of Africa along the Atlantic as far as the island of Cerne. It is in general little more than an enumeration of nations, towns, and distances, though intermixed with some occasional notices of natural productions, and in a few instances detailing the common fables of the age. It concludes with an account of the Diaphragmata, or passages across the sea from Greece into Asia, &c. and an enumeration of twenty important islands in the order of their magnitudes.

*

It has, however, been doubted by various writers, and especially by the Vossii and Dodwell, whether the Periplus now extant be the work of the ancient Scylax; and they point out various circumstances tending, in their opinion, to refer it to a lower period. By others, as Gronovius, Fabricius, Sainte-Croix, and Larcher, its genuineness is strenuously maintained. It seems by all the controversialists to be admitted as the work of some Scylax of Caryanda, but Vossius supposes a Scylax contemporary with Darius Nothus'; and Dodwell, with Polybius, to suit their respective hypotheses. It is, however, to be observed, that these suppositions rest on no better support than that of conjecture, with the exception of the testimony of Suidas, the autho rity of which is destroyed by its own confusion. Perhaps, as Fabricius conjectures, the author of the answer to Polybius was Scylax of Halicarnassus, mentioned by Cicero as the friend of Panatius, and a distinguished astronomer.

The more ancient writers who speak of the Periplus seem uniformly to ascribe it to the Scylax of Herodotus, the contemporary of Darius, son of Hystaspes. Strabo+ mentions him as a citizen of Caryanda, and denominates him an ancient historian, παλαιος συγγραφευς. He likewise quotes him as fixing the commencement of the Troas from Abydus, which agrees with our present copies. Stephanus Byzantinus, in his article of Caryanda, speaks of Scylax in terms similar to those of Strabo. The anonymous Greek writer of the life prefixed to the Periplus describes Scylax as a most ancient author, and observes, "that it is a clear proof of his antiquity, that he was ignorant of Alexander the Macedonian, and of the times immediately preceding him, so that we may justly be surprised at the extent of his geographical knowledge. Ælius Dionysius, in his first book concerning Alexandria, says that Scylax addressed his treatise to Darius." There can

be little doubt, therefore, both that the ancients possessed the Periplus now extant, and that they ascribed it to the only Scylax of Caryanda, for whose existence we have any sufficient authority, who flourished under Darius Hystaspis, and is mentioned by Herodotus.

The following arguments, tending more or less definitely to support the antiquity of this treatise, are principally taken from Fabricius and Sainte-Croix.

The country extending from that of the Molossi to the river Peneus, and Homolium, a city of the Magnesians, is described by the name of VOL. IV.

F

Hellas,

* Observations_geographiques et chronologiques sur le periple de Scylax, par M. le Baron de Sainte-Croix., M. R. A. I. Tome xlii.

Hellas, limits which we find only in the work of this geographer, and which are only applicable to the times anterior to Herodotus. The meaning of the passage appears, however, to have been mistaken. Scylax evidently intends only to observe, that from Ambracia on the west, proceeding round Peloponnesus to the mouth of the Peneus on the east, the country is wholly occupied by Greek nations and towns, in opposition to the scattered colonies which occur to the north of these boundaries. When he reaches the Magnesians, he observes, "hitherto from Ambracia Greece is uninterrupted."

The people inhabiting the country which extends from Ambracia to the Ceraunian mountains, had not yet built cities, notwithstanding the convenience of the harbours, which seemed to invite their establishment. The Chaonians and Thesprotians still lived in villages, which, it is supposed, could not be true in times later than those of our author. Afterwards several cities arose, Onchesmus, Buthrotum, Ephyra, and others.

Elis, according to Scylax, extended to the south as far as Lepreum, where Arcadia commenced, advancing from the interior to the coast. Both by Homer and the later geographers, it is well known, the Arcadians are represented as an inland tribe. Their position on the coast by Scylax is therefore a remarkable circumstance. Some traces of the fact are, however, preserved. It appears from Strabo* that the Arcadians contested the possession of the maritime district of Triphylia, and probably at some periods occupied it. Triphylian Pylos (the Pylos of Nestor) bore also the name of Arcadian.

Scylax speaks of Corinth and Carthage as flourishing cities, which, however, only proves his age to have been anterior to 146 B. C. about which time these cities were destroyed, the former by Mummius, the latter by Scipio.

No traces, as the anonymous biographer observes, are to be found of the enterprizes of Alexander. Pharus is described as a desert island, with convenient ports, but destitute of water, which must be procured from the lake Maria, the Mareotis of other authors. Scylax makes no mention of Alexandria, an omission which cannot be considered as possible if it had then existed. He speaks of Tyre as an island and a royal residence, both which it ceased to be by the conquest and works of Alexander. In his description of Cilicia he takes no notice of Issus, rendered famous by the victory of Alexander over Darius, and celebrated by succeeding writers. He mentions the walls of Thebes, destroyed by that conqueror.

In the second Phocian war the cities of the Phocians, with the exception of Delphi, Aba, and Elatea, were destroyed by order of the Amphictyous, and reduced to the state of villages, which were not permitted to contain more than fifty houses each. In Scylax we find the names of several cities as still subsisting, which were razed in virtue of this decree. The writer must therefore be placed previous to this period in the reign of Philip.

The Megareans founded successively the cities of Selymbria and

Byzantium, on the shores of the Bosphorus. The Byzantines being expelled from their city by the Phoenicians during the Persian war, founded Mesembria, on the western coast of the Euxine, in the seventy'first Olympiad, 496 B. C. Scylax mentions Selymbria and Mesembria, but is silent respecting Byzantium. The Persians were expelled from Byzantium by Pausanias 477 years B. C. twelve years after the death of Darius. It may be conjectured that Scylax wrote while Byzantium was nothing more than a military post occupied by the Persians.

Such are the chief arguments by which the antiquity of the Periplus has been vindicated. The principal writers who have impeached its authority are Gerard* and Isaac Vossius, and Dodwell.

The arguments alleged by the elder Vossius, in support of his hypothesis, are the following: that the walls of the Piraeus, built by Themistocles, are mentioned by Scylax; that he speaks of Amphipolis, founded by Brasidas in the Peloponnesian war; that he notices Cleostratus, of Tenedos, and Callistratus, the Athenian rhetorician, the founder of Datus. He therefore chooses to consider the Darius mentioned by the anonymous writer of the life of Scylax as Darius Nothus, who began his reign 424 B.C. He afterwards, with some degree of inconsistency, seems to change his opinion, and is inclined to think that the present Periplus is an abridgment made at a late period, probably in the reign of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, when extracts and epitomes were common, of the work of the ancient Scylax.

To the arguments of Vossius it is replied, that the walls of the Piræus, as appears from Thucydides, were commenced in the Archonship of Themistocles, before the Persian war, and might be known to Scylax, the ancient geographer. Amphipolis, it is confessed, received its name from Brasidas at a later period, but it existed before under the name of Ea odos, or the Nine Ways, and some transcriber may have substituted the more recent for the obsolete term. Cleostratus, of Tenedos, seems to have lived in the reign of Cyrus. Whoever was the founder of Datus, it existed early enough to be noticed by Scylax, as it is mentioned by Herodotus.

The objections of Dodwell are not in general of much force. He expresses his surprise that any one should have supposed the Periplus to be the production of the Scylax of Herodotus, since it totally differs from the account of his enterprize given by that historian. To this it is sufficient to reply, that no person who has read the narrative of the historian and the work of the geographer, can suppose them to refer to the same object. It, however, by no means follows, that the leader of the Indian expedition may not have surveyed the sea on the shores of which he was born, and have left a record of his observations and enquiries. The identity of the author of the Periplus, and the ancient navigator, is inferred from the coincidence of the name and country, the opinion of ancient authors, and the total want of evidence that any other geographer to whom these circumstances are applicable, ever existed.

* De historicis Græcis, i. 19. + ix. 75.

He

He further objects the mention made in the Periplus of Carthaginian settlements on the coast of Spain, which could not, he contends, have existed in the age of Scylax, as the Carthaginians had at that period established no dominion m Spain. It cannot, however, be deemed improbable that, with the consent of the inhabitants, they may have stationed factories for the purpose of commerce on the coast, long before they carried their arms into the interior of the country, as has been the case in India with the English and other European nations. It also appears from Diodorus,* that the Carthaginians, in the time of Xerxes had closely+ connected themselves with Spain, and at a much earlier period had made settlements in the adjacent islands.

Another objection is founded on the position of some Celtic colonists, noticed in the Periplus as left by their companions near the mouth of the Po, between the Tyrrhenians and the Veneti. Dodwell contends, that at no period before A. U. C. 582, could any Celta be settled on the coast of the Hadriatic in this situation; but his reasoning is too vague, and too much encumbered with gratuitous hypothesis to produce conviction.

We read in the Periplus that Leucas having been separated from the continent, was in the time of the author of that work an island, whereas Thucydides speaks of Leucas as in the sixth and seventh years of the Peloponnesian war being still a peninsula. It is shewn from Strabo that the Corinthians under Cypselus insulated Leucas by dig ging a canal, which may have been obstructed in the time of Thucydides. In fact Leucas appears to have been alternately an island and a peninsula, as the channel was kept clear or neglected. When visited by Spon and Wheeler, the channel, was only about fifty paces wide, with three or four feet in depth of water.

The name of Messene appears in the Periplus. This city was destroyed by the Lacedæmonians, and did not exist in the time of the ancient Scylax. It was rebuilt by Epaminondas, in the fourth century before the Christian æra. No argument can, however, be drawn from the passage, which is evidently corrupt, Messene being placed near the sea-shore, and Ithome, its citadel, at the distance of eighty stadia inland. The passage is conjecturally emended in different ways by Palmerius and Sainte-Croix.

Various other objections are urged by Dodwell, which seem not to merit much attention, and the genuineness of the Periplus may on the whole be considered as unaffected, at least by any arguments hitherto advanced.

As a specimen of the work, that part of the Periplus is inserted which relates to the western coast of Africa, from its coincidence with the subject of the preceding paper. In consequence of the very corrupt state of the text, it has been necessary in some instances to translate from the conjectural emendations of various commentators.

Sailing from the columns of Hercules, with Libya on the left, we find a great bay, extending to the promontory of Hermæum; for here, also, is a promontory of that name. In the middle of the gulph is a

place

place called Pontium, with a city. Near the city is a considerable lake, in which are many islands, and about its banks grow various kinds of reeds and aquatic plants. Here also are found the birds named Meleagrides, which, if elsewhere found, are imported from this country. The name of the lake is Cephisias, and of the bay Cotes. It lies midway between the columns of Hercules and the promontory of Hermæum. From Hermæum a ledge of rocks, covered by the sea, extends to the sacred promontory of Europe. After Hermæum we reach the river Anidos, which flows into a lake. This is succeeded by the river Lixus, and a city built by the Phoenicians of the same name, and beyond the river another city with a port. To the Lixus succeeds a river called Crabis, with a port, and a city of the Phoenicians, named Thymiateria; after which we reach the promontory of Soloeis, extending far into the sea. This part of Libya is greatly celebrated, and esteemed sacred. On the summit of the promontory is an altar, dedicated to the Phoenician Neptune, on which are figures of men, lions, and dolphins, said to be executed with great skill. After Solocis is a river named Xion, on the banks of which dwell the sacred Ethiopians. Here is situated the island of Cerne. The voyage from the columns of Hercules to the promontory of Hermæum occupies two days, from Hermæum to Soloeis three, from Soloeis to Cerne seven, the whole navigation from the columnis of Hercules to Gerne twelve." The sea beyond Cerne is stated not to be navigable on account of the sands and the abundance of weeds. Some particulars are subjoined respecting the mode of intercourse between the Carthaginians and Ethiopians. This account is evidently in part taken from Hanno, though not in all respects consistent with his narrative.

The Periplus, if genuine, is certainly a curious monument of antiquity, and may throw some important light on geographical researches. We have, however, received it in a corrupt, and, probably, a mutilated state. If composed by a citizen of Caryanda, in the fifth or sixth century before the Christian æra, it must in all probability have been originally written in Doric or Ionic Greek. The change into the common dialect is not without example.

The Periplus of Scylax was first published from a Palatine MS. by David Hoeschelius, with Marcianus Heracleotes, Artemidorus, Dicæarchus, and Isidorus Gharacenus. Aug. Vindel. 1600.

It was again published with the notes and version of Isaac Vossius, Amst. 1639; by Gronovius, with other geographical pieces, Lugd. Bat. 1697; by Hudson, in the first volume of the minor geographical writers, Oxon. 1698. In 1700 Gronovius published remarks on the late Oxford edition, and an examination of Dodwell's dissertation respecting the age of Scylax, which he added to those copies of his own edition which were not yet dispersed, changing the title page."

By dependence on the English translation of D'Anville's ancient geography, an inaccuracy was in the last paper ascribed to that writer, with

numgos, photov, and oguov, corrected by Salmasius to xuñɛigos, $λɛov, and Sguov.