A Discourse Tending to Shew the Situation of the Ancient Carteia, and Some Other Roman Towns Near It. By John Conduitt Esq; Fellow of the Royal Society

II. A Discourse tending to shew the Situation of the ancient Carteia, and some other Roman Towns near it. By John Conduitt Esq; Fellow of the Royal Society. About four English Miles N.W. from Gibraltar, at the end of the Bay, there are considerable Ruins. The place is called at present Rocadillo, and consists of a few Huts, and a Modern Square Tower, which appears to have been raised on the Foundation of a much greater Pile. The Walls of the old City are very easy to be traced. They seem to have been about two English Miles in Circumference, and were built upon the Brow of a rising Ground. The space within is covered with Ruins, among which are a great many pieces of very fine Marble well wrought; and innumerable fragments of Vessels of that kind of red Earthen Ware, which Ambrofio Morales in the first Chapter of his Discurso de las antiguedades de las ciudades de Espana, lays down for a certain mark of a Roman City, and takes to have been a Composition of the Clay of Saguntum, often mentioned among the Romans. Ficta Saguntino pocula malo luto. Mar. Lib. VIII. Ep. 6. Sume Saguntino pocula ficta luto. Lib. XIV. Ep. 108. There are remains of a rude Semicircular Building, raised on Arches, which descends gradually into an Area, and seems to have been a kind of Theatre. I brought away with me a Marble Pedestal of a Statue, dug up near to the Square Tower. The Marks where the Feet and the extremities of the Drapery were fastened to it, are still to be seen, and the following Letters finely cut VARIA MARCE. It was given me by the owner of the Ground, who said he had read upon it formerly three other Letters L L A since broken off. There are other Inscriptions, but so Defaced and ill Cut, that they do not deserve a particular mention. I have a considerable number of Medals, that were found among these Ruins; most of them have a Caput turritum with CARTEIA in very legible Characters. The Reverse is generally a Fish, a Neptune, or a Rudder. Towards the West there is an easy Descent to the River Guadarranque, which takes its Source at Castellar, about four Leagues in the Country, and is very deep at Rocadillo. There is a Bar where the River falls into the Bay; but it does not hinder the entrance of Vessels of 15 Tun, to load Charcoal and other necessarie, that are Shipt off from thence for Ceuta. Along the side of the River there is still a great deal of Stone Work and visible remains of an Ancient Key. At a small distance to the East, upon an Eminence there are considerable ruins of a Square Castle, which appears to have been an ancient Building of very great strength. The Country People now call it Calillon, but the Corrigidor of that District told me he remember'd it called Torre Cartagena. The Situation agrees exactly with the Tower of that Name, mentioned in the 274th and 316th Chapters of the Chronicle of Alphonso XI of Castile, A Book of great Authority among the Spaniards, who are generally of Opinion that it was formed upon the Memoirs of Fernando Nunez de Valladolid a Favourite and Minister of that King, tho' it goes under the name of another Person. All. All the Spaniards who live about the Ruins I have been describing, say they are the remains of a City of the Gentiles called Cartago. The corruption of Carteia into a name so much more talked of, might easily happen in an Oral Tradition of so many Years; and I cannot help thinking that, where other Circumstances concur, an account deliver'd down from Father to Son is an evidence not to be slighted, in matters of so much obscurity. Frequent mention is made of Carteia by the Ancient Geographers and Historians. I build so much on two Passages of Livy, that I am obliged to insert them at length. The first is Lib. XXVIII. C. 30. (Livy does not mention from what Port Lælius sailed for Carteia, but by what goes before, it seems to have been from Cartagena, at that time Scipio's Head Quarters) Lælius interim, freta in Oceanum evectus, ad Carteiam classem accessit. (Urbs ea in orâ Oceani sita est, ubi primum è faucibus angustis panditur mare). Gades sine certamine proditione recipiendi (ultrò, qui eam rem pollicerentur, in castra Romana pervenientibus) spes sicut antea dictum est, fuerat. Sed patefacta immatura proditio est, comprehensosque omnes Mago Adherbali Prætori Carthaginem devehendos tradit. Adherbal, Conjuratatis in quinqueremem impositis, promissaque ea, quia tardior quam triremis erat, ipse cum octo triremibus modo intervallo sequitur. Jam fretum intrabat quinqueremis, cum Lælius & ipse in quinqueremi, è portu Carteiae, sequentibus septem triremibus, evectus, in Adherbalem ac triremes invectitur; quinqueremem satis credens deprehensam rapido in freta, in adversum æstum reciprocari non posse. Pœnus, in re subita parumper incertus, trepidavit utrum quinqueremem sequeretur, an in hostes vostra converteret. Ipla cunctatio facultatem deterrande fugae ademit: jam enim sub itinæ teli erant, & undique instabant hostes. Æstus quoque arbitrium moderan- di naves ademerat; neque erat navali pugna similibis, quippe ubi nihil voluntarium, nihil artis aut consilii esset. Una natura freti astusque totius certaminis potens, suis, alienis navibus, nequiquam remigio in contrarium tendentes invehebat; ut fugientem videres retro vortice intortam victoriis illatam, sequentem, si in contrarium tractum inclisset maris, fugientis modo se avertentem. Jam in ipsa pugna haec, cum infesto rostro peteret hostium navem, obliqua ipsa illam alterius rostri accipiebat: illa, cum transversa objiceretur hosti, repente intorta in proram circumgebatur. The other Passage is Lib. XLIII. C. 3. Et alia novi generis hominum legatio ex Hispaniâ venit: Ex militibus Romanis & ex Hispanis mulieribus, cum quibus connubium non esset, natos se memorantes, supra quattuor millia hominum, orabant ut sibi oppidum in quo habitarent daretur. Senatus decrevit, uti nomen suum apud L. Canuicium profiterentur, eorumque siquis manumitteret, eos Carteiam ad Oceanum deduci placere. Qui Carteiensium domi manere vellet, potestatem fore uti numero colonorum esset, azro assignato. Latinam eam coloniam fuisse, Libertinorumque appellari. The best Spanish Authors, and Ortelius and Cellarius trusting to them, take this Carteia of Livy to be different from that which was the next to Calpe, and place it generally about Conil. Rodrigo Caro in his Convento Jurídico de Sevilla C. 24. applies the Carteia in the XLIII Book of Livy to Rocadillo, and in Cap. 74. to Cartaia near Lepe. It is surprizing he takes no notice of the Passage in the XXVII Book. For the particular mention of ad Oceanum, and Urbs ea in ordi Oceanis sita est, implies they both relate to the same place: perhaps it was because he could not reconcile it with his Cartaia near Lepe. Cellarius makes Beippo this Carteia of Livy. L. 2. c. 1. Beippo, que videtur Carteia Livii esse, extra fretum Aliam pro Livio Carteiam non invenio; tho' in all the ancient Geographers Besippo is mentioned by itself as a distant Town. I am so far from seeing any necessity of erecting a new Carteia in the Ocean for these Passages in Livy, that I take that in Lib. XXVIII. to be rather a proof that the City there mentioned, stood at Rocadillo. It certainly agrees much better with that Situation than with Conil or Cartaia near Lepe. It is not to be reconciled with the latter, because that lies North West of Cadiz, from whence Adherbal set out for Carthage, and is a good way up the Country, on the tide of a River, and not in orâ Oceani. Neither can Conil be said properly to be Situated Ubi primum e faucibus angustis panditur mare; for the Sea widens considerably before it reaches the Capes Spartel and Trafalgar, and becomes an Ocean where that Town stands. It is observable that Mela applies words of the same import with those of Livy to the Sea between Calpe and Abila. Barbesul; Aperit deinde angustissimum pelagus. There is no Harbour at Conil, or any other place between Cape Trafalgar and Cadiz. If the Carthaginian Quinqueremis had only been going into (intrabat) the Mouth of the Streights between Capes Spartel and Trafalgar, Lalius could not have believed it satis deprehensam rapido in fretto, in advessum acutum reciprocari non posse, for there is no such strong Current there; and the action between him and Adherbal's Triremes, which were at some distance behind the Quinqueremis, must have happened Westward of those Capes; which is inconsistent with the description Livy gives of it; because in that part of the Ocean there are none of those Eddies, that appear to have had so particular an effect on both the Fleets, during the Engagement, and are peculiar to the Middle of the Gut. This general mistake seems to have been occasioned by giving too easily into the opinion, that Livy understood by the Fretum all the Sea between the Capes Spartel and Trafalgar, and the Rock of Gibraltar and Apes-Hill; when it is more probable that he termed strictly so only the narrowest part, which was generally reckoned to be between the two latter: Mela. Proxima Africa & Europe littora montes efficiunt Caïpe & Abila. Pliny takes Mellaria to be nearest to Africk, and therefore places there the Fretum ex Atlantico mari Lib. 3. which is an argument his Fretum was not the same with our Straights, and that he carried the Atlantick Ocean much farther East than the Capes Spartel and Trafalgar. Other Authors seem to make the Pillars of Hercules the Boundary of the Mediterranean and the Ocean. Marcianus Heracleotes. Ἐνταῦθα πέρας ἐξ τῆς Βαλκάνης Ἰονίας τὸ μέρος τὸ παρήνευσαν ὑπὲρ ἐγκατεστησιασμένων τῶν Ἑλλήνων πορθμῶν πυγμαχίας, τὴν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐπὶ τὴν ἐξω, τὰ ἐξ ὑπὸ τῶν Ωκεανῶν. Hic finem habet Hispania Baetica pars contingens utraque maria qua circa fretum Herculeum, tam mare nostrum quam mare exterius, h.e. Occasum. Τῆς μὲν Βαλκάνης τὸ πλεῖστον ἐφ’ τῆς ἡμέρας κατὰ Δαλάσσους, ἢ Ἑρακλέων ἐντὸς στρᾶν, μέρος δὲ τὸ ἐξ ὑπὸ τῶν Σοκλίνων Ωκεανῶν Baetica quidem pars maxima prætenditur nostro mari, Herculeas intra columnas, pars vero quaedam occidentali Oceano. Polybius I. III. Καλέσαι δὲ τὸ μὲν ὁρίζει τὴν ἡμέρας παρήνευσαν ἐώς Ἑρακλέων σαλῶν, Ἰβηρία τὸ δὲ ὁρίζει τὴν ἐξω ἐκ μεγάλων ῥεομετρευόμενων πορθμῶν μὲν ὑπομασίαν ἐκ ἐξει, διὰ τὸ ῥεομετρεύον ἀποπτεύοντα. Quae porrigiur secundum mare nostrum portio ad columnas usque Herculis Iberia nominatur; quae secundum mare externum quod & magnum appellatur, communem appellationem nondum invenit, quia non dum est cum fuit explorata. Appian Appian L. II. Ἐποχαν ὁδὸν τὰς σῖτας τῶν Ἑρκυλίων τὸν ὀκεανὸν ἐπέγραψεν. Trajecto ad Columnas Herculis Oceano. Florus Lib. IV. C. 2 In ipso ostio Oceani Varus Didiusque legati conflixere; sed acrius fuit cum ipso mari, quam inter se navibus bellum: Siquidem velut furorem civium castigaret Oceanus, utramque classem naufragio cessit. Quinam ille horror, cum codem tempore fluctus, procellae, viri, naves, armamenta confligerent? Addes si vis ipsius formidinem, vergentia in unum hinc Hispaniae inde Mauritaniae littora; Mare & intestinum & externum, imminentesque Herculis spectaculæ; cum omnia undique simul praleo & tempestate levirent. Here the Pillars of Hercules are made the very Mouth of the Ocean. If you understand the Fretum of Livy in this Sense, and reckon it to signify only the Sea between Calpe and Abila, and the Ocean to begin from thence Westward, the Passage in the 28th Book is an accurate description of Rocadillo. Laelius interim fretu in Oceanum evectus ad Carteiam classe accedit. Urbis ea in orá Oceani sita est, ubi primum e faucibus angustis panditur mare. And allowing Laelius to set out against Adherbal from thence, every circumstance mentioned by Livy is so easy to be accounted for, that it is needless to make Application. A Passage in Livio Cassius Lib. XLIII. induces me to believe the Vessels anchored in the Guadarranque, and that that River, and not the Bay, was properly Portus Carteia. "Οὐαρὸς δὲ ὁ ὄχημα Ἀδιδίῳ ἀπὸ Κερκίνου ἐναυξατίκην ἐν ἡμῖν περιγραφῆναι ἐστὶ τὴν γῆν, ἀγωγας ἐς τὸ σοῦρας ἢ λιμένας ἀλλὰς ἀπὸς ἀλλοὺς περιεβεβλήκει ἢ ἀπὸ αὐτῶν ὅτι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀναγκασμοῦ σοφῶς ὑπὸ ἐρμα ἐπιπλεῖσθαι, πᾶν ἢ τὸ ναυκήτων ἀπολογέσθαι. Varus vero à Didio apud Cranion navali praleo superatus in terram evasit, conjectisque introitum portus anchoris, ita ut una ab altâ teneretur, cum ad eas, tangnam ad septum quoddam, prime insequentium naves naves offendissent, periculum totius classis amittenda declinavit. This cannot be understood of the Bay, because that is three Leagues over at the narrowest part, and much too deep for a work of such a Nature, which might easily have been effected upon the Bar of the River Guadarranque. There is no room to doubt of the emendation Luis Nunez, in his Hispanica, has made here of Kapnia for Carteia; for no ancient Author mentions any other Town or Harbour thereabouts of a name like that; and Carteia was the place which held out the longest for the younger Pompey, and where he kept his Fleers. Florus in the Passage I have already quoted, relating the same Action between Didius and Varus, represents in very lively Colours, the very Scene near Rocadillo. Adde situs ipsius formidinem, vergentia in unum hinc Hispaniae inde Mauritaniae littora; mare intestinum & externum, imminentesque Herculis speculas &c. Hirtius, in the latter part of his Book de bello Hispanico, says Cn Pompeius ad navale praesidium parte altera contendit Carteiam, quod Oppidum abest à Corduba millia passuum CLXX. which distance, as well as the circumstance of navale praesidium, agrees with the Situation of Rocadillo. The ancient Geographers place Carteia next to Calpe Westward. Pomponius Mela, after having given us a perfect Picture of Calpe, and described those lasting Marks, in which so many Centuries have made no alteration, says—Sinus ultra est, in eoque Carteia. Strabo L III. Ἐνταυγῇ δὴ ὁρῶ ἐπὶ τῆς Ἰβήσου ἡ Καλπή, &c. ἢ ὡς ἂντο Καλπή πόλις ἐν πτεραῖοντα καθίσις, ἀξιόλογος ἢ παλαιὰ, ναυσάρμος ποτὲ γενομένη ἢ Ἰβήσου. "Ενοὶ δὲ ἢ Ἡσαλέως ἱκομα λέγοντι ἂντὸν, ὧν ἐπὶ ἢ Τιμαδώνις, ὡς φοι ἢ Ἡσαλέων ὄνομαζεῖς τὸ παλαιὸν, διάκυνδα περὶ μέχρι ἑβίβολον ἢ νεωσίχις. Ibi mons Hispanorum est Calpe, &c. & ad XL inde Stadia Urbs Calpe vetula. vetera & memorabilis, olim Statio navibus Hispanorum. Hanc ab Hercule quidam conditam aiunt, inter quos est Timosthenes, qui eam antiquius Heracleam fuisse appellatam refert, ostendique adhuc magnum murorum circuitum & Nautilia. Casaubon, in his Notes on this Passage is of Opinion it should be Καρπία πόλις. Legendum censeo Καρπία πόλις, nam eam urbem hic intelligi res ipsa docet; & ex eo colligi potest, quod toties eam infra nominans nihil tamen de ejus situ alibi dixisse reperitur. At Calpen Urbem nemini Veterum ne nominatam quidem reperio. Marcianus Heracleotes makes Carteia 50 Stadia from Calpe. Either of these Distances agrees with Rocadillo, according to the part of the Rock from which they reckon; for it is above six Miles from Europa Point to Rocadillo. Bochart in his Geographia Sacra Lib. I. Cap. 34 strengthens Casaubons Opinion. Nec frustra Heraclea Carteiae fuisse vetus nomen, tanquam ab Hercule conditore. Herculem enim suum Phœnices Μέλχαρδον appellabant. Philo Biblius ex Sanchoniathone apud Eusebium L. I. Preparat. τῶν Δημαρχῶν γίνεται Μέλχαρδος ὁ ἐκ Ἑρακλῆς. Ex Demarunte autem natus est Melcarthus qui & Hercules. Μέλχαρδος autem est Μελχ Κράτος Melech Kartha. Rex Urbis, i.e. Tyri. Idem Graecis Melicertes sive Palaimon Maris Deus, quem Cadmi nepotem esse fingunt. Hinc Hesychius rursus Μάλιχα τὸν Ἑρακλέα Ἀμαθεύον. Omnino igitur ex Melcartho, vel Μελχ Κράτος Melech Kartha. Urbs quam ad Calpen condictit Hercules Phœnicius, primo Melcartheia vocata est, Melech Karthia, quasi Ἑρακλέαν dixeris; deinde per Aphareisin Cartheia vel Carteia. Apud Hebræos frequens est hæc Aphareis in nominibus locorum compositis. Tale Sittim pro Abel-Sittim, Salem pro Jerusalem, &c. I have some Medals that were dug up at Rocadillo, with the Head and Club of Hercules upon them; which seem in some measure, to support that great Man's Assertion. Upon the Reverse are Tunny Fishes, which according to Strabo and Pliny abounded formerly near Carteia, and are still taken in great quantities near the Shoar of the East Sea, at a small distance from Rocadillo. Bernardo Aldrete an Author of such Weight, that Bochart does not disdain to copy him on several occasions, in the second Book and second Chapter of his Antiguedades de Espanna, accounts for the Addition of eta to Cartha; which in the Syriack and Chaldean signifies Pulcher, Formosus, and was affixed to the Name of this City to distinguish it from the Cartha in Syria, mentioned in the 21st Chapter and 34th Verse of Joshua. By all accounts, the Phoenicians founded most of the Cities on this Coast, and probably Carteia was one of their earliest Settlements; for it lies very near Africk, in a most inviting Situation, having on one side a Bay, and on the other a River, which waters a rich Country. Its height gave it strength and a very beautiful Prospect; circumstances which seem to justify Aldrete's interpretation of the latter part of its name. In the Itinerary of Antoninus, it is Calpe-Carteiam, not tanquam dua urbes diverse, as Casaubon intimates in his Notes on the third Book of Strabo, for then it would be Calpen Carteiam; nor, according to Surita's Comment on that part of the Itinerary, ut significet non recta iter ex Suel Carteiam deduci, sed paululum ad Calpen deflecti; because Calpe stands at the end of a narrow neck of Land, which projects to the Southward a great way from the rest of the Continent; and consequently is quite out of the Road from Suel to any other place Westward of it; probably Calpe-Carteia is for Cartela ad Calpen, to distinguish it from the other Carteia in Celiberia, mentioned in the 21st Book and 5th Chapter of Livy: for, as Caro observes, there is no necessity for the alteration Sigonius has made in that passage of Althea for Carteia, from the Text of Polybius; because Livy never mentions the other Carteia without adding ad Oceanum, Urbs ea in ora Oceani sita est; which distinction were needless, had there been only one City of that Name. Strabo in his third Book mentions a City called Kapranias, and places it near Saguntum, which is agreeable to the Situation given this Carteia by Livy. I am very much surprized that Mariana, and several others, should take the present Gibraltar to have been the ancient Heraclea; when neither Pliny, who resided so long in those Parts, Mela who was born there, nor any ancient Geographer or Historian that I have met with, makes the least mention of such a City thereabouts, except Strabo; and he places it 40 Stadia from Calpe, at the Foot of which Gibraltar is situated. The Spanish Historians give good ground to believe there was no Town upon that Mountain till the Moors invaded Spain under Tariff, who gave it the name it has retained ever since. I shall not enter into the detail of the reasons of those Authors who place Carteia at Tarifa or Algezeira: the true one seems to have been their not knowing any other place which agreed better with the old accounts of Carteia, or where the ruins of a City, which made so great a Figure, could be buried; the common practice of Authors who describe places they have not seen. This appears to have been the case of most of those, especially Mariana; who, had he been in these Parts, would not have been guilty of the oversight he has committed Lib. XVI. C. 9. where he places two Bays in the Streights, one at Gibraltar, and the other at Tarifa; which error he was probably led into (as it often happens) by another. For, For, giving into the Opinion that Tarifa was the ancient Carteia, and finding that City placed in a Bay by Mela, he concluded there must be one at Tarifa, which is an open Road, and so much exposed, that in the least bad Weather, the smallest Vessels must be haul'd ashore. Which Circumstance alone is a sufficient proof of its not being Carteia, by all accounts, a famous Harbour. Tho' there are very great Ruins at Algezeira, they are not such as give any room to believe they are the remains of a Roman City. For neither pieces of Marble, nor Inscriptions are found there, nor any Roman Coins. The Circumstance of Varus his shutting up the Mouth of the Harbour of Carteia, and the distance of 40 or 50 Stadia from Calpe, are not applicable, either to Tarifa or Algezeira; and if one of those Towns was Carteia, to what City belong those Ruins I have been describing? since all the ancient Geographers make Carteia not only the nearest Town to Calpe, but the only one in that Bay. There is better ground to believe Tarifa stands on the Ruins of another Town, as I shall endeavour to shew presently. But before I proceed to a Description of the Coast, it may not be improper to mention some Ruins I saw at Ximena; an inland Town, about five Leagues North from Gibraltar, situated on a Rocky Hill, at the bottom of which to the Eastward is a very plentiful Country, washed by the Jofgarganta, a small Branch of the River Guadiaro. On the top of the Hill is the old Town, which by the Arches and Vaults, appears to have been built by the Moors. On the right-hand Corner of the second Gate of it, there is a course Stone with Mouldings on the Edges, which has the following Inscription. L. HERENNIO HERENNIANO L. CORNELIVS HERENNIUS RUSTICVS NEPOS EX TESTAMENTO POSVIT NONIS MARTIIIS SEX. QVINTILIO CONDIANO SEX. QVIN TILIO MAXIMO COSS. Rodrigo Caro in his Convento Juridica de Sevilla C. 13 says he saw the beginning of this Inscription in Bejer de la miel; but when I was in that Town, I was informed by a very intelligent Person, that there is no Roman Inscription in any part of it. The Author of Cadiz el Emporio del Orbe, when he inserts this inscription, makes it SEXOVINTILIO CONDIMIO; But the Dash of the Q is very plain, and the other word seems rather CONDIANO. The Latin Fasti in A.U.C. 903 place Consuls SEX. QUINTILIUS GORDIANVS SEX. QUINTILIUS MAXIMUS. But the very learned Dr. Bently has observed to me that the Greek Fasti and Dio call him Κορδιανός, which reading is confirmed by this Inscription. I have brought with me from this Town a piece of Marble with the following Words upon it. AVCTINVS CLEMEN TIS SIBI ET SVIS BRITTÆ MATER AN LX H.S.E. SIT T.T.LEVIS; I saw another on the Wall of the great Church which seems to have been the Base of a Statue; the Inscription is as follows. RESPVBLICA OBEN SIS E...LO DATO DEDI...VIT CVRAT LIBE...OR H..REN NIORVSTICO H.M. SINILO RESTITVTO II VIR. The manner in which the Moors have placed these Inscriptions plainly shews the little value they set upon them, and there is so great a plenty of Stone on the Rock where Ximena stands, that it is not to be thought they would fetch them for such an use, from any distant place; which induces me to believe a Roman Town formerly stood there called OBA. I do not find any Town of that name in the ancient Authors. Strabo L. III. mentions Σορόβα Μαύροβα ἐν ἀλαγονικῇ, which may possibly comprehend Oba. The Geographia Nabensis, in the fourth Clima, makes a Town called Rotban, the first Station from Algezeira to Seville, which perhaps may have been this Oba; for it is about a Days journey from Algezeira, and in the direct Road from thence to Seville. Mariana places Lib. III. C. 2. the Cave where Crassus hid himself, near Ximena; the Marks of it, given by Plutarch, are common to most others. I went three Leagues in search of it; but the Country People having a notion that there is a Treasure in it, and not being to be persuaded that I would take so much Pains out of pure Curiosity, would not shew me the Way, tho' they acknowledged there were several such Caves thereabouts. I cannot help taking notice of one very odd odd tho' trifling circumstance. The name of the Person who owns the Land where those Caves are, is Pachieco, which is very near the same with that of the Spaniard, who is said by Plutarch to have entertained Crassus so courteously, Παμάνγος. Hirtius in the beginning of his Book de bello Hispanico mentions a Spaniard of Note, in provincia Baetica, called Patiecus. Quibus praecedit hominem ejus: provinciae notum & non parum scientem, L. Julium Patiecum, which was probably the Roman Name; and therefore I am surprized the Latin Translator of Plutarch makes it Pacianus. Most of the antient Geographers describe the Coast Westward of Carteia in the following manner. Julia Traducta, Mellaria, Balo fluvius & oppidum, Portus Basippo, Promontorium Junonis, &c. The Itinerary of Antoninus, makes no mention of Julia Traducta, and Pliny places it on the African Coast, which Hardouin endeavours to account for Pag. 227. in his Nummi Illustrati. Strabo calls it Julian Jozam, which as Bochart oberves Lib. I. C. 24. signifies the same in the Phoenician Language as Traductam in the Latin. Ptolomy calls it Transducta. He places Barbesula between that and Carteia. But all the other old Geographers put both the Town and River of that Name Eastward of Calpe. I saw some Ruins on the East side of the River Guadiaro, four Leagues East of Gibraltar; which I take to be the remains of the ancient Barbesula. For I find in the Cadiz Emporio del Orbe, mention made of two pieces of Marble, brought from thence to Gibraltar; on one of which was MM BARBESVLANI. I was credibly informed they were used for the Fountain on the Parade. The Letters probably were either sawed off, or turned inwards; for they do not appear. This Barbesula is probably the Barbariana placed in the Itinerary X. M. P. East from Carteia. Pomponius Mela, who was born in those Parts, and therefore is most to be depended on, gives the following account of the Coast, according to the Edition of Gronovius. Sinus ultra est, in eoque Carteia, ut quidam putant, aliquando Tartessus, & quam transvecti ex Africâ Phænices habitant; atque unde nos sumus, Tingentera. Tum Mellaria & Bælo, & Bæippo usque ad Junonis promontorium oram freti occupat. The Text of Mela in this place has occasioned great disputes among the Learned. Casaubon in his Notes upon Strabo, says, lego autem—atque unde nos sumus Tingi contraria Mellaria, aut Tingi è regione sita Mellaria. Nam Tingis factam hic à Melâ mentionem mihi est persuasissimum; primum quidem veterem lectionem spectanti, quæ est, ut dixi, Cingenteratum; aut etiam ut in suis libris doctissimus Elias Vinetus reperit Tingentera; ut jam de eo dubitari non possit. Deinde autem video morem Melæ hunc esse, ut locorum in alterâ orâ oppositorum mentionem faciat. Sic alibi: Majorem Sabæi tenent partem, ostio proximam, & Carmanis contrariam Macæ. Nec moveri quisquam debet quod alii Tingin Bæloni non Mellariæ faciunt contrariam. Nam Bælo & Mellaria ita sunt vicina, ut mirari hoc nemo debeat. Salmatus, whose opinion is approved by Bochart, makes it Tingis altera, tum Mellaria, &c. and takes the preceding transvecti to denote Julia Traducta. Casaubon seems to have been once of the same Opinion. Sed a Strabone stare Ptolemæus videtur, qui in hac Hispaniæ orâ oppidum quoddam memorat cui nomen Tranducta, in quod scilicet collocati fuerint isti, de quibus nunc loquitur Strabo; & de quibus dubitavi aliquando, an hæc Melæ verba essent accipienda, In eoque Carteia, ut quidam putant, aliquando Tartessus, & quam transvecti ex Africâ Phænices habitant. Nam videbatur satis aperte Tranductam Ptolomæi ἀπειροτάτην. Nunc iis assentior qui ad Carteiam ea referunt. The opinion of Salmahus seems to be the most probable; for Bælo and not Julia Traducta is said to be over against Tingis. Marcianus Heracleotes makes the two former about 250 Stadia distant from one another, and Mellaria is generally placed between them; therefore they could not be so near one another as Caesabon insinuates. Tho' Carteia was originally founded by the Phœnicians, it had been erected into a Roman Colony long before Mela's time, and therefore he could not very properly say Carteia, quam Phœnices habitant; and had he intended to take notice of the Founders of that City, it is probable that one whose Style is so pure and accurate, would have made use of another word, or at least another Tense. Besides, if Julia Traducta, according to Caesabon, is not meant by that passage, it must have been entirely omitted by Mela; which is very unlikely, considering he was Born in or near it; and that it is mentioned by Strabo, who lived before him, and Ptolemy and several others who were after him; and appears to have been remaining at the time the Vandals were in possession of Spain; for Greg. Turon. Lib. II. says Prosequentibus Alamannis usque ad Traductam, transito mari, Vandali per totam Africam ac Mauritaniam sunt dispersi. The Letters of Tingi altera come nearer the Tingentera of Elias Vincetus, and the Tingi Hieræ of Gronovius, than Caesabons Tingi contraria or Tingi è regione sita. The & and the atque, by making the stop at Tartessus instead of Habitant, may very well relate to the same place; and it is not improbable that Mela was desirous to illustrate the obscure place of his Birth by a Periphrasis, and a name of some Eclat; tho' it has happened, the method he took to do Honour to it, has been the occasion, that we are in doubt even of its Name. Ddddddd I met with two Medals of Julia Traducta among the Brass Spanish Coins; but as I cannot ascertain where they were found, I will not pretend to form from thence any judgment of the situation of the Town to which they belong. But I presume in matters so dark, a conjecture may be offered. It does not seem very improbable, that Julia Traducta stood where Tarifa is at present. The Spanish Authors reckon that Town to have been built by Tarif at his second coming to Spain. I cannot see what could invite him to settle on a Spot which has neither the convenience of a River, nor a Harbour, and is commanded by a rising Ground; unless he found some Tenements standing, or Ruins to serve for Materials to Build. I have several Roman Coins that were found there after great Rains, in the Common Sewer; which is some slight inducement to believe it was formerly a Roman Town. About a League and half to the West of Tarifa, is a place which goes now by the name of Val de Vaca. The Country People have a Tradition among them, that it was once a considerable Town, since swallowed up by the Sea. There is a small Brook called el Arroyo de Juan Francisco, which serves to turn some Mills, that a Priest of that Name was encouraged to build there, by finding an antient Stone Channel for the Water. I saw some other small Ruins, and was credibly assured there are visible remains of an old Town a good way under Water. There is a Shoal almost off this place, that runs pretty far in the Sea, on which a Hamburgher was lost some Years ago. Perhaps Mellaria stood hereabouts. Wherever it was, the Ruins of it must be a considerable way in the Sea, if credit is to be given to Pliny, who upon the Testimony of one Born there, reckons only five Miles from thence to Afric. Lib. III. whereas whereas it is at present five Leagues over at the narrow Part. Casaubon is mistaken in that Note on Strabo L. II. where he says, *At Maris Mediterranei ostium vix LXX Stadia latum est*. I cannot help observing that the best Hony in all Spain is made in these Parts, and that the same cause to which the ancient Mellaria ow'd its Name, still subsists, and has given a modern Appellation to several places hereabouts, as Playa de Orimel, Rio de la Miel, Bejer de la Miel. The latter of these is generally reckoned by the Spaniards to be the old Mellaria, for no other reason, that I can see, but the Name. For it is at least two Leagues from the Coast of the Streights, and, by what I could judge when I was on the Spot, as near the Ocean, and therefore may as well be ascribed to the one as the other. Whereas Mellaria, according to all the old Geographers, was situated on the Sea side in the Streights, and is reckoned by Pliny the nearest Town to Afric; a plain proof that it was not what is now Bejer de la Miel. About a League and half further West, in a small Bay, there are very great Ruins, which appear evidently to be the remains of a Roman Town. A League Eastward from that place, upon an Eminence, are to be seen the Quarries from which the Stone was fetched for building it; and all the way from thence are large remains of an Aqueduct, of which in some places there are entire Arches still standing. Among the Ruins of the old Town, I saw the Body of a Roman Statue of fine Alabaster, something bigger than the Life. Our Guide said his Father had seen it entire; but as it was an Idol of the Gentiles, they, like good Catholicks, had broken it to pieces. He likewise told us that Urns of old Coins had been found there; but not being Current in Spain, they had thrown them away. The place is called Balonia. It is over against Tangier, and frequently infested by the Moors from thence; on which account it is uninhabited. A small River, called Alpariate, runs by it: all which circumstances correspond with the ancient accounts of Balo. I have a Medal that was given me at Tarifa, with the following Letters upon it BAULO, which probably belonged to this City, called by Ptolemy Βαλωνια. Martianus Capella Lib. VI. mentions it under the name of Velonensis Batice Civitas. The Itinerary of Antoninus places Balo VI. M. P. West of Mellaria, which is about the distance of these Ruins from Val de Vaca. About five Leagues farther is the Cape of Trafalgar; the sight of which immediately brought to my mind Mela's description of it. Illud jam in Occidentem & Oceanum obliquo jugo excurrens, atque ei, quod Ampelusium esse dixeramus, adversum, &c. Near the Capes Point are the Ruins often mentioned by the Spanish Authors, under the name of Aguas de Mecca. I was not there, but was assured at Bejer de la Miel, that there were still some Ruins on the Shore, and more in the Sea, that run all along under the Cape; particularly remains of a Mole, which must have made it a tolerable Harbour. These Ruins seem to be the remains of old Basippo. Plin. L. III. Portus Basippo. Mela Basippo usque ad Junonis promontorium, oram freti occupat. The placing of Watch-Towers along the Coast of Spain to Alarm the Country, upon any Descent, seems to have been a practice of a long standing. Livy Lib. XXII. C. 19. Multas & locis altis positas turres Hispania habet, quibus & speculis & propugnaculis contra latrones utuntur: inde primo, conspectis hostium navibus, datum signum Asdrubali est, &c.