Primary-source dossier
The excerpts below are reproduced from the Ictis Anthology — a working paper produced during research for the project. Some of the results were spun off into New Perspectives on the Ictis of Pytheas of Massalia.
Source:
Roller, D.W. (2021) Three Ancient Geographical Treatises in Translation: Hanno, the King Nikomedes Periodos, and Avienus. Routledge.
(137) Bringing together many things, I will begin the matter at hand. First I will put in order the places around Europe. The mouth of the Atlantic Ocean, they say, is 120 stadia. The nearby lands enclosing it are Libya and Europe. Islands lie on either side of these, at about 30 stadia from each other, which some call the Pillars of Herakles. Near one of these is a Massaliote city called Mainake, whose location is that of the farthest of all the Hellenic cities in Europe. Going around the cape opposite to the setting sun, there is a sail of one day, and then there is the island called Erytheia, which is quite short in its length, and has herds of cattle, wild and domesticated, that resemble Egyptian bulls, as well as the Thesprotian ones in Epeiros. They say that the inhabitants are Western Aithiopians, who made a settlement. Nearby there is a city, Gadeira…which took as settlers Tyrian merchants, and where it is reported that great sea monsters are produced. After this, upon completing a sail of two days, there is a most successful emporium, called Tartessos, a famous city, to which tin, gold, and a large amount of copper is washed down from Keltike1. The territory called Keltike is next, lying as far as Sardo in the sea, the largest population toward the sunset.
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“μετὰ ταύτην δ ̓ ἐστὶν ἡμερῶν δυοῖν τελέσαντι πλοῦν ἐμπόριον εὐτυχέστατον d) λεγομένη Ταρτησσός, ἐπιφανὴς πόλις, ποταμόρρυτον κασσίτερον ἐκ τῆς Κελτικῆς χρυσόν τε καὶ χαλκὸν φέρουσα πλείονα” Jacoby, F. (1986, p80)
Bibliography and editions
Critical editions and further reading
- Translation. D. W. Roller, Three Ancient Geographical Treatises in Translation (2021), section 137. Open reference.
- Greek fragments. C. Müller (ed.), Geographi Graeci Minores, vol. I (1855), Pseudo-Scymnus / Periodos. Internet Archive: Müller, Geographi Graeci Minores I.
Rights boundary. Ancient texts and public-domain images are not relicensed by Kassiteros. Modern editions and translations retain their own rights. Only Kassiteros-authored commentary and original project metadata are intended to fall under the project’s CC BY 4.0 policy.
Why this source matters
The Periodos places Tartessos within an Atlantic–Mediterranean coastal sequence and describes tin, gold and copper arriving there from Keltike. In the anthology this is a key witness to the way a late Hellenistic geographical text connected metals, Celtic space and an Iberian emporium.