Hanno the navigator

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The route of Hannos the Navigator

Hanno (* before 480 BC; † approx. 440 BC), also called Hanno the Navigator , was a Carthaginian admiral who lived around 470 BC. BC probably sailed along the west coast of Africa into the Gulf of Guinea to open up new trade routes . His travel report ( Periplus ) has come down to us in a Greek translation.

About the person and the chronological order

The name Hanno was quite common in ancient Carthage; an identification of the seafarer with other personalities of the same name, who are mentioned in other sources, is therefore uncertain and controversial, especially since Hanno's travel report does not give any personal data. It is possible that Hanno the navigator was from around 480 to 440 BC. As successor and son of Hamilcar, ruler of Carthage . In the Periplus Hanno is referred to as βασιλεύς ( basileus ), which probably indicates the office of a sufete , a high-ranking dignitary in the Carthaginian state, which, however, has only been reliably attested for the period since around 410. The ancient literature provides no further information about his person.

Regardless of this uncertain dating approach , it seems plausible that the west coast of Africa (as well as the west coast of Europe through Himilkon ) was founded by the Carthaginians around 500 BC. Should have been explored. The centrally located Carthage was interested in opening up new trade routes in the west, as the Greeks expanded their trade more and more in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Carthaginians also traded with peoples whose language they did not understand ( Herodotus , Historien 4 ):

“The Carthaginians tell us that they are trading with a breed of people who live in a part of Libya (ie Africa) outside the Pillars of Heracles (ie Strait of Gibraltar). Upon reaching this land they (the Carthaginian traders) unload their trade goods, spread them neatly on the beach and while returning to their boats they make a smoke signal (with fire). When they see this sign, the locals come down to the beach, deposit a certain amount of gold there as an exchange item and then leave again for a certain distance. The Carthaginians come back to the beach and examine the gold. When they find it a fair price for their goods, collect it and go with it; otherwise, if it seems too little to them, go back to their boats and wait for the locals to come back and put more gold down until both are satisfied with it. There is complete honesty on both sides; the Carthaginians do not take the gold until the amount equals the value of what they have offered for sale, and the natives do not take any goods offered until the gold has been taken away by the Carthaginians as a price for it. "

First of all, the form of trade, which is also reported in the periplus of the pseudo-Skylax for Herne (an island in the Bay of Ad-Dakhla in Western Sahara, which was formerly called Rio de Oro), is noteworthy and does not have a common language, but is confidential requires long-term trade relationships . Such a form of trade is also reported from Arab times in West Africa and was common in ancient times on the Silk Road in traffic between Greeks and Romans on the one hand and Chinese on the other.

The other notable thing was gold as a commodity. Unlike z. B. Iron, this was exploited very early in West Africa in the Sahel zone, along with copper. Archaeologically in 1968 in the present-day Mauritanian town of Akjoujt (at the same geographical latitude as the island of Arguin , 4 degrees of latitude south of Ad-Dakhla ) in the Grotte aux Chauves-Souris, up to 800 BC. Mining of copper and gold dating back to BC. The smelting took place 60 km south. With the increasing drying out of the Sahara, the trading centers also shifted to the south. In the early Middle Ages, central states such as the empire Ghana and later Mali as well as Takrur to the west in the upper reaches of Senegal , where metals such as gold, but also salt, slaves and civilization goods from North Africa such as fabrics, were important goods in the Trans-Saharan trade. According to the Periplus of the Pseudo-Skylax, grapes from the vineyards in the north (confirmed on the slopes of the Atlas as ruins of Pliny the Elder) by the Phoenicians were processed into wine by the local buyers. Other commodities included various fragrances and building materials, animal skins and ivory.

It is true that in Herne, mud and seaweed actually seem to have hindered progress with the ships along the coast, but this could be bypassed on the high seas. Accordingly, the Phoenicians probably quickly sailed from Herne, which is excellent in terms of defense and connections, to the Senegal River, which is about three days away by ship and which is more than 100 km navigable until the construction of the current dam , where a city is said to have been.

Like the Greeks ( Pytheas ) in the north, the Carthaginians probably already knew very well from reports before the sea exploration trip by land which goods they had to look out for on their sea voyages, namely in the north ( Himilkon ) mainly tin and amber and in the south the Sahara (Hanno) gold and ivory ( Pliny the Elder , Historia naturalis 5, 8):

“When the power of Carthage was still at its height, Hanno sailed around from Gadir (Cádiz at the exit of the Strait of Gibraltar) into the extreme expanse of Arabia and wrote a travelogue about it like Himilco did when he was sent out at the same time, the outer ones To explore the coasts of Europe. "

In contrast to information already known from overland , it cannot be explained how in the Hannos report the Cameroon Mountain got its Greek name "Theon Ochema" (Greek translation of the same local name) if it had been visited by Hanno for the first time and then hardly again . The riddle is quickly resolved when the earlier than 500 BC. Existing trans-Saharan trade routes with ancient coin finds and rock carvings are examined. Then the eastern of these paths led from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco to the copper mines in present-day Mauritania around Atar and the middle path from various places on the Mediterranean coast to the Libyan Fezzan, inhabited by the Garamanten, and from there over the Aïr massif in present-day Niger to the bend of the Niger River . A southern branching off from the mountains may also have led into the depression of the formerly extensive Lake Chad . Even if hardly any Carthaginians and Greeks have ever seen the Cameroon Mountain by land, in addition to the goods and people (including slaves), the story of a high fire-breathing mountain will have migrated from south to north.

Incidentally, Herodotus also describes exploratory attempts by the Garamantic tribe of the Nasamonen from Fezzan to the south, where the Berber participants were captured by black Africans and led to a settlement on a lake before they could return. Remarkably, the southern tributary of the Algerian river is also called " Gir " and its salt lakes "Niger" near Ptolemy . This is clearly not the river that flows into the Gulf of Guinea , but the transfer of the name is hardly a coincidence.

Therefore, the Carthaginians are likely to have suspected the area of ​​origin of various goods delivered in the north near this mountain directly south of Carthage. Since the northern junction of the central Trans-Saharan route in Fezzan was outside Carthaginian control with the Garamanten, it was certainly in the Carthaginian trade interest to establish direct trade contacts by sea with the southern suppliers in the Trans-Saharan trade without annoying middlemen and robbers (as was the case with the Portuguese and Spanish later tried by sea from Europe without Arab intermediaries with India).

It is worth adding the remark by Pomponius Mela about a relatively small, fearsome-looking, but otherwise peaceful animal appearing in groups with its head constantly close to the ground called "catoplebas" north of Theon Ochema . Pomponius Mela interprets this mythologically in connection with the Gorgon . It is likely to be the warthog native to the tree belt south of the Sahara or the giant forest pig ( which looks terrifying with boars with their tusks and otherwise fulfills Mela's specifications) .

The trip report

The travelogue Hannos, also called Periplus Hannonis (Greek περίπλους - períplus means “circumnavigation” or “coastal journey”) reports on the establishment of colony starting from Carthage on the west coast of North Africa and a subsequent exploration trip along this coast, which probably led to the Gulf of Guinea . Hanno was at the head of these ventures, which began in the last third of the 6th century BC. BC, no later than 470 BC. BC, are to be classified. This travelogue is an important early document in the history of the discovery of Africa .

The time of origin of the Greek version of Hannos Periplus is controversial; it is probably around 400 BC. BC originated. It probably goes back to a Punic original that was supposedly inscribed in the Temple of Kronos ( Interpretatio Graeca for the West Semitic deity Baal Hammon ) in Carthage.

Lore situation

We owe detailed knowledge of the journeys of the Carthaginian Hanno along the Atlantic coast of Africa to a single surviving manuscript from the 9th century in Greek. The manuscript is called Codex Palatinus Graecus 398 and is kept in the Heidelberg University Library. The trip report known as Hanno Carthagiensis (Periplus Hannonis) is on three pages (fol. 55r-56r) .

There is a copy of this code from the 14th century. Parts of it are kept by the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Another 21 sheets are in the British Museum London, including sheet 12, inscribed on both sides, with the periplus . There are no major differences to the Heidelberg text.

It is disputed whether the surviving text is a direct translation of the Punic original. In the 2nd century there were apparently more complete versions of the report about Hanno (especially on the journey from Cerne to the south, lines with distance information seem to be lost today), as can be inferred from the literature of the 2nd century.

Thus Arrian writes at the end of his Anabasis Alexandrou, in overcoming geographical obstacles, how part of the troops of Alexander the great returned through Nearchus as admiral (Indica 43, 11-12):

"Incidentally, Hanno the Libyan drove out of Carthage, passed the pillars of Heracles and sailed in the outer sea (ie the Atlantic) along the coast of Africa, and then sailed eastward for 35 days as described . But when he turned south at the end , many occurred Difficulties arise, such as lack of water, oppressive heat and fiery currents into the sea " .

The most informative remark is the mentioned 35 days travel time to the east compared to Hanno's travel time information, in which there are obvious gaps. They point to the loss of entire lines of the traditional report since then.

The reported turn of Hanno's journey to the south instead of further east and then north again does not correspond at all to the expectations of ancient geographers. It is well known that when describing the circumnavigation of Africa in the reign of Pharaoh Necho II, Herodotus, who is more critical of tradition, was not bothered by the bypass itself, but by the alleged change in the position of the sun - as expected when driving south in the northern hemisphere of the earth - from the left (towards the equator) to the right side of the ship. As we know today, this change only occurs when the sailors crossed the equator or at least the northern tropic of the sun, which at that time seemed impossible due to the generally assumed increasing heat to the south.

What made Herodotus doubt the reliability of the report at that time is for us, with the known course of the west coast of Africa to its southern tip, an unmistakable prerequisite that the drivers were south of the equator at all. Likewise, from the view of an ocean around the whole of Africa north of the equator, represented by Herodotus to Pomponius Mela, it is incomprehensible why Hanno had to turn south along the coast after a long journey to the east. The Hannos report contradicts the theoretical ideas of the authoritative Greek and Latin geographers, but describes exactly what we expect for granted when Hannos visits the Gulf of Guinea to the Mount of Cameroon - no proof, but a clear indication of the good geographical knowledge of the Carthaginians from personal experience instead of Greco-Roman erudition.

The earliest mention of the travelogue of Hanno comes from the text "De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus" of the pseudo-Aristotle of the Peripatetic school of the 3rd century BC: " 37. It is also said that outside the pillars of Herakles individual areas are burning, which are one the whole day, the others only at night, as it is told in Hanno's travelogue. "

Indirectly, Hanno and his connection with Cerne are referred to even earlier in the work "Incredible Stories", chap. 31 of the Palaiphatos from the 4th century BC: " The people of Kerne, Aithiopians, inhabit the island of Cerne outside the pillars of Heracles, and spread there along the Libyan river Annon opposite Carthage ". The name "Annon" is certainly derived from the Carthaginian name "Hanno".

Text of the Periplus in German translation

(The translation cited here is taken from the publication by Karl Bayer, pp. 346–353.)

Route of Hanno the Navigator; Names in French

" Hanno, the Carthaginian sufete's report of the circumnavigation of the Libyan parts of the earth lying beyond the pillars of Heracles, which he also set up as a dedication in the temple district of Kronos; he makes the following announcements:

  1. The Carthaginians decided that Hanno should go beyond the pillars of Heracles and found cities of the Libyphos. And so he set out to sea, at the head of sixty fifty oars, and carried a multitude of men and women, 30,000 in number, as well as food and other supplies.
  2. But when we reached the high seas, we passed the pillars, sailed on for two days outside, and founded a first city which we called Thymiaterion; she ruled a wide plain.
  3. Then we sailed west and came across the tree-lined Libyan promontory Soloeis.
  4. We erected a sanctuary of Poseidon there, went on board again and headed south for half a day until we came to a lake not far from the sea; it was full of thick, tall reeds; elephants and other animals grazing there in large numbers also stayed in it.
  5. We left this lake, drove a whole day's journey and then settled cities by the sea, which were called Karikon Teichos, Gytte, Akra, Melitta and Arambys.
  6. After we started from there, we came to the great Lixos river, which flows from Libya. A nomadic people, the Lixites, grazed his flocks; we stayed with them for a while, since we had become friends.
  7. Behind these settled inhospitable Ethiopians who grazed a wild country that is divided by high mountain ranges. It is said that the Lixos flows from these mountains; but all around these mountains lived strange-looking people, the troglodytes, of whom the Lixites said they could run faster than horses.
  8. We got them to give us interpreters and then sailed south along a deserted desert for two days; from there back to the east, a day's journey. There we found a small island in the corner of a bay; it was five stages in circumference. We founded a settlement on it that we called Kerne. From our route we deduced that it must be exactly opposite Carthage; for the route from Carthage to the pillars corresponded to that from there to Kerne.
  9. From there we came to a lake after crossing a large river called Chretes. In this lake, however, there were three islands which were larger than those of Kerne. From there we made a day's drive and came to the corner of the lake, over which very high mountains towered, which were full of wild people who were wrapped in animal skins; they threw boulders, chased us away and would not let us go ashore.
  10. We sailed on from there and came to another river that was big and wide and teeming with crocodiles and hippos. There we turned around and got back to Kerne.
  11. From there we sailed south for twelve days, always under the coast, which inhabited Aithiopes for its entire length; they ran away from us and did not stay there. They spoke a language that even the Lixites who drove with us could not understand.
  12. On the last day we anchored near high, densely wooded mountains. The wood of the trees was fragrant and of different colors.
  13. We sailed around these mountains for two days and came to a vast expanse of sea. On one side of it was a plain facing the land, from which we saw fires rise everywhere at night, sometimes larger, sometimes closer.
  14. We took water on board and from there continued to sail along the coast for five days until we came to a large bay which the interpreters said was called 'Horn of the West' (Hespérū Kéras). There was a large island in this bay, and on the island there was a lake with salt water; but in it was another island where we went ashore; However, during the day we saw nothing but forest, but at night we saw numerous fires and heard the sound of flutes, the roar of cymbals and drums and a thousand-fold screaming. We were then seized with fear, and the seers told us to leave the island.
  15. We drove off quickly and passed a country that was glowing with fire and full of smoke. Huge rivers of fire rushed from it into the sea. But you couldn't walk on the floor because of the heat.
  16. We quickly sailed from there in fear. Driving there for four days, we saw the land filled with flames at night. In the middle, however, was a fire rising steeply, larger than all the others, which - it seemed - set the stars on fire. During the day, however, it appeared as a very high mountain, called the 'chariot of the gods' (Theōn Óchēma).
  17. For three days we sailed from there along fiery torrents and then came to a bay called 'Horn of the South Wind' (Nótū Kéras).
  18. In the corner was an island that looked like the first one and also had a lake. And in that lake was another island, full of wild people. Most of them were women with thick hair all over their bodies; the interpreters called them goríllai. We pursued them but could not catch any men; they all got away because they were excellent climbers and defended themselves with boulders; But we three women caught; they bit and scratched and would not follow those who led them. So we killed them, stripped their skins, and brought the hides back to Carthage. Then we stopped sailing from there because our food supplies were running low.

Interpretation of the report

Whether the company led by Hanno intended to circumnavigate Africa remains pure speculation. This also applies when the Greek translator of the Punic source speaks of circumnavigating those “Libyan parts of the earth” that lie beyond the pillars of Heracles , and when it is assumed that he had knowledge of the expedition under the Egyptian King Necho II who allegedly succeeded in circumnavigating Africa .

There is agreement that Hanno's ships coming from Carthage passed the Pillars of Heracles, that is, they passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and circumnavigated Cape Spartel (Greek Ampelusia) to found cities in Libya , just like the areas west of the Nile Valley in North Africa called.

In the report that has been handed down, it is said that Hanno was put to sea with a fleet of 60 "fifty rowers" with 30,000 men and women on board. This seems unrealistic and is seen as a mistake in translating Phoenician numerals into Greek. If one also takes the estimated capacity of the ships as a basis, it may have been a good 5,000 people - unless the high number includes those settlers who gradually followed the first vanguard.

The settlement Thymiaterion is equated with the ruins at today's Mehdia , northeast of Rabat at the mouth of the Oued Sebou (Punic and Roman Subur ). To the east of it are the Roman ruins of Tamusiga, which continues the name, a few kilometers away.

Soloeis is at Pliny the Elder Promonturium Solis , wherein Ptolemäus Soloentia (former associated with the sun god Sol) and in the case of the first author today Cap Bedouzza. The lake mentioned on it is likely to be a naturally dammed section of the Tensift River (Punic name Fut ).

The cities named on it are more difficult to identify. It can be assumed that, due to its strategic location, Karikon is to be equated with the Greek name Mysocaras (El Essaouira ), where a Phoenician presence can be archaeologically proven. The other cities are likely to be in the valley of the rivers Oum Sous (Latin Subus ) with Agadir and Oum Massa (Latin Massa ). Gytta is most likely to be at the location of today's Agadir. An earlier presence of agriculture with palm groves and viticulture in this area is confirmed by statements by Pliny the Elder.

The “great river Lixos ” is most likely the Wadi Draa (Greek Daras , Latin Daradus ) in southern Morocco , which rises south of the Atlas Mountains and flows through a fertile valley there; This certainly does not mean the river Lix in northern Morocco, where there was also a Phoenician and later Roman settlement Leks and Lixus , but which Hanno must have passed before Thymiaterion. A shepherd people lived on this river, with whom the newcomers befriended.

The settlement of Kerne founded by Hanno is most likely the island of Herne near Ad-Dakhla . This is supported by the similarity of names and the location (about the same distance from the pillars of Heracles as those of Carthage); the location on the tropic, which can give the impression of being on the equator in summer; the relatively close location to the westernmost Trans-Saharan trade route (and the mines of Akjoujt), the information on the extent of the island and its distance from the land and the fact that few alternative islands can be found south of the Oued Draa (at most in the Bay of Arguin).

This would actually have fulfilled the company's stated purpose. Hanno led parts of his crew along the unknown coast for many more days. Far to the south they crossed a wide river called Chretes (cf. Hebrew heret forest; Aristotle also mentions a river Chremetes). It was very likely the Senegal River .

Further south they came to another wide river with crocodiles and hippos. Most likely identification with the Silwa or Bum River in Sierra Leone; maybe it is also about the Gambia . Pliny the Elder also mentions in his historia naturalis a river in Africa called Bambotus, which is contaminated with hippos and crocodiles.

Another trip starting from Kerne took the Carthaginians even further south along the land of the "Ethiopians" (this refers to black Africans, as opposed to "Libyans" who live further north), where even the interpreters brought along by Lixos spoke incomprehensible languages were. First they came to a port with large wooded mountains - this is probably Cap Vert , the most westerly foothills of Africa - and then they sailed “around the mountains into an immeasurably wide sea” with flat, densely wooded coasts on both sides. It is possible that these “coasts” are on the one hand the Geba Delta in Guinea-Bissau and on the other hand the islands of the Archipelago dos Bijagos .

Then they came to the "Horn of the West" (probably Cape Palmas at the entrance to the Gulf of Guinea ). After that, after a long journey, Hanno might have reached the Niger estuary . Here the geographical conditions also fit Hanno's description.

Then in the night after several days of travel the Carthaginians saw the impressive spectacle of a flame reaching far into the sky on land. During the day it turned out to be a very high mountain, which they called the “chariot of the gods” (Greek: θεῶν ὄχημα / theon ochema - this mountain is also shown by Claudius Ptolemaeus on his map - but shifted by about two degrees to the west). The natural spectacle described by Hanno applies very well to a recent volcanic eruption. The only active volcanoes between the pillars of Heracles and the southern tip of Africa are the volcanoes on the Canary Islands (which the Phoenicians should have known earlier, so they hardly seem worth mentioning here) and the Cameroon Mountain . The only other volcanic vent along the route, the Kakulima northeast of today's Conakry in Guinea , is considered to have been extinct much earlier. Like the Kakulima, the Cameroon Mountain is very easily recognizable from the sea as a lonely mountain peak.

After three days they came to a bay called the Horn of the South (possibly near Gabon ). Here they met some hairy, human-like creatures, from which the males defended themselves with stones and finally escaped; however, the Carthaginians captured three “women”. These beings were referred to by the interpreters as gorillai , which in later texts was associated with the term " gorgons " ( anchored in Greek mythology ) . The name could come from the Africans directly south of Herne. In Fulfulde (the language of the Fulbe or Gorko in West Africa, who may have coined the name gorillai ), gorel means something like "little man".

Whether it is in the aforementioned creatures to chimpanzees or indeed to gorillas concerned: most likely it should apes have been. Pygmies can not be completely ruled out either, especially since Hanno's report speaks of people and not of monkeys (monkeys must have been known to the Carthaginians). On the other hand, in the Hannos report (which would otherwise be expected) nothing is mentioned of a language of the gorillai . But whether it was about great apes or pygmies, in any case Hanno would have actually reached the coast of today's Gabon due to their assumed distribution . The Africans south of "Kerne" would probably have called the West African chimpanzees they knew by their own name and not as "little people".

Critical comments

In the past, various critical theories and statements on Hanno's travelogue have been formulated. Some authors either explained the whole story as a construction according to other ancient authors, in particular according to the Periplus of the Pseudo-Skylax or according to the Odyssey of Homer , others assumed that Hannos ships only as far as the volcanoes of the Canary Islands or only up to Kakulima in Guinea. These partially extremely critical assessments were perhaps understandable in the past after an initial euphoria about the supposedly long journey of the Hanno, especially since archaeological evidence of the presence of Carthaginians and Phoenicians was missing and still missing in Africa south of Mogador in Morocco Deficiency that still applies to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In the meantime, it has been possible to prove various sea routes that were previously not taken into account, so that the interpretation presented here appears to be the most plausible, despite the reservations mentioned.

In addition, great progress can be expected in the next few years in the interpretation of ancient works, especially with regard to the topography of the areas south of the Sahara . The large number of places south of the Atlas Mountains mentioned in Claudius Ptolemy's map work alone suggests more extensive geographical knowledge of the black African coast in antiquity than previously generally assumed. So it is clear that the “chariot of the gods” mentioned by Ptolemaeus is much too far to the west on his map because of a Gulf of Guinea (“Hesperian Bay”) drawn in too small. But the name alone suggests that this mountain occupied an important position in ancient geography and mythology. For example, the Cameroon Mountain (or “chariot”) on Ptolemy's map is practically on the same longitude as the Adula Mountains ( Gotthard massif ). Both mountains, which are clearly visible from afar, presumably served as important geographical reference points in antiquity.

Reception in ancient times

After the end of the 2nd Punic War (delivery of the Carthaginian navy to the Romans) and especially at the end of the 3rd Punic War with the ground-level destruction of Carthage itself and the enslavement of its inhabitants, a large part of the Punic knowledge about the coasts of West Africa was lost have gone. However, in the general practical sense of the Romans, this loss may not have been complete. The Roman Senate ordered that the agricultural work of Carthaginian Mago be translated into Latin and thus be at least partially preserved in Roman agricultural works.

It can also be assumed that the Romans tried to preserve Carthaginian trade knowledge, as in the case of Hanno (and Himilkon ) 's report of the deeds, by copying texts, by engaging Carthaginian traders or by the state mission of his exploration commissioned by Scipio, the conqueror of Carthage Friend Polybios along the West African coast. Unfortunately, relatively little of this has come down to us.

From the Roman authors Pliny (Historia naturalis) and Pomponius Mela (De Chorographia), however, descriptions of the Moroccan and further south West African coast have come down to us. Its content is a compilation of ancient Greek and Roman coastal descriptions (such as Polybios and Pseudo-Skylax and the Roman military expedition under Polybios after the fall of Carthage) as well as Hanno's travel report.

However, with the transition from Carthaginian to Roman rule of the Moroccan coast, geographical knowledge about West Africa has certainly been lost. With the exception of Lixos, the pre-Roman names of Moroccan coastal towns are largely disappearing and are being replaced by the names of places and rivers, some of which are still recognizable today. In view of the seafaring difficulties south of Herne, according to the report of the Pseudo-Scylax and the report of Polybius, which promised little commercial success, Rome is likely to have restricted itself to trading no more than immediately south of the Atlas Mountains.

The confusion about the location of Theon Ochema, who is important for the geography of West Africa, can be attributed to Polybius and his reception by Pliny and Ptolemy .

Pomponius Mela, De Chorographia 3, 94, is still relatively true to Hanno and Greek authors:

“After this bay (the events around the gorillai towards West Africa) is a high mountain Theon Ochema, as the Greeks call it, which is constantly burning. After this mountain is a green range of hills that stretches over a long stretch of the coast (towards the Horn of the West). From this range of hills one can see the fields of the (semi-human) Aegipans and satyrs, which cannot be completely surveyed. "

Then Pomponius Mela tells of the nocturnal noises and the fire on this hill as far as the coast, also reported by Hanno, and continues (3, 96):

“Then Ethiopians will inhabit the coast again (Mela comes from the description of the coast of East Africa). These people, called 'Hesperides', are not the rich ones already mentioned here (in East Africa), but smaller and coarser. There is a spring in their area that can be credibly considered to be the source of the Nile. It is called 'Nunc' by them and apparently has no other name, but is mispronounced by the barbaric mouths ”.

Mela and Pliny write of a spring (named after Mela, Nunc) northwest of this green chain of hills as the Nile spring, whose water, in contrast to all other rivers, runs inland to the west and at times underground. Pliny cites King Juba II of Mauritania as an informer for the fact that the re-emerged Nile flows further west into a lake (called Nilides), then disappears again underground and only after a few days' journey definitely feeds the well-known Nile west of Meroe. It is not difficult to see the Niger in the Sahel zone with its outflow into the interior of Mali, then the area of ​​Lake Chad with no outflow and finally the reappearance of the Nile in the Sudd marshland, which was reached at the time of Nero by a Roman captain, where this expedition took place had to return due to further impassability.

For Pliny, the Theon Ochema can only refer to a volcano (Historia naturalis 2, 90). After discussing other volcanoes, he expressly declares: "Nevertheless, the largest (volcanic) firelight is the one in Ethiopia (ie Black Africa) on the summit of Theon Ochema". Another undoubted localization of Theon Ochema is at Pliny 6:35 (Pliny, like his contemporaries, assumes a three-sided Africa with roughly straight coastline from the Gulf of Guinea to East Africa):

“The southern coast of Ethiopia (ie Africa) runs from east to west in a southerly direction. There are blooming forests there, mostly made of precious woods. In the middle of this coast, a high mountain rises directly from the coast, which glows with eternal fire - its Greek name is Theon Ochema. A four-day journey from there is the Horn of the West as the boundary of Africa, bordering the territory of the western Ethiopians. Some authorities also report in this region of hills of moderate height, covered with dark thickets (jungle) and populated by Aegipans and satyrs. "

According to Pliny, there were not only Carthaginians but also Greeks on the West African coast. According to Xenophon von Lampsakos, the Gorgon Islands are supposed to be about two days' journey from the coast in the sea and two more islands further out. Also opposite the Atlas Mountains there is said to be an island called Atlantis in the sea (obviously not the Canaries , but possibly Madeira ), from which it would take two days to travel along the coast to the western Ethiopians.

The geographer Statius Sebosus is said to have made calculations about the duration of ship journeys . With all this information, actual observations, theoretically based courage and mythology are so blurred that it is no longer possible to clearly separate the fictitious and the factual and to identify them on the map.

So far, the Roman geographical knowledge of the areas south of the Sahara would be incomplete, but not completely misleading with regard to the location of Theon Ochema. In contrast to the sometimes relaxed and impartial narrative and therefore often only roughly correct, but rarely completely incorrectly reported, Pliny relies mainly on the Roman military literature, which is considered more credible, in an attempt to be as objective and complete as possible - with fatal consequences for later reception the location of Theon Ochema.

First of all, he discredits Hannos' report (5, 8), although there is no doubt that Phoenician settlements were archaeologically excavated in Morocco in the last century:

"It is Hanno, whom most of the Greek and Roman writers followed in the published reports about a number of cities he founded, but about which there are no traditions and no traces (ruins), not to mention the (contained in the report) unbelievable stories. "

Then Pliny refers to Polybius, whom he regards as credible, who, to our knowledge, is, but whose own report has not been passed down:

“During his command in Africa (during the 3rd Punic War with the final destruction of Carthage) Scipio Aemilianus provided the historian Polybius with a fleet of ships for the purpose of exploring this part of the world (ie along the West African coast). Returning from the drive along the coast, Polybios reported that after the Atlas Mountains there are forests containing wild animals in Africa. "

Then, based on Agrippa , Pliny provides information on the distance to the river Bambotus in the land of the Ethiopians, which is full of crocodiles and hippos (which agrees with Hannos' report). “From there mountain trains run continuously to the one we call Theon Ochema (which corresponds to Mela's portrayal). The distance from this to the Horn of the West takes 10 days and nights (ie 20 day trips). In the middle of this room (triangle spanned by the Strait of Gibraltar, the Horn of the West and the Theon Ochema) he (Agrippa) places the atlas, which all other authorities assign to a place in the outermost point of Mauritania (i.e. Roman Morocco). "

Mela places the horn of the west as follows (3, 99-100):

“In front of their coast (the Ethiopians) are the Gorgaden Islands, once said to be the home of the Gorgons. They are opposite the Horn of the West. From then on, the west-facing ocean front begins with the waters of the Atlantic. The Ethiopians occupy the first part (as seen from the Horn of the West), but nobody the middle, heat-scorched, sand-covered and snake-infested part. Opposite this scorched part of the sea are the Hesperides islands. "

This is followed by a brief description of the Atlas Mountains and the Canary Islands.

From these geographical indications it is clear that the Theon Ochema can only refer to the Cameroon Mountain. With the wrong placement of the atlas according to Agrippa in the middle of the triangle between the Strait of Gibraltar, Horn of the West and Theon Ochema, contrary to all other authorities mentioned by Pliny, the entire geography of West Africa is distorted, as was done cartographically with Claudius Ptolemy, because he could not represent variants, but had to choose a single one (in his case the wrong one).

If one had expected great commercial successes on the part of Rome along the further coast of West Africa, corresponding exploratory missions would certainly have been started (such as that of Cornelius Balbus into the Sahara, probably as far as the Tibesti Mountains, to explore the sources of the Nile under Nero as far as that Sudanese marshland of the Sudd and to Yemen (incense trade)). In the Roman Empire, the Trans-Saharan trade in particular was likely to have mainly provided for the supply of African goods to Rome, whereby the West African coastal trade lost its importance relative to this and slowly but surely lost knowledge of the geography there (presented in the standard geographical work by Claudius Ptolemaeus) went. With the conquest of Fezzan and the destruction of the Garamanten settlements there by Cornelius Balbus , there was no further necessary exploration and securing of transport routes for Rome anyway.

This knowledge about the West African coast was not completely lost, however, since the encyclopedists and geographers at least partially preserved this in their works. In addition, throughout antiquity there was a demonstrable demand from merchants and seafarers for practical coast descriptions for coastal and ocean shipping (such as the periplus of the Pseudo-Scylax and especially that of the Black Sea and the anonymous periplus of the Erythrean Sea (i.e. the Indian Ocean)). The latter trade in particular was much more attractive than the West African trade in antiquity and the early Middle Ages, on the one hand because of the more favorable winds for ocean shipping, but also because of the attractive trading partners and goods (India, transgangese trade relations e.g. with silk to China).

Text output

The Greek text has been reprinted and translated several times since the 16th century, the first time in 1533 by Sigismund Gelenius . His Editio princeps with the Periplus Hannonis (pp. 38–40) was published in Basel in 1533. A scientific edition was carried out in the 19th century by Karl Müller . Translations into German appeared in 1944 and 1957.

A comparison of the Greek and newly translated German text found its way into the complete edition of Gaius Plinius Secundus , Naturkunde. Latin - German. Book V. (see below).

Karl Bayer adds detailed explanations to the translation cited here (see above) . In the following article Werner Huss deals with this in a limited way (see below).

Hanno as namesake

In 1935 the lunar crater Hanno was named after him.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hanno the navigator
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hanno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Carthaginian ruler and admiral
DATE OF BIRTH before 480 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH around 440 BC Chr.