X.] EUDOXUS OF CYZICUS. 189
In these remarkable verses the shafts and underground pas-
sages in the mines, and the depth and remoteness of the scene of
the working, are referred to in a manner which closely corresponds
to the narrative of Agatharchides. It is true that the Aethiopian
mines are not the only ones from which the description in Job
may have been derived. Mr Kenrick in his Phoenicia long ago
pointed out the resemblance (which indeed is equally striking)
between this passage and the accounts of the mines in southern
Spain which are found in Diodorus, Strabo, and Pliny; and he
very reasonably suggested that information on this subject might
have reached the author of the Book of Job from a Phoenician
source1. But when we find that the knowledge of mining opera-
tions was obtainable from a country as near to Palestine or Arabia
as Aethiopia was, we are hardly disposed to go so far afield
as the western extremity of the Mediterranean to search for it
To this we may add, that the extreme antiquity of the working of
the Aethiopian mines by the rulers of Egypt, which Diodorus
himself mentions, would suit the view that they were referred to
by the author of the Book of Job, since an early date is usually
assigned to the composition of that poem.
Nearly contemporary with Agatharchides was Eudoxus of
Cyzicus, an intelligent enquirer, whose story was
so strange, that from Strabo's time onwards it has cyricus!" °f
often been treated with scepticism. It happened
that, while he was in Alexandria, to which place he had been
sent on a mission from his native city, an Indian was brought
thither, who was the sole survivor from the crew of a vessel which
had been wrecked on the Red Sea coast. This stranger, as soon
as he had been taught sufficient Greek to make himself under-
stood, described the circumstances of his voyage, and offered, if
the king, Ptolemy Euergetes II (Physcon), would fit out a vessel,
to conduct it to India. His proposal was accepted, and Eudoxus
was allowed to take part in the expedition; but when the
adventurers returned laden with wealth, their expectations of
gain were disappointed, for the whole of their valuable cargo was
appropriated by the king. Nothing daunted, however, by this
unfair treatment, in the succeeding reign Eudoxus engaged in
1 Kenrick's PJuxnida, pp. 264, 365.