Leptis Magna was built at an early period by the Phœnicians, and was ranked, after Carthage and Utica, as the first of their maritime cities. After the destruction of Carthage it flourished under the government of the Romans, and was remarkable, as we are informed by Sallust, for its fidelity and obedience[2]. After the occupation of Northern Africa by the Vandals, the walls and fortifications of Leptis appear to have been dismantled or destroyed[3]: they were probably afterwards restored under Justinian, when the city became the residence of the Prefect Sergius; and we find them, on the authority of Leo Africanus, to have been finally demolished by the Saracens[4]. From that time the city appears to have been wholly abandoned; and its remains were employed in the construction of Modern Tripoly, as Leo has also informed us. During the Prefecture of Sergius, who presided over the district of Tripolis[5], Leptis Magna was attacked by a neighbouring African tribe; and Sergius himself, after some previous successes, was reduced to seek shelter within the walls of the city, to which alone he appears to have been indebted for safety. A party of Moors, of the tribe called _Levatæ_, had encamped under the walls of Leptis, to receive from the governor the reward of past fidelity, and the bribe for their future good conduct. Eighty of their deputies were accordingly introduced into the town, and admitted to a conference with the Prefect. On the statement of certain grievances of which they complained Sergius rose to leave the tribunal; but one of the suppliants detained him by the robe, while the rest of the deputies pressed nearer to his person and urged their demands in louder terms. Provoked at this insolence, an officer of the Prefect drew his sword and plunged it into the Moor, and the death of this imprudent offender became the signal for a general massacre. One only of the Levatæ escaped from the city to bear the melancholy news of the slaughter of his companions to the rest of the tribe without the walls. They instantly took up arms and invested the city; and though at first repulsed with great loss by a sally of the Romans, they shortly after succeeded in defeating the Prefect; and his general Pudentius, having incautiously exposed himself, was cut off and slain in the field. Sergius retired with the remainder of his army upon the city, and shut himself up within its walls; but as he was incapable of continuing the contest with advantage, he finally withdrew to Carthage, in order to claim the assistance of his uncle, and induce him to march his army against the Moors[6]. The result of the engagement which afterwards took place was fatal to the cause of the Romans; for Solomon, who had so ably filled the place of Belisarius, was slain in the field of Tebeste[7], and the Prefect was once more compelled to seek safety in flight[8].