The Isle of Wif/lit, tJic Vectis or Ictis of the Ancients. 



Isle of Wight was the Vectis or Ictis of the ancients. The argu- 

 ments, however, against the passage in Diodorus Siculus,* that 

 it would he so much easier for the Phoenicians to have exported 

 the tin from the Cassiterides instead of hringing it hy inland 

 transport to the island, and then shipping it to Gaul, is founded 

 upon ignorance. Sea carriage was then far more difficult and 

 dangerous than land conveyance. Ancient mariners were easily 

 frightened, and their vessels put into land every night. As Sir 

 Gr. C. Lewis further remarks, foreign merchants were always re- 

 garded with jealousy and distrust, and the overland route would 

 enable the traffic to be carried out through the whole distance by 

 native traders. f 



Singularly enough, however, Warner J states that a large 

 mass of tin was found on the very site of this old Koman road. 

 Not only, too, was tin brought here from Cornwall, but also 

 lead from the Mendip Hills. Pigs of it have been picked up 

 on a branch of the same Eoman road running from Uphill 

 on the Severn to Salisbury, and from thence joining the Leap 

 road. One of them, stamped with the name of Hadrian, is now 



* As the passage is so important, I give it in full : 'ATrorvTrouvrtc 

 S' / aorpayaXwv pvO/iovs KOfil^ovaiv ?c Tiva vijrrov irpoKeinsvnv fitv r/je Bptr- 

 TavdiKiJQ, 6vofiao/j.Ei>j]v Ss "\KTIV icard yap rag a/iTrwra? avafypcuvonivov rov 

 fitra^v TOTTOV raig a^ia^aiQ tiQ ra.vrr\v KopZovai a^i\rj TOV Kanirtpov. iSiov 

 e TI ffvfif3aivti TTtpi TCLQ irXrjrriov vr)<rovQ TO.Q fitraZii Ktifisvat; r/)c *" EwpwrifC 

 Kai rfjs ~RpfTTaviKiJQ. Kara fitv yap rac TrXrifipvpiSae TOV utrafv vopov TT\r)pov- 

 fitvov vrjaoi tyaivovrai, Kara e TUQ d/iTrwrftf aVopp'soucn/t; ri/c QaXarrriQ Kai 

 TTO\VV roTrov dva'ripaivovffr)<; Oewpovvrai %pp6v?j(Toi. Lib. V., cap. XXil., vol. 1., 

 p. 438. Ed. Dindorf. Leipsic, 1828-31. Pliny, as Wesseling remarks, in 

 his note on this passage, quoted by Dindorf, vol. iv. p. 421, by some mistake, 

 makes the Isle of Wight (Mictis) six days' sail from England. See Sir 

 G. C. Lewis's Astronomy of the Ancients, chap, viii., sect. iii. p. 453. 



f As before, sect. iv. p. 462. 



I Topographical Remarks on the South- Western Parts of Jlump.sliirr, 

 vol. ii. pp. 5, 6, 1793. 



I 57 



