Note 126 — BOOK VI.

Baga. ‘The city of Beja or Bay-jah, which by the name and situation should be the Vacca of Sallust, the Oppidum Vagense of Pliny, the ΒΑΓΑ of Plutarch, and the Vaccensium ordo Splendissimus, as the title runs in an imperfect inscription.’ ‘Bay-jah keeps up the character that Sallust gives his Vacca of being a town of great trade.’ ‘The walls are raised out of the ancient materials.’—Shaw’s ‘Travels in Barbary,’ p. 92.

‘The ancient city was surrounded by a wall, flanked by square towers—no doubt this was originally constructed by the Byzantines—but were allowed by the Arabs to fall into decay. The only part in a relative state of preservation is the Kasba, a great part of which seems to me the original construction of Belisarius or Solomon.’ It contains ‘a large and lofty hall, about 15 paces long and 10 wide, with a vaulted roof supported on two square pillars.’—Lieut.-Col. Playfair, p. 234. (L.)