3. POMPONIUS MELA ON COLONIES IN WEST AND EAST

J. Hind

Pomponius Mela, writing soon after Caligula's preparations for his abortive invasion of Britain or in the early years of Claudius' prin• cipate, set himself the task of writing a equivalent of the Punic and Greek sailing manuals (periploi of Hanno, Himilco, Pytheas, Ps-Scylax), or of the more ambitious world outlines (periodos ges, e.g. of Hekataios). His work, though small in scale (two slender books), is ambitious in scope, embracing three continents, the inner sea, and the several stretches of Outer ocean. He is particularly concerned to mention major rivers (Nile, l. 50-60), mountain ranges (Rhipaean Mts., l. 109), shapes of seas and bodies of water (Pontus, l. 102, 108- 110; 2. 22), and the islands in the Mediterranean and in the Pontus (2. 97-126). He gives sketches, sometimes quite extensive, of the native peoples on and behind the coast (Peoples of , l. 41-48; Scythians, Getae and Thracians to the North and West of Pontus, 2. 2-15). In all this he is dependent on a variety of Classical and Hellenistic writers, including Herodotus, Ephorus and unknown E. Greek writ• ers with local interests in , Minor and the area. For the West he probably used the Carthaginian Hanno, and Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Cornelius Nepos, as well as the world map of Agrippa. Naturally towns and cities, man's most obvious mark on the world, figure large in the work's two books on the Mediterranean basin. Those outside the Greek and Italian homelands (colonies of Greeks, or more rarely of the Phoenicians, and a few latter-day additions, Roman coloniae) are commonly provided with some statement of ori• gin, but equally many are not. Cities in Greece and Italy are given in long, unrelieved, lists of names, probably thought of as being too familiar to demand greater detail. Corinth (now a Roman colonia 2. 45) is an exception. Mela seems bent on introducing the exotic into his text, whether this arises from remoteness in time (Amazons, 1. 105; Phrixus, 1. 104; 108), or as a consequence of distance from the centre to East and West (gold-guarding griffins of the chill North• East, 2. 1; Tingis founded by the giant Antaeus, 1. 26). 78 J. HIND

In fact it should be said that the East was somewhat more exotic to him than the West. His own town of origo was Tingentera in Southern , near Gades (1. 96), and here he seems to wish to show off his knowledge of relatively recent history: the R. Mulucha was the border between the lands of the kings Bocchus andJugurtha (1. 29); Cirta was once a royal seat, and is now a colonia, settled by followers of Sittius (1. 30); lol, a former capital of King Juba, is now Caesarea (1. 30); and Utica were once Phoenician colonies; now Carthage is a Roman colonia (I. 34). In following the shores of the inland seas (1. 26~2. 96), Mela starts with the African side of the straits of Gibraltar, then proceeds east• wards along North Africa, deals with Egypt and the Egyptians, then and Syria, along the southern coast of Asia Minor, up the eastern shores of the Aegean, along the southern shore of the Propontis and anti-clockwise around the Euxine Pontus. Somewhere west of the Tanais (R. Don), among the further 'Scythian' peoples, Budini, Geloni, and Thyssagetae, Mela's Book l gives way to Book 2. Thence he moves round the coasts of via the western side of the Pontus, the northern Propontis, N. Aegean, Greece, Italy, S. and finally to Spain. This will explain the order in which Mela's references to towns and their 'beginnings' appear in the list given below. There are some 44 references to colonies of Phoenicians, Greeks or Romans in the work, and all are bald, brief, statements with no source given for the information. There often seems no good reason why many colonies are passed over with the name only, even though much may be known from other authors about their foundation.

Settlements Founded by Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Others

Western l. 'Tinge, a very ancient town (oppidum), founded, as they say, by Antaeus'. 1. 26. 2. 'Cirta ... far from the sea, and now a colonia of the followers of Sittius (Sittianorum colonia, once the seat of kings)'. ' ... lol ... illustrious once because it was the royal capital ofJuba, and because it is now named Caesarea'. 1. 30. 3. 'Utica and Carthage both famous and both founded by Phoe• nicians' ... 'Carthage is now a Roman colonia'. I. 34.