[8]For Strabo tells us (lib. iii. p. 171), in alluding to the custom practised by the ancients, of erecting columns on particular occasions, that the monuments raised to the memory of the Philæni were situated nearly midway in the Syrtis—at least, such is the sense in which we must take this passage, to make it at all consistent with the position allotted to the Philænean altars in the seventeenth book. Although we may certainly read in the passage we are about to quote, above mentioned, “midway in the country between the Syrtes”—for the Syrtes are here mentioned in the plural—and this circumstance would otherwise rather tend to confirm the position of the altars in the table of Peutinger (as mentioned by Cellarius, lib. iv. cap. 3, sec. 3.) which is between the two Gulfs of Syrtis. “At, in Peutingeriana tabula vetusta, (says Cellarius) redactæ hæ aræ sunt fere ad minorem Syrtim, ut dubitare possis de situ et positione ex tot auctoribus jam descripta.” Strabo’s words are—και ὁι φιλαινων λεγομενοι βωμοι, κατα μεσην, που, την μεταξυ των Συρτεων γην.
[9]Bell. Jugurth. (79.)
[10]Major Rennell has observed on this subject—“At the date of Hannibal’s expedition to Italy, B. C. 217, the Carthaginian empire extended eastward to the Philænean altars, which stood at the south-east extremity of the Greater Syrtis. The story of the Philæni, as it is told, is in some points very improbable. It is said that the parties set out from their respective capitals, Carthage and Cyrene, and met at the place where the altars afterwards stood. Now the altars were situated at about seven-ninths of the way from Carthage towards Cyrene; and the deception would have been too gross had it been pretended that the Carthaginian party had travelled seven parts in the nine, while the Cyrenean party had travelled no more than two such parts of the way. Would either party have trusted the other with the adjustment of the time of setting out? Perhaps they mutually set out at the opposite extremes of the territory in dispute, and not from their respective capitals.”
[11]That is, if we may read the passage in the third book of Strabo, quoted above, in the sense which we imagine he intended; if not, he contradicts himself.
[12]Ειθ᾽ οι φιλαινων βωμοι και μετα τουτους Αυτομαλα φρουριον, φυλακην εχον, ιδρυμενον κατα τον μυχον του κολπου παντος.—Lib. xvii.
[13]We have adopted the positions assigned by Strabo to these places, as being more exactly defined; and because it may be presumed that he saw the objects which he describes, with the exception of the altars of the Philæni, which he has stated to have been no longer extant in his time.
[14]Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 5.
[15]Ejus promontorium est Borion, ab eoque incipiens ora quam Lotophagi tenuisse dicuntur, usque ad Phycunta (et id promontorium est) importuoso litore pertinet. Aræ ipsæ nomen ex Philænis fratribus traxere, qui contra Cyrenaicos missi, &c.—De Situ Orbis, lib. i. cap. vii.
[16]Vide Procopius (De Ædificiis, lib. v.)
[17]. . . ωδευσε δε πεζος εν αμμω βαθεια και καυμασι.—Lib. xvii. p. 836.