Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/133

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Chap. 67.] NAYIGATION OF THE OCEAN-. 99 along Mauritania, has now been navigated. Indeed the greater part of this region, as well as of the east, as far as the Arabian Grulf, was siu-veyed in consequence of Alexander's victories. When Caius Caesar, the son of Augustus had the conduct of affairs in that coimtry, it is said that they found the remains of Spanisli vessels which had been wrecked there. While the power of Carthage was at its height, Hanno pub- lished an account of a voyage which he made from Gades to the extremity of Arabia-; Himilcowas also sent, about the same time, to explore the remote parts of Europe. Besides, we learn from Corn. jSTepos, that oneEudoxus, a contemporary of his^ when he was flying from king Lathyrus, set out from the Arabian Gulf, and was carried as far as Gades-*. And long before him, Caelius Autipater^ informs us, that he had seen a person who had sailed from Spain to Ethiopia for the pur- poses of trade. The same Cornelius Xepos, when speaking of the northern circumnavigation, tells us that Q.MetellusCeler, the colleague of L. Afranius in the consulship, but then a proconsul in GauP, had a present made to him by the king of the Suevi, of certain Indians, who sailing from India for the piu-pose of commerce, had been driven by tempests into Germany ^ Thus it appears, that the seas which flow corn- different parts of his work, ii. 112 and vi. 7, appear so inconsistent with each other, that we must suppose he indiscriminately borrowed them from various writers, without comparing their accoimts, or endeavouring to reconcile them to each other. Such inaccm-acies may be thouglit ahnost to justify the censure of Alexandre, who styles our author, " indiligens plane veri et falsi compilator, et ubi dissentiunt auctores, nunquam aut raro sibi constans." Lemaire, i. 378. ^ ThesonofAgrippa, whom Augustus adopted. Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 378. 2 See Beloe's Herodotus, ii. 393, 394, for an account of the voyage round Afi-ica that wtvs performed by the Phoenicians, who were sent to explore those parts by Neclio king of Egypt. 3 It is generally supposed that C. Nepos hved in the century previous to the Clu-istian a?ra. Ptolemy Lathyrus commenced liis reign u.c. 627 or B.C. 117, and reigned for 36 years. The references made to C. Nepos are not found in any of his works now extant. ■* We have previously referred to Eudoxus, note 3, p. 78. ^ We have a brief account of Antipater in Hardouin's Lidex Auctorum; Lemaire, i. 162. ^ We are infonned by Alexandre that this was in the year of the City 691, the same year in which Cicero was consul ; see note in Lemaire, i. 379. ' It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the accoimt here given must h2