LEPTIS

LEPTIS erived from a Phoenician word signifying a naval station.(Liv. 34.62; Caes. B.C. 2.38; Hirt. Bell. Afr. 6, 7, 9, 62; Mela, 1.7.2; Plin. Nat. 5.4. s. 3), also called by later writers, LEPTIS MINOR or PARVA (Λέπτις ἡ μίκρα, Ptol. 4.3.10; Leptiminus or Lepte Minus, Itin. Ant. p. 58; Tab. Peut.;Geogr. Rav. 3.5 5.5: EthLeptitani: Lemta, Ru.), a city on the coast of Byzacium, just within the SE. headland. of the Sinus Neapolitanus, 18 M.P. SE. of Hadrumetum, and 33 M.P. NE. of Thysdrus, and one of the most flourishing of the Phoenician colonies on that coast, notwithstanding the epithet PARVA,which is merely used by late writers to distinguish it from the still more important city of LEPTIS MAGNAI t was a colony of Tyre (Sal. Jug. 19; Plin. l. c.), and, under the. Carthaginians, it was the most important place in the wealthy district of EMPORIAE and its wealth was such that it paid to Carthage the dailytribute of a Euboic talent. (Liv. l. c.) Under the Romans it was a libera civitas, at least in Pliny's time: whether it became a colony afterwards depends on the question, whether the coins bearing the name of LEPTIS belong to this city or to Leptis Magna. [See below, under LEPTIS MAGNA] Its ruins, though interesting, are of no great extent. (Shaw, Travels, p. 109; Barth, Wanderungen, &c. p. 161.)
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