Cassiterides, meaning Tin Islands, (from the Greek word for tin: Κασσίτερος/Kassiteros) are in ancient geography the name of islands regarded as being situated somewhere near the west coasts of Europe. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Herodotus (430 BC) had dimly heard of them. Herodotus of Halicarnassus ( Greek: Hēródotos Halikarnāsseús) was a Greek Historian who lived in the 5th century BC ( 484 BC&ndash Events By place Greece The army of Sparta loots Attica for a second time but Pericles is not daunted and refuses Later writers, Posidonius, Diodorus, Strabo and others, call them smallish islands off (Strabo says, some way off) the north-west coast of Spain, which contained tin mines, or, as Strabo says, tin and lead mines though a passage in Diodorus derives the name rather from their nearness to the tin districts of north-west Spain. Posidonius ( Greek: Ποσειδώνιος / Poseidonios "of Apameia " (ὁ Απαμεύς or "of Rhodes " (ὁ Ρόδιος (ca Strabo ( Greek: Στράβων 63/64 BC – ca AD 24 was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher. Tin is a Chemical element with the symbol Sn (stannum and Atomic number 50 Characteristics Lead has a dull luster and is a dense, Ductile, very soft highly Also Ptolemy and Dionysios Periegetes have mentioned them, the former as 10 small islands in northwest Spain far off the coast arranged symbolically as a ring, the later one in connection with the Hesperides. Claudius Ptolemaeus ( Greek: Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; after 83 &ndash ca Dionysius Periegetes (literally Dionysius of The Description was the author of a description of the habitable world in Greek Hexameter verse written in a terse and In Greek mythology, the Hesperides ( Greek:) are Nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world located near the Atlas mountains
At a time when geographical knowledge of the west was still scanty and the secrets of the tin-trade were still successfully guarded by the seamen of Gades and others who dealt in the metal, the Greeks knew only that tin came to them by sea from the far west, and the idea of tin-producing islands easily arose. Cádiz ( Spanish:) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of the same name, a province which is one of eight The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions Later, when the west was better explored, it was found that tin actually came from two regions, north-west Spain and Cornwall. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Cornwall ( Kernow ˈkɛɹnɔʊ is the most southwesterly county of England, on the Peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar Neither of these could be called small islands or described as off the north-west coast of Spain, and so the Greek and Roman geographers did not identify either as the Cassiterides. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Instead, they became a third, ill-understood source of tin, conceived of as distinct from Spain or Britain. Modern writers have perpetuated the error that the Cassiterides were definite spots, and have made many attempts to identify them. Small islands off the coast of north-west Spain, the headlands of that same coast, the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, the British Isles as a whole, have all in turn been suggested. The British Isles (Irish variously Na hOileáin Bhriotanacha, Oileáin Iarthair Eorpa, Éire agus an Bhreatain Mhór; Ellanyn Goaldagh Eileanan But none suits the conditions. Neither the Spanish islands nor the Isles of Scilly contain tin, at least in serious quantities. It seems most probable, therefore, that the name Cassiterides represents the first vague knowledge of the Greeks that tin was found overseas somewhere in or off western Europe.
References
Primary sources
- Herodotus, Histories 3.115
- Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library V. Herodotus of Halicarnassus ( Greek: Hēródotos Halikarnāsseús) was a Greek Historian who lived in the 5th century BC ( 484 BC&ndash The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. 21, 22, 38
- Strabo, Geography 2.5.15, 3.2.9, 3.5.11
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History iv. Strabo ( Greek: Στράβων 63/64 BC – ca AD 24 was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher. Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, ( AD 23 – August 25, AD 79 better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Author Naturalis Historia ( Latin for "Natural History" is an Encyclopedia written Circa AD 77 by Pliny the Elder. 119, Vii. 197, xxxiv. 156-158
Secondary sources
- T. R. Holmes, Ancient Britain (1907), appendix, identifies the Cassiterides with the British Isles.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
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