THE  MOORISH   EMPIRE
 

D
 

CHAPTER   THE FIRST
MAURETANIA

(500 B.C.—690 A.C.)

F ancient Mauretania* the records that exist are very
scanty and unsatisfactory.    The information which
has  come  to  us  is  so  conflicting—when   not

Scanty Records.                    -nit

manifestly borrowed—that there is no certain
ground on which we may build history, or even a romance.
The earHest authorities, who dealt almost exclusively with
myths and legends, may be set aside at once, for Morocco
lay so far out of the beaten tracks of those days, that it is

only when the Carthaginian  Hanno  makes a
^''"Tzv 500 B c    colonising expedition to beyond the Herculean

Pillars, that we meet with dependable state¬
ments. Even Hanno's authenticity has been disputed
(although unsuccessfully), and nothing certain is known
of his person or date. All that remains is the account of
his "Periplus" or voyage, graven on a stone in the temple
of Saturn at Carthage on his return, and copied by a
Greek traveller centuries later.^

With  sixty  galleys  of fifty  oars each,  conveying  no
less than thirty thousand men, the bold Phoenician set

* TTiis spelling is established as correct by coins and inscriptions of the
period, including those discovered at Volubilis.

\                                                    1 Mannert, p. 577.