Geography

​Therefore, having understood the nature of these places and knowing that the estuaries were able to serve in the same way as the rivers, the inhabitants founded cities and other settlements on them, just as on the rivers. Among these are Asta, Nabrissa, Onoba, Ossonoba, Maenoba, and many others. Moreover, canals dug in places contribute further, because the transport is carried on from many places to many places, both among themselves and to the outside. And the junctions of the waters likewise help, due to the high tides spreading widely over the isthmuses that separate them and rendering the passages navigable, so that people can cross by boat both from the rivers to the estuaries and from there to this side. All the trade is with Italy and Rome, having a good voyage as far as the Pillars (except for any difficulty there may be about the strait) and also the open-sea voyage in our sea. For the runs are accomplished through a mild climate, especially for the one who takes to the open sea; and this is advantageous for merchant vessels. The open-sea winds also have a regular order. In addition, there is the present peace, since piracy has been suppressed, so that complete ease is available to navigators. Poseidonius says that he observed a peculiar thing on his return voyage from Iberia: namely, that the east winds in that sea blew as annual winds as far as the Gulf of Sardinia. For this reason, he was scarcely able to reach Italy in three months, having been carried out of his course around the Gymnesian Islands and Sardinia, and the other parts of Libya opposite these.

​From Turdetania are exported grain, much wine, and olive oil, which is not only abundant but also of the finest quality. Also exported are wax, honey, and pitch, and much kermes, and ruddle not inferior to the Sinope earth. They construct shipyards there from native timber, and they have rock-salt and not a few streams of salty rivers. There is also no small amount of salted fish from the catch, not only from here but also from the rest of the coast outside the Pillars, which is not inferior to that of Pontus. Formerly much clothing also used to go, but now rather the wool of the ‘crows’ (black sheep). And this wool is of exceeding beauty; at any rate, they buy rams for breeding at the price of a talent. There is also an abundance of fine fabrics, which the Saltigetae manufacture. There is also an abundant supply of all kinds of cattle and game. Of destructive wild beasts there is a scarcity, except for the burrowing small rabbits, which some call leberides; for they do damage to both plants and seeds by eating the roots. And this happens almost throughout the whole of Iberia, extending even as far as Massalia, and it also troubles the islands. The inhabitants of the Gymnesian Islands are said once to have sent an embassy to the Romans to petition for a territory, since they were being driven out by these animals, being unable to hold out because of their multitude. Now, against so great a war—which does not always happen, but only during some pestilential outbreak like that of snakes and field mice—there is indeed need of such assistance, but against the moderate numbers many ways of hunting have been devised. In particular, they breed wild weasels which Libya produces, and, having muzzled them, they let them into the holes; and these drag out with their claws those they catch, or force them to flee to the surface, and those who stand by hunt them down as they leap out. The abundance of the exports from Turdetania is shown by the size and the number of the merchant vessels; for the largest merchant ships sail from here to Dicaearchia and Ostia, the port of Rome. And the number is almost a rival to the Libyan fleets.