To estimate the time consumed by the voyage along the coast of Libya, three factorsare of primary importance: distance, prevailing winds and currents, and the efficiencyof the galley itself in the postulated circumstances.

• The distance from Carthage to the Straits of Gilbraltar is about 1,000 miles;• then it is 30 miles through the Straits,• 630 miles more from Cape Spartel1 (at the western entrance to the Straits) to Cape

Juby,2 just south of the Wadi Dra’a3 (the ancient Lixus River)4.• From Cape Juby to the mouth of the Senegal River (the ancient Bambutis)5 is

another 1,000 miles.The total distance involved, therefore, for the outward journey, and the return to thewestern entrance to the Straits, is approximately 2,300 miles, if the expedition sailedsouth only as far as the Wadi Dra’a – or approximately 4,300 miles if it reached theSenegal.

Modern discussions about the limits of the voyage may be divided into two groups.• The first favors the River Bambutis (modern Senegal) as the farthest point reached;

1 Cape Spartel (Arabic:سبارطيل (راس [35°48′02″ N 5°54′22″ W] is a promontory in Morocco about1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, 12 km West of Tangier.

2 Cape Juby (Arabic: جوبي ,راس trans. Ra’s Juby, Spanish: Cabo Juby) [27°56′52″ N 12°55′24″ W]is a cape on the coast of southern Morocco, near the border with Western Sahara, directly east of theCanary Islands.

Its surrounding area, called Cape Juby Strip or Tarfaya Strip, while making up presently the farSouth of Morocco, is in a way a semi­desertic buffer zone between Morocco proper and the WesternSahara, and was a Spanish protectorate in the first half of the 20th century.

3 The Draa (Berber: Derɛa, ⴷⴻⵔⵄⴰ, Arabic: ,درعا درعة ,وادي DMG Wadı Dar’a, also spelled Dra orDraa, in older sources mostly Darha or Dara) is Morocco’s longest river (1100 km). It is formedby the confluence of the Dades River and Imini River. It flows from the High Atlas mountainssouth­(east)ward to Tagounit and from Tagounit mostly westwards to the Atlantic Ocean somewhatnorth of Tan­Tan [de.wiki: Ca. 10 km sudwestlich von Kap Nun (28° 47′ 0″ N 11° 4′ 0″ W), 20km nordlich von Tan­Tan]. Most of the year the part of the Draa after Tagounit falls dry. [Mouth: 28°41′ 0″ N 11° 7′ 35″ W]

Cf. Huß, Werner (Bamberg) in BNP s. v. Daras: River which rises in the Upper Atlas (DÓqir),flows through the region to the south of the Anti­Atlas mountains and into the Atlantic Ocean, todayknown as Oued Dra. Other forms of the name: Dyris, Vitr. De arch. 8, 2, 6; Darat, Plin. HN 5,9;DÉqador or DÉqar, Ptol. 4, 6, 6; 9; 14; Dara, Oros. 1, 2, 31. It is possible that the Daras can beidentified with the KÏnor mentioned by Hanno, Periplus 6 (GGM 1, 5) and the Niým mentioned by[Scyl.] 112 (GGM 1, 93).

4 Huß, Werner (Bamberg) in BNP s. v. Lix [3]: River, probably identical to the Oued Dra. Rivermentioned in the travel report of Hanno [1], probably identical to the Oued Dra (Morocco) (Hanno,Periplus 7 [GGM I 6]). [W. Huß, Geschichte der Karthager, 1985, p. 79f.]

5 Senegal River: approaching its mouth, around the Senegalese island on which the city of Saint­Louisis located, the river turns south. It is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a thin strip of sand calledthe Langue de Barbarie before it pours into the ocean itself. Mouth: 15° 57′ 50″ N, 16° 30′ 40″ W[de.wiki]

Cf. Huß, Werner (Bamberg) in BNP s. v. Nias: Nias (MÏar). River in western Africa, probably inSenegal (Ptol. 4, 6, 7). The Nias is probably correctly identified with the Chretes of Hanno (WqËtgr,Hanno, Periplus 9, GGM 1 ,8), the Chremetes of Aristotle (WqelËtgr, Aristot. Mete. 1, 13 p. 350b)and the Bambotus (Plin. HN 5,10) [W. Huß, Geschichte der Karthager, 1985, pp. 776, 8147].

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• the second believes that the expedition sailed only to the River Lixus (modern WadiDra’a).6

In ideal conditions, the journey down the coast to the Wadi Dra’a would take aminimum of fourteen days, allowing for nights ashore and for the reconnaissance ofthe Carthaginian ports.

From Wadi Dra’a to the Senegal River stretches the inhospitable coast of theSahara desert, almost a thousand miles characterized by heavy breakers, a completeabsence of harbors, and a lack of water to provision the ships.7

From Wadi Nun [?? G. H.: Cape Nun], five miles northeast of the ancient Lixus,the coastal currents and swell are described by the Africa Pilot as follows:

From Wadi Nun the coast curves outward, and the current, which hitherto hasnearly followed the direction of the shore, here strikes it obliquely, renderingthis the most dangerous part of the coast between Capes Spartel and Bojador,and fully accounting for the numerous wrecks which have occurred here. ... Theswell too is almost invariably from the NW, and therefore sets directly into thebight so that it is almost impossible for a sailing vessel embayed there to workoff.8

The Africa Pilot reports that north and south of Cape Nun9 there is an interestingphenomenon, apparently caused by the immense volume of fine sand blown off thedesert: “For some distance both north and south of Cape Nun, as well as to seaward,the water has a red tinge, with a thick muddy appearance, so that the track of a vessel isvisible for some time.”10 This is the sort of anomaly Polybius observed and consistentlyreported: compare his description of the behavior of the Euphrates River, which seemedstrange to one accustomed to a Mediterranean climate: the river was lowest in winter,highest in summer, and decreased in volume toward the mouth (9. 43). Although the“red sea” may be a modern phenomenon, due to the accelerated drying­up of the Saharain historical times, there is no doubt that the same strange juxtaposition of desert andfog existed then as now.

Eratosthenes is quoted by Strabo (17. 3. 8) as saying that the air along the coast ofthe Sahara is thick and misty in the early morning and evening, an accurate description.Artemidorus of Ephesus, who voyaged along the Mediterranean coast and along thewestern coast of Africa in the first century B.C. disputes him, but neither Artemidorus

6 Commentators favoring the Bambutis are D. Harden, The Phoenicians, New York, 1962, p. 177;M. Cary and E. H. Warmington, The Ancient Explorers, London, 21959, p. 68; B. H. Warmington,Carthage, Baltimore, 1964, p. 79; and R. Carpenter, Beyond the Pillars of Hercules, New York, 1933,p. 102. Advocates of the Lixus are J. Carcopino, Le Maroc antique, Paris, 1943, p. 158; and E. H.Bunbury, A History of Ancient Geography2 (London, 1883; repr. New York, 1959), 2:42.

7 W. Kendrew, The Climates of the Continents, New York, 31942, pp. 31­39; P. Meigs, Geography ofCoastal Deserts, UNESCO Arid Zone Research, 28 (Paris, 1966), pp. 91 – 93.

8 Africa Pilot, pp. 92 – 93.9 Cape Nun or Cape Chaunar or Cape Draa, fr. Cap de Noun, pt. Cabo de Nao or Cabo de Nant [28°

47′ 0″ N 11° 4′ 0″ W] is a cape on the Atlantic coast of Africa, south of Morocco, between Tarfayaand Sidi Ifni. By the 15th century it was considered insurmountable by Arabs and Europeans, thusresulting its his name meaning cape “no” in Portuguese. Cape Chaunar is the true northern coastallimit of Sahara desert.

10 Ibid., p. 90.

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nor Strabo cites Polybius in support of his statement.11 Surely, if Polybius had gonevery far down the coast past the Lixus, he could not have escaped all contact with thefogs, which are prevalent in the summer months and which move onshore in the earlymorning and evening hours; and he would have described the anomaly in his book ongeography.12

If we estimate the time to reach the Senegal as twenty days, the head winds andcurrents which the ships would encounter on the return voyage would probably doublethe outgoing time allotment, so that the voyage from the Wadi Dra’a to the Senegaland back would by itself consume two months. From the Wadi Dra’a back to thewestern entrance to the Straits, the same adverse winds and currents would probablydouble the outgoing time of fourteen days, so that the return would take about a month.Considering these factors of time, currents and winds, and the comparative efficiencyof the galley, as well as the negative evidence from Strabo’s debate about fogs alongthe coast of the Sahara desert, the Wadi Dra’a seems the farthest possible point theexpedition could have reached if it was still to have time to explore the Spanish andGallic coasts before September.

MARIJEAN H. EICHEL13 and JOAN MARKLEY TODD14, A Note on Polybius’ Voyage to Africa in146 B. C., in: Classical Philology, Vol. 71, No. 3 (1976), pp. 237­243.

11 Strabo 17. 3. 8 – 9. Strabo quotes from the lost Geography frequently; cf. Polyb. 34 in Paton.12 Kendrew, Climates. pp 23, 27 – 30.13 Virginia Commonwealth University14 San Jose State University