Note 309 — Chapter I

The narration of Hanno’s voyage has been preserved, apparently in the words of the commander’s report. Geographi Graeci minores, ed. Mueller (Paris, 1855), i. pp. 1-14. Cf. also Prolegom., pp. xviii, xxiii. Our only notion of the date of the expedition is derived from Pliny, Hist. Nat., v. i. § 7, who says: “Fuere et Hannonis Carthaginiensium ducis commentarii, Punicis rebus florentissimis explorare ambitum Africae jussi.” All that is known of Himilko is derived from the statement of Pliny, Hist. Nat., ii. 67, that he was sent at about the same time as Hanno to explore the distant regions of Europe; and from the poems of Avienus, who wrote in the fourth century, and professed to give, in the Ora Maritima, many extracts from the writings of Himilko. The description of the difficulties of navigation in the Atlantic is best known. In his Deutsche Alterthumskunde (Berlin, 1870), i. pp. 73-210, Muellenhof has devoted especial attention to an analysis of this record.