24 JOURNEY FROM Geographical Eemarks on the Towns and District of Tripoly.

The town of Tripoly has been usually considered to occupy the site of the ancient Oea ; one of the cities which, with Sabrata and Leptis Magna, the Tripoli Vecchia and Lebidaof modern times, composed the three principal towns of a district which took from them the appellation of Tripolis.

At what precise period this tract of country assumed the title of Tripolis does not appear to be clearly ascertained; but we may probably conclude that it acquired it in the reign, either of Titus, or of his successor Domitian ; soon after the building of Sabrata and Oea, which may be supposed to have taken place before the middle of the first century*.

* We find both these cities mentioned by Pliny ; and one of them (Oea) by Pomponiiis Mela, while nothing is said by Strabo either of the cities or the district. Pliny died A.D. 79 ; Mela is supposed to have flourished about the middle of the first century, and Strabo in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. We may infer, from the silence of Strabo on the subject, tliat neither Sabrata nor Oea e.xisted in his time ; and as Pliny, though he mentions both cities, appears to have been unacquainted with the name of the district in question, we may also perhaps infer that it was bestowed upon it after his time. What is stated by Cellarius on the subject of Tripolis, appears to confirm this opinion : for he tells us that he knew of no one before the time of Solinus, who made any mention in Africa of the name*; and that Ae only applied the term to the district, and not to any particular city.

Solinus is known to have written after Pliny, towards the close of the first century ; and we may therefore, perhaps, conclude, that the distinct called Tripolis, received that appellation between the times of Pliny and Solinus.

“ Nec qui ante Solinum. non antiquissinium scriptorem, mentionem vocis Tripolis in Africa fecerit succurrit nobis ; qui vero, non urbem, sed trium oppidorum regionein intellexit. — (Lib. iv. cap. 3. 18.)