110 EXPEDITIONS BEFORE ALEXANDER. [CHAP
originally inscribed on a tablet in the same way as that of Hanno;
but in what form, or through what medium, it reaqhed Avienus
we have no means of knowing. The Ora Maritima is a work of
little merit and highly uncritical; and the passages for which
Himilco is referred to as the authority are so confusedly intro-
duced that it seems impossible to form a clear idea of the course
which he followed, so that it is better to treat what they narrate
as a number of separate episodes1. He seems to have sailed
Account of alonS ^ie coast °^ Spain fron* Gades onwards, and
the ocstrym- to have reached a group of islands called the
m es' Oestrymnides, and a cape of the same name, which
in a former chapter* we have identified with the extremity of the
Armorican peninsula and the islands in its neighbourhood. The
inhabitants of these islands he speaks of as hardy navigators, who
were accustomed to cross the sea in boats like coracles, covered
with hides8; and he implies that they visited Ireland and the
intermediate island of Albion4. The last point is confirmed by
Caesar, who remarks in his account of Armorica that in conse-
quence of this they had complete command of the traffic in those
parts*. Himilco adds, that both the Carthaginians and the in-
1 The Ora Mari&ma will be found in vol. V. of Wernsdorfs Poetae Latini
Minoresi the passages from it which bear on Himilco's voyage are given in
Elton's Origins of English History, pp. 418—420; also in voL I. of
MullenhofPs Deutsche Altertutnskunde.
2 ». supra, p. 36,
8 Ora Marit., 11. 103—7:
Non hi carinas quippe pinu texere
Acereve nonint, non abiete, ut usus est,
Curvant faselos; sed rei ad miraculum
Navigia junctis semper aptant pellibus
Corioque vastum saepe percurrunt salum.
4 Ibid. 108—12:
Ast hinc duobus in Sacram, sic insulara.
Dixere prisci, solibus cursus rati est
Haec inter undas multa caespitem jacet,
Eamque late gens Hiernorum colit.
Propinqua rursus insnla Albionum patet
5 B. (?., 3. 8, quoted on p. 36.