[Footnote 1: It was to the rus in urbe that our destiny called us—to the πολίς Ελλενις παλαιον ονομα και σεμνον—νυν πενης, και κατηφης, και μεγα ερειπιον! as Cyrene is pathetically described by Synesius; and we are sorry to say that the term _rus in urbe_ may now be well applied to this once beautiful city with even more correctness than to Ptolemeta; which we have already described as covered with vegetation, and presenting the appearance of a solitary grass-grown tract of country, rather than of a once populous town. Cattle feed everywhere among the ruins of Cyrene, and its whole aspect is infinitely more rural than civic.] [Footnote 2: One of the reasons alleged for putting so high a price upon the camels was the probability of their eating the silphium which grows in the country we were about to visit, and which has sometimes very fatal effects upon them.] [Footnote 3: Ειθ᾽ ἡ Βαρκη προτερον, νυν δε Πτολεμαις.—(Strabo, Lib. xvii.) Deinde Ptolemais, antiquo nomine Barce.—(Hist. Nat. Lib. v. c. 5.) So also Stephanus; Βαρκη, πολις Λιβυης, ἡτις και Πτολεμαις.] [Footnote 4: Εκ δε λιμενος της Κυρηνης μεχρι λιμενος του κατα Βαρκην σταδια φʹ, ἡ δε πολις ἡ Βαρκεων απο θαλασσης απεχει σταδια ρʹ. (Perip. p. 109.)] [Footnote 5: (لاقطران) el kidrān, (goudron).] [Footnote 6: The Arab word is ضطابلس Bintàblis.] [Footnote 7: Yazouri was Grand Khadi and governor of Egypt and Barca, in the reign of the Caliph Mostanser-Billah. He was stripped of these posts, and of that of Vizier, which he also held, in the year 450.] [Footnote 8: This author relates, that he himself was credibly informed, that on _one_ single day (a Friday) the Imam at Alexandria had read the funeral service over _seven hundred people!_—and that, in the space of a month, the same property had passed to fourteen persons who inherited it in succession.] [Illustration: _POSITION and_ Plan _of_ CYRENE. BY _Captn. F. W. Beechey R.N._ _J. & C. Walker Sculpt._ _Published as the act directs, April 1827, by J. Murray, Albemarle St. London._] [Illustration: Plan _of the RUINS and ENVIRONS of_ CYRENE. BY _Captn. F. W. Beechey R.N._ _J. & C. Walker Sculpt._ _Published as the act directs, April 1827, by J. Murray, Albemarle St. London._] CHAPTER XV. JOURNEY FROM MERGE TO CYRENE.