[3171] If Gades was not the same as Tartessus (probably the Tarshish of Scripture), its exact locality is a question in dispute. Most ancient writers place it at the mouth of the river Bætis, while others identify it, and perhaps with more probability, with the city of Carteia, on Mount Calpe, the Rock of Gibraltar. The whole country west of Gibraltar was called Tartessis. See B. iii. c. [3].
[3172] Or more properly ‘Agadir,’ or ‘Hagadir.’ It probably received this name, meaning a ‘hedge,’ or ‘bulwark,’ from the fact of its being the chief Phœnician colony outside of the Pillars of Hercules.
[3173] Of Erythræa, or Erytheia. The monster Geryon, or Geryones, fabled to have had three bodies, lived in the fabulous Island of Erytheia, or the “Red Isle,” so called because it lay under the rays of the setting sun in the west. It was originally said to be situate off the coast of Epirus, but was afterwards identified either with Gades or the Balearic islands, and was at all times believed to be in the distant west. Geryon was said to have been the son of Chrysaor, the wealthy king of Iberia.
[3174] Alluding to B. iii. c. [6]. From Rhegium to the Alps. But there the reading is 1020.
[3175] Meaning Gessoriacum, the present Boulogne. He probably calls it Britannicum, from the circumstance that the Romans usually embarked there for the purpose of crossing over to Britain.
[3176] The present Santen in the Duchy of Cleves.