Note 2343 — THE CASSITERIDES, ICTIS, AND THE BRITISH TRADE IN TIN

See K. Müllenhoff, Deutsche Altertumskunde, i, 1890, pp. 471-2; H. Berger, Gesch. der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde der Griechen, iii, 1891, pp. 34-5; and Pauly’s Real-Encyclopädie, iii, part i, 1897, p. 860. Müllenhoff justly remarks that the account which Diodorus gives in v, 22 of the mode in which the tin trade was conducted must have been derived from an eye-witness; and that of all the ancient writers Pytheas was the only one who saw with his own eyes what went on at Ictis. Professor Ridgeway assumes that Diodorus’s account of Ictis was borrowed from Posidonius; but the descriptions which Elton (Origins of Eng. Hist., 1890, pp. 30-1, 34-5, 92) and Professor Rhys (Celtic Britain, 1904, pp. 45-6) have published of the visit of Posidonius to Britain are purely imaginary; for there is absolutely no evidence that he ever crossed the Channel. Elton refers to a passage in the Solutiones of Priscian of Lydia, a writer of the sixth century (quaest. vi, p. 571 of F. Dübner’s edition), which proves nothing about Posidonius. See J. Bake, Posidonii Rhodii reliquiae doctrinae, 1810; Fragm. hist. Graec., ed. C. Müller, iii, 1849, pp. 245-96; R. Scheppig, De Posidonio, 1869, p. 7; Rev. celt., vii, 1886, p. 378; and M. Dubois, Examen de la géogr. de Strabon, 1891, p. 327.