32 JOURNEY FROM aware of them, he would equally have noticed the pretensions of modern Tripoly to a higher antiquity than he has assigned to it.

Tripoli Vecchia was destroyed, under the cahphate of Omar, by the Saracen invaders of the country. The city was pillaged, after a siege of six months, and its inhabitants either slain or carried prisoners to Egypt and Arabia. This is stated by Leo; and here we have a date for the destruction of the city of Sabrata, which appears to have never been rebuilt : but how long after the occurrence of this event Modern Tripoly first appeared on the ruins of Oea we have not been informed by our author. And it seems to be evident that he considered the African town as the first which had been raised upon the spot.