o," not as _ha dias_. M. d'Avezac's hypothesis
seems to me not only inconsistent with the phrase _ha dias_,
but otherwise improbable. The frightful anarchy in Castile,
which began in 1465 with the attempt to depose Henry IV. and
alter the succession, was in great measure a series of ravaging
campaigns and raids, now more general, now more local, and can
hardly be said to have come to an end before Henry's death in
1474. The war which began with the invasion of Castile by
Alfonso V. of Portugal, in May, 1475, was simply a later phase
of the same series of conflicts, growing out of disputed claims
to the crown and rivalries among great barons, in many respects
similar to the contemporary anarchy in England called the Wars
of the Roses. It is not likely that Toscanelli, writing at any
time between 1475 and 1480, and speaking of the "wars of
Castile" in the plural, could have had 1474 in his mind as a
date previous to those wars; to his mind it would have rightly
appeared as a date in the midst of them. In any case,
therefore, his reference must be to a time before 1465, and
Humboldt's interpretation is in all probability correct. The
letter from Toscanelli to Columbus was probably written within
a year or two after June 25, 1474.

On account of the vast importance of the Toscanelli letters,
and because the early texts are found in books which the reader
is not likely to have at hand, I have given them entire in the
Appendix at the end of this work.]

[Footnote 448: [Greek: Hoste ta hyper tes kephales astra
megalen echein ten metabolen, kai me tauta phainesthai pros
arkton te kai mesembrian metabainousin; enioi gar en Aigypto
men asteres horontai, kai peri Kypron; en tois pros arkton de
chorious ouch horontai kai ta dia pantos en tois pros arkton
phainomena ton astron, en ekeinois tois topois poieitai dysin.
Host' ou monon ek touton delon peripheres on to schema tes ges,
alla kai sphairas ou megales. Ou gar an houto tachy epidelon
epoiei methistemenois houto brachy. Dio tous hypolambanontas
synaptein ton peri tas Herakleious stelas topon to peri ten
Indiken, kai touton ton tropon einai ten Thalattan mian, me