[18]Pharsalia, lib. ix.
[19]Ager in medio arenosus, una specie; neque flumen, neque mons erat, qui finis eorum discerneret, &c.—(Bell. Jugurth. 79.)
[20]The water is, however, more frequently found among the sand on the beach than elsewhere; but it scarcely seems necessary that the whole extent of the sand-hills should be traversed by the army on this account. Their guides must have known where the water was to be found, without the necessity of traversing so many miles of sand-heaps in search of it.
[21]We have already assumed that the greater number of the forts in the Syrtis have, in our opinion, been constructed by the Romans.
[22]A few miles inland of Braiga, at a place called Attallàt, are the remains of a castle, whose outer walls are still standing to a considerable height; it is a quadrangular building, surrounded by a trench; and within it we observed the remains of an arch constructed without a key-stone, in the manner of one at Tabilba, which we shall allude to in describing that place.
[23]Αυτομαλα φρουριον, φυλακην εχον, &c.
It appears, upon the authority of Diodorus Siculus, that the fortress of Automala was already erected when Cyrene was first occupied by the troops of Ptolemy Lagus: for the army which was led by his general Ophellas to the assistance of the tyrant Agathocles, then at war with the Carthaginians, pitched their tents, we are told, in the neighbourhood of Automala, having consumed eighteen days in their march to that fortress from the Cyrenaica.
Οκτω και δεκα μεν ουν ημερας οδοιπορησαντες, και διελθοντες σταδιους τρισκιλιους, κατεσκηνωσαν περι Αυτομαλας.—Lib. xx. p. 753-4.
If it could be positively ascertained from what point of the Cyrenaica the army of Ophellas set out on their journey across the Syrtis, we should have the position of Automala sufficiently well ascertained; but the historian merely states, that when everything was prepared for the expedition, Ophellas set his army in motion, without mentioning the precise point from which they set out, and that the distance which they accomplished in eighteen days, as far as Automala, was three thousand stadia. Had there been any point in the bottom of the gulf which could be decidedly fixed upon as the μυχος, or innermost recess of it, in which Strabo has placed Automala, there would be no occasion for any other evidence of its position; but the coast is so straight at the bottom of the gulf, that it is not possible to fix with accuracy upon any one point which may be taken as the μυχος in question. Sachreen is certainly the most southern point, but the difference of latitude between this place and the other parts of the coast which form the bottom of the gulf is so trifling, that it can scarcely be said to amount to anything at all.
Braiga is the nearest place to Sachreen where any remains are found which will answer to Automala, and that is twenty miles distant from it, in making the circuit of the coast.