BA´NASA(Βανασσα, Ptol. 4.1.13), a colony of Mauretania Tingitana, founded by Augustus, and bearing the epithet of Valentia. (Plin. Nat. 5.1.) Its site is difficult to fix. That it stood on the river Subur ( Sebou) is clear (Plin. l. c.), but whether at its mouth, or higher up, is uncertain. Ptolemy places it among the inlandcities; a term, it is true, not used by him in the context with great strictness, but the longitude he assigns to Banasa places it some distance from the sea. Pliny seems to make it inland; and, moreover, states its distance from Lixus at 75 M. P., while he places the mouth of the Subur 50 M. P. from the same place. The Itinerary(p. 7) gives a distance of only 40 M. P. from Banasa to Lixus (namely, Frigidis 24, Lix colonia 16); and the difficulty cannot be removed by a correction of these numbers, for the total, from Sala to Lixus, of which they form a part, is correct. The site, if on the coast, corresponds to Mehediah;if inland to Mamora, about 30 miles higher up the river, where are considerable ruins.
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