History Prior to the Middle A^es 



the Christian era if the story is a true one. Written first in Punic, 

 and inscribed on a tablet dedicated by Hanno to a Carthaginian 

 deity probably equivalent to Moloch, it is thought to have 

 been placed in the temple of that deity at Carthage. This at 

 least is the account given in the Greek version of the original 

 record of Hanno's 



voyage. So far as 

 authentic history is 

 concerned, the record 

 only exists in a Greek 

 translation. It is 

 possible that this 

 translation was made 

 in the fifth century 

 before Christ by 

 some Greek of Sicily 

 who became ac- 

 quainted with the 

 original at Carthage. 

 The first recorded 

 publication of this 

 "Periplus" of Hanno 

 in its Greek form 

 appeared, according 

 to Sir E. H. Bun- 

 bury,^ in Aristotle's work of marvellous narratives published in 

 the third century b.c, but it is also reproduced in Latin by 

 Pomponius Mela (though in a garbled form) about a.d. 43. 

 A still more corrupt version was given by the Elder Pliny 

 (Caius Plinius Secundus) a few years later. Apparently the 

 actual version of the Periplus of Hanno, which has been the 



^ History of Ancient Geography, vol. i., p. 332. 

 ^9 



16. THE COAST OF LIBERIA NEAR CAPE MOUNT 



