerly built over the whole length of this morass, to the no small conveniency and safety likewise of those who were to pass over it, in their way to Herkla and Susa. This morass, with the rivulet oozing from it, I take to be the boundary to the seaward betwixt the Zeugitania and Bizacium. CHAP *Cæsar Clupeam classe prætervehitur; inde Neapolin, complura præterea castella et oppida non longe a mari relinquit. Hirt. Bell. Afr. § 2. Of the most remarkable inland Places of the F If we return then to the westward of the summer circuit, a little to the S. W. of the great lake of Biserta, is Jibbel Iskell, the Mons Cerna of the ancients. Matter, the Oppidum Materense, lies below it, a small village situated in a fruitful plain. The rivulet that runs by it, empties itself into that part of the great lake which was the Sisera Palus, as the other part of it nearer Bizerta was the Hipponites of the old geography. Not far from the frontiers of the Algerines, about seven leagues from Tabarca, and ten to the S. W. of Matter, is the city Beja or Bay-jah, as it is pronounced at present, which by the name and situation should be the Vacca* of Sallust, the Oppidum Vagense of Pliny, the BAгA† of Plutarch, and the Vaccensium Ordo Splendidissimus, as the title runs in the following imperfect inscrip tion. * Erat haud longe ab eo itinere quo Metellus pergebat, op'pidum Numidarum, nomine Vacca, forum rerum venalium totius regni maxime celebratum, ubi et incolere et mercari consueverunt Italici generis multi mortales. Sall. Bell. Jug. § 50. + Derear de Bayar, morir peyadny, &c. Plut. in Mario, p. 409. tion. * Cellarius places it very justly towards the N. E. of Cirta, but quotes no authority. However, as it may be presumed, from Sallust's † account, to lie on the right hand, (as Keff or Sicca Veneria did to the left) in travelling from Carthage or Utica, to Numidia, such a situation will be highly agreeable to this description of it. Moreover, after Vacca revolted, Metellus is said to have departed from his winter quarters in the evening, and to have arrived before it, about the third hour of the following day; which journey, considering the expedition wherewith it was performed, will very well agree with the distance of fifty miles, that lies betwixt Bayjah and Utica, where Metellus was then stationed. I am not acquainted with any other circumstance in ancient history, that further informs us concerning the situation of Vacca; for Ptolemy's Vaga, as it lies among the Cirtesii, cannot be the place: and the reason perhaps why it is not taken notice of in the Itinerary, or in Peutinger's tables, may be accounted for from its lying quite out of the great road that was carried from Carthage either to Numidia or Bizacium. * Bayjah keeps up the character that Sallust gives Vaga a Cirta in ortum æstivum distat. Cell. 1. iv. c. 5. P. 114. + Sall. Bell. Jug. 60. Metellus, postquam de rebus Vaccæ actis comperit-legionem, cum qua hiemabat, et quam plurimos potest Numidas equites pariter cum occasu solis expeditos educit; et postera die, circiter horam tertiam, pervenit in quandam planitiem-docet oppidum Vaccam non amplius mille passuum abesse. Id. 71. gives his Vacca, of being a town of great trade, the chief mart indeed of the whole kingdom, particularly for corn, from which all other coinmodities are estimated; and in the plains of Busdera, which lie below it along the banks of the Mejerdah, there is kept every summer a public fair, frequented by the most distant Arabian tribes, who resort hither with their flocks, their manufactories, and families. The present city is built upon the declivity of a hill, with the conveniency of being well watered; and upon the highest part of it is the citadel, which is of no great strength. Upon the walls, which are raised out of the ancient materials, we have the following inscription that has been referred to above, FAC. ANN. XXII. PRAEFECTVS V. CVм ORDO SPLENDIDISSIMVS P. P. FIERI DECREVIT, In the same parallel nearly with Baijah, upon the banks of the Mejerdah, is Tuburbo, a small town inhabited at present by Andalusian Moors. This should be the Tuburbum Minus of the ancients; as the Majus (where, according to Peutinger's table, there was a remarkable temple or edifice) lies at too great a distance towards the S. to be taken for it. Mahamet, a late bey of this kingdom, planted a great number and variety of fruit trees in the neighbourhood of it, which were ranged in so particular a method, that that each species was confined to one grove, and thereby removed from the influence of another. Thus the orange trees were all placed by themselves, without the admission of the lime or citron; and where the pear or apple was gathered, there was no encouragement to look for the peach or apricot. In the adjacent valley, where the Mejerdah conveys its stream, the same curious and generous prince erected, out of the ruins of a neighbouring amphitheatre, a large massy bridge or damm, with proper sluices and flood gates, to raise the river to a convenient height, for watering and refreshing these plantations. But this, which was too laudable an invention to subsist long in Barbary, is now entirely broken down and destroyed. Below Tuburbo, on the same side of the Mejerdah, is the little village Tuccaber, the same perhaps that is taken notice of by St Cyprian (in Concil.) and St Austin (ad Donat.) under the name of Tuccabori or Thuccabori. Simler* therefore must be mistaken in taking it for the Tucca Terebinthina, which lay LX M. only from Sufetula; whereas Tuccaber lies nearly at twice that distance. On the other side of the Mejerdah, ten leagues to the S. of Tuccaber, is Tubersoke, a small city walled round, and situated upon the declivity of an eminence. In the centre of it, there is a very clear and plentiful fountain, with the ruins of a small temple or dome that was formerly built Annot. in Itiner. Cellar. 1. iv. c. 5. 116. over |