PETRAS MINOR
PETRAS MINOR (
Πέτρας ὁ μικρός, Scyl. l.c.;
Ptol. 4.5.2;
Stadiasm. § 39), a harbour of Marmarica, half a day's sail from Antipyrgus.
It has been identified with
Magharab-el-Heabes, where there are a great number of catacombs remarkable for their Graeco-Aegyptian style.
These curious excavations, of which plans are given in Pacho (
Voyage dans la Marmarique, Planches, pl. v.), are to be identified. according to that traveller (p. 49), with the sinuous caverns of BOMBAEA (
Βόμβαια), resembling the Aegyptian “hypogaea,” which the Greeks called “Syringes,” mentioned by Synesius (
Ep. 104); but Barth (
Wanderunzgen, p. 512) has shown that the description of the bishop of Ptolemais cannot be applied to these catacombs and their locality.
A coin with the epigraph
ΠΕ-PA, which Pellerin referred to this port in Marmarica is by Eckhel (4.116) assigned to a Cretan mint [
E.B.J]
[p. 2.585] 
