The region of Cyrenaica, also called Pentapolis[3414], is rendered famous by the oracle of Hammon[3415], which is distant 400 miles from the city of Cyrene; also by the Fountain of the Sun[3416] there, and five cities in especial, those of Berenice[3417], Arsinoë[3418], Ptolemais[3419], Apollonia[3420], and Cyrene[3421] itself. Berenice is situate upon the outer promontory that bounds the Syrtis; it was formerly called the city of the Hesperides (previously mentioned[3422]), according to the fables of the Greeks, which very often change their localities. Not far from the city, and running before it, is the river Lethon, and with it a sacred grove, where the gardens of the Hesperides are said to have formerly stood; this city is distant from Leptis 375 miles. From Berenice to Arsinoë, commonly called Teuchira, is forty-three miles; after which, at a distance of twenty-two, we come to Ptolemais, the ancient name of which was Barce; and at a distance of forty miles from this last the Promontory of Phycus[3423], which extends far away into the Cretan Sea, being 350 miles distant from Tænarum[3424], the promontory of Laconia, and from Crete 225. After passing this promontory we come to Cyrene, which stands at a distance of eleven miles from the sea. From Phycus to Apollonia[3425] is twenty-four miles, and from thence to the Chersonesus[3426] eighty-eight; from which to Catabathmos[3427] is a distance of 216 miles. The Marmaridæ[3428] inhabit this coast, extending from almost the region of Parætonium[3429] to the Greater Syrtis; after them the Ararauceles, and then, upon the coasts of the Syrtis, the Nasamones[3430], whom the Greeks formerly called Mesammones, from the circumstance of their being located in the very midst of sands[3431]. The territory of Cyrene, to a distance of fifteen miles from the shore, is said to abound in trees, while for the same distance beyond that district it is only suitable for the cultivation of corn: after which, a tract of land, thirty miles in breadth and 250 in length, is productive of nothing but laser [or silphium[3432]].