Polybius, Histories
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Book 12 - Chapter 1

1
<head lang="la">I. Res Africae</head><w lemma="%2Apolu%2Fbios">Πολύβιος</w> <gap extent="2" /><w lemma="%2Abuzaki%2Fda">Βυζακίδα</w> <w lemma="xw%2Fran">χώραν</w> <w lemma="ei%29%3Dnai%2F">εἶναί</w> <w lemma="fhsi">φησι</w> <w lemma="peri%5C">περὶ</w> <w lemma="ta%5Cs">τὰς</w> <w lemma="%2Asu%2Frteis">Σύρτεις</w> <w lemma="e%29n">ἐν</w> <w lemma="dwdeka%2Ftw%7C:">δωδεκάτῳ·</w> "<w lemma="stadi%2Fwn">σταδίων</w> <w lemma="me%5Cn">μὲν</w> <w lemma="ou%29%3Dsa">οὖσα</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="peri%2Fmetron">περίμετρον</w> <w lemma="disxili%2Fwn">δισχιλίων</w>, <w lemma="tw%3D%7C">τῷ</w> <w lemma="de%5C">δὲ</w> <w lemma="sxh%2Fmati">σχήματι</w> <w lemma="periferh%2Fs">περιφερής</w>." <w lemma="%2A%28ippw%2Fn">Ἱππών</w>, <w lemma="%2Alibu%2Fhs">Λιβύης</w> <w lemma="po%2Flis">πόλις</w>.
2
<w lemma="%2Apolu%2Fbios">Πολύβιος</w> <w lemma="dwdeka%2Ftw%7C">δωδεκάτῳ</w>. <w lemma="%2Asi%2Fgga">Σίγγα</w>, <w lemma="po%2Flis">πόλις</w>, <w lemma="%2Alibu%2Fhs">Λιβύης</w>, <w lemma="w%28s">ὡς</w> <w lemma="%2Apolu%2Fbios">Πολύβιος</w> <w lemma="dwdeka%2Ftw%7C">δωδεκάτῳ</w>.
3
<w lemma=""></w> <w lemma="%2Ata%2Fbraka">Τάβρακα</w>, <w lemma="po%2Flis">πόλις</w> <w lemma="%2Alibu%2Fhs">Λιβύης</w>.
4
<w lemma="%2Apolu%2Fbios">Πολύβιος</w> <w lemma="dwdeka%2Ftw%7C">δωδεκάτῳ</w>. <w lemma="%2Axalkei%3Da">Χαλκεῖα</w>, <w lemma="po%2Flis">πόλις</w> <w lemma="%2Alibu%2Fhs:">Λιβύης·</w>
5
<w lemma="o%28">ὁ</w> <w lemma="polui+%2Fstwr">πολυΐστωρ</w> <w lemma="e%29n">ἐν</w> <w lemma="%2Alibukw%3Dn">Λιβυκῶν</w> <w lemma="tri%2Ftw%7C">τρίτῳ</w>, <w lemma="w%28s">ὡς</w> <w lemma="%2Adhmosqe%2Fnhs:">Δημοσθένης·</w> <w lemma="w%28%3D%7C">ᾧ</w> <w lemma="memfo%2Fmenos">μεμφόμενος</w> <w lemma="%2Apolu%2Fbios">Πολύβιος</w> <w lemma="e%29n">ἐν</w> <w lemma="tw%3D%7C">τῷ</w> <w lemma="dwdeka%2Ftw%7C">δωδεκάτῳ</w> <w lemma="w%28%3Dde">ὧδε</w> <w lemma="gra%2Ffei:">γράφει·</w> "<w lemma="a%29gnoei%3D">ἀγνοεῖ</w> <w lemma="de%5C">δὲ</w> <w lemma="mega%2Flws">μεγάλως</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="peri%5C">περὶ</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="%2Axalkei%2Fwn:">Χαλκείων·</w> <w lemma="ou%29de%5C">οὐδὲ</w> <w lemma="ga%5Cr">γὰρ</w> <w lemma="po%2Flis">πόλις</w> <w lemma="e%29sti%2Fn">ἐστίν</w>, <w lemma="a%29lla%5C">ἀλλὰ</w> <w lemma="xalkourgei%3Da">χαλκουργεῖα</w>."
<head>Geography of Libya</head>BYZACIA is near the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syrtes&groupId=996&placeId=1754">Syrtes</a>; it has a circumference of two thousand stades, and is circular in shape. . . .Hippo, Singa, Tabraca, are cities in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Libya&groupId=686&placeId=427">Libya</a>. Chalkeia, however, is not, as Demosthenes ignorantly states, the name of a city, but means only a "bronze-factory.". . .

Walbank Commentary

Overview
12.1.0 - 12.1.0
<p rend="Plain Text">The Lotus</p> <p rend="Plain Text">This passage from Athenaeus (xiv. 651 D) will also come from a discussion of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Africa&groupId=300&placeId=294">Africa</a>, related to Timaeus' mis-statements: see above, p. 19. According to Theophrastus (HP, iv. 3. 2), Ophellas' army, marching to join Agathocles in 308, was reduced to eating lotus fruit. This incident may have been related by Timaeus and be the occasion of P.'s criticism, especially if Timaeus, like Theophrastus at this point, made the lotus a <w lang="el-GR">δένδρον . . . εὐμέγεθες</w> (see below, § 2 n.). (The eating of lotus fruit is not mentioned in Diod. xx. 41. 2–42. 2, but his account at this point may derive from Duris (cf. FGH, 76 F 17 on the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lamia&groupId=665&placeId=1217">Lamia</a>). There is no agreement concerning the source of Diodorus' account of Agathocles; see the references collected in Walbank, CQ, 1945, 6 n. 6, and add H. Berve, S.-B. Mnchen, 1952, 5, 9–10, who thinks it represents a mixture of Timaeus and Duris.)</p> <p rend="Plain Text"> The lotus so well described by P. is Zizyphus lotus, a shrub of the genus Rhamnaceae (to which our buckthorn belongs); it grows in dry stony places near the coast of north <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Africa&groupId=300&placeId=294">Africa</a>, and bears a reddishyellow edible berry the size of a sloe. This plant was first clearly recognized as the food of Homer's lotus-eaters (Od. ix. 91 ff.) by R. L. Desfontaines in the Journal de Physique, 1788, 287–99. Herodotus, iv. 177, has this account of the plant (which in ii. 96 he calls <w lang="el-GR">Κυρηναῖος λωτός): ὁ δὲ τοῦ λωτοῦ καρπός ἐστι μέγαθος ὅσον τε τῆς σχίνου</w> (i.e. mastich), <w lang="el-GR">γλυκύτητα δὲ τοῦ φοίνικος τῷ καρπῷ προσείκελος. ποιεῦνται δὲ ἐκ τοῦ καρποῦ τούτου οί Λωτοφάγοι καὶ οἶνον</w>. A similar account is in Ps.-Scylax, Peripl. 110, except that he has the lotus-eaters make their wine from a different species; Jacoby (RE, 'Hekataios', cols. 2733–4) suggests Hecataeus as the source of both Herodotus and Scylax, with Scylax as the more accurate transcriber. But Theophrastus, who in HP, iv. 3. 1 f., makes the lotus the size of a peartree, appears to confuse Zizyphus lotus with another plant, Celtis australis; and Pliny, Nat. hist. xiii. 104 ff., conflates both with Diospyros lotus, the date-palm (which alone is referred to in Nat. hist. xvi. 123 and xxiv. 6). The account of the lotus in Cornelius Nepos (Exempla, fg. 20 Halm = 30 Malcovati), which Pliny quotes, appears to be derived from P. Von Scala, 152–3, compares P.'s account with that in Theophrastus and suggests a common source for both; but the divergences between the two are considerable, and such common <milestone unit="page" n="319">[319]</milestone> traits as they possess are merely due to their being concerned with the same plant. The suggestion made above (v. 45. 10 n.), that P. and Theophrastus both used Diocles of Carystus, is therefore to be discarded. See Stein, RE, 'lotos (2)', cols. 1526–30, who quotes modern authorities for the continued use of the lotus as food by the inhabitants of north <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Africa&groupId=300&placeId=294">Africa</a>; Walbank, Miscellanea Rostagni, 208–11. (For information about the lotus I am grateful to Professor V. H. Heywood and to Dr. G. Taylor.) </p>
Specifics
12.1.1 - 12.1.1
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">Βυζακίδα χώραν</w>:</emph> cf. Ptol. iv. 3. 6, <w lang="el-GR">Βυζακῖτις χώρα</w>. The MS. has <w lang="el-GR">Βυσαλάδα</w>, which Schweighaeuser would emend to <w lang="el-GR">Βυσσάτιδα</w> in view of iii. 23. 2; but Salmasius' proposal, <w lang="el-GR">Βυζακίδα</w>, seems preferable, inasmuch as Stephanus goes on to give <w lang="el-GR">Βυζακίτης</w> as the <w lang="el-GR">ἐθνικόν</w>. <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Byssatis&groupId=414&placeId=766">Byssatis</a> (or Byzacis) is the fertile area between the Gulf of Hammamet and the Gulf of Qabes (cf. i. 82. 6 n., iii. 23. 2), and P. evidently calculates the circumference of the circle <w lang="el-GR">(περιφερής</w>: cf. v. 22. 1) by measuring and doubling the distance along the coast from say Hadrumetum to Thaenae, which bulges in a roughly circular form. Pliny, Nat. hist. v. 24, gives the same figure of 2,000 stades (250 m.p.) <milestone unit="page" n="317">[317]</milestone> for the circuitus. On the fertility of this area, which may have inspired P.'s criticisms of Timaeus (3), see Pliny, Nat. hist. xvii. 41, xviii. 94; Solin. 27. 6. Pdech, ad loc., observes that <w lang="el-GR">περί</w>? is not used in P. in the sense 'near to', with the implication of geographical attachment, and proposes plausibly to read <w lang="el-GR">ὑπέρ</w>. </p>
12.1.2 - 12.1.2
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">Ἱππών</w>:</emph> probably Hippo Regius, a Phoenician colony, about 1.5 km. from modern Bne, on the Numidian coast at the mouth of the R. Rubricatus (mod. Seybouse); Laelius landed here on a raiding expedition in 205 (Livy, xxix. 3. 7). Against Meltzer's view (ii. 489) that Livy or his source has confused Hippo Diarrhytus (Bizerta; cf. i. 70. 9 n.) with Hippo Regius see Gsell, iii. 207; Scullard, Scip. 169 n. 1. See in general Dessau, RE, 'Hippo Regius', cols. 2627–8. </p>
12.1.3 - 12.1.3
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">Σίγγα</w>:</emph> probably an error or variant for Siga, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syphax&groupId=993&placeId=1751">Syphax</a>'s capital among the Masaesyli (cf. iii. 33. 15 n.), where Scipio met <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syphax&groupId=993&placeId=1751">Syphax</a> during his visit from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Spain&groupId=983&placeId=1735">Spain</a> (xi. 24 a 4 n.); cf. Strabo, xvii. 829; Pliny, Nat. hist. v. 19. Alternatively it may be <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sicca&groupId=971&placeId=1721">Sicca</a> (probably El Kef in Tunisia; cf. i. 66. 6 n.; though J. Juillet, Bull. de la soc. nat. des antiquaires de France, 1948–9, 203–13, proposes a site near Zaghouan, and identifies El Kef with Cirta; cf. Pdech, 58). Pdech, loc. cit., prefers the equation with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sicca&groupId=971&placeId=1721">Sicca</a> on the grounds that P. is basing his comments on his own observations, which will have been limited to Tunisia; but the evidence is inconclusive. </p>
12.1.4 - 12.1.4
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">Τάβρακα</w>:</emph> so Bochart and Pinedo for the MS. <w lang="el-GR">Τάβαθρα</w>. Tabraca was a coastal town, east of Hippo Regius, on the R. Tusca, which separated Zeugitana from Numidia (Pliny, Nat. hist. v. 22; Mela, i. 33; Treidler, RE, 'Thabraca', cols. 1178–9). It is the modern Tabarca at the mouth of the Wadi El Kbir, between Bizerta and La Calle (cf. Hannezo, Rev. Tunisienne, 23, 1916, 239–65, 365–92; 24, 1917, 12–29, 123–37; Pdech, ad loc. </p>
12.1.5 - 12.1.5
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">Χαλκεῖα κτλ</w>.:</emph> the reference to 'Demosthenes' is probably from Alexander Polyhistor, since Stephanus' reference to the latter is precise but to 'Demosthenes' vague; in that case P.'s criticism was probably recorded by Polyhistor (Jacoby, FGH, 273 F 46, 699 F 17), who is the first-century freedman of Sulla, who had reached <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> as a prisoner of war (cf. FGH, 273 commentary); his Libyca contained three books. The reading 'Demosthenes' is dubious. He could be Demosthenes of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Bithynia&groupId=402&placeId=748">Bithynia</a> (if indeed he was a third-century writer, and not from Roman imperial times, as is usually thought: Jacoby, FGH, 699; Schwartz, RE, 'Demosthenes (9)', cols. 188–9); but Demosthenes is an epic poet who is not known to have written about <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Libya&groupId=686&placeId=427">Libya</a>, and an improbable target for P.'s criticism. Various corrections are proposed: <w lang="el-GR">Καλλισθένης</w> Westermann, <w lang="el-GR">Δημοχάρης</w> L. Mueller, <w lang="el-GR">Τιμοσθένης</w> Geier (cf. Gisinger, RE, 'Timosthenes (3)', cols. 1321–2; accepted by Pdech, ad loc.). The last is very plausible, for Timosthenes was Ptolemy Philadelphus' admiral who wrote on the geography of <milestone unit="page" n="318">[318]</milestone> <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Africa&groupId=300&placeId=294">Africa</a> (Strabo, ii. 92, ix. 421, for his <w lang="el-GR">Περὶ λιμένων)</w> and was criticized by Marcianus, Epit. Peripl. Menippei, 3 = GGM, i. 566) and Strabo, ii. 93. Meineke thinks a reference to Timaeus has dropped out. The <w lang="el-GR">χαλκουργεῖα</w>, 'copper-mines' (rather than 'bronze-factories': Shuckburgh), may be the <w lang="el-GR">χαλκωρύχια</w> in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Mauretania&groupId=187&placeId=434">Mauretania</a> mentioned by Ptolemy (iv. 2. 5) and Strabo (xvii. 830). </p>

Commentary