TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI.

25 It seems to be still more uncertain when the name of the district was bestowed upon the cities of Tripoly ; for although Tripoli Vecchia (which we have already called Sabrata) has been said to be the first which assumed it, there does not appear to be any other proof in favour of this supposition, (at least we are not ourselves acquainted with it,) than that which may be inferred from the epithet vecchia, by which this town has been for centuries distinguished. Both cities appear to have flourished together under the Komans ; and were in all probability destroyed at the same time, in the Saracen invasion of the country. As Sabrata, however, continued to remain in ruins, while a new town sprung up on the site of the ancient Oea, the name of Tripoly may have, perhaps, been first assumed by the latter; while Sabrata, from the circumstance of its being in ruins, was distinguished by the epithet which it retains.

Ile are not aware of any proof that either Sabrata or Oea had changed their names before their destruction by the Saracens ; and as no town appears to have been erected on the ruins of the former, there was no necessity for distinguishing it by another. When a new town arose on the ruins of Oea, it is probable that the appellation by which it is at present known to the Moors, and which is merely a corruption of the Koman term for the district *, was the first * Trablis, the Moorish name of the town, is not, however, properly a corruption of Tripolis ; it is merely the same word articulated through the medium of Arab pronunciation.

Some authors have imagined an early African name Tarabilis, or Trebilis, from which the Roman name Tripolis was derived j but this is merely imaginary, since the meaning of Tripolis clearly points out its origin to be Greek.

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