14.

I repeat that the Phœnicians were the discoverers [of these countries], for they possessed the better part of Iberia and Libya before the time of Homer, and continued masters of those places until their empire was overthrown by the Romans. This also is an evidence of the wealth of Iberia: in the expedition of the Carthaginians under Barcas,1107 they found, according to historians, that the people of Turdetania used silver goblets1108 and casks. One might guess too that it was on account of this great opulence that the men of the country, and their chiefs in particular, were styled long-lived. Wherefore Anacreon thus sings,

“Neither would I desire the horn of Amalthea, nor to reign over Tartessus one hundred and fifty years.”

Herodotus too has preserved the name of the king, whom he calls Arganthonius.1109 The passage of Anacreon must therefore either be understood [of this king], or some other like him; or else more generally thus, “nor to reign for a lengthened period in Tartessus.” Some writers1110 are of opinion that Tartessus is the present Carteia.