[3291] As Marcus observes, Pliny is here greatly in error. On the inroads of Paulinus, the Mauri had retreated into the interior and taken refuge in the deserts of Zahara, whence they had again emerged in the time of the geographer Ptolemy.
[3292] From the time of the second Punic War this people had remained in undisputed possession of the country situate between the rivers Molochath or Moluga and Ampsaga, which formed the Cæsarian Mauritania. Ptolemy speaks of finding some remains of them at Siga, a town situate on a river of the same name, and at which King Syphax had formerly resided.
[3293] While Pomponius Mela does not make any difference between the Mauri and the Gætuli, Pliny here speaks of them as being essentially different.
[3294] Derived, according to Marcus, from the Arabic compound bani-our, ‘child of nakedness,’ as equivalent to the Greek word gymnetes, by which name Pliny and other ancient writers designate the wandering naked races of Western Africa.
[3295] The Autololes or, as Ptolemy calls them, the Autololæ, dwelt, it is supposed, on the western coast of Africa, between Cape Cantin and Cape Ger. Their city of Autolala or Autolalæ is one of Ptolemy’s points of astronomical observation, having the longest day thirteen hours and a half, being distant three hours and a half west of Alexandria, and having the sun vertical once a year, at the time of the winter solstice. Reichard takes it for the modern Agulon or Aquilon.
[3296] The Æthiopian Daratitæ, Marcus says.
[3297] The present Ceuta.
[3298] They were so called from the circumstance, Marcus says, of their peaks being so numerous, and so strongly resembling each other. They are now called, according to D’Anville, ‘Gebel Mousa,’ which means “the Mountain of Apes,” an animal by which they are now much frequented, instead of by elephants as in Pliny’s time.
[3299] Or Mediterranean.
[3300] The modern Bedia, according to Olivarius, the Tasanel, according to Dupinet, and the Alamos or Kerkal, according to Ansart. Marcus says that it is called the Setuan, and is the largest stream on the northern shores of Western Africa.