Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/270

 256 STRABO. CASAUB. 170. the Metagonians. 1 Some have transported hither the Planctce and the Symplegades, supposing them to be the Pillars, which Pindar calls the Gates of Gades, when he says that they were the farthest limits at which Hercules arrived. 2 Diccearchus, Eratosthenes, and Polybius, with most of the Grecians, repre- sent the Pillars as being close to the strait, while the Iberians and Libyans place them at Gades, alleging that there is no- thing at all resembling pillars close by the strait. Others pretend that they are t.hpjjpillflrs of brags eight cubits high in thetemple of Hercule.s at ftflfjes, on which is inscribed the cost ot J erecting thatedifice; and that the sailors coming there on the completion of their voyage and sacrificing to Hercules,' rendered the placejso famous that it ca"me To be regarded as the termination of the lancTand sea. Posidonius thinks this view the most probable of all, and looks upon" the oracle and the several expeditions as a Phoenician invention. 3 As for the expeditions, what matters it whether any one should vehe- mently deny or credit the account, as neither the one nor the other would be inconsistent with reason : but the assertion that neither the little islands, nor yet the mountains, bear much resemblance to pillars, and that we should seek for pillars, strictly so called, [set up] either as the termin- ation of the habitable earth, or of the expedition of Her- cules, has at all events some reason in it; it being an an- cient usage to set up such boundary marks. As for instance the small column which the inhabitants of Rhegium 4 erected by the Strait of Sicily, which is indeed a little tower; and the tower called after Pelorus, which is situated opposite to this small column; also the structures called altars 5 of the Philaeni, about midway in the land between the Syrtes; likewise it is recorded, that a certain pillar was formerly erected on the Isthmus of Corinth, which the lonians who took possession of Attica and Megaris when they were driven out of the Pelo- ponnesus, and those who settled in the Peloponnesus, set up in common, and inscribed on the side next Megaris, 1 The text is corrupt, but it is needless to go through all the emenda- tions proposed. 2 This passage of Pindar has not come down to us. 3 -^tvcffia 3>oiviKiic6v, a proverbial mode of speaking, having its origin in the bad faith of the Phoenicians [fides Punica], 4 Regio. 5 Strabo, in his 1 7th book, gives a different locality to these altars.