abilis, olim statio
navibus Hispanorum. Hanc ab Hercule quidam conditam aiunt, inter quos est
Timosthenes, qui eam antiquitus Heracleam fuisse appellatam refert,
ostendique adhuc magnum murorum circuitum & navalia._ This _Hercules_, in
memory of his building and Reigning over the City _Carteia_, they called
also _Melcartus_, the King of _Carteia_. _Bochart_ [109] writes, that
_Carteia_ was at first called _Melcarteia_, from its founder _Melcartus_,
and by an _Aphaeresis_, _Carteia_; and that _Melcartus_ signifies _Melec
Kartha_, the King of the city, that is, saith he, of the city _Tyre_: but
considering that no ancient Author tells us, that _Carteia_ was ever called
_Melcarteia_, or that _Melcartus_ was King of _Tyre_; I had rather say that
_Melcartus_, or _Melecartus_, had his name from being the Founder and
Governor or Prince of the city _Carteia_. Under _Melcartus_ the _Tyrians_
sailed as far as _Tartessus_ or _Tarshish_, a place in the Western part of
_Spain_, between the two mouths of the river _Boetis_, and there they [110]
met with much silver, which they purchased for trifles: they sailed also as
far as _Britain_ before the death of _Melcartus_; for [111] _Pliny_ tells
us, _Plumbum ex Cassiteride insula primus apportavit Midacritus_: And
_Bochart_ [112] observes that _Midacritus_ is a _Greek_ name corruptly
written for _Melcartus_; _Britain_ being unknown to the _Greeks_ long after
it was discovered by the _Phoenicians_. After the death of _Melcartus_,
they [113] built a Temple to him in the Island _Gades_, and adorned it with
the sculptures of the labours of _Hercules_, and of his _Hydra_, and the
Horses to whom he threw _Diomedes_, King of the _Bistones_ in _Thrace_, to
be devoured. In this Temple was the golden Belt of _Teucer_, and the golden
Olive of _Pygmalion_ bearing _Smaragdine_ fruit: and by these consecrated
gifts of _Teucer_ and _Pygmalion_, you may know that it was built in their
days. _Pomponius_ derives it from the times of the _Trojan_ war; for
_Teucer_, seven years after that war, according to the Marbles, arrived at
_Cyprus_, being banished from home by his father _Telamon_, and there built
_Salamis_: and he and his Posterity Reigned there 'till _Evagoras_, the
last of them, was conquered by the _Persians_, in the twelfth year of
_Artaxerxes Mnemon_. Certainly this _Tyrian Hercules_ could be no older
than the _Trojan_ war, because the _Tyrians_ did not begin to navigate the
_Mediterranean_ 'till