54 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



As regards the date of the Trojan War, the following may be cited 

 from the article, "Trojan War" (Smith's " Cyelopsedia of JSTames," 

 1894). Duris placed the fall of Troy in 1335 b.c. ; the author of the 

 "Life of Homer" in B.C. 1270 ; Herodotus in 1260 b.c. ; Thucydides 

 in B.C. 1260; the Parian Marbles in B.C. 1209; Eratosthenes in b.c. 

 1183; Sosibias in B.C. Il7l; Ephorus in b.c. 1169; Clemens in b.c. 

 1149 (Rawlinson, Herod, ii. 223, note). According to Haydc-n's 

 "Dictionary of Dates," Mr. Gladstone is cited as taking for the date 

 of the war, b.c. 1316-1307, while the "popular" date, or that usually 

 received is mentioned as B.C. 1183-84, for the fall of the city. 

 Accepting Mr. Gladstone's date, as coming from a high classical 

 authority, and as based on sound research, while allowing for the 

 wide range of difference between the assigned dates, the founding 

 or building of Cadiz may be taken as having occurred somewhere 

 between 1200 and 1300 b.c, the place having, in all probability, for 

 some time before that, been a factory or trading- station, and used for 

 that purpose, as also for fishing by the native Celts. Starting with 

 this, we may form some estimate as to the dates at which other 

 colonies or cities were founded along the coast of Spain by the 

 Phoenicians, and presuming that Cadiz was one of the earliest of these. 

 Thus Lisbon, at the entrance of the Tagus, is said (according to the 

 article in Chambers' Encyclopsedia, 1864) "to have been founded 

 by the Phoenicians." The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th edition, says 

 of it: — "The origin of Lisbon is lost in remote antiquity; but there 

 are not wanting fables to carry back its foundation some thousands of 

 years before the Christian era. Pliny states that its first inhabitants 

 were a warlike tribe called ' Turduli.'' It passed successively into 

 the hands of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans." 

 Having regard to the great extent and excellence of the port, and 

 the fact that it is the largest in Portugal, there is ground for admitting 

 that it was already a place of importance when the Phoenicians first 

 visited it, and traded there for its gold amongst other wares ; since the 

 sands of the Tagus have been worked from remote times for their 

 gold, particularly at the entrance, on the strand now known as that of 

 Sao Juliao da Barra, the profit has, however, become so slight that the 

 washing has completely ceased (Diet, de Geo, Univ. V. de St. Martin). 

 The Deui'o or Duero has already been mentioned as carrying gold 

 in its sands ; and on its northern bank stands the city and port of 

 Oporto (O'Porto).^ " Small quantitities of tin and qiiicksilver are 

 extracted in the neighbourhood." 



1 " Encyclopaedia Brit.," 8th edition, p. 519. 



