PHILAENI
Eth.
PHILAENI and PHILAENORUM ARAR (
Φιλαίνου or
Φιλαίνων βωμοί, Scyl. p. 47;
Plb. 3.39.2,
10.40.7;
Strab. iii. p.171, xvii. p. 836;
Ptol. 4.3.14,
4.4.3;
Stadiasm. § 84; Pomp. Mela, 1.7.6;
Plin. Nat. 5.4), the E. frontier of Carthage towards Cyrene, in the middle of the Greater Syrtis. About the middle of the fourth century B.C., according to a wild story which may be read in Sallust (
B. J. 79; comp.
V. Max. 5.6.4), these monuments commemorated the patriotic sacrifice of the two Philaeni, Carthaginian envoys.
These pillars, which no longer existed in the time of Strabo (p. 171), continued to give a name to the spot from which they had disappeared.
The locality is assigned to
Râs Linouf, a headland a little to the W. of
Múktar, the modern frontier between
Sórt and
Barka. The Peutinger Table has a station of this name 25 M. P. from Anabricis; and, at the same distance from the latter, the Antonine Itinerary has a station BENADAD-ARI, probably a Punic name for Philenian Altars, as they were named by the Greeks of Cyrene. (Beechey,
Expedition to the Coast of Africa, p, 218; Barth,
Wanderungen, pp. 344, 366, 371.)
[
E.B.J]
