THE KASSITEROS PROJECT

Primary source · 6th century AD

Stephanus of Byzantium — Ethnica

Stephanus is a source-transmission archive in miniature: his lexical entries preserve otherwise lost geographical notices about Kassitera, Tartessos and Brettia. The anthology uses them to trace how older metal and Atlantic traditions survived into Byzantine scholarship.

Greek manuscript pages of Herodotus with dense handwritten marginal notes.
Herodotus, Histories, Vatican gr. 122, with marginalia by Lorenzo Valla (15th century). Vatican manuscript image via Wikimedia Commons · source · Public domain / PDM 1.0

Why this source matters

Stephanus is a source-transmission archive in miniature: his lexical entries preserve otherwise lost geographical notices about Kassitera, Tartessos and Brettia. The anthology uses them to trace how older metal and Atlantic traditions survived into Byzantine scholarship.

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.

Extracts from the Ethnica

In total, there seem to be at least 2 references to tin within the Ethnica, and at least 5 topo/ethnonyms are mentioned in Fitzpatrick-Matthews’ gazetteer (2022):

  • Ἐθνικά Ἀλβίων: Albiones people
  • Βρίγαντας: Brigantes people1
  • Ἐθνικά Βρεττανίδες, Βρεττανοί, Βρετανοί, Πρετανίδες, Πρετανοὶ: Britanni people
  • Ἐθνικά Αἴβουδα: Ebuda people
  • Λινδόνιον, Λινδονίνος: London2

Kassitera

The mention of Kassitera; “an island in the ocean neighbouring India” demonstrates an eastern source for tin as late as the 6th century. It also demonstrates that tin was within the scope of Stephanos’ work.

[114] Κασσίτερα,νῆσος ἐν τῷ ὠκεανῷ, τῇ Ἰνδικῇ προσεχής, ὡς Διονύσιος ἐν Βασσαρικοῖς. ἐξ ἧς ὁ κασσίτερος.

Source: Meineke (1849, p365) and Billerbeck et al (2014, p56).

Tartessos

Tartessos is described as as being named after the river upon which supports a tin and silver trade. It has been suggested that this perhaps records a fragment of Ephorus’3 description of Tartessos (FGrH 2a, 70, F 129b4) being a famous city and prosperous market were tin is carried by river, together with gold and copper from “Celtic lands”5. However passage most closely appears to resemble the Nikomedes Periodos (c. 120s BC) due to its description of tin arriving in Tartessos by river.

This passage again demonstrates that tin was within the scope of Stephanos’ work.

[41] Ταρτησσός ,πόλις Ἰβηρίας ,ἀπὸποταμοῦ τοῦἀπὸτοῦ ̓Αργυροῦ ὄρους ῥέοντος ,ὅστις ποταμὸς καὶ κασσίτερον ἐν Ταρτησσῷ καταφέρει.τὸἐθνικὸν Ταρτήσσιος καὶ Ταρτησσία καὶ Ταρτησσίς .καὶοὐδετέρως «Ταρτήσσιον ὄλβιον ἄστυ”.6

Source: Meineke (1849, p606) and Billerbeck et al (2015, p268).

Brettia

In this section on Brettia/Elaphussa (Brac, Croatia), Stephanos mentions the British Isles, but fails to mention tin.

Βρεττία, νῆσος ἐντῷ ̓Αδρίᾳ ποταμὸν ἔχουσα Βρέττιον. ταύτην Ἐλαφοῦσσαν Ἕλληνες, οἱδὲ Βρεττανίδα καλοῦσι.τ o ἐθνικὸν ἔδει Βρεττιανός ,ὡς Πολύβιος τὸθηλυκόν «ἐπὶ Βρεττιανὴν τόπων”.νῦνδὲ Βρέττιοι λέγονται. εἰσὶκαὶ Βρεττανίδες νῆσοι ἐντῷὠκεανῷ ,ὧντὸἐθνικὸν Βρεττανοί. Διονύσιος ὑφελὼν τὸ ἓν τ ἔφη «ὠκεανοῦ κέχυται ψυχρὸς ῥόος, ἔνθα Βρετανοί.”καὶ ἄλλοι οὕτως διὰ π Πρετανίδες νῆσοι, ὡς Μαρκιανὸς καὶ Πτολεμαῖος7.

Source: Meineke (1849, p186) and Billerbeck et al (2006, p379).

  2. Billerbeck et al (2014, p255)

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  3. Cunliffe et al (2010, p313) following from Jacoby (1986) state that this quotes from Ephorus of Cyme (c400-330 BC), but the Nikomedes Periodos (c. 120s BC) is the direct source. Ephorus knew of Tartessos and is quoted by Plutarch, but this quote does not mention tin. See Jacoby, F. (1986) Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker. B: Teil 2. Zeitgeschichte Spezialgeschichten, Autobiographien und Memoiren, Zeittafeln: [Nr. 106 – 261]. Photomechan. Nachdr. Leiden: Brill (Fragmente der griechischen Historiker). p.80

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  4. See Cunliffe, B.W. and Koch, J.T. (2010) Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language, and Literature. Oxbow Books. p313

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  5. Here Jacoby (1986) is quoting from the Nikomedes Periodos (c. 120s BC). Previously attributed to Scymnus of Chios but now the author is considered unknown and named “Pseudo-Scymnus”.

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  6. “Tartessus, a city in Iberia, on the river of the Argyros mountain, which flows from the river and tin in Tartessus. The national Tartessius and Tartessia and Tartessis. and also”Tartessian city””

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  7. A translation of the final 4 sentences by google translate: “There are also the Brettanid Islands (British Isles) in the ocean, for which the ethnic word Brettan. Dionysius removed the one ‘t’ from the name and said”the ocean’s cold stream is spread out, where the Bretanians live.” Others also spell it like this, but with a ‘p’ at the beginning, Pretanid Islands, such as Markianos and Ptolemy”

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Bibliography and editions

Critical editions and further reading

  • Greek critical edition. A. Meineke (ed.), Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt (1849). Internet Archive: Meineke, Ethnica.
  • Modern edition. M. Billerbeck et al. (eds), Stephani Byzantii Ethnica, modern critical volumes; cited where used in the anthology. Open reference.

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.