Note 78 — Chapter III · THE FAMILIARITY OF THE REGIONS OF THE EARTH WITH THE TRIPLICITIES AND THE PLANETS

The name of Africa was, in Ptolemy’s time, limited to those parts of the coast on the Mediterranean which contained the ancient Utica, and in which Tunis now stands. Josephus says the name is derived from Afer (one of the posterity of Abraham by Cethurah), who is stated to have led an army into Libya, and to have established himself in the country. This Afer is, of course, the same with Epher, mentioned in the fourth verse of the 25th chapter of Genesis, as a son of Midian, one of the sons of Abraham by his concubine Keturah.