Heeren makes this observation on Hanno’s account of his voyage. “The opinions respecting the Periplus of Hanno differ very widely from one another, both as regards its authenticity and the circumstances attending it. I cannot, however, believe that any critic will, in the present day, doubt its authenticity in the whole, though they may its completeness. Its shortness has led many to suppose that it is only the abridgment of a larger work, and this opinion is favoured by Rennell, and seems confirmed by the passage in Pliny, Hist. Nat. II, 67, where he says: Hanno sailed from Gades round Africa to Arabia, and has given a description of the voyage. But another writer has already justly observed that Pliny had not himself read the Periplus, but depended on the uncertain testimony of another; and that the passage of Pomponius Mela, III, 9, clearly shows that Mela had read our Periplus. Gosselin, Recherches, I, 64. The Periplus was not, certainly, the description of a voyage, in our sense of the phrase, but a public memorial of the expedition, being an inscription posted up in one of the principal temples of Carthage.”[f]
HIMILCO’S VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
About the same time that Hanno was seafaring southward another Carthaginian, Himilco, was working his way northward from Gades or (Cadiz). He was less successful in his efforts, and complained that a dearth of wind and a superfluity of seaweed ruined his progress. The Roman poet, Rufus Festus Avienus, of the fourth century A.D., made use of Himilco’s information in his poetical geography, Ora Maritima, from which the following picture of the world is taken.
“Where the ocean presses in, and spreads wide the Mediterranean waters, lies the Atlantic bay; here stands Gadeira [Gades], of old called Tartessus [Tarsish]; here the Pillars of Hercules, Abyla, left of Libya and Calpe. Here rises the head of the promontory, in olden times named Œstrymnon [Cornwall], and below, the like-named bay and isles; wide they stretch and are rich in metals, tin, and lead.
“There a numerous race of men dwell, endowed with spirit, and no slight industry, busied all in the cares of trade alone. They navigate the sea on their barks, built not of pines and oak, but wondrous made of skins and leather. Two days’ long is the voyage thence to the Holy Island, once so called, which lies expanded on the sea, the dwelling of the Hibernian race: at hand lies the Isle of Albion. Of yore the trading voyages from Tartessus reached to the Œstrymnides [the Scilly Islands]; but the Carthaginians and their colonies near the Pillars of Hercules navigated on this sea, which Himilco, by his own account, was upon during four months; for here no wind wafted the bark, so motionless stood the indolent wave. Seaweed abounds in this sea, he says, and retards the vessel in her course, while the monsters of the deep swarm around. Far off is seen Geryon’s hold; here wide expands the Bay of Tartessus, and from the river thither is one day’s voyage; here lies the town of Gadeira, of yore called Tartessus; then, great and rich, now poor and fallen, where I saw naught great but Hercules’ festival.
“Geryon’s fort and temple overtops the sea; a line of rocks crowns the bay; near the second rock disembogues the river. Close by arises the Tartessus’ mount bedecked with wood. Next follows the island Erythea, ruled by the Carthaginians, for in early days the Carthaginians had there planted a colony. The arm of the sea, which divides it from the continent and from the fort, is but five stadia broad. The island is sacred to Marine Venus; it contains her temple and oracle.
“Beyond the Pillars, on Europe’s coast, Carthage’s people of yore possessed many towns and places. Their practice was to build flat-bottomed barks for the convenience of navigating shallows; but westward, as Himilco tells us, is open sea; no ship has yet ventured on this sea, where the windy gales do not waft her, and thick fogs rest on the waters. It is the ocean which far roars around the land—the unbounded sea. This the Carthaginian Himilco saw himself, and from the Punic records I have taken what I tell thee.”[l]
POMPONIUS MELA ON THE PHŒNICIANS
Pomponius Mela, a Roman citizen but a Spaniard by birth, was the author of the earliest Latin treatise on geography extant. His work is dated about the middle of the first century A.D., and his description of the Phœnicians shows with what deference they were eyed at that time. The translation used here is that of Arthur Golding, published in London in 1590.
“Phœnicia is renowned for the Phœnicians a pollitique kinde of men, and both in feates of warre and peace peerlesse. They first inuented Letters and Letter matters and other artes also, as to goe to the sea with Shippes, to fight upon the water, to raigne over nations, to set up kingdomes, and to fight in order of battell. In it is Tyre, sometime an Ile, but nowe ioyned to the fyrme Lande, since the time that Alexander made workes about it to assault it. Further foorth, stand certaine small Villages, and the Cittie of Sidon, euen yet still wealthie, and in olde time the greatest of all the Cities oppon the Seacoast, before it was taken by the Persians.