[62] The strait connecting our sea with the ocean—Fretum nostri maris et oceani. That is, the Fretum Gaditanum, or Strait of Gibraltar. By our see, he means the Mediterranean. See Pomp. Mela, i. 1.
[63] A vast sloping tract—Catabathmos—Declivem latitudinem, quem locum Catabathmon incolae appellant. Catabathmus—vallis repente convexa, Plin. H. N. v 5. Catabathmus, vallis devexa in Aegyptum, Pomp. Mela, i. 8. I have translated declivem latitudinem in conformity with these passages. Catabathmus, a Greek word, means a descent. There were two, the major and minor; Sallust speaks of the major.
[64] Most of them die by the gradual decay of age—Plerosque senectus dissolvit "A happy expression; since the effect of old age on the bodily frame is not to break it in pieces suddenly, but to dissolve it, as it were, gradually and imperceptibly." Burnouf.
[65] King Hiempsal—"This is not the prince that was murdered by Jugurtha, but the king who succeeded him; he was grandson of Masinissa, son of Gulussa, and father of Juba. After Juba was killed at Thapsus, Caesar reduced Numidia to the condition of a province, and appointed Sallust over it, who had thus opportunities of gaining a knowledge of the country, and of consulting the books written in the language of it." Burnouf.
[66] XVIII. Getulians and Lybians—Gaetuli et Libyes, "See Pompon. Mel. i. 4; Plin. H. N. v. 4, 6, 8, v. 2, xxi. 13; Herod, iv. 159, 168." Gerlach. The name Gaetuli, is, however, unknown to Herodotus. They lay to the south of Numidia and Mauretania. See Strabo, xvii. 3. Libyes is a term applied by the Greek writers properly to the Africans of the North coast, but frequently to the inhabitants of Africa in general.
[67] His army, which was composed of various nations—This seems to have been an amplification of the adventure of Hercules with Geryon, who was a king in Spain. But all stories that make Hercule a leader of armies appear to be equally fabulous.
[68] Medes, Persians and Armenians—De Brosses thinks that these were not real Medes, etc., but that the names were derived from certain companions of Hercules. The point is not worth discussion.
[69] Our sea—The Mediterranean. See above, c. 17.
[70] More toward the Ocean—Intra oceanum magis. "Intra oceanum is differently explained by different commentators. Cortius, Muller and Gerlach, understand the parts bounded by the ocean, lying close upon it, and stretching toward the west; while Langius thinks that the regions more remote from the Atlantic Ocean, and extending toward the east, are meant. But Langius did not consider that those who had inverted keels of vessels for cottages, could not have strayed far from the ocean, but must have settled in parts bordering upon it_. And this is what is signified by intra oceanum. For intra aliquam rem is not always used to denote what is actually in a thing, and circumscribed by its boundaries, but what approaches toward it, and reaches close to it." Kritzius. He then instances intra modum, intra legem; Hortensii scripta intra famam sunt, Quintil. xi. 8, 8. But the best example which he produces is Liv. xxv. 11: Fossa ingens ducta, et vallum, intra eam erigitur. Cicero, in Verr. iii. 89, has also, he notices, the same, expression, Locus intra oceanum jam nullus est—quò non nostrorum hominum libido iniquitasque pervaserit, i. e.. locus oceano conterminus. Burnouf absurdly follows Langius.
[71] Numidians—Numidas. The same as Nomades, or wanderers; a term applied to pastoral nations, and which, as Kritzius observes, the Africans must have had from the Greeks, perhaps those of Sicily.