Agisymba was an unidentified country in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

mentioned by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

in the middle of the

2nd century The 2nd century is the period from 101 ( CI) through 200 ( CC) in accordance with the Julian calendar. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. Early in the century, the Roman Empire attained its greatest e ...

AD. According to Ptolemy's writings, Agisymba was found a four months' journey south of

Fezzan Fezzan ( , ; ber, ⴼⵣⵣⴰⵏ, Fezzan; ar, فزان, Fizzān; la, Phazania) is the southwestern region of modern Libya. It is largely desert, but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys (wadis) in the north, where oases enable ...

and was characterized by large animals, such as

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

es and

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

s, as well as many tall mountains. Agisymba was located near Lake Chad, which at the time was much larger than it is today. Ptolemy's account is based on that written by

Marinus of Tyre Marinus of Tyre ( grc-gre, Μαρῖνος ὁ Τύριος, ''Marînos ho Týrios''; 70–130) was a Greek geographer, cartographer and mathematician, who founded mathematical geography and provided the underpinnings of Claudius Ptolemy' ...

between 107 and 115 AD. Between the years 83 and 92 AD, the king of the

Garamantes The Garamantes ( grc, Γαράμαντες, translit=Garámantes; la, Garamantes) were an ancient civilisation based primarily in present-day Libya. They most likely descended from Iron Age Berber tribes from the Sahara, although the earliest kn ...

claimed that the inhabitants of Agisymba were his subjects. Modern historians suggest that Agisymba was probably somewhere to the north of Lake Chad as the Chad area is populated with many mountains. One theory is that Agisymba was an antecedent of the

Kanem Empire Kanem may refer to: * Kanem–Bornu Empire, existed in modern Chad and Nigeria known to Arabian geographers from the 9th century AD onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu until 1900 * Kanem Prefecture, of former prefectures of Chad * ...

located on the northern shore of Lake Chad. Indeed Ptolemy wrote that around 90 AD, Julius Maternus (or Matiernus) undertook a mainly commercial expedition. From the

Gulf of Sirte The Gulf of Sidra ( ar, خليج السدرة, Khalij as-Sidra, also known as the Gulf of Sirte ( ar, خليج سرت, Khalij Surt, is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya, named after the oil port of Sidra or ...

he reached the oasis of

Kufra Kufra () is a basinBertarelli (1929), p. 514. and oasis group in the Kufra District of southeastern Cyrenaica in Libya. At the end of nineteenth century Kufra became the centre and holy place of the Senussi order. It also played a minor role in ...

and Archei, then – after four months of traveling with the king of the Garamantes – he arrived at the rivers

Bahr Salamat Bahr Salamat is a seasonally intermittent river in Chad. It flows southwards, and is a tributary of the Chari River. When the Bahr Salama river is flowing, it runs through the community of Am Timan Am Timan (Arabic: أم تيمان, ''ʾUmm T ...

and

Bahr Aouk The Bahr Aouk River is a river in central Africa. It arises in eastern Chad at the border to Sudan and flows southwest, forming a significant portion of the international boundary between Chad and the Central African Republic. The Bahr Aouk meets ...

, near the current

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

in a region then called Agisymba. He went back to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

with a rhinoceros with two horns that was shown in the

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...

References

{{Reflist * Desanges, Jehan, ''Recherches sur l'activité des méditerranéens aux confins de l'Afrique'', Rome 1978 (pp. 197–213). * Huss, Werner: "Agisymba", in: '' Der Neue Pauly'', vol. I, Stuttgart 1996 (col. 260). * Lange, Dierk, ''Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa'', Dettelbach 2004 (pp. 280–284).

External links

"West Africa and the Classical World – Neglected Contexts"
in: H. Bley ''et al.'' (eds.), ''Afrika im Kontext: Weltbezüge in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 19. internationale Tagung der VAD, Hanover 2004, p. 20. Countries in ancient Africa Ancient peoples African civilizations History of Chad

Ancient Greek geography

References

See also

External links