Note 124 — LIFE OF SERTORIUS.
George Long translation
The only islands in the Atlantic that correspond to this description are Madeira and Porto Santo, but Porto Santo is forty miles north-east of Madeira. The distance of Madeira from the coast of Africa is about 400 miles or about 4000 stadia. The climate of Madeira is very temperate: the thermometer seldom sinks below 60°, though it sometimes rises as high as 90° of Fahrenheit. On the high and mountainous parts there are heavy dews, and rain falls at all seasons. Owing to the variety of surface and elevation the island produces both tropical products and those of temperate countries. The fame of this happy region had spread to all parts of the ancient world, though we cannot safely conclude that the islands were known by report to Homer. Horace in his 16th Epode is probably alluding to these islands when he is speaking of the Civil Wars and of flying from their horrors in those beautiful lines:
Nos manet Oceanus circumvagus; arva beata Petamus arva divites et insulas, &c.