Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/403

 Chap. 37.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 369 olives ; the Eomans call it Tartessos^ ; the Carthaginians Gadir', that Avord in the Puuic language signifying a hedge. It was called Erythia because the Tyrians, the original an- cestors of the Carthaginians, Avere said to have come from the Erythraean, or Red Sea. In this island Greryon is by some thought to have dwelt, whose herds were carried off by Hercules. Other persons again think, that his island is another one, opposite to Lusitania, and that it was there formerly called by that name^. CHAP. 37. (23.) — THE GENERAL MEASIJEEMENT OF EUEOPE. Having thus made the circuit of Europe, we must now give the complete measurement of it, in order that those who wish to be acquainted with this subject may not feel themselves at a loss. Artemidorus and Isidorus liave given its length, from the Tanais to Gades, as 8214 miles. Poly- bius in his writings has stated the breadth of Europe, in a line from Italy to the ocean, to be 1150 miles. But, even in his day, its magnitude was but little known. The distance of Italy, as we have previously^ stated, as far as the Alps, is 1120 miles, from which, through Lugdunum to the British port of the Morini^, the direction which Polybius seems to ^ If Grades was not the same as Tartessus (probably the Tarshish of Scripture), its exact locaUty is a question in dispute. Most ancient vrriters place it at the mouth of the river Ba;tis, while others identity it, and perhaps with more pi-obabihty, with the city of Carteia, on Mount Calpe, the Rock of Gibrahar. The whole country west of Gibraltar was called Tartessis. See B. iii. c. 3. 2 Or more properly ' Agadir,' or ' Hagadir.' It probably received this name, meaning a ' hedge,' or ' bulwark,' Irom the fact of its beuig the chief Phoenician colony outside of the Pillars of Ilercules. 3 Of Erythrsea, or Erjtheia. The monster Genon, or Geryones, fabled to have had three bodies, hved in the fabulous Island of Erytheia, or the "Red Isle," so called because it lay under the rays of the setting sun in the west. It was originally said to be situate oW the coast of Epirub, but was afterwards identified either with Gades or the Balearic islandb, and was at all times beheved to be ui the distant west. Gerjon was said to have been the son of Chrysaor, the wealthy king of Iberia. reading is 1020. ^ Meaning Gessoriacum, the prf*8ent Boulogne. Ke probably calls it Britannicum, from the circumstance that the Romans usually embarked there for the pvu^ose of crossing over to Britain. VOL. I. 2 B
 * ^Uluding to B. iii. c. 6. From Rhegium to the Alps. But tfiere the