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Updated: June 8, 2025
The account of this latter expedition, which was extant in the time of Pliny the Elder, is unfortunately lost; but, in the poem of R. Festus Avienus, entitled "Ora Maritima," there are copious extracts from it, in which, at least, the sense of the original is preserved. Haec inter undas multam caespitem jacet, Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit."
But, in the first place, Himilco's report was certainly not written in Greek, but in Phoenician, and Avienus seems merely to have translated that report. Moreover, the word iepa begins with a very strong aspirate, equivalent to a consonant, while there are few vowels softer in any language than the first in Erin or Ierne.
Lingard, evidently perplexed by this expression, asks himself, "What might its origin have been?" and suggests that the name of Ierne the same as Erin having been given to Ireland by the ancients, and the Greek iepa holy bearing a great resemblance to it, Avienus might have thus fallen into a very natural mistake of confounding the one with the other.
But notwithstanding the authority of Caesar, Pliny, Solinus, and Lucan, who mention only these leathern vessels, and that the poet Avienus, who lived in the fourth century, expressly states, that even in his time the Britons had no ships made of timber, but only boats covered with leather or hides; there are circumstances which must convince us that they did possess larger, stronger, and more powerful ships.
Himilco, who was on officer in the navy of Carthage, was sent by the senate to explore the western coasts of Europe: a journal of his voyage, and an account of his discoveries, were, according to the custom of the nation, inscribed in the Carthaginian annals. But the only information respecting them which we now possess, is derived from the writings of the Latin poet Rufus Festus Avienus.
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