BULLA RE´GIA
BULLA RE´GIA (
Βούλλα Ῥηγία,
Ptol. 8.14.10, corrupted into
Βουλλαρία,
Ptol. 4.3.30;
Boul, Ru.), an inland town of Numidia, S. of Thabraca, and 4 days' journey WSW. of Carthage, on a tributary of the Bagradas, the valley of which is still called
Wad-el-Boul. The epithet Regia shows that it was either a residence or a foundation of the kings of Numidia, and distinguishes it from a small place of the same name, S. of Carthage, Bulla Mensa (
Βουλλαμῆνσα, Ptol. 4.3.35). Under the Romans it was a considerable place, and a
liberum oppidum, not a
municipium, as Mannert asserts on the authority of an inscription at
Beja, which he mistakes for the site of Bulla. (
Plin. Nat. 5.3. s. 2;
Itin. Ant. p. 43;
Tab. Peut.; Geogr. Rav.; Procop.
B. 5.1.25).
According to Ptolemy's division, Bulla Regia was in that part of the province of Africa which he calls New Numidia.
It was one of his points of recorded astronomical observations, having its longest day 14 1/3 hours, and being distant from Alexandria 2 hours to the West.
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