Pericla Navarchi Magonis; Sive, Expeditio Phoenicia Annis Ante Christum Mille
Translated by Arcadius Avellanus
The voyages of Mago, Phoenician navigator of Tyre, rendered in Latin by David-Léon Cahun. Summoned by King Hiram to command a merchant expedition beyond the Pillars of Hercules, Mago charts a course for Tartessum, the fabled realm at the edge of the known world. The narrative immerses readers in the cedar ships, purple dye trade, and celestial navigation of a civilization that planted colonies from Carthage to Cadiz a millennium before Rome rose. Cahun reconstructs the ancient maritime world with scrupulous attention to period detail: the rituals before setting sail, the negotiations with foreign merchants, the ever-present danger of storms and shoals. Written in classical Latin for the Mount Hope Classics series, this early 20th-century work bridges historical scholarship and adventure fiction. It appeals to readers who dream of the Mediterranean before Greece and Rome, when Phoenician sailors were the masters of an unseen ocean.
