The Gulf of Rodaik (or Rodakiah) might have served to elucidate this question had there been anything like it remaining; but it will be seen, on a reference to the chart, that there is no appearance on this part of the coast which can at all be considered as a gulf; and this will of course equally apply to the Sinus Zadic of Edrisi.
We will not at present pursue this subject further, but leaving our readers to judge, from the data already given, how far we may be authorized in placing the city of Sort in the position we have ventured to suggest for it, we will proceed to notice some remains which are found in the neighbourhood of Zaffran.
In traversing this part of the Syrtis, Signor Della Cella discovered a square column of tolerable height and placed upon a pedestal. It was composed, he says, of sandstone, but so corroded by time that the characters which entirely covered its four sides had become altogether unintelligible. An hour afterwards he arrived at a second, and, after a similar interval, at a third of these erections, all equally covered with writing and so much decayed that, what with the little time which he had at his command, and the state of ruin in which the pillars were found, he could not succeed in putting together a single word of their inscriptions. “Opposite to the first of these columns” (he adds) “on the part next the sea, rise the remains of a tower surmounted with a cupola, and this spot is called Elbenia[6].”
The Doctor confesses himself at a loss to decide for what purpose these pillars could have been erected; but suggests that, supposing Zaffran to be Aspis, the ancient tower with a cupola which is near it, and, “as Strabo says, συνεχης to Aspis,” must inevitably be the πυργος, or tower named Euphrantas of that geographer. From this conclusion he is induced to suspect that, as the tower of Euphrantas was the boundary of the Cyrenaic and Carthaginian territory under the Ptolemies, the three pillars above mentioned were erected to mark the limits of those countries, as well as to record other matters which (he says) were usually engraved by the ancients on objects of this nature.
Finding his courage rise at this happy coincidence of ancient with what he terms modern geography, Signor Della Cella now assumes a more decided tone, and taking boldly for granted what he has just advanced on supposition, proceeds to deduce from it an unqualified conclusion; and this leads him into his favourite practice of scepticism, for which his deeply-rooted antipathy to all commentators and editors seems to have given him a most decided partiality.
“Encouraged by this coincidence,” (are the Doctor’s own words) “in my opinion, so plausible, of ancient and modern geography, I no longer hesitate to believe that the ancient ruins which we met with on the road, after three hours’ journey from Elbenia, point out the spot which is called, by Strabo, Charax.”
Without attempting to give the least description of these ruins, or any explanation of the reasons why he thinks they are those of Charax, the Doctor all at once proceeds to criticise the passage in Strabo, and to offer a new reading for the approbation of his friend, the professor, on the subject of the silphium and the liquor which was extracted from it. We do not pretend to any skill in logic, but the train of argument here adopted by Signor Della Cella does certainly appear to us a little extraordinary: it seems to run thus—“If Zaffran be Aspis, the tower with a cupola must be the tower of Euphrantas; and, as the tower of Euphrantas was a boundary under the Ptolemies, the three square pillars with the illegible inscriptions are also boundaries; and the ruins which are met with three hours afterwards are those of Charax, which Strabo says was used by the Carthaginians for a fair, at which the juice of the silphium was exchanged for wine; and, as I read in this passage, juice of the silphium, instead of juice and silphium; or, as Buonacciuoli very badly translates it, ‘il belgioino e il silfio.’—You will agree with me (he concludes, addressing the professor) in this little alteration in the text of the Grecian geographer.”
He then leaves the subject, records another march through a very hot day, and describes a visit with which he was honoured by the Bey in his tent, and the excellent supper which he made off an ostrich’s egg, which His Highness in his munificence had presented him with. The supper and the chapter finish together, and the Doctor goes to sleep, without further discussion, as soon as the meal is over.
The position of Zaffran, with respect to the marsh, and to the port which bears its name, will perhaps authorize us to consider it as the Aspis of Strabo; and we have already stated the reasons why we think it not improbable that it may be: but the necessity for placing Charax and the tower of Euphrantas in the positions assigned to them by Signor Della Cella, does not seem, in our opinion, to be quite so great as the Doctor has imagined. For the tower surmounted with a cupola, which he has supposed to be the same with the tower of Euphrantas, has no pretensions whatever to half the antiquity which it would be necessary in that case to assign to it: it is in fact nothing more than a rudely-formed Arab building, and never could, at any time, have aspired to the title of tower, had it even been built under the dynasty of the Ptolemies. It appears to have been a dwelling-house, somewhat resembling the tomb of a Marábūt; but being situated on the top of a range of hills overlooking the road, it appears more important from below than could well be imagined by those who might only have examined it closely; and it is probable that the view of it which Signor Della Cella obtained, and which suggested to him the analogy between it and the tower of Euphrantas, was from the road in the plain below. It is certainly somewhat singular that, in a place where several ancient forts may be observed, the Doctor should have pitched upon an Arab building as the boundary of the Cyrenaic and Carthaginian territory; but had he even been willing to adopt one of the forts as the tower, it would have been difficult to select any one from the number which had more claim than the rest to that distinction; and there does not, in fact, appear to be any building at Zaffran sufficiently conspicuous to be considered as the structure in question.
It seems to us that the tower of Euphrantas should be looked for in some commanding situation, which either occasioned its being built, or selected as a boundary for the kingdoms we have mentioned; and there seems to be no more reason for placing it at Zaffran than at Medīnet Sultàn, where there are also many forts; except that the term συνεχης, (following upon, or succeeding to,) which Strabo uses to point out its position, would induce us to place it as soon after Aspis as circumstances would seem to allow. At all events, we do not hesitate in rejecting the “torre sormontata da una cupola” as the tower of Euphrantas; and we should much rather, if it be necessary to place this structure at Zaffran, select for its representative one of the fortresses already mentioned, than any building like that which is suggested by Signor Della Cella, were it even of ancient construction.