I. BOOK raised large fleets, pursued extensive navigations, of which the voyage of Pytheas towards Iceland is an instance; and became distinguished for the elegance of their manners, their love of literature, and spirit of philosophy. They made their city so attractive for its intellectual resources, that some of the noblest of the Romans lived at Marseilles, in preference to Athens; and they diffused such a taste for Grecian customs around them, that the Gauls used Greek letters, and wrote their contracts in Greek. 82 The Keltic invaders of Greece must have also introduced many beneficial improvements into their native country; for Strabo mentions, that treasures taken from Delphi, in the expedition under Brennus, were found by the Romans at Tholouse. It was remarked by Ephorus, that the Kelta were fond of the Greeks 84; and their diffusion into Spain, which he also mentions, brought them into immediate contact with the Phenicians and Carthaginians; and their Druids are certainly evidence that a part of the population had made some intellectual advance. The preceding facts, connected with the analogy of the language, as at first remarked, satisfactorily prove that our earliest population came from the Kimmerian and Keltic stock. 82 Strabo, p. 272, 273. Justin. L. 43. c. 3. 95 Ephorus stated, that they occupied the largest part of Spain, up to Cadiz. Strabo, p. 304. And Strabo mentions, that before the Carthaginians possessed Spain, the Keltoi and the Tyrians held it, p. 238. CHAP. III. Phenicians and Carthaginians in Britain. III. and Bri BUT though the Kimmerii, and their kindred CHAP. the Kelts, may have peopled Britain, a more celebrated people are also stated to have visited it. Phenicians The Phenicians, in their extensive commercial nain Spain vigations, colonized many of the islands, and some tain. of the coasts of the Ægean and Mediterranean Seas. Inscriptions in their language have been found in Malta. They occupied Spain, and founded Cadiz ; and it was probably in pursuit of them, that Nebuchadnezzar, the celebrated King of Babylon, became the conqueror of Spain. They had also an established intercourse with islands, which the Greek's called "the Islands of Tin," or Cassiterides. This, The Cassi being a descriptive name, was probably the transla- terides. tion of the Phenician appellation.' As Herodotus intimates, that the Cassiterides were, with respect to Greece, in the farthest parts of Europe 2; as Aristotle talks of Keltic tin 3; and Strabo describes 1 Kapor is the word used by the Greeks for tin. Bochart has founded an ingenious etymology of the "Britannic islands" on the Hebrew, Baratanac, which, he says, means the Land of Tin. He says Strabo calls Britain, Bρettavin. Boch. Canaan, lib. i. c. 39. p. 720. He also intimates, what is more probable, that the word Kadritegov may have been of Phenician origin. The Chaldean Targums, of Jonathan and Jerusalem, certainly call tin kastira and kistara, as the Arabs name it kasdar. See Numbers, xxxi. 22. 2 Herod. Thalia. c. 115. 3 Aristot. lib. Mirabilium; and Mela places the Cassiterides in Celticis, or among the Keltæ, lib. iii. c. 6. p. 262. I. BOOK both these islands and Britain to be opposite to the Artabri, or Gallicia in Spain, but northward, and places them within the British climate1; as in another passage he states them to be as to Rome, without, or on our side of the columns of Hercules ; as he mentions them to be productive of tin, obviously connecting them at the same time with the British islands; and in another part, as being in the open sea, north from the port of the Artabri", or Gallicia: the most learned, both at home and abroad, have believed the Cassiterides to have been some of the British islands. This opinion is warranted by there being no other islands famous for tin near the parts designated by Strabo; and by the fact, that British tin was so celebrated in antiquity, that Polybius intended to write on the British islands, and the preparation of tin." It has been suggested, that the Scilly islands and Cornwall were more peculiarly meant by the Cassiterides. When Cornwall was first discovered from the south of Europe, it may have been thought an island, before greater familiarity with the coast taught the navigators that it was only a projecting 4 Strabo Geog. lib. ii. p. 181. 5 Ib. lib. ii. p. 191. He joins them with the British islands, και Καττιτεριδες, και βρεττανίκαι. 6 Ib. lib. iii. p. 219. Here he says, that tin is produced among the barbarians above Lusitania, and in the islands Cassiterides, and from Britain is brought to Marseilles. 7 Ib. lib. iii. p. 265. In this passage Strabo says likewise, they are ten in number, adjoining each other. 8 Polyb. Hist. lib. iii. c. 5. Festus Avienus describes islands under the name of Estrymnides, which are thought to be the same with Strabo's Cassiterides. He says they were frequented by the merchants of Tartessus and Carthage, and were rich in tin and lead. De oris Marit. III. part of a larger country; and even then, when the CHA P. whole country connected with it was found to be an island, there was no reason to change its insular appellation. In our navigations to the Pacific, newdiscovered places have been at first marked as islands, which were afterwards traced to be parts of a continent; and others have been deemed continental, which have been discovered to be insular?" MUCH of the false description with which the position of the Cassiterides has been confused, may have been designedly circulated by the Phenicians themselves. We know from Strabo, that they were anxious to deprive the rest of the world of any ac quaintance with these islands. He has told us a very striking incident of this monopolizing solici tude, which must have been the parent of many misrepresentations about Britain, till the Romans subdued and examined it. He says, He says, "anciently the Phenicians alone, from Cadiz, engrossed this market; hiding the navigation from all others. When the Romans followed the course of a vessel, that they might discover the situation, the jealous pilot wilfully stranded his ship; misleading those, who were tracing him, to the same destruction. Escaping from the shipwreck, he was indemnified * The reasons for supposing the Cassiterides to be the Scilly islands are thus stated in Camden's Britannia. They are opposite to the Artabri in Spain; they bend directly to the north from them; they lie in the same clime with Britain; they look towards Celtiberia; the sea is much broader between them and Spain, than between them and Britain; they lie just upon the Iberian sea; there are only ten of them of any note, and they have veins of tin which no other isle has in this tract. Camd. Brit. p. 1112. Ed. 1695. All these circumstances have been mentioned of the Cassiterides. When BOOK for his losses out of the public treasury." 10 I. Cæsar invaded Britain, we know from his Commentaries, that he was unacquainted with its magnitude, its harbours, or its people. It was even doubted whether it was a continent or an island. " Of course the Romans at that time could have known nothing of the connection and continuance of coast between Cornwall and Dover. This ignorance of other nations, and the designed misinformation given by the Phenicians, may have occasioned the distinction to have been taken between the Cassiterides and Britain, and a supposition, favoured by Strabo, that some sea intervened. 12 The Cassiterides had become imperfectly known to the Romans, in the time of Strabo, by the attempt of 13 Publius Crassus to discover them. He seems to have landed at one of them; but the short account given of his voyage does not incline us to believe that he completely explored them. 14 10 Strabo, lib. iii. p. 265. 11 Dio Cass. lib. xxxix. p. 127. Cæsar. Comm. de bell. Gall. lib. iv. s. 18. 12 Solinus says, that a turbid sea divided the Scilly isle (Siluram) from Britain, Polyhist. c. 22. p. 31. The distance is near forty miles. Whit. Manch. ii. p. 172. 8°. 13 Strabo, lib. iii. p. 265. Huet thinks this was not the Crassus who perished against the Parthians, though he had fought in Portugal and triumphed in Spain; but his son, who was Cæsar's lieutenant in his Gallic wars, and who subdued the people of Vannes and its vicinity. He may have undertaken the voyage from curiosity, as Volusenus, by Cæsar's orders, examined part of the sea coasts of our island for military purposes. Hist. de Com. des Anciens, c. 38. p. 183. ed Par. 1727. 14 Whittaker's description of the present state of the Scilly islands is worth reading. Hist. Manch. ii. p. 169. Though the same chapter in other parts discovers a fancy painting far beyond the facts in its authorities. |