NUIUS(Νουΐου ἐκβολαί, Ptol. 4.6.6; in the Latin translation, Nunii ostia), a river of Interior Libya, which discharged itself into the sea to the S. of Mauretania Tingitana. It has been identified with that which is called in the Ship-journal of Hanno, LIXUS(Λίξος, Geog. Graec. Min., p. 5, ed. Müller), and by Scylax of Caryanda (if the present text be correct), XION(Ξιῶν, p. 53), and by Polybius ( ap. Plin. 5.1), COSENUS.The Lybian river must not be confounded with the Mauretanian river, and town of the same name, mentioned by Scylax ( I. c.;comp. Artemidorus, ap. Strab. 17. p. 829; Steph. B. s. v. Λίγξ; Λίζα, , Hecat. Fr. 328; Λίξ, Ptol. 4.1. § § 2, 13; Pomp. Mela, 3.10.6; Plin. Nat. 5.1), and which is now represented by the river called by the Arabs Wady-el-Khos, falling into the sea at El-‘Arîsch, where Barth ( Wanderungen, pp. 23—25) found ruins of the ancient Lixus. The Lixus of Hanno, or Nuius of Ptolemy, is the Quad-Dra( Wady-Dra), which the S. declivity of the Atlasof Maroccosends to the Saharain lat. 32°: a river for the greater part of the year nearly dry, and which Renou ( Explor. de l'Alg. Hist. et Geogr. vol. viii. pp. 65—78) considers to be a. sixth longer than the Rhine. It flows at first from N. to S., until, in N. lat. 29° and W. long. 5°, it turns almost at right angles to its former course, runs to the W., and after passing through the great fresh-water lake of Debaid, enters the sea at Cape Nun.The name of this cape, so celebrated in the Portuguese discoveries of the 15th century, appears to have a much older origin than has been supposed, and goes back to the time of Ptolemy. Edrisi speaks of a town, Nulor Wadi Nun, somewhat more to the S., and three days' journey in the interior: Leo Africanus calls it Belad de Non. (Humboldt, Aspects of Nature, vol. i. pp. 118—120, trans.)
[E.B.J]