AZIRIS
AZIRIS or AZIL1S (
Ἄζιρις, Ἄζιλις, Herod.,
Steph. B. sub voce Callim.;
Ἄξιρον, Charax, ap.
Steph. B. sub voce Ἄξυλις or
Ἄζυλις κώμη, Ptol. 2.5.2; Eth.
Ἀζιλίτης, Steph. B. sub voce a district, and, according to the later writers, a town, or village, on the coast of Marmarica, on the E. frontier of Cyrenaica, in N. Africa, opposite the island of Platea. Herodotus tells us that it was colonized by Battus and his followers two years after their first settlement in Platea, B.C. 638.
He describes it as surrounded on both sides by the most beautiful slopes, with a river flowing through it, a description agreeing, according to Pacho, with the valley of the river
Temmineh, which flows into the
Gulf of Bomba, opposite to the island of
Bomba (the ancient Platea).
In a second passage, Herodotus mentions it as adjacent to the port of Menelaus, and at the commencement of the district where silphium grows. (
Hdt. 4.157,
159; Callim.
in Apoll. 89; Pacho,
Voyage de la Marmarique, &c.pp. 53,86.)
It appears to be the same place as the Portus Azarius (
ὁ Ἀζάριος λίμην) of Synesius (100.4: Thrige,
Res Cyrenens. p. 72).
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P.S]
