Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
chapter:
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5-18chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9chapter 10chapter 11chapter 12chapter 13chapter 14chapter 15chapter 16chapter 17chapter 18chapter 19chapter 20chapter 21chapter 22chapter 23chapter 24chapter 25chapter 26chapter 27chapter 28chapter 29chapter 30chapter 31chapter 32chapter 33chapter 34chapter 35chapter 36chapter 37chapter 38chapter 39chapter 40chapter 41chapter 42chapter 43chapter 44chapter 45chapter 46chapter 47chapter 48chapter 49chapter 50chapter 51chapter 52chapter 53chapter 54chapter 55chapter 56chapter 57chapter 58chapter 59chapter 60chapter 61chapter 62chapter 63chapter 64chapter 65chapter 66chapter 67chapter 68chapter 69chapter 70chapter 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77-98chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92-5chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95chapter 96chapter 97chapter 98chapter 99chapter 100chapter 101chapter 102-110chapter 102chapter 103chapter 104chapter 105chapter 106chapter 107chapter 108chapter 109chapter 110chapter 111chapter 112-17chapter 112chapter 113chapter 116chapter 117chapter 118chapter 119chapter 120chapter 121chapter 121Achapter 121Dchapter 121Echapter 121Fchapter 122chapter 123chapter 124-36chapter 124chapter 125chapter 126chapter 127chapter 128chapter 129chapter 130chapter 131chapter 132chapter 133chapter 134chapter 135chapter 136chapter 137chapter 138chapter 139chapter 140chapter 141chapter 142chapter 143chapter 144chapter 145chapter 146chapter 147-82chapter 147chapter 148chapter 149chapter 150chapter 151chapter 152chapter 153chapter 154chapter 155chapter 156chapter 157chapter 158chapter 159chapter 160chapter 161chapter 162chapter 163chapter 164chapter 165chapter 167chapter 168chapter 169chapter 170chapter 171chapter 172chapter 173chapter 174chapter 175chapter 176chapter 177chapter 178chapter 179chapter 180chapter 181chapter 182
This text is part of:
H.'s theory that the Nile rose in West Africa never had much popularity till Roman times; it was held by the learned Juba of Mauretania (Plin. v. 51). We may compare it with the theories of forty years ago, which identified the Lualuba, when discovered by Livingstone, with the Nile, till Stanley proved it to be the upper waters of the Congo. H.'s view is based (cf. also 31 n.) on (1) the supposed analogy of the Danube; cf. cc. 33, 34, and especially ἐκ τῶν ἴσων μέτρων; as the Danube flows across Europe from the west, so the Nile is supposed to flow across Libya; (2) the story of the Nasamones.
τοῖσι ἐμφανέσι: this is one of the maxims of Solon—τὰ ἀφανῆ τοῖς φανεροῖς τεκμαίρου; τε has no corresponding καί; c. 34 continues the account.
Ίστρος. H. is much interested in this river, which he describes again in iv. 48-50 (where ‘it is the greatest of all rivers that we know’; cf. also iv. 99). Here he supposes it to rise in the extreme west of Europe. This view was held also by Aristotle [Meteor. i. 13 ἐκ δὲ τῆς Πυρήνης (τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶν ὄρος) ῥέουσιν ὅ τε Ἴστρος καὶ ὁ Ταρτησσός: the Ister then ‘flows through the whole of Europe’]. It is difficult to see how the Greeks reconciled it with their knowledge of the Rhone, but it is suggested that this was looked on as a southern offshoot of the Danube. Older geographers had made the Ister rise in the Rhipaean mountains, among the Hyperboreans; H. rightly ignored this mythical explanation, but his information was insufficient for an accurate account. Πυρήνη: an old town at the foot of the Pyrenees (hod. Port Vendres); its trade passed to Massilia, and its name was transferred to the neighbouring mountains (cf. iv. 49. 2 n. for a similar transference of Ἄλπις and Κάρπις). Κελτοί. H. derives his information, indirectly at any rate, from he Phoenicians, and therefore speaks of the Celts as being ‘outside the Pillars of Hercules’, where the Phoenicians found them. The ‘Pillars of Hercules’ are not found in Homer, but in Pindar (Olym. iii. 44) they occur, as the limit of the world; by H.'s time they had been definitely fixed. For the legends connecting Heracles with the W. cf. iv. 8 seq. The name was partly due to the identification of Heracles with the Tyrian Melcarth, partly to the tendency (Tac. Germ. 34) to give him ‘quidquid ubique magnificum’. Strabo (169-72) discusses the legends as to them; but Pomponius Mela (i. 5. 27), as befits a Spaniard, is the first to give an accurate account of them. So far as they are a reality, they correspond to Calpe and Abila (i.e. Gibraltar and the African Ceuta). The Kynesioi (Κύνητες, iv. 49. 3) are placed by Avienus (201 seq.) on the Guadiana. Their name disappears early from geography.
Ἰστρίην: near the modern Kustendji: it lies some sixty miles south of the St. George's mouth of the Danube.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.