The Gorgades may refer to a group of islands off the Atlantic coast of Africa (the Insulae Gorgades, perhaps the Canaries or the Cape Verde islands), as well as the fabled tribe of native inhabitants, the women of which were covered entirely with hair (an idea perhaps derived from ancient sailors' accounts of some species of ape or monkey). [1]
Their earliest known mention appears in Book III, Chapter 9, of the Description of the World of Pomponius Mela (c. 43 CE), which speaks of "a huge island, on which they say there are only women, bristly in their whole body, and fruitful of their own accord without any connections with males: of so savage and excessively wild manners that some of them can scarcely be restrained by chains from struggling." [2]
The ancient mentions most widely read in the Middle Ages were those of the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder and geographer Gaius Julius Solinus. In his Natural History Pliny names the Greek geographer Xenophon of Lampsacus as the one who identified the islands and the Carthaginian navigator Hanno as one who visited there in the fifth or sixth century BCE. [3] Following Pliny, Solinus writes, "Women were found swift as birds; out of all those they saw, two were captured, so hairy and rough of body that Hanno, for remembrance of the occurrence, hung up their two skins in the temple of Juno, where they remained until the time of the destruction of Carthage." [4]
These islands and inhabitants were subsequently mentioned by such medieval writers as Thomas de Cantimpre in the Liber de Natura Rerum and Vincent of Beauvais in the Speculum Historiale, going on to be included in medieval bestiaries, which especially focused on the hairiness of the females. [5]
Gaius Plinius Secundus, called Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia, which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field.
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo, better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him.
The Natural History is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the Natural History compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work's title, its subject area is not limited to what is today understood by natural history; Pliny himself defines his scope as "the natural world, or life". It is encyclopedic in scope, but its structure is not like that of a modern encyclopedia. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived, and the last that he published. He published the first 10 books in AD 77, but had not made a final revision of the remainder at the time of his death during the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. The rest was published posthumously by Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger.
Gaius Julius Solinus was a Latin grammarian, geographer, and compiler who probably flourished in the early 3rd century AD. Historical scholar Theodor Mommsen dates him to the middle of the 3rd century.
Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera and died c. AD 45.
Thule is the farthest north location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, northern Scotland, the island of Saaremaa (Ösel) in Estonia, and the Norwegian island of Smøla.
The gens Julia was one of the most ancient patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC. The gens is perhaps best known, however, for Gaius Julius Caesar, the dictator and grand uncle of the emperor Augustus, through whom the name was passed to the so-called Julio-Claudian dynasty of the first century AD. The nomen Julius became very common in imperial times, as the descendants of persons enrolled as citizens under the early emperors began to make their mark in history.
Hanno the Navigator was a Carthaginian explorer of the fifth century BC, best known for his naval exploration of the western coast of Africa. The only source of his voyage is a periplus translated into Greek. He has sometimes been identified as a king.
Scandza was described as a "great island" by Gothic-Byzantine historian Jordanes in his work Getica. The island was located in the Arctic regions of the sea that surrounded the world.
The Sicani or Sicanians were one of three ancient peoples of Sicily present at the time of Phoenician and Greek colonization. The Sicani dwelt east of the Elymians and west of the Sicels, having, according to Diodorus Siculus, the boundary with the last in the ancient Himera river (Salso) after a series of battles between these tribes.
Dicuilus was an Irish monk and geographer, born during the second half of the 8th century.
The Hilleviones were a Germanic people occupying an island called Scatinavia in the 1st century AD, according to the Roman geographer Pliny the Elder in Naturalis Historia, written circa 77 AD. Pliny's Scatinavia is generally believed to have referred to the Scandinavian peninsula, which in the 1st century AD had not yet been fully explored by the Romans and was therefore described as an island. Pliny wrote that it was an island "of a magnitude as yet unascertained". The Hilleviones lived in the only part of the island that was known, and according to Pliny, they thought of their 500 villages as a separate (alterum) world.
Sulpicia was the wife of Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, and earned everlasting fame when she was determined to be the most chaste of all the Roman matrons.
In Greco-Roman geography, the Riphean Mountains were a supposed mountain range, located somewhere in the far north of Eurasia. The location of the Ripheans, as described by most classical geographers, corresponds roughly with the Volga region of modern-day Russia. Different travellers described the Riphean Mountains on their travels in ancient Russia. The name of the mountains is probably derived from Ancient Greek: ῥιπή.
Ariana was a general geographical term used by some Greek and Roman authors of the ancient period for a district of wide extent between Central Asia and the Indus River, comprising the eastern provinces of the Achaemenid Empire that covered the whole of modern-day Afghanistan, as well as the easternmost part of Iran and up to the Indus River in Pakistan. Ariana is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek Ἀρ(ε)ιανή Ar(e)ianē, originating from the Old Persian word Ariyanem (Ariana) meaning 'the Land of the Aryans', similar to the use of Āryāvarta.
White Aethiopians is a term found in ancient Roman literature, which may have referred to various non-"Negro" and light-complexioned populations inhabiting the Aethiopia region of antiquity. The exonym is used by Pliny the Elder, and is also mentioned by Pomponius Mela, Ptolemy and Orosius. These authorities do not, however, agree on the geographical location of the White Aethiopians.
The Marsaci or Marsacii were a tribe in Roman imperial times, who lived within the area of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, under Roman domination.
Aracynthus was a range of mountains in Aetolia, the exact position of which is uncertain. It was said to run in a south-easterly direction from the Achelous River to the Evenos, and separating the lower plain of Aetolia near the sea from the upper plain above the lakes Hyria and Trichonida.
The gens Rubria was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the time of the Gracchi, but they did not rise to prominence until imperial times. The first of the Rubrii to obtain the consulship was Rubrius Gallus, some time before AD 68.
The gens Statia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the early decades of the Republic, but the name does not appear again in history until the time of Cicero. The Statii remained relatively undistinguished until the reign of Trajan, when Lucius Statius Aquila was raised to the consulship.
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