Note 3255 — BOOK V. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

Under his name we still possess a “Periplus,” or account of a voyage round a part of Libya. The work was originally written in Punic, but what has come down to us is a Greek translation. We fail, however, to discover any means by which to identify him with any one of the many Carthaginians of the same name. Some writers call him king, and others dux, or imperator of the Carthaginians; from which we may infer, that he held the office of suffetes. This expedition has by some been placed as far back as the time of the Trojan war, or of Hesiod, while others again place it as late as the reign of Agathocles. Falconer, Bougainville, and Gail, place the time of Hanno at about B.C. 570, while other critics identify him with Hanno, the father or son of Hamilcar, who was killed at Himera, B.C. 480. Pliny often makes mention of him; more particularly see B. viii. c. 21.