Note 22 — III. THULE, PART OF GREAT BRITAIN

Diogenes of Apollonia flourished in the fifth century B.C., and also wrote περί φύσεως—concerning nature—a treatise on physical science. In the days when Hanno the Carthaginian, passing the Mediterranean Straits, explored the western coast of Africa, an event usually placed in the fifth century B.C., although Gosselin (Recherches sur la Géographie des Anciens) goes back as far as the tenth, Himilco (Pliny, N. H., ii. 67) was also sent to explore the remote parts of Europe. Sailing along the shores of Gadir, Tartessus (Tarshish), and Gallicia, he reached the Tin Isles. His Periplus, originally deposited in a temple at Carthage, was used by Dionysius, and was versified by Rufus Festus Avienus in the fourth century, in his iambic poem “De Oris Maritimis.” He himself says:

And Dodwell justly observes (Dissert. de Peripli Hannonis Ætati): “Ea causa satis verisimilis esse potuit, cur tamdiu Græcos latuerit Himilco, etiam cos qui collegæ meminerint Hannonis.”