[1056] Plutarch, Cæsar, 12.
[1057] A chain of mountains in Portugal, now called Sierra di Estrella, separating the basin of the Tagus from the valley of Mondego. According to Cellarius (Ancient Geography, I. 60), Mount Herminium is still called Arminno. The principal oppidum belonging to the population of these mountains seems to have been called Medobrega (Membrio). It is mentioned in Cæsar’s Commentaries, War of Alexandria, 48.
[1058] Probably in the modern province of Leyria.
[1059] A survey made, in August, 1861, by the Duc de Bellune, leaves no doubt that the peninsula of Peniche was once an island. The local traditions state that in ancient times the ocean advanced as far as the town of Atoguia; but since Dio Cassius speaks of the rising tide which swept away soldiers, we must believe that there were fords at low tide. We give extracts from Portuguese authors who have written on this subject.
Bernard de Brito (Portuguese Monarchy, I. p. 429, Lisbon, 1790) says:—“As along the entire coast of Portugal we cannot find, at the present time, a single island that fulfils the conditions of the one where Cæsar sought to disembark better than the peninsula, on which there is a locality which, taking its name from its situation, is called Peniche, we shall maintain, with our countryman Resende, that it is to this that all the authors refer. And I do not believe it possible to find one more suitable in every way than this: because, over and above the fact that it is the only one, and situated at but a short distance from the mainland, we see that when the tide is low it is possible to traverse the strait dryshod, and with still greater facility than would have been possible in ancient times, because the sea has silted up sand against a large portion of this coast, and brought it to pass that the sea does not rise to so high a point upon the land. Still, it rises high enough to make it necessary, at high tide, to use a boat to reach the island, and that in a space of about 500 paces in width, which separates the island from the mainland.”
The following is the passage of Resende:—“Sed quærendum utrobique quænam insula ista fuerit terræ contigua, ad quam sive pedibus sive natatu profugi transire potuerint, ad quam similiter et milites trajicere tentarint? Non fuisse Londobrin, cujus meminit Ptolomæus (Berligam modo dicimus), indicio est distantia a continente non modica. Et quum alia juxta Lusitaniæ totius littus nulla nostra ævo exstet, hæc de qua Dion loquitur, vel incumbenti violentius mari abrasa, vel certe peninsula illa oppidi Peniche juxta Atonguiam, erit intelligenda. Nam etiam nunc alveo quingentis passibus lato a continente sejungitur, qui pedibus æstu cedente transitur, redeunte vero insula plane fit, neque adiri vado potest. Et forte illo sæculo fuerit aliquanto major.” (L. André de Resende. De Antiquitatibus Lusitaniæ cæteraque Historica quæ exstant Opera, Conimbricæ, 1790, I., p. 77.)
Antonio Carvalho (Da costa corografia Portuguesa, II. p. 144, Lisbon, 1712) sets forth the same view.
The preceding information is confirmed by the following letter of an English bishop who accompanied the Crusaders, at the time of the siege of Lisbon, in the reign of Alfonso Henrique, a.d. 1147:—“Die vero quasi decima, impositis sarcinis nostris cum episcopis velificare incepimus iter prosperum agentes. Die vero postera ad insulam Phenicis (vulgo Peniche) distantis a continente quasi octingentis passibus feliciter applicuimus. Insula abundat cervis et maxime cuniculis: liquiricium (lege glycyrrhizum) habet. Tyrii dicunt eam Erictream. Peni Gaddis, id est septem, ultra quam non est terra: ideo extremus noti orbis terminus dicitur. Juxta hanc sunt duæ insulæ quæ vulgo dicuntur Berlinges, id est Baleares lingua corrupta, in una quarum est palatium admirabilis architecturæ et multa officinarum diversoria regi cuidam, ut aiunt, quondam gratissimum secretale hospicium.” (Letter of an English Crusader on the sack of Lisbon, in Portugalliæ Monumenta Historica, a sæculo octavo post Christum usque ad quintum decimum, justa Academiæ Scientiarum Olisiponensis edita. Volumen I., fasciculus iii. Lisbon, 1861, p. 395.)
[1060] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 52, 53.—“Cæsar, as soon as he arrived, defeated the Lusitanians and the inhabitants of Galicia, and advanced as far as the outer sea. Thus he caused people who had never yet recognised the authority of the Romans to submit to them, and returned from his government loaded with glory and wealth, of which he gave a part to his soldiers.” (Zonaras, Annales, X. 6.)
[1061] Appian, Civil Wars, II. 8.