Lix
Lixus, an ancient city located in western Mauretania (modern-day Morocco), is situated on a low rise overlooking the marshes along the river Lix, near its mouth at the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, the city is noted for its association with the mythological Garden of the Hesperides and the local sanctuary dedicated to Heracles, which predates even the shrine in Gades (Cadiz). Initial habitation traces date back to approximately 600 BC, with the city's prosperity largely linked to its salt works. Lixus saw cycles of destruction and renewal, notably during the first century BC amidst civil conflicts and later Roman influence, becoming a municipium in the late BC era. The city flourished again under the rule of King Juba II and his son Ptolemaeus but faced further turmoil, including plundering in the mid-third century. Although it was rebuilt and continued to be occupied, the scale of its activities diminished. By the fourth century, Lixus served as a military garrison, and remnants of its rich history include structures such as a sanctuary, an amphitheater, and various fish-salting facilities, highlighting its once-thriving economy.
Lix
Lixos, Lynx, Lixa (El-Araisch, Larasch)
A city in western Mauretania, located on a low eminence above the marshes round the right bank of the river Lix (Lukkus), near its mouth two miles away in the Atlantic Ocean. Pliny the Elder records that this was one of the supposed sites of the Garden of the Hesperides, and that a local sanctuary of Heracles (Melkart), who was believed to have slain the giant Antaeus in the neighborhood, was even older than his shrine at Gades (Cadiz) across the Straits of Gibraltar. However, the earliest traces of habitation so far reported at Lix do not go further back than c 600 BC, and even thereafter occupation may have been sporadic for some time to come. The city that eventually emerged owed its prosperity to salt works. It seems to have been destroyed during the first century BC, either during the exile of Quintus Sertorius in Mauretania (c 80) or in the course of the Civil Wars between the Pompeians and Julius Caesar (c 47), who was supported by the western Mauretanian King Bogud.
The appearance of coinage—which depicts bunches of grapes and fishes, and presents the city's name both in Neo-Punic and Latin (LIXS, LIX)—can be related to its elevation to the status of municipium either in 38 (together with Tingis [Tangier]) or c 31–25, when the area came temporarily under direct Roman control. Lix subsequently became part of the territory of Juba II, Rome's client king of Mauretania (25 BC–AD 23), and then belonged to his son Ptolemaeus (AD 23–40), after whose removal by Gaius (Caligula) the city became involved in disturbances and was sacked. But when Claudius created a new Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana (to the west of Mauretania Caesariensis), Lix was probably granted colonial status; it recovered rapidly, achieving the height of its prosperity during the second and third centuries, when the salt industry was revived. In the mid-third century, however, the town was plundered once again, and although subsequently rebuilt—within a smaller perimeter—did not resume its former scale of activities. During the fourth century, however, after the creation of the province of Tingitan(i)a, it served as the garrison of a cohort.
The oldest structures of which traces remain go back to the fourth and subsequent centuries BC. A spacious sanctuary on the acropolis, perhaps the shrine of Heracles-Melkart, mentioned by Pliny, includes a large temple standing in a colonnaded courtyard that was probably erected by Juba II, one of the city's principal builders. A small amphitheater and a group of fish-salting and fish-sauce factories belong to the same epoch, while a number of wealthy houses, and additional salt workshops, date from the second and third centuries AD.