Capsa
Κάψα
Capsa (Κάψα: Cafsa or Ghafsah, Ru.), an important city in the extreme S. of Numidia (aft. in Byzacium), standing in a fertile and well-watered oasis, in the midst of an arid desert abounding in serpents, SW. of Thelepte, and NW. of Tacape. Its foundation was ascribed to the Libyan Hercules, and it seems to be the Hecatompylos of Polybius (1.73) and Diodorus (4.18; comp. Frag. Lib. xxiv). In the Jugurthine War it was the treasury of Jugurtha, and was taken and destroyed by Marius; but it was afterwards rebuilt, and made a colony. Its names are found on inscriptions at Cafsa. (Sallust. Jug. 89, et seq.; Flor. 3.1; Strab. xvii. p.831; Plin. Nat. 5.4; It. Ant. l.c.; Tab. Peut.; Ptol. 4.3.39; Notit. Afr.; Shaw, p. 124, 2nd ed.).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.