Geography

​These, then, are within the so-called Pillars of Heracles. And close to them are two small islands, of which they call one the Island of Hera; and indeed some also call these the Pillars. Outside the Pillars is Gadeira, concerning which we have said only this much, that it is distant from Calpe about seven hundred and fifty stadia, and is situated near the mouth of the Baetis; but there are more accounts concerning it. For these are the men who dispatch the most and largest merchant fleets both to our sea and to the outer sea, although they neither inhabit a large island, nor possess much of the opposite coast, nor are well-off in other islands, but live mostly on the sea, while only a few stay at home or spend time in Rome. Indeed, in population it would seem to fall short of none of the cities outside Rome; at any rate, I heard that in one of the censuses of our time five hundred Gadeiran men were assessed as members of the equestrian order, a number as large as none even of the Italiotes except the Patavians. Though they are so many, they possess an island not much larger than one hundred stadia in length, and in breadth in some places only a stadium. At first they inhabited a city that was altogether small, but Balbus the Gadeiran, who celebrated a triumph, built in addition for them another city which they call New, and the city composed of both they call Didyme, which is not more than twenty stadia in circumference, and not even this is crowded; for few stay at home in it because they all spend most of their time at sea, while others also inhabit the opposite coast, and especially the coast on the small island lying off it because of its natural advantages, which island, because they delight in the place, they have made into a sort of rival city to Didyme. And comparatively few inhabit both this and the naval station which Balbus constructed for them on the opposite mainland. The city is situated on the western parts of the island, and adjacent to it, at the very end, is the Kronion near the islet; while the Herakleion is turned towards the other side, the eastern, at which point indeed the island happens to be closest to the mainland, leaving a strait of about a stadium. And they say that the temple is twelve miles distant from the city, making the number of the miles equal to that of the labors; but it is greater, and is almost as much as the length of the island; and the length of the island is that from west to east.

​Pherecydes seems to identify Gadeira with Erytheia, where they locate the myths concerning Geryon, but others identify with it the island lying alongside this city, separated from it by a strait of a stadium, looking to its excellent pasturage, because the milk of the sheep pasturing there yields no whey. And they make cheese by mixing it with much water because of its richness; and in fifty days the animal is choked unless one lets some of its blood. Though the grass they pasture on is dry, it fattens them exceedingly; and from this they infer that the myth concerning the herds of Geryon was fashioned; however, the entire coast has been settled in common.