[315] Smaller vessels even than were then afloat have crossed the Atlantic, and the passage from the Canaries is hardly more difficult than the Indian navigation. The Pacific islanders make voyages of days’ duration by the stars alone to goals infinitely smaller than the broadside of Asia, to which the ancients would have supposed themselves addressed.
[316] Aristotle, Meteorolog., ii. 1, § 14; Plato, Timaeus; Scylax Caryandensis, Periplus, 112. τῆς Κέρνης δὲ νέσου τὰ ἐπέκεινα οὐκέτι ἐστὶ πλωτὰ διὰ βραχύτητα θαλάττης καὶ πελὸν καὶ φῦκος(Geogr. Graec. min., ed. Mueller, i. 93; other references in the notes). Pytheas in Strabo, ii. 4, § 1; Tacitus, Germania, 45, 1; Agricola, x. A gloss to Suidas applies the name Atlantic to all innavigable seas. Pausanias, i. ch. 3, § 6, says it contained strange sea-beasts, and was not navigable in its more distant parts. A long list of references to similar passages is given by Ukert, Geogr. der Griechen u. Römer, ii. 1, p. 59. See also Berger, Wissenschaftliche Geographie, i. p. 27, note 3, and Grote, Hist. of Greece, iii. ch. 18, notes.
[317] De Mirab. Auscult., 136. The Phœnicians are said to have discovered beyond Gades extensive shoals abounding in fish.
Quae Himilco Poenus mensibus vix quatuor, Ut ipse semet re probasse retulit Enavigantem, posse transmitti adserit: Sic nulla late flabra propellunt ratem, Sic segnis humor aequoris pigri stupet. Adjecit et illud, plurimum inter gurgites Extare fucum, et saepe virgulti vice Retinere puppim: dicit hic nihilominus, Non in profundum terga dimitti maris, Parvoque aquarum vix supertexi solum: Obire semper huc et huc ponti feras, Navigia lenta et languide repentia Internatare belluas.
(Avienus, Ora Maritima, 115-130.)
Hunc usus olim dixit Oceanum vetus, Alterque dixit mos Atlanticum mare. Longo explicatur gurges hujus ambitu, Produciturque latere prolixe vago. Plerumque porro tenue tenditur salum, Ut vix arenas subjacentes occulat. Exsuperat autem gurgitem fucus frequens, Atque impeditur aestus hic uligine: Vis belluarum pelagus omne internatat, Multusque terror ex feris habitat freta. Haec olim Himilcos Poenus Oceano super Spectasse semet et probasse retulit: Haec nos, ab imis Punicorum annalibus Prolata longo tempore, edidimus tibi. (Ibid. 402-415.)
Whether Avienus had immediate knowledge of these Punic sources is quite unknown.
[318] Seneca, Medea, 376-380.
[319] In the first book of his Suasoriæ, M. Annaeus Seneca collected a number of examples illustrative of the manner in which several of the famous orators and rhetoricians of his time had handled the subject, Deliberat Alexander, an Oceanum naviget, which appears to have been one of a number of stock subjects for use in rhetorical training. This collection thus gives a good view of the prevalent views about the ocean, and certainly tells strongly against the idea that the western passage was then known or practised. “Fertiles in Oceano jacere terras, ultraque Oceanum rursus alia littora, alium nasci orbem, ... facile ista finguntur; quia Oceanus navigari non potest ... confusa lux alta caligine, et interceptus tenebris dies, ipsum veros grave et devium mare, et aut nulla, aut ignota sidera. Ita est, Alexander, rerum natura; post omnia Oceanus, post Oceanum nihil.... Immensum, et humanae intentatum experientiae pelagus, totius orbis vinculum, terrarumque custodia, inagitata remigio vastitas.... Fabianus ... divisit enim illam [quaestionem] sic, ut primum negaret ullas in Oceano, aut trans Oceanum, esse terras habitabiles: deinde si essent, perveniri tamen ad illas non posse. Hic difficultatem ignoti maris, naturam non patientem navigationis.”
[320] Virgil, bishop of Salzburg, was accused before Pope Zacharias by St. Boniface of teaching the doctrine of antipodes; for this, and not for his belief in the sphericity of the earth (as I read), he was threatened by the Pope with expulsion from the church. The authority for this story is a letter from the Pope to Boniface. See Marinelli, Die Erdkunde bei den Kirchenvätern, p. 42.