226 THE ROMAN CONQUESTS. [CHAP.

At a later period, however, there is no doubt that the
Fortunatae islands which were known by the name of Fortu-
insuiae natae Insulae were the Canaries. The informa-

The Canaries). ^Q^ which the Romans possessed about these
was derived from the treatise on Africa by Juba king of Mau-
retania, who had ample facilities for learning the truth about
them. This prince was carried to Rome as a captive during
his childhood, in 46 B.C., and having been educated there,
became a man of distinguished learning. In his youth he was
a friend of Augustus, who first restored him to his father's
kingdom of Numidia, and afterwards transferred him to the
sovereignty of Mauretania. His statements with regard to these
islands are preserved in Pliny's Natural History1 , and the names
that he assigns to them, which are mostly of Latin origin, are of
service in identifying them. Thus Canaria retains its appellation
unchanged as Grand Canary, while Nivaria or Ninguaria, which,
he says, was so called from its perpetual snows, is evidently Tene-
rife, with its celebrated Peak, 12,182 feet in height; and he also
remarks on the clouds by which it is so frequently shrouded. A
third, Ombrios, which is described as having a lake in the midst of
its mountains, seems to correspond to Palma, the central crater of
which is called Caldera or " the Cauldron," and is surrounded by
many lofty summits.

The advance of the Roman arms in Spain may be passed over
with a brief notice, because it belongs for the most

Progressive ,. . , , , * , . ,

Conquest of part to an earlier period than that of which we are

now speaking, and its effects in opening out the
interior of that peninsula have already been ad-
verted to in our remarks on Polybius and Posidonius, the first
writers who communicated to the world the information obtained
by this means. When the Carthaginians were finally expelled
from Spain at the conclusion of the Second Punic war, the
territory which they had occupied was erected into a Roman
Southern province in 206 B.C. The part thus acquired, how-
and Eastern ever, was not more than one half of the country : it
Provinces. . , , j7.
comprised the southern districts between the Sierra
Morena and the sea, and those towards the east, which are
i H. N.9 6. 203-5.