The Periplus of Hanno
The Periplus/Voyage of Hanno as we now have it is thus:
(A) This plaque records the Voyage of King Hanno of Carthage to the regions of Libya beyond the Pillars of Herakles and was placed in the Temple of Kronos at Carthage.
(1) Hanno was sent beyond the Pillars to establish cities of Libyphoenicians. He took 60 penteconters each with 50 oars. Aboard were 30,000 souls, wheat plus other supplies.
(2) After passing through the Pillars of Herakles, Hanno sailed for two days and founded the first colony in the midst of a great plain. It was called Thymiaterion.
(3) Sailing to the west, the Carthaginians came to a place called Soloeis. This is a heavily forested promontory. It was here they decided to construct a temple to Poseidon.
(4) The Carthaginian fleet then sailed to the east and came to a lake close to the sea. It was covered by massive reed-beds. Here elephants plus other animals grazed.
(5) On leaving the lake, the Carthaginians sailed for another day. Here settlements were founded at Karikon Teichos, Bytte (or Gytte), Akra, Mellitta plus Arambys.
(6) The Carthaginian fleet then reached a large river that was called the River Lixos. Here lived a people called the Lixitae. They looked after herds. Hanno stayed some time.
(7) In nearby great mountains is the source of the Lixos. Here too were unfriendly Aethiopes, wild animals, Troglodytes, odd-shaped men, those faster than horses.
(8) Hanno sailed for 12 days along the desert south then east and came to an island called Cerne. It seems Carthage-to-the-Pillars was the same distance as from Pillars to Cerne.
(9) Sailing on to a great river called Chretes. It enclosed three islands each larger than Cerne. In the high hills were savages who threw stones and stopped Hanno landing.
(10) More sailing was to bring the Carthaginian ships to a great and wide river. In it were a vast number of crocodiles plus hippopotami. Then the fleet returned to Cerne.
(11) The shore was followed for another 12 days. Here the inhabitants were Aithiopes that on seeing our ships turned and ran. Their language was unknown to our Lixitae.
(12) On the last of the twelve days, it was found the Carthaginians had some reached very high mountains. They dropped anchor and picked the scent of fragrant wood.
(13) Sailing parallel with these mountains for two days the ships of Hanno reached an immense gulf or bay. On either side was a plain. At night, we saw great fires.
(14) They took on water, sailed for five days, came to a bay called the Horn of the West and landed on an island enclosing another. By day, all was forest. At night, sounds caused great fear.
(15) The horns, cymbals, drums plus voices causing the fear plus hasty sailing for five days to a country full of fragrance and flaming torrents reaching the sea. Again Hanno had great fear.
(16) We went with great speed in great fear for four days. At night we saw all was aflame. By day, a very high mountain was seen from which spewed great flames.
(17) After having sailed passed these fiery currents, there appeared yet another bay. According to our interpreters, this particular bay was called the Horn of the South.
(18) In this bay was an island repeating earlier episodes. Of the savages here, three females were caught but so bit and scratched, they were killed, flayed and the bodies taken to Carthage. The return was because food ran out.
In returning to (A), some words of explanation are again not out of place. The Phoenician homeland was under conquerors and the Phoenician colonies of such as Carthage, Lixus plus Gadir were on their own and there emerged an informal league with Carthage at its head. It was seen "Hanno" says Carthage wanted to expand this in a now-lost account originally in Punic but now only known via a Greek copy itself copied and re-copied several times. The version as we have it is mainly is of the 9th c.
(I) Discussion of the text proper should say that the William Schoff (1912) translation is followed here but was shortened and so on to (1) and the first of the anomalies. We are told of 30,000 emigrants aboard penteconters. This is a kind of galley and concerning which, it is worth noting Xenophon (5th c. B.C. Greek) describing the neatness aboard Phoenician galleys. This was because of a lack of space and this surely does not square with 30,000 would-be emigrants aboard galleys. The more so when we read Casson (The Ancient Mariners ib.) and we realise that any kind of galley was for speed not for carrying passengers.
(II) Here we read of Hanno having passed through the Columns/Pillars and founding the first colony at Thymiaterion. There have been a lot of theories about where the Pillars were. One has it that they were in some part of what is now Indonesia. Similar would have been what have been called the Columns of Ephorus variously placed at the start of the Mozambique Channel separating Mozambique and Madagascar or at one end of the Straits of Deire/Bab el-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea. Servius (2 nd c. A. D. Roman) placed them on the Dardannelles leading to the Black Sea and Tacitus (1st c. A. D. Roman) on the Kattegat leading to the Baltic. As Old-Irish is the oldest literature in Europe (after Gk.& Lat.) and the earliest native corpus in west Europe, we might expect support here and one suggestion is the North Channel at the north end of the Irish Sea. What these all have in common is that they are at sea-narrows linking longer stretches of sea but all break down when it is realised that easily the bulk of ancient writers held the Pillars were the Straits of Gibraltar.
(III) This section talks of a promontory called Soloeis. "Hanno" says a temple to Poseidon was built here. So too does Pseudo-Scylax/Ps-Scylax (so-called from his wrongly being identified with Scylax of Caryanda). The Greek copyist of "Hanno" calls the place of the deposit of Hanno's plaque as the Temple of Kronos but it should be Baal (a Phoenician deity) and the Poseidon at Soloeis would be a Phoenician god too. An important one too to judge from what is said by Ps-Scylax (? 5th/? 4th c. B.C.) about the importance of the shrine to "Poseidon" there.
(IV) Having shown the Pillars of Hercules were where most ancients felt they were, we return to the baffling directions "Hanno" says Hanno followed. It is claimed that Hanno was sailing along the coast of the Bulge of Africa and turned east but it is not said where to. Here now are the arguments of messrs. Lacroix (Africa in Antiquity 1998) and Lendering (Hanno article online). On this occasion, the suggestion is that Hanno sailed along the river called the Oum Rbia to meet a local chief asking for permission to settle and/or trade. We can observe "Hanno" noting elephants and Ps.-Scylax confirming Phoenico/Punic interest in African ivory.
(V) Settlement also looms very large in No. (5/V). They were Thymiaterion (see No. 1/I), Karikon Teichos, Bytte/Gytte, Akra, Melitta plus Arambys. The interesting thing is that many writers regard the last five as Phoenico/Punic takeovers of Pre-Phoenician sites. Thymiaterion is usually (inc. Lacroix/Lendering) identified with Mehedia (Morocco); Karikon Teichos with Azzemour (? & a sandbank at the mouth of the Oum Rbia); Gytte (? from a Phoen./ Punic word meaning cattle) may be El-Jaddida (where Punic tombs were found); Akra may be Cape Beddouza if Gk. akra (= promontory) renders Phoenico/Punic rash (= promontory); Melitta may be Oualliddia ; Arambys may be what is now called the islet of Mogador. It should also be said that these are all places in Morocco.
(VI) Here "Hanno" says the fleet reached the River Lixos that is again of uncertain location but was probably in sth. Morocco. Lixos seemingly named both city plus river. "Hanno" calls the inhabitants Lixitae that tend to be regarded as western extensions of the Libyco/Berbers and related to the Gaituli plus the Garamantes. There is further discussion on this in the next sub-section but more especially in the light of what is said by Henry Parker (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1923). "Hanno" described the Lixitae as pastoralists and Parker regarded them as fishermen.
(VII) This passage brings Aithiopes, the Troglodytes, oddly-shaped men and/or men could outrun horses to our attention. Most of this is explicable in terms of slaving (see below). Such totally divergent views as held by messrs. Fage & Oliver (A Short History of Africa 1963) and Reynolds (in Golden Age of the Moor ed. I. Van Sertima 1991) tell of a still-verdant Magreb/Sahara as where the hunting-grounds of the lanky Somali-like Afroasiatics and smaller (?) Proto-Negroes met and this may explain the "odd"-shapes. Troglodytes were not unique to "Hanno" but appear in Iamblichus (3 rd c. B. C. Gk.), Agarthachides (3 rd c. B. C. Gk.), PME (1st c. Gk.), etc, but Huntingford (trans. of PME 1980) changed this to Trogodytes and related it to the Berber word of Tuareg and a general meaning of race/tribe.
(VIII) "Hanno" says Hanno took Lixitae as interpreters on sailing for two days along the western Sahara and reached the island they called Cerne which seems to represent the Phoenico/Punic kernah (= final [settlement]). The Punics judged the distance between Carthage and the Pillars and the Pillars and Cerne were the same and it may be germane to observe Skupin (ib) Carthage and the west African coast south from Cameroon are on the same longitude.
(IX) This mentions the large river that "Hanno" calls the Chretes. We are told it had three islands each larger than Cerne and that it was ringed with hills. The Chretes is generally identified with the River Senegal but the lack of hills and relevant islands make this difficult. Unless it be assumed that what Cary/ Warmington (ib) suggest about possible flooding of the islands by the river can also apply to the hills. However, identification of the Chretes with the Cheremath of Aristotle (4th c. B.C Gk.), the Daradus of Polybius (2 nd c. B.C. Greek), the Bambotus of Pliny (1st c. A. D. Roman), the modern Senegal, etc, is generally accepted. Polybius spoke of the Daradus as full of crocodiles and Parker (ib) cites the Mande word of bambo (= crocodile). The Daradus of Polybius also recalls the Draa/Dra/Dar of the language of the Wolofs for the same river. From this it seems the differing names arise from the names given to the Senegal by various African tribes.
(X) Many writers argue that the Bambotus (= Crocodile River) is the Gambia but Livio Stecchini (Hanno article online) shows the Gambia has a long stretch saltwater from the mouth inwards that crocodiles plus hippopotami cannot tolerate. Stecchini suggests the Bambotus was the River Bum (aka the She) but this then means that one of the great rivers of west Africa is missing from "Hanno". Rhys Carpenter (ib.) says a reason may be that the banks of the Gambia were of slippery access and covered with mangrove swamps. Stecchini (ib.) looked for the name in the Semito/Punic behemoth (= hippopotamus) and says that African rivers taking on Phoenico/Punic names indicate frequent trade-trips
(XI) The Carthaginians journeyed for 12 more days and saw more Aithiopes that fled on the approach of Hanno's fleet. The Lixitae interpreters Hanno had with him found the speech of these Aethiopes unintelligible. Lacroix/Lendering (ib) regard it as likely that the Carthaginians had reached a region where the Mande/Manding sub-section of the Niger/Congo superset had been replaced by speakers of that language also part of the Niger/Congo family called Krao/Kru. That Hanno took on new interpreters when needed is indicated further along in "Hanno".
(XII) On the last of the 12 days the fleet from Carthage neared some high mountains heavy with sweet-smelling trees. Lacroix/Lendering (ib.) state this was probably a fine trade-item in the minds of the Carthaginians. They also regard it as likely that this was probably close to Cape Mesurado itself near Monrovia (capital of Liberia). The speakers of Krao/Kru tongues stretch from Sierra Leone to Ivory Coast but centre on Liberia.
(XIII) Lacroix/Lendering (ib) consider this brought Hanno past the rain-forest to near the River Douobe and near Cape Palma marking the border of Liberia/Ivory Coast and almost on the verge of leaving the Bulge of Africa and on the cusp "of an immense gulf" that was almost certainly the Gulf of Guinea. Cape Palma may be held to attest the start of the Gulf and Cape Lopez (Gabon) its southern end. A more limited definition would be from Cape Three Points (Ghana) to Cape Lopez. The fires seen here by Hanno were made less mysterious by similar reports by Pedro de Cintra (15th c. Portugese), Mungo Park (18th c. Englishman), etc. According to Cary/ Warmington (ib) and Carpenter (ib). They prove to be an essential component of swidden or slash-&-burn agriculture.
(XIV) Here the Horn of the West is mentioned. Lacroix/Lendering (ib) say it occurs many times in antiquity but always as a promontory not a bay, whereas the Greek word translates as a promontory. They suggest it should read "we came to a great bay that was the Bay of the Horn of the West. In this bay was an island that could be anywhere in the Bight of Benin (= Cape Three Points to the Niger Delta). Hanno landed on it. Here were heard the various noises that so frightened Hanno the fleet left quickly. Stecchini (ib) thought Hanno wanted to contact what he called "the great civilisation of Benin" (= Edoland). Interestingly, Cary/ Warmington (ib) use the term of interpreters not soothsayers for those warning Hanno to leave.
(XV) Yet another instance of Carthaginian fright plus a hasty departure is described here but this may be mere repetition of something said in the previous paragraph, albeit there is no mention of soothsayers or interpreters this time. This would join the list of such in "Hanno". This may be due to straightforward repetition; more than one version of the basic story; more than one place causing Carthaginian trepidation. It may be simplest to regard it as likely there was more than one version.
(XVI) Great fires went on but this time allied to spewing flames and flowing torrents that vulcanologists have long recognised as a description of an erupting volcano. There are two main claimants for being this volcano, Mts. Kakulina (Sierra Leone) and Cameroon. Kakulina can be ruled out as it has been dormant for long before the days of the Carthaginian fleet. The volcano is named as Theon ochema (= Mountain of the Gods) in Greek that on Hennig (as Stecchini ib.) amending it to Theon oikema (= seat of the Gods) comes even closer to the African label of Mongana-ma loba (= Home of the Gods) for Mt. Cameroon. As Mt. Cameroon is several miles inland, it may be felt this is unlikely but Lacroix notes many reports of lava-flows from it reaching the sea. This can be taken as positive proof that Hanno got to this point of west Africa
(XVII) Hanno sailed on for another three days parallel with this coast. On the third, he reached the Horn of the South. On the parallel of the Horn of the West plus interpreters, this term was learnt from a new set of interpreters and this is confirmed by those mentioned in No. (XVIII) as interpreters/pilot-guides. As in No.(XVIII), there is yet again the themes of island-within-an-island; stone-throwing savages; the wearing of animal-skins; their being nimble climbers theme; the stopping of the Carthaginians from landing,
(XVIII) It is very uncertain whether these "savages" can be equated with what Hanno's interpreters termed "gorillae". The males escaped but three females were caught but they were seen to have bit and scratched so fiercely that they were slain and skinned. The skins were said in "Hanno" to have been taken back to Carthage when the ships went back there and Pliny seems to have known that they were still to be seen at the Temple of Tanit at Carthage till late in Carthaginian history. It is not impossible to flay humans but it is definitely extremely difficult.
However, there also several points against the equation of "gorillae" with the giant anthropoids that since the 19th c. are now called gorillas. Thus gorillas are not noted stone-throwers; they are not known for the very large family-groups shown in "Hanno"; are not good swimmers (& recall the island); a charging male or female would lead to fleeing Punics.
Despite these numerous objections, it is generally accepted that the Carthaginians were trying to capture some kind of large anthropoid but what kind is not now known with any certainty.
This passage also tells us that Hanno came to a finish because the provisions ran out but this runs counter to Arrian (2 nd c. A.D. Greek) saying the expedition halted because the water ran out. There is much about this that just does not make sense. "Hanno" that Hanno would actually stop to take on water when needed. As to food, much the same points already made at the end of the section on the Necho fleet pertain and remember the emphasis laid on the fact that these were resources available on the west coast of Africa and this is very much the scene of the activities of Hanno. Also to be borne in mind is the sow-as-you-go policy of the Necho expedition.
Lastly, for this sub-section is that such as Pliny (1st c. A.D. Roman), Martianus Capella (5th c. A. D. Latinised Magrebi), etc, are amongst those holding to the opinion that the Carthaginian fleet continued round to Arabia. This would indicate that Hanno too should be included in any list of those circumnavigating the continent of Africa.
