Note 557 — Chapter XI

I am aware that the presence of the Phœnicians (or Carthaginians) on our coasts has been disputed; but I think that the evidence of the Etruscan ornaments I have mentioned gives more than probability to the truth of Pliny’s account of the expedition of Himilco from Gades, 500 B.C. By some he is supposed to have been a contemporary of Hanno, and of the third century B.C. There is some confusion in the imperfect record of the voyage; but it is difficult to interpret it otherwise than that he touched at several points north of Gaul. (See Boyd Dawkins’ “Early Man in Britain,” pp. 457-461; see also Perrot and Chipiez, “L’Histoire de l’Art dans l’Antiquité,” t. iii.; “Phénicie et Cypre,” p. 48.) For a contrary opinion, see Elton’s “Origins of English History.” Elton ascribes the first knowledge of the British islands to the voyage of Pytheas in the fourth century B.C.; he acknowledges that the geography of Britain was well known to the Greeks in the time of Alexander the Great. We owe to Pliny and Strabo the few fragments from Pytheas that have been rescued from oblivion, and to Pliny the notices of Himilco. (See Bouillet’s “Dictionnaire d’Histoire et de Géographie.”)