32 



hereafter cited* from Artemidorus, and Diodorus Siculus, founded on 

 Phoenician narratives, the frequent commercial intercourse of the latter 

 people in its vicinity and knowledge of its seas, and all this not on the 

 authority of personal investigation, but from the most venerable 

 records, and because the then ancients had so declared, {^^ Dixere 

 Prisci.") But it does not appear that Himilco averred he visited 

 Ireland in this voyage, and no historic evidences whatsoever appear 

 of pure Carthaginian intercourse with that country even from that 

 period doM-n. It must be evident then, that it could not be from the 

 Carthaginians the ancient Greeks obtained their knowledge of Ireland, 

 while it is only through this comment of Avienus that the extent of 

 England was first ascertained ; {^Hnsula Albionum patett") and undoubt- 

 edly only after this expedition is it mentioned by Grecian authors in 

 conjunction with Ireland, and both designated British islands, -f- from 

 their vicinity to each other, as we now speak of the Friendly Islands, 

 the Madeiras, the Cape de Verds, &c. 



It cannot be objected that the Romans might have been the 

 medium of intelligence to the Greeks as to Ireland. No classical 

 scholar would raise the doubt, and in citing Strabo, it is not so much 

 to lay this idle surmise, as for purposes more effective to the present 

 discussion, while his erudition and sagacity should make him a most 

 irresistible authority. Speaking of the Cassiterides and the commerce 

 thither, he has the following remarkable passage : " At first," says 

 this laborious inquirer, j " the Phoenicians alone carried on this 



• Post. Period. 1. sect. 3. 



f B^iTTuiixai Mytftiiou AaS<of kxi Iijni. — Aristotle de mundo, or the work of his time attri- 

 buted to him. 



% n{«Tijo» ftii tvr <I>»(»ixff ftovti m> ijKT«j<«» imXXct t«vti)» ue t*> Vaittfut, Kfumynf a %-xri 

 TO>xA<i;>' r«i> ii Fuficcivt tTuxtXtvlcvtrit tctvxXtvfcv rivt, «xai; xai xurti yicut rtt iffrtfitct, 0»ttt » 

 tetvKXtv^tf iKut ei; rituyti e|e£i«XX: T<|y i»vf, ivayxyui 3' ei; rti ecvro cXiS^o xat rtvf iTtftfyus ' «vr<$ 

 iTuiti iict, tavxyitu, x»i axiA««i infionxt, m> Tiftr.r ut ecTiZxXM ^t^ritit. Oi Pvftecin 9i tfutf vuftifctrm 



7r»AA«Ki{ t^iftxht To> ?rA»«»." — Strabon. Geog. ab Casaub. Recog. fo. 176. 



