Petras Minor

PETRAS MINOR (Πέτρας ὁ μικρός, Scyl. l. c.;Ptol. 4.5.2; Stadiasm. § 39), a harbour of Marmarica, half a day's sail from Antipyrgus. It has been identified with Magharab-el-Heabes, where there are a great number of catacombs remarkable for their Graeco-Aegyptian style. These curious excavations, of which plans are given in Pacho (Voyage dans la Marmarique, Planches, pl. v.), are to be identified. according to that traveller (p. 49), with the sinuous caverns of BOMBAEA (Βόμβαια), resembling the Aegyptian hypogaea,w hich the Greeks called Syringes,m entioned by Synesius (Ep. 104); but Barth (Wanderunzgen, p. 512) has shown that the description of the bishop of Ptolemais cannot be applied to these catacombs and their locality. A coin with the epigraph ΠΕ -PA, which Pellerin referred to this port in Marmarica is by Eckhel (4.116) assigned to a Cretan mint [E.B.J]