[761] Cosmas Indicopleustes, a merchant who eventually turned monk, in his Christian Topography is our chief authority for popular cosmogony and trade in the sixth century (in Migne, S.G.). The theories of philosophers jar with his Biblical convictions and excite his antagonism. He writes to prove that the world is flat, that the sun rounds a great mountain in the north to cause night, etc. Being something of a draughtsman he explains his views by cosmographical diagrams, and figures many objects seen in his travels. There is an annotated translation by McCrindle, Lond., 1899 (Hakluyt Soc.).
[762] Diodorus, Sic., v, 19, 22, etc. For tin to the Scilly Is., etc.
[763] Phoenician trade is summarized with considerable detail by Ezekiel, xxvii; cf. Genesis, xxxvii, 25. But a couple of centuries earlier the race was well known to Homer, who often adverts to their skill in manufactures, as also to their knavery and chicanery:
Αὐτὴ δ’ ἐς θάλαμον κατεβήσατο κηώεντα,
Ἔνθ’ ἔσαν οἱ πέπλοι παμποίκιλοι, ἔργα γυναικῶν
Σιδονίων. κ.τ.λ.
Iliad, vi, 288.
Ἔνθα δὲ Φοίνικες ναυσίκλυτοι ἤλυθον ἄνδρες
Τρῶκται, μυρί’ ἄγοντες ἀθύρματα νηῒ μελαίνῃ ...
Τὴν δ’ ἄρα Φοίνικες πολυπαίπαλοι ἠπερόπευον. κ.τ.λ.