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canal having been excavated by Xerxes, it is pro- | the modern canal of Moueys turns off from the Nile, bable that the central part was afterwards filled up, in order to allow a more ready passage into and out of the peninsula. In many places the canal is still deep, swampy at the bottom, and filled with rushes and other aquatic plants: the rain and small springs draining down into it from the adjacent heights afford, at the Monte Santo end, a good wateringplace for shipping; the water (except in very dry weather) runs out in a good stream. The distance across is 2500 yards, which agrees very well with the breadth of twelve stadia assigned by Herodotus. The width of the canal appears to have been about 18 or 20 feet; the level of the earth nowhere exceeds 15 feet above the sea; the soil is a light clay. It is on the whole a very remarkable isthmus, for the land on each side (but more especially to the westward) rises abruptly to an elevation of 800 to 1000 feet." (Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. iii. p. 23.)

About 1 mile north of the canal was Acanthus [ACANTHUS], and on the isthmus, immediately south of the canal, was Sane, probably the same as the later Uranopolis. [SANE.] In the peninsula itself there were five cities, DIUM, OLOPHYXUS, ACROTHOUM, THYSSUS, CLEONAE, which are described under their respective names. To these five cities, which are mentioned by Herodotus (l. c.), Thucydides (1. c.) and Strabo (vii. p. 331), Scylax (s. v. Makedovía) adds. Charadriae, and Pliny (I. c.) Palaeorium and Apollonia, the inhabitants of the latter being named Macrobii. The extremity of the peninsula, above which Mt. Athos rises abruptly, was called Nymphaeum (Núupaiov), now Cape St. George (Strab. vii. p. 330; Ptol. iii. 13. § 11.) The peninsula was originally inhabited by TyrrhenoPelasgians, who continued to form a large part of the population in the Greek cities of the peninsula even in the time of the Peloponnesian war (Thuc. 1. c.). (Respecting the peninsula in general see Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 114; Bowen, Mount Athos, Thessaly, and Epirus, London, 1852, p. 51, seq.; Lieuts. Smith and Wolfe, Sibthorp, il. cc.)

A'THRIBIS, A'THLIBIS (Herod. ii. 166; Ptol. iv. 5. §§ 41, 51; Plin. v. 9. s. 11; Steph. Byz. s. V. Αθλιβις, Αθάρραβις: Εth. 'Αθριβίτης or Αθλιβίτης), the chief town of the Athribite nome, in Lower Egypt. It stood upon the eastern bank of the Tanitic branch of the Nile, and near the angle where that branch diverges from the main stream. Ammianus Marcellinus reckons Athribis among the most considerable cities of the Delta, in the 4th century of our era (xxii. 16. § 6). It seems to have been of sufficient importance to give the name Athribiticus Fluvius to the upper portion of the Tanitic arm of the Nile. It was one of the military nomes assigned to the Calasirian militia under the Pharaohs. Under the Christian Emperors, Athribis belonged to the province of Augustamnica Secunda. The Athribite nome and its capital derived their name from the goddess Thriphis, whom inscriptions both at Athribis and Panopolis denominate "the most great goddess." Thriphis is associated in worship with Amun Khem, one of the first quaternion of deities in Egyptian mythology; but no representation of her has been at present identified. Wilkinson (Manners and Customs, &c., vol. iv. p. 265) supposes Athribis to have been one of the lion-headed goddesses, whose special names have not been ascertained.

The ruins of Atrieb or Trieb, at the point where

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represent the ancient Athribis. They consist of extensive mounds and basements, besides which are the remains of a temple, 200 feet long, and 175 broad, dedicated to the goddess Thriphis (Coptic Athrébi). The monks of the White Monastery, about half a mile to the north of these ruins, are traditionally acquainted with the name of Attrib, although their usual designation of these ruins is Medeenet Ashaysh. An inscription on one of the fallen architraves of the temple bears the date of the ninth year of Tiberius, and contains also the name of his wife Julia, the daughter of Augustus. On the opposite face of the same block are found ovals, including the names of Tiberius Claudius and Caesar Germanicus: and in another part of the temple is an oval of Ptolemy XII., the eldest son of Ptolemy Auletes (B.C. 51-48). About half a mile from Athribis are the quarries from which the stone used in building the temple was brought; and below the quarries are some small grotto tombs, the lintels of whose doors are partially preserved. Upon one of these lintels is a Greek inscription, importing that it was the "sepulchre of Hermeius, son of Archibius." He had not, however, been interred after the Egyptian fashion, since his tomb contained the deposit of calcined bones. Vestiges also are found in two broad paved causeways of the two main streets of Athribis, which crossed each other at right angles, and probably divided the town into four main quarters. The causeways and the ruins generally indicate that the town was greatly enlarged and beautified under the Macedonian dynasty. (Champollion, Egypte, vol. ii. p. 48; Wilkinson, Egypt and Thebes, p. 393.) [W. B. D.]

ATHRYS. [TANTRUS.] ATHYRAS ("A@upas), a river of Thrace between Selymbria and Byzantium. (Ptol. iii. 11. § 6; Plin. iv. 11. s. 18. § 47, Sillig; Pliny calls it also Pydaras.)

ATILIA'NA. [AUTRIGONES.]

ATI'NA ('ATíva: Eth. Atinas, atis). 1. An aneient and important city of the Volscians, which retains its ancient name and position, on a lofty hill near the sources of the little river Melpis (Melfa), and about 12 miles SE. of Sora. Virgil speaks of it as a great and powerful city (Atina potens, Aen. vii. 630) long before the foundation of Rome, and Martial also terms it "prisca Atina" (x. 92. 2.): the former poet seems to consider it a Latin city, but from its position it would appear certain that it was a Volscian one. It had, however, been wrested from that people by the Samnites when it first appears in history. In B. c. 313 it was (according to some annalists) taken by the Roman consul C. Junius Bubulcus (Liv. ix. 28); but in B. C. 293 we again find it in the hands of the Samnites, and its territory was ravaged by the consuls, but no attack made on the town. (Id. x. 39.) We have no account of its final reduction by the Romans, but it appears to have been treated with severity, and reduced to the condition of a praefectura, in which it still continued even after its citizens had been admitted to the Roman franchise. But notwithstanding its inferior position, it was in the days of Cicero a flourishing and populous town, so that he draws a favourable contrast between its population and that of Tusculum, and says that it was not surpassed by any praefectura in Italy. (Cic. pro Planc. 8.) It was the birthplace of his friend and client Cn. Plancius, and was included in the Terentine tribe.

(Ibid. 16.) At a subsequent period it became a municipal town, with the ordinary privileges and magistrates; but though it received a military colony under Nero, it did not obtain colonial rank. We learn, from numerous inscriptions, that it continued to be a considerable place under the Roman empire. (Lib. Colon. p. 230; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. § 62; Murat. Inser. pp. 352, 1102, 1262; Orell. Inser. 140, 1678, 2285, &c.)

Silius Italicus alludes to its cold and elevated situation (monte nivoso descendens Atina, viii. 398), and the modern city of Atina is noted as one of the coldest places in the whole kingdom of Naples, which results not only from its own position on a lofty eminence, but from its being surrounded by high and bleak mountains, especially towards the south. Its ancient walls, built in a massive style of polygonal blocks, but well hewn and neatly fitted, comprised the whole summit of the hill, only a portion of which is occupied by the modern city; their extent and magnitude confirm the accounts of its importance in very early times. Of Roman date there are the remains of an aqueduct on a grand scale, substructions of a temple, and fragments of other buildings, besides numerous sepulchral monuments and inscriptions. (Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 361; Craven, Abruzzi, vol. i. pp. 61-65.)

2. A town of Lucania, situated in the upper valley of the Tanager, now the Valle di Diano. It is mentioned only by Pliny, who enumerates the Atenates among the inland towns of Lucania, and by the Liber Coloniarum, where it is called the "praefectura Atenas." But the correct orthography of the name is established by inscriptions, in which we find it written ATINATES; and the site is clearly ascertained by the ruins still visible just below the village of Atena, about 5 miles N. of La Sala. These consist of extensive remains of the walls and towers, and of an amphitheatre; numerous inscriptions have also been discovered on the spot, which attest the municipal rank of the ancient city. It appears that its territory must have extended as far as La Polla, about 5 miles further N., where the Tanager buries itself under ground, a phenomenon which is noticed by Pliny as occurring "in campo Atinati." (Plin. ii. 103. s. 106, iii. 11. s. 15; Lib. Colon. p. 209; Romanelli, vol. i. p. 424; Bullett. dell' Inst. 1847, p. 157.)

[E. H. B.]

ΑΙΝΤΑΝΙΑ (Ατιντανία : Eth. Ατιντάν, -vos), a mountainous district in Illyria, north of Molossis and east of Parauaea, through which the Aous flows, in the upper part of its course. It is described by Livy (xlv. 30) as poor in soil and rude in climate. The Atintanes are first mentioned in B. C. 429, among the barbarians who assisted the Ambraciots in their invasion of Peloponnesus, upon which occasion the Atintanes and Molossi were commanded by the same leader. (Thuc. ii. 80.) On the conclusion of the first war between Philip and the Romans, Atintania was assigned to Macedonia, B. C. 204; and after the conquest of Perseus in B. C. 168, it was included in one of the four districts into which the Romans divided Macedonia. (Liv. xxvii. 30, xlv. 30.) It is not mentioned by Ptolemy, as it formed part of Chaonia. (Comp. Strab. vii. p. 326; Pol. ii. 5; Scylax, s. v. 'IAλúpio; Lycophr. 1043; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 118.)

ATLANTES CATλavTes), a people in the interior of Libya, inhabiting one of the chain of oases formed by salt hills, which are described by Herodotus as

extending along the N. of the Great Desert (Sahara), ten days' journey W. of the ATARANTES, and in the vicinity of M. ATLAS, whence they derived their name. They were reported to abstain from using any living thing for food, and to see no visions in their sleep. (Herod. iv. 184; Mela, i. 8. § 5; Plin. v. 8; respecting the common confusion in the names see ATARANTES.) Herodotus adds, that they were the furthest (i. e. to the W.) of the people known to him as inhabiting the ridge of salt hills; but that the ridge itself extended as far as the pillars of Hercules, or even beyond them (iv. 185). The attempts of Rennell, Heeren, and others to assign the exact position of the people, from the data supplied by Herodotus, cannot be considered satisfactory. (Rennell, Geogr. of Herod, vol. ii. pp. 301, 311; Heeren, Ideen, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 243.) [P.S.]

ATLANTICUM MARE. The opinions of the ancients respecting the great body of water, which they knew to extend beyond the straits at the entrance of the Mediterranean, must be viewed historically; and such a view will best exhibit the meaning of the several names which they applied to it.

The word Ocean ('Keavós) had, with the early Greeks, a sense entirely different from that in which we use it. In the poets, Homer and Hesiod, the personified being, Ocean, is the son of Heaven and Earth (Uranus and Gaia), a Titanic deity of the highest dignity, who presumes even to absent himself from the Olympic councils of Jove; and he is the father of the whole race of water-nymphs and river-gods. (Hes. Theog. 133, 337, foll. 368; Hom. Il. xx. 7.) Physically, Ocean is a stream or river (expressly so called) encircling the earth with its ever-flowing current; the primeval water, which is the source of all the other waters of the world, nay, according to some views, of all created things divine and human, for Homer applies it to the phrases Θεών γένεσις and ὅσπερ γένεσις πάντεσσι TÉTUKтal. (I. xiv. 201, 246; comp. Virg. Georg. iv. 382, where Ocean is called patrem rerum, with reference, says Servius, to the opinions of those who, as Thales, supposed all things to be generated out of water.) The sun and stars rose out of its waters and returned to them in setting. (Il. v. 5, 6, xviii. 487.) On its shores were the abodes of the dead, accessible to the heroic voyager under divine direction. (Od. x., xi., xii.) Among the epithets with which the word is coupled, there is one, ἄψορρος (flowing backwards), which has been thought to indicate an acquaintance with the tides of the Atlantic; but the meaning of the word is not certain enough to warrant the inference. (Hom. I. xviii. 399, xx. 65; Hesiod, Theog. 776.)

Whether these views were purely imaginary or entirely mythical in their origin, or whether they were partly based on a vague knowledge of the waters outside of the Mediterranean, is a fruitful subject of debate. Nor can we fix, except within wide limits, the period at which they began to be corrected by positive information. Both scripture and secular history point to enterprizes of the Phoenicians beyond the Straits at a very early period; and, moreover, to a suspicion, which was attempted more than once to be put to the proof, that the Mediterranean on the W. and the Arabian Gulf on the S. opened into one and the same great body of water. It was long, however, before this identity was at all generally accepted. The story that Africa had actually been circumnavigated, is related by Herodotus with the greatest distrust [LIBYA]: and the

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question was left, in ancient geography, with the great authority of Ptolemy on the negative side In fact, the progress of maritime discovery, proceeding independently in the two directions, led to the knowledge of the two great expanses of water, on the S. of Asia, and on the W. of Africa and Europe, while their connection around Africa was purely a matter of conjecture. Hence arose the distinction marked by the names of the Southern and the Western Seas, the former being constantly used by Herodotus for the Indian Ocean [ARABICUS SINUS], while, somewhat curiously, the latter, its natural correlative, is only applied to the Atlantic by late

writers.

Herodotus had obtained sufficient knowledge to reject with ridicule the idea of the river Ocean flowing round the earth (ii. 21, 23, iv. 8, 36); and it deserves notice, that with the notion he rejects the name also, and calls those great bodies of water, which we call oceans, seas. In this he is followed by the great majority of the ancient writers; and the secondary use of the word Ocean, which we have retained, as its common sense, was only introduced at a late period, when there was probably a confused notion of its exact primary sense. It is found in the Roman writers and in the Greek geographers of the Roman period, sometimes for the whole body of water surrounding the earth and sometimes with epithets which mark the application of the word to the Atlantic Ocean, which is also called simply Oceanus; while, on the other hand, the epithet Atlanticus is found applied to the Ocean in its wider sense, that is, to the whole body of water surrounding the three continents.

Herodotus speaks of the great sea on the W. of Europe and Asia, as the sea beyond the Pillars (of Hercules) which is called the Sea of Atlas (new στηλέων θάλασσα ἡ ̓Ατλαντίς, —fem. adj. of Ar. λas,—kaλeoμévn: Her. i. 202.) The former name was naturally applied to it in contradistinction to the Mediterranean, or the sea within the Pillars (nevτds 'Hрaкλelwv oτnλŵv dáλaroa, Aristot. Meteor. ii. 1; Dion. Hal. i. 3; Plut. Pomp. 25); | and the latter on account of the position assigned to the mythical personage Atlas, and to the mountain of the same name, at the W. extremity of the earth [ATLAS]. (Comp. Eurip. Hippol. 3; Aristot. Prob. xxvi. 54.) Both names are constantly used by subsequent writers. The former name is common in the simpler form of the Outer Sea (ǹ tkw Dáraoσa, ʼn Ékтds DáλаTTα, Mare Externum, Mare Exterius); outer, with reference sometimes to the Mediterranean, and sometimes to all the inner waters of the earth. Another name constantly used is that of the Great Sea (μeyàλn Jáλɑoσa, Mare Magnum), in contradistinction to all the lesser seas, and to the Mediterranean in particular. It was also called the Western Sea or Ocean (Εσπέριος Ωκεανός, δυτικός and dvoμirds wreavòs, Hesperium Mare). The use of these names, and the ideas associated with them, require a more particular description.

The old Homeric notion of the river Ocean retained its place in the poets long after its physical meaning had been abandoned; and some indications are found of an attempt to reconcile it with later discoveries, by placing the Ocean outside of all the seas of the world, even of the outer seas. (Eurip. Orest. 1377.) Afterwards, the language of the old poets was adapted to the progress of geographical knowledge, by transferring the poetical name of the all-encircling river to the sea which was supposed |

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(by most geographers, though not by all) to surround the inhabited world; and this encircling sea was called not only Ocean, but also by the specific names applied to the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, in the work de Mundo, falsely ascribed to Aristotle (c. 3), it is said that the whole world is an island surrounded by the Atlantic Sea (ὑπὸ τῆς ̓Ατλαντικής kaλovμévns daλáoons wepippeoμévn: and, again, πέλαγος δὲ, τὸ μὲν ἔξω τῆς οἰκουμένης, Ατλαντι κὸν καλεῖται, καὶ ὁ 'Ωκεανὸς, περιῤῥέων ἡμᾶς), and the same idea is again and again repeated in other passages of the work, where the name used is simply Keards.

Similarly Cicero (Somn. Scip. 6) describes the inhabited earth as a small island, surrounded by that sea which men call Atlantic, and Great, and Ocean (illo mari, quod Atlanticum, quod Magnum, quem Oceanum, appellatis in terris). When he adds, that though bearing so great a name, it is but small, he refers to the idea that there were many such islands on the surface of the globe, each surrounded by its own small portion of the great body of waters.

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Strabo refers to the same notion as held by Eratosthenes (i. pp. 56, 64, sub fin.; on the reading and meaning of this difficult passage see Seidel, Fr. Eratosth. pp. 71, foll., and Groskurd's German translation of Strabo), who supposed the circuit of the earth to be complete within itself, "so that, but for the hindrance arising from the great size of the Atlantic Sea, we might sail from Iberia (Spain) to India along the same parallel;" to which Strabo makes an objection, remarkable for its unconscious anticipation of the great discovery of Columbus, that there may be two inhabited worlds (or islands) in the temperate zone. (Comp. i. p. 5, where he discusses the Homeric notion, i. p. 32, and ii. p. 112.) Elsewhere he says that the earth is surrounded with water, and receives into itself several gulfs "from the outer sea (ἀπὸ τῆς ἔξω θαλάττης κατὰ τὸν wкeavòr, where the exact sense of kard is not clear: may it refer to the idea, noticed above, of some distinction between the Ocean and even the outer seas of the world ?). Of the gulfs here referred to, the principal, he adds, are four: namely, the Caspian on the N., the Persian and Arabian on the S., and the Mediterranean (vтds кal кal' Яμâs Xeyouévn Jáλarra) on the W. Of his application of the name Atlantic to the whole of the surrounding Ocean, or at least to its southern, as well as western, portion, we have examples in i. p. 32 (κal μǹv σupρους ἡ πᾶσα Ατλαντικὴ θάλασσα, καὶ μάλιστα ἡ Kатà μeσпμsрíav), and in xv. p. 689, where he says that the S. and SE. shores of India run out into the Atlantic sea; and, in ii. p. 130, he makes India extend to "the Eastern Sea and the Southern Sea, which is part of the Atlantic" (πpós te TÂY έψαν θάλατταν καὶ τὴν νοτίαν τῆς ̓Ατλαντικῆς). Similarly Eratosthenes had spoken of Arabia Felix as extending S. as far as the Atlantic Sea (uéxpi τοῦ ̓Ατλαντικού πελάγους, Strab. xvi. p. 767, where there is no occasion for Letronne's conjectural emendation, 'Aidiomiкоu, a name also which only occurs in the later geographers).

Of the use of the simple word Oceanus, as the name of the Atlantic Ocean, by writers about Strabo's time, examples are found in Cicero (Leg. Manil. 12), Sallust (Jug. 18), Livy (xxiii. 5), Horace (Carm. iv. 14. 47, 48), and Virgil (Georg. iv. 382); and the word is coupled with mare by Caesar (B. G. iii. 7, mare Oceanum), Catullus (Carm 114, 6),

and Ovid (Met. vii. 267, Oceani mare). It should have been stated earlier that Polybius calls it the Outer and Great Sea (iii. 37. §§ 10, 11, Thν w kal μeyáλŋy wрoσayopevoμévní); and in another passage he says that it was called by some 'reavós, by others, Tò 'Atλavtikdy wéλayos (xvi. 29. § 6). Of the geographers subsequent to Strabo, Mela states that the inhabited earth is entirely surrounded by the Ocean, from which it receives four seas, one from the N., two from the S., and the fourth from the W. (i. 1), meaning the same four gulfs which are specified by Strabo (see above). After describing the shores of the Mediterranean, he proceeds to speak of the sea without the Straits, under the name of Oceanus, as ingens infinitumque pelagus, and he particularly describes the phenomena of the tides; and then adds, that the sea which lies to the right of those sailing out of the Straits and washes the shore of Baetica, is called aequor Atlanticum (iii. 1). Elsewhere he speaks of the sea on the W. of Europe and Africa by the general name of Oceanus (ii. 6), and by the special names of Atlanticum Mare (i. 3, 4, iii. 10), and Atlanticus Oceanus (i. 5). Pliny speaks of it as mare Atlanticum, ab aliis magnum (iii. 5. s. 10).

Ptolemy distinguishes the Atlantic from the other outer seas or (as he generally calls them) oceans, by the name of the Western Ocean (ó dUTIKòs ikeards, ii. 5. § 3), and makes it the W. boundary of Europe and Libya, except in the S. part of the latter continent, where he supposes the unknown land to stretch out to the W. (vii. 5. § 2, vil. 4. § 2, 13. § 2).

Agathemerus (ii. 14) says that the Great Sea (ʼn μeyáλn dáλaooa) surrounding the whole inhabited world is called by the common name of Ocean, and has different names according to the different regions; and, after speaking of the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Seas, he adds, that the sea on the west, from which our sea (ʼn κаð' hμâs dáAaroa, the Mediterranean) is filled, is called the Western Ocean (Eσrépios 'Keavòs), and, кaт' oxy, the Atlantic Sea ('ATλaVTIKÒV TÉλAYOS). In another passage (ii. 4) he says that Lusitania lies adjacent to the Western Ocean (πрòs т& duσμikų keavy), and that Tarraconensis extends from the Ocean and the Outer Sea to the Mediterranean; but whether we should understand this as making a precise distinction between the Outer Sea, as on the W. of Spain, and the Ocean, as further N., is not quite clear.

According to Dionysius Periegetes, the earth is surrounded on every side by the "stream of unwearied Ocean" (of course a mere phrase borrowed from the early poets), which, being one, has many names applied to it; of which, the part on the west is called "Arλas éσnépios, which the commentators explain as two adjectives in opposition (vi. 27-42; comp. Eustath. Comm. and Bernhardy, Annot. ad loc.; also comp. Priscian, Perieg. 37, foll., and 72, where he uses the phrase Atlantis ab unda; Avien. Descr. Orb. 19, 77, foll., gurgitis Hesperii, aequoris Hesperii tractus, 398, Atlantei vis aequoris, 409, Hesperii aequoris undam). At v. 335 he speaks of the Iberian people as yeíTwv 'keavоîo пρòs éσépou. Agathemerus, Dionysius, and the imitators of the latter, Priscian and Avienus, describe the four great gulfs of the Outer Sea in nearly the same manner as Strabo and Mela.

Avienus (Or. Marit. pp. 80, foll.) distinguishes from the all-surrounding Ocean the sea between the

SW. coast of Spain and the NW. coast of Africa, which he calls Atlanticus sinus, and regards it as a sort of outer gulf of the Mediterranean (gurges hic nostri maris; comp. 390, foll., where Oceanus, pontus maximus, gurges oras ambiens, parens | nostri maris, is distinguished from Hesperius aestus atque Atlanticum salum); and, respecting the names, he adds (402, 403):

"Hunc usus olim dixit Oceanum vetus,

Alterque dixit mos Atlanticum mare." Suidas defines the term 'Ατλαντικά πελάγη as including both the Western and Eastern Oceans ('Eσnéрios Keavòs kal 'Eĝos), and all unnavigable seas; and the Atlantic Sea he explains as the Ocean ('Ατλαντὶς θάλαττα δ' Ωκεανός).

It is enough to refer to such variations of the name as Atlanteus Oceanus (Claud. Nupt. Hon. et Mar. 280, Prob. et Olyb. Cons. 35), and Atlanteus Gurges (Stat. Achill. i. 223); and to passages in which particular reference is made to the connection between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the Straits, which are sometimes called the mouth of the Atlantic Sea, or of the Ocean (TO Tĥs Daλáttηs tĤs 'AtλavtikĤs σтóμa, Scymn. Ch. 138; Oceani Ostium, Cic. Leg. Manil. 12; Strab. iii. p. 139).

Respecting the progress of discovery in the Atlantic, allusion has been made above to the early enterprizes of the Phoenicians; but the first detailed account is that of the voyage of Hanno, who was sent out from Carthage, about B. C. 500, with a considerable fleet, to explore the W. coast of Africa, and to found colonies upon it. Of his narrative of his voyage, we still possess a Greek translation. The identification of his positions is attended with some difficulty; but it can be made out that he advanced as far S. as the mouths of the Senegal and Gambia. [LIBYA: Dict. of Biog. art. Hanno.] Pliny's statement, that Hanno reached Arabia, is a fair example of the exaggerations prevalent on these matters, and of the caution with which the stories of the circumnavigation of Africa should be examined. (ii. 67.) About the same time the Carthaginians sent out another expedition, under Himilco, to explore the Atlantic N. of the Straits. (Plin. l. c.) Himilco's narrative has not come down to us; but we learn some of its contents from the Ora Maritima of Avienus. (108, foll., 375, foll.) He discovered the British islands, which he placed at the distance of four months' voyage from the Straits; and he appears to have given a formidable description of the dangers of the navigation of the ocean, from sudden calms, from the thick sluggish nature of the water, from the sea-weed and even marine shrubs which entangled the ship, the shoals over which it could scarcely float, and the seamonsters which surrounded the voyager as he slowly made his way through all these difficulties. Such exaggerated statements would meet with ready credence on account of the prevalent belief that the outer ocean was unnavigable, owing, as the early poets and philosophers supposed, to its being covered with perpetual clouds and darkness (Hesiod ap. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 258, 283; Pind. Nem. iii. 79; Eurip. Herod. 744); and it is thought, with much probability, that these exaggerations were purposely diffused by the Carthaginians, to deter the mariners of other nations from dividing with themselves the navigation of the ocean. At all events, these stories are often repeated by the Greek writers (Herod. ii. 102; Aristot. Meteor. ii. 1, 13, Mir.

Ausc. 136; Plat. Tim. p. 24, 25, comp. ATLANTIS; | Theophrast. Hist. Plant. iv. 6. § 4; Scylax, p. 53; Suid. s. v. anλwta meλáyn, 'Atλavтikà reλάyn; comp. Ideler, ad Aristot. Meteor. p. 504, and Humboldt, Krit. Untersuch. vol. ii. p. 67, foll., who explains the stories of the shallows and sea-weed as referring to the extraordinary phaenomena which the parts of the ocean near the coast would present at low water to voyagers previously unacquainted with its tides).

The most marked epochs in the subsequent history of discovery in the Atlantic are those of the voyage of Pytheas of Massilia (about B. c. 334) round the NW. shores of Europe, described in his lost works, Tepi Toû wкeavoû and Tepíodos râs yŵs, which are frequently cited by Strabo, Pliny, and others (Dict. of Biog. s. v.); the voyage of Polybius, with the fleet of Scipio, along the W. coast of Africa [LIBYA]; and the intercourse of the Romans with the British isles [BRITANNIA]. But, as the Atlantic was not, like the Indian Ocean, a great highway of commerce, and there was no motive for the navigation of its stormy seas beyond the coasts of Spain and Gaul, little additional knowledge was gained respecting it. The latest views of the ancient geographers are represented in the statements of Dionysius and Agathemerus, referred to above.

So little was known of the prevailing currents and winds, and other physical features of the Atlantic, that their discussion does not belong to ancient geography, except with reference to one point, which is treated under LIBYA, namely the influence of the currents along the W. coast of Africa on the attempts to circumnavigate that continent.

The special names most in use for portions of the Atlantic Ocean were the following: OCEANUS GADITANUS, the great gulf (if the expression may be allowed) outside the Straits, between the SW. coast of Spain and the NW. coast of Africa, to which, as has been seen above, some geographers gave the name of the Atlantic Sea or Gulf, in a restricted sense: OCEANUS CANTABER (Kavrá6pios wкeavós: Bay of Biscay), between the N. coast of Spain and the W. coast of Gaul: MARE GALLICUM or OCEANUS GALLICUS, off the NW. coast of Gaul, at the mouth of the English Channel: and MARE BRITANNICUM or OCEANUS BRITANNICUS, the E. part of the Channel, and the Straits of Dover, between the mouths of the Sequana (Seine) and the Rhenus (Rhine). All to the N. of this belonged to the Northern Ocean. [OCEANUS SEPTENTRIONALIS.]

Of the islands in the Atlantic, exclusive of those immediately adjacent to the mainlands of Europe and Africa, the only ones known to the ancients were those called by them FORTunatae InsulaE, namely, the Canaries, with, perhaps, the Madeira group. The legend of the great island of ATLANTIS, and its connection with the question of any ancient knowledge of the great Western Continent, demands a separate article.

[P.S.]

ATLANTIS († 'ATλavels vñσos: Eth. 'ATAarrivo, Procl. ad Plat. Tim.; Schol. in Plat. Rep. p. 327), the Island of Atlas, is first mentioned by Plato, in the Timaeus (p. 24), and the Critias (pp. 108, 113). He introduces the story as a part of a conversation respecting the ancient history of the world, held by Solon with an old priest of Saïs in Egypt. As an example of the ignorance of the Greeks concerning the events of remote ages, and in particular of the Athenians respecting the exploits

of their own forefathers, the priest informs Solon that the Egyptian records preserved the memory of the fact, that 9000 years earlier the Athenians had repelled an invading force, which had threatened the subjugation of all Europe and Asia too. This invasion came from the Atlantic Sea, which was at that time navigable. In front of the strait called the Pillars of Hercules (and evidently, according to Plato's idea, not far from it), lay an island (which he presently calls Atlantis), greater than Libya and Asia taken together, from which island voyagers could pass to other islands, and from them to the opposite continent, which surrounds that sea, truly so called (i. e. the Atlantic). For the waters within the strait (i. e. the Mediterranean), may be regarded as but a harbour, having a narrow entrance; but that is really a sea, and the land which surrounds it may with perfect accuracy be called a continent (Tim. p. 24, e-25, a.).

The above passage is quoted fully to show the notion which it exhibits, when rightly understood, that beyond and on the opposite side of the Atlantic there was a vast continent, between which and the W. shores of Europe and Libya were a number of islands, the greatest of which, and the nearest to our world, was that called Atlantis.

In this island of Atlantis, he adds, there arose a great and powerful dynasty of kings, who became masters of the whole island, and of many of the other islands and of parts of the continent. And moreover, on this side the Atlantic, within the Straits, they ruled over Libya up to Egypt, and Europe up to Tyrrhenia. They next assembled their whole force for the conquest of the rest of the countries on the Mediterranean; but the Athenians, though deserted by their allies, repelled the invaders, and restored the liberty of all the peoples within the Pillars of Hercules. But afterwards came great earthquakes and floods, by which the victors in the contest were swallowed up beneath the earth, and the island of Atlantis was engulphed in the sea, which has ever since been unnavigable by reason of the shoals of mud created by the sunken island. (Tim. p. 25, a―d.)

The

The story is expanded in the Critias (p. 108, e, foll.), where, however, the latter part of it is unfortunately lost. Here Plato goes back to the original partition of the earth among the gods, and (what is of some importance as to the interpretation of the legend), he particularly marks the fact that, of the two parties in this great primeval conflict, the Athenians were the people of Athena and Hephaestus, but the Atlantines the people of Poseidon. royal race was the offspring of Poseidon and of Cleito, a mortal woman, the daughter of Evenor, one of the original earthborn inhabitants of the island, of whose residence in the centre of the island Plato gives a particular description. (Crit. p. 113, c-e.) Cleito bore to Poseidon five pairs of twins, who became the heads of ten royal houses, each ruling a tenth portion of the island, according to a partition made by Poseidon himself, but all subject to the supreme dynasty of Atlas, the eldest of the ten, on whom Poseidon conferred the place in the centre of the island, which had been before the residence of Evenor, and which he fortified and erected into the capital. We have then a minute description of the strength and magnificence of this capital; of the beauty and fertility of the island, with its lofty mountains, its abundant rivers, its exuberant vegetation, its temperate climate, its irrigation by natural

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