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Coastal Settlement in Cyrenaica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

G. D. B. Jones  and
J. H. Little
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Extract

The location of the majority of major sites in Cyrenaica is well established. This has obscured the fact that our knowledge of the detailed topography of the area is in reality highly fragmentary, and can only be increased by detailed work in the field. The purpose of this article is to review the archaeological evidence from the area between Benghazi and Derna as it has been collected by the authors in recent years, and to give an account of its more important implications. On this basis one may examine the complex interrelation of local climate and geography that has controlled the development of settlement between the northern edge of the Cyrenaican plateau and the sea.

The administrative unit known to the Romans as Cyrenaica lies on the coast of North Africa between longitude 19° east and 24° east. Its southern limits were never defined, but any route to the south was effectively blocked by the Calanshu sand sea and the wastelands of the Jebel Zelten.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 61 , November 1971 , pp. 64 - 79
Copyright
Copyright ©G. D. B. Jones and J. H. Little 1971. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 The Arabic term ‘sahel’ signifies any strip of land lying between mountains and the sea, and it is used throughout this article as the most convenient way of denoting the coastal strip. English transliterations of Arabic place names are not standardized, and the spellings adopted here are those of the Army Map Series 1:50,000 Sheets covering coastal Cyrenaica. The most useful account of the area's topography, climate and tribal structure will be found in Evans-Pritchard, E., The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (1949), 1 ff.Google Scholar, cf. most recently Thwaite, A., The Deserts of Hesperides (1969), esp. 27 ff.Google Scholar

2 For a discussion see Alföldi, A., ‘Commandants de la flotte romaine stationée à Cyrène sous Pompée, César et Octavien’, Mélanges offerts à J. Carcopino (1966), 25 ff.Google Scholar

3 Goodchild, R. G., ‘Libyan Forts in South-West Cyrenaica,’ Antiquity xxv (1951), 131 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar. gives a summary of the archaeological remains in the area.

4 Full publication in Libya Antiqua, forthcoming.

5 Scylax Caryandensis, Periplus 108 (ap. C. Müller, Geographi Graeci Minores, 1882). For recent notice of Euhesperides, Goodchild, R. G., ‘Euhesperides—a devastated city site’, Antiquity XXVI (1952), 208 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar. Bond, R. C. and Swales, J. M., ‘Surface finds of Coins from the City of Euhesperides’, Libya Antiqua II (1965), 91 ffGoogle Scholar.

6 Strabo 17, 3, 20; Solinus, c. 23. For a summary of the historical and archaeological development of the Benghazi area see R. G. Goodchild, Benghazi—the story of a city (2nd ed., 1963), passim.

7 Procopius, , De Aedificiis VII, 2, 5Google Scholar.

8 Stadiasmus Maris Magni, 57, ap. G. Müller (op. cit. above, n. 5).

9 For the relevant sources see p. 78.

10 The text is as follows: 1. Berenice m.p. xxx. 2. Adriane XXVIII. 3. Theucira XVIII. 4. Ptolemais XXVI etc. (Itinerarium Antoninum, ed. O. Cuntz, 67). Other references to the site are rare: Synecdemus of Hierocles 733, 2; George of Cyprus, 793; Tab. Peut. s.v. Hadrianopolis.

11 R. G. Goodchild (ed.), Tabula Imperii Romani, Sheet H.I. 34 Cyrene (1954), 11; cf. idem, ‘Mapping Roman Libya’, Geog. J. CXVIII (1952), 150.

12 The course of the Ptolemais aqueduct has been traced in recent years by C. Arthur and Abdussalam Bazama of the Libyan Dept. of Antiquities. For the aqueduct's entry into the city area, C. H. Kraeling, Ptolemais: City of the Libyan Pentapolis (1962), 35, fig. 2.

13 C. H. Kraeling, op. cit., 62 ff.

14 This term follows the Army Map Series nomenclature. The variant Wadi al Aguibya is also known locally.

15 These calculations were kindly provided by Dr. P. R. Lewis, Dept. of Metallurgy, Manchester University, the joint author (with Dr. G. D. B. Jones) of a fuller discussion of ancient hydraulics in Britannia (forthcoming). For published calculations of aqueduct capacity in closed and open channels, see PBSR xxx (1962), 200Google Scholar and Bull. Board of Celtic Studies XIX (1960), 78 ffGoogle Scholar.

16 The inscription may henceforth be cited as IRC 28 (= Goodchild, R. G. and Reynolds, J. M., Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica, forthcomingGoogle Scholar). The authors are grateful to Miss Reynolds and Dr. A. R. Birley who gave advice on this and other epigraphic questions.

17 Wright, G. R. H., Palestine Exploration Quarterly 1963, 22 ff.Google Scholar

18 Goodchild, R. G., PBSR XIX (1951), 43 ffGoogle Scholar.

19 Mr. C. M. Daniels kindly made the comparison. The details of the pottery kiln and its products, together with the full list of inscriptions and a survey of the city site, will appear in Libya Antiqua, forthcoming.

20 For a comparable fragment see Arch. Journ. XCIII (1936), 102Google Scholar, fig. I, I. Prof. E. Birley kindly examined this and other fragments.

21 Periplus 108. The cauculus is an umbelliferous plant. The umbelliferae (which comprise inter alia hemlock and parsley) produce flowers that radiate in umbrella-shaped clusters like the common cow parsley. Such plants are very similar to those found on the coinage of Cyrene in the Greek period and assumed to represent silphium.

22 Stadiasmus Maris Magni, 57. For other sources, above n. 10.

23 Goodchild, R. G., Quaderni di Archeologia della Libia IV (1961), 87 fGoogle Scholar.

24 For the historical background, see C. H. Kraeling, op. cit., 1 ff. For an archaic pottery deposit from the eroded foreshore of the city, Boardman, J. and Hayes, J. W., Excavations at Tocra (British School at Athens, 1966Google Scholar).

25 Goodchild, R. G., ‘Byzantines, Berbers and Arabs in seventh-century Libya’, Antiquity XLI (1967), 115 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Stadiasmus Maris Magni 56.

27 Herodotus IV, 198.

28 Above n. 12. For the pioneer account of the site, see Murdock-Smith, R. and Porcher, E. A., Discoveries at Cyrene (1864), 66 ffGoogle Scholar. For an up-to-date account of the whole city-site, C. H. Kraeling, op. cit. (n. 12).

29 Procopius, , De Aedificiis VI, 2Google Scholar.

30 Periplus 108.

31 Stadiasmus Marts Magni 55.

32 Beechey, F. W. and H. W., Proc. of Expedition to Explore the N. Coast of Africa (1828)Google Scholar,

33 op. cit., 48; cf. Murdock-Smith and Porcher, op. cit. (n. 28), 67.

34 Furthermore in antiquity greater protection was afforded by the extent of the present lighthouse promontory. Part has now dropped below sea level but traces of building foundations can be discerned underwater during calm periods.

35 C. H. Kraeling, op. cit., 50.

36 Synesius, Catastasis (ed. Fitzgerald) p. 54.

37 The date of the former has never been satisfactorily established. Most commentators follow C. Müller (Geographi Graeci Minores, 1882) in ascribing it to the early second century A.D. There are suggestions, however, that the work may be a palimpsest.

38 Observed by the authors in 1969.

39 Possible settlements can be suggested by the only adequate map coverage of the coastline, namely the Army Map Series 1:50,000 Sheets, available in the library of the Society for Libyan Studies.

40 Periplus 108.

41 Stadiasmus Maris Magni 54.

42 Scylax, loc. cit.

43 Ptolemy IV, 4.

44 Strabo 17, 3, 20 (837).

45 Synesius, Letters 129; 133, cf. 61.

46 Pharsalia IX, 300.

47 Letters 101.

48 Oric Bates, The Eastern Libyans (1914), 171.

49 For references, above nn. 41–4.

50 Observation by the authors in 1969.

51 C. H. Kraeling, op. cit., 7.

52 A comparison of those harbours that are individually designated as a ‘panormos’ in the various periploi and the actual physical remains suggests that the term was used with a specific meaning. A ‘panormos’ was thus a harbour surrounded by protective headlands in such a way as to leave only a narrow entrance orientated away from the direction of the prevailing wind. All other harbour types were measured against the ideal ‘panormos’ type.

53 Goodchild, R. G., ‘A Byzantine Palace at Apollonia’, Antiquity XXXIV (1960), 246 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Idem (with J. M. Reynolds), ‘The City Lands of Apollonia’, Libya Antiqua 11 (1965), 105.

55 ibid. 103.

56 Scylax 108; Stadiasmus Maris Magni 51.

57 Harrison, R. M., PBSR XXXII (1964), 1 fGoogle Scholar.

58 Stadiasmus Maris Magni 51.

59 Goodchild and Reynolds, op. cit. (n. 54), 106, n. 6.

60 Stadiasmus Maris Magni 50.

61 Synesius, Letters 67.

62 Stadiasmus Maris Magni 47.

63 Synesius, Letters 67.

64 Herodotus IV, 150–9.

65 Today Cretan fishermen, sometimes operating within a few hundred metres of the shore, have an intimate knowledge of the coast and a percentage of the population of Apollonia-Sousa appears to be Cretan in origin.

66 Herodotus IV, 151.

67 The location is not settled. A very doubtful identification was made by C. N. Johns with a site c. 25 km east of Derna, see Rowe, A., ‘A Contribution to the Archaeology of the Western Desert’, Bull, of the John Rylands Library XXXVI (1954), 491 ffGoogle Scholar. See most recently Boardman, J., ABSA LXI (1966), 150Google Scholar.

68 Herodotus IV, 157.

69 ibid.

70 Herodotus IV, 198.

71 Periplus 108.

72 Letters 51.

73 ibid.

74 Secret History XVIII, 10.

75 Herodotus, loc. cit.

76 For comparable information, cf. C. B. M. McBurney, The Haua Fteah (Cyrenaica) and the Stone Age of the S.E. Mediterranean (1967), passim.

77 Strabo 17, 3, 20; Lucan IX, 355; Pliny v, 5. A useful summary of the question will be found in Thwaite, A., The Deserts of Hesperides (1969), 59 ffGoogle Scholar. Earlier accounts are: F. W. and H. W. Beechey, op. cit., (n. 32), 333 f.; Murdock-Smith and Porcher, op. cit. (n. 28), 16 ff., Goodchild, R. G., Benghazi—the story of a city 2 ff.Google Scholar

78 Strabo, loc. cit.

79 R. G. Goodchild, op. cit., 3 ff.

80 Strabo, loc. cit.

81 R. G. Goodchild, loc. cit.

82 A. Thwaite, op. cit., 59 ff. For measurements (together with an improbable location in the area of Phycus), see Scylax 108. For a magisterial account, see also F. W. and H. W. Beechey, op. cit. (n. 32), p. 318.

83 PBSR XXXII (1964), 1 ffGoogle Scholar.