The only mode of reconciling the Arab accounts of Barca with the distance which Scylax has given of that city from the sea, is to suppose that the authors of them intended to describe it as situated in some plain within the limits of the range of mountains mentioned above; and, under this idea, the extensive plain of Merge appears to be the most eligible spot we are acquainted with for the position of the town we are speaking of.
The position of Merge with regard to Ptolemeta, which has already been identified with the ancient port of Barca, is extremely favourable to this supposition. Two ravines, one of which is an extremely good road, lead up directly to it from Ptolemeta; and the distance of any town, which might be built upon its plain, from the sea would correspond sufficiently well with that which we have quoted from Scylax. The peculiarities of soil which are attributed by Arab writers to Barca, are at the same time observable in the soil of the plain of Merge, which is of a decided reddish colour, and stains the clothes of those who lie down upon it, as we have occasion to know by experience. Again, one account says, that “six miles from Barca is a mountain;” and the ranges of mountains which inclose the plain (or valley) of Merge are also six miles distant from each other. Honey is also found in the valleys leading to Merge, as it is said to have been in those leading to Barca; and the Arabs are still in the habit of extracting a kind of resin, or turpentine, from the fir, which might be the “kidràn” of the writers we have quoted. These are all of them vague proofs, but, in the absence of better, we are content to receive them in corroboration of the idea that Merge is the plain intended by the writers in question; although, after all, it does not absolutely follow that the town described by them as Barca should be clearly established as the ancient town of Barca required.
The peculiarities ascribed to the territory of Barca—its numerous springs, its excellent soil, its large supplies of cattle, its various kinds of fruit trees, are all of them observable in the mountainous districts of the Cyrenaica; and there can be no doubt that these tracts are part of the country alluded to by Arab writers as the territory of Barca. Barca, under the Arabs, was a considerable province, but it suffered materially from the tyranny of Yazouri[7], and a great part of its inhabitants abandoned their country and established themselves in Egypt and other places. Many of the emigrants settled in Alexandria; but when that city was afterwards laid waste by the plague, in the dreadful manner described by Abd’ Allatif, more than twenty thousand persons quitted it for Barca, and the province again assumed a flourishing appearance[8].
The city known by the Arabs under the name of Barca never appears to have been (in their time) of any importance; but the ancient city so called was (after Cyrene) the most considerable town of the Cyrenaica; and continued to flourish down to the time of the Ptolemies when it appears to have been eclipsed by Ptolemais. Its inhabitants were celebrated, like those of Cyrene, for their skill in the management of horses and chariots; the former of which arts they are said to have received from Neptune, the latter from Minerva; which is stating in other words that at a very early period nothing was known of the origin of this custom in Africa. In the age of Pindar the Cyrenaica was still celebrated for its excellent horses, and we find that it enjoyed the same reputation in the times of the Arab historians. The breed has, however, (from whatever cause,) degenerated considerably from its original character, and the horses of Barca are not now to be compared with those of Arabia and Egypt. The origin of the ancient city of Barca, or Barce, is related by Herodotus (Melp. 160.), and many interesting particulars of it are given in detail by the same writer. He states it to have been founded by the brothers of Arcesilaus, King of Cyrene, (probably about five hundred and fifteen years before the Christian era,) who left him, in consequence of some dissensions, to inhabit another part of the country; where, after some deliberation (says the historian,) they built the city which was then, as it is at present, called Barce.
Others have supposed it to have been of Phœnician or Libyan origin, Barca being a Phœnician name well known on the northern coast of Africa, as we learn from Silius Italicus and other writers.
Servius intimates that its citizens came originally from Carthage, which might suggest the probability that Barca, Dido’s brother, who accompanied her into Africa with some of his countrymen, established himself there and gave the name to the city and territory by which they were afterwards distinguished. The city was taken and plundered by the Persians, under Amasis, after a long and difficult siege (related in detail by Herodotus), and many of its inhabitants were sent prisoners to Darius Hystaspes, in whose reign this event took place, and settled by that monarch in a district of Bactria which was after them called Barce. The descendants of Battus were, however, left unmolested in the city; which continued (perhaps) to flourish, as we have already mentioned, till the building of Ptolemais on the site of its ancient port; to which place its inhabitants are said to have retired in order to enrich themselves by commerce.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]It was to the rus in urbe that our destiny called us—to the πολίς Ελλενις παλαιον ονομα και σεμνον—νυν πενης, και κατηφης, και μεγα ερειπιον! as Cyrene is pathetically described by Synesius; and we are sorry to say that the term rus in urbe may now be well applied to this once beautiful city with even more correctness than to Ptolemeta; which we have already described as covered with vegetation, and presenting the appearance of a solitary grass-grown tract of country, rather than of a once populous town. Cattle feed everywhere among the ruins of Cyrene, and its whole aspect is infinitely more rural than civic.
[2]One of the reasons alleged for putting so high a price upon the camels was the probability of their eating the silphium which grows in the country we were about to visit, and which has sometimes very fatal effects upon them.
[3]Ειθ᾽ ἡ Βαρκη προτερον, νυν δε Πτολεμαις.—(Strabo, Lib. xvii.) Deinde Ptolemais, antiquo nomine Barce.—(Hist. Nat. Lib. v. c. 5.)