PART
3 – Ch.XVI.11
(‘ERAKLEOS STELAI - The
Columns of Hercules)
XVI. 11. The cities Tartessos (s. Tertessus) and Cempsi, near
the Columns of Hercules.
Close
to the Columns of Hercules, the ancient geographers and historians also
mentioned, based on previous traditions, two market cities important from a
commercial and industrial point of view, one named Tartessos or Tertessus,
the other Cempsi (Avienus, Descr. Orb. v. 478-480).
These
two traditional cities, exactly like the Columns of Hercules and the islands
near these columns, were transported in later times on the
In
the absence of any positive historical remains and any local traditions, some
of the Greek authors (Strabo, Geogr.
III. 2. 11) supposed that old Tartessos might have existed in the delta of the
Baetis river. But others insisted on the contrary, that the prehistoric
Tartessos might have been identical with the city named Carteia during Roman times (today San-Roque), located near the
Mediterranean straits (Strabo,
Geogr. III. 2. 4).
But
a Tartessos on the
Tartessos
had had an important role in the history of civilization. It had been one of
the most famous cities of the ancient world. It especially reached an immense
importance for the commerce of the Phoenicians (in the history of the
Phoenicians the name Tartessos appears under the form of Tarsis). Its region was extremely rich in silver, gold, copper, tin
and lead mines (The Bible, 10. 9 and
27. 12; Scymnus, v. 165-166; Stephanos Byzantynos, see Tartessos;
Herodotus, IV. 152; Pausanias, VI. 19. 2).
We
find an interesting note about its large metal treasures with Herodotus. “Some merchants from the
As
results from these historical and geographical notes, the old city of
In
the Transylvanian Carpathians, especially in the region of the metalliferous
mountains, we meet even today a great number of forested heights which bare the
enigmatic name Certes. It is a word
of Pelasgian origin, because we find it in the oldest regions of the European
Pelasgians; but a word whose original meaning we can’t know for sure any more.
During
the times of Roman domination, a city in lower
The
famous Tartessos, or more correctly Tertessus,
as it appears in the oldest editions of Priscianus,
belonged therefore, according to its name, to the region of the Carpathians,
where the metallurgical civilization had been developed since the most ancient
times. Its indigenous name was certainly Certes.
As
for its geographical location, “the most happy” Tartessos, as called by Scymnus, was situated upstream from
The
epic poet Silius Italicus presents
(Pun. Lib. V. v. 395 seqq) the following picture of the region in which the
city of Tartessos was: “In the same way father
Oceanos beats the Calpe promontory
of Hercules with its furious waters, in the same way its whirlpools, with their
howling waves, rush with violence in the cavities which open in the heart of
this mountain, the rocks in the bed of the river moan, and its waves hit and
are turned back on the stony ridges with such an infernal noise, that it is
heard even at Tartessus, separated
from the shores by extensive countryside”.
According
to all the historical and geographical sources, Tartessos, the city of the
wealthy people, was close to Cerna. In the south-western parts of Mihadia,
close to Dierna – Tibiscum, the great line of communication of
On
the lower parts of Cerna, the Romanian popular traditions about Hercules are
centred especially on the territory of the village Topleti.
According
to the grammarian Apollodorus from Athens, Hercules, after stealing
Geryon’s herds from the
Therefore,
the most important locality in those times, situated in the area of Erythia or
Rusava island was Tartessos.
Siince
a very distant past, near the
We
find another important folk tradition around Topleti village near Cerna, which
seems to be only a residue of the legend of ancient Tartessos. At the time when
the luxuries and all sorts of pleasures had violently erupted in the midst of
Roman society, one of the most select delicacies which characterised the famous
dinners of the Tiber aristocracy, was “muraena
Tartessia” (Aulius Gelius, N. A. lib. VII. c. 17), or mrena de Tartes (T.N.- mrena = trout).
This
is an expression more of legend than of geography. In those times of decadence
of the ancient Latin mores, the commercial and industrial importance of
Tartessos had been long vanished, and its geographical position had become
obscured. But this quite enlightening fact results from this Roman tradition,
that the fine muraenae from Tartessos had once their particular legends, that
they were considered the most superior of their genus. In truth, on an
autonomous medal, which bears the name TARTES
(Mionnet, Description d. medailles
antiques, I. p. 26), whose source we don’t know, appears, like an emblem of
this famous city, a corn ear and a fish, certainly a muraena Tartessia, graphic
symbol of an old legend.
According
to the traditions of the Romanian people, especially those from Topleti, the
legendary mrene of the heroic times
were to be found in the river Cerna.
Iovan
Iorgovan, while chasing the giant dragon, hears near Topleti the melodious
voice of a girl who sang. Charmed by the beauty of the song and forgetting
about the dragon he chased, he speaks to Cerna, asking her to stop its roar,
promising to give her a copper mrena, a silver mrena, finally a gold mrena (Popovici, Baile lui Hercule, p. 36-37; Spineanu, Dict. Geogr. Mehedinti, p. 161; Marienescu, Balade, II. p. 13; Alexici,
Texte,
The
ancient market city Tartessos was situated without doubt close to the cataracts
of the
[1. We have the following extra geographical
data regarding the location of the famous city Tartessos: according to Stephanos
Byzantinos, the city Tartessos was situated near the river with the same
name, which rose in the
In the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius (IV. 323-324), the same mountain appears with the name Aggouron oros, whose position was near the straits of Istru.
According to the poet Stesichor (630-550 bc), who had paid a special attention to Geryon’s legends, Tartessos potamos flew somewhere in front of the island Erythia (Rusava) and had immense sources, which sprang from a cave, which was in the mountain called Radacini de Argint (T.N. – silver roots, Cf. Strabo, III. 2. 11).
This Tartessos potamos, by its mouths, which were somehow facing the island Rusava (Erythia), and by its sources which characterize it so clearly, was one and the same as Cerna.
"The river Cerna”
tells us the Great geographical dictionary of
The itinerary of Tartessos, as presented by Scymnus in his Geographical
description (v. 145-166), was as follows: After the (holy) promontory,
along which the commercial vessels had to pass, (today the peak St.Peter, near
the cataracts), followed Erythia
island (Rusava); in the neighbourhood
of this island was the legendary town Gadira
(today Grad on the Serbian bank, or
the old Gradiste of Orsova).Then, at
a distance twice as long as from the promontory to Erythia, followed the “most
happy” market city of Tartessos.
This double distance corresponds exactly to the place on Cerna valley where
today is the
But we have to mention here that the actual length of these distances, which at Scymnus is calculated also in days of navigation, is completely inexact, probably a late interpolation.
We find another important geographical mention at Avienus (Or. Mar. v. 462). According to
what he tells us, the boundaries of Tartessos reached the town of
In the old geographical descriptions we find also mentioned several tribes which dwelt close to
Tartessos. So were, according to the historian Herodorus who had lived before Herodotus, the so-called Elbysinii, or Elbesti, who were very likely the inhabitants of the valley of the river Apa - Alba (T.N.- the white water) which flows into Cerna upstream from Topleti. Another tribe were Mastieni, Massieni (Avienus, Or. Mar. 416), without doubt the Mosteni, a pastoral and agricultural class with very ancient traditions, whom we find even today not only near Cerna, but in other parts of Romania too. Finally, another tribe near Tartessos is called Rhodanos by Herodorus, certainly a village of miners located on the valleys of Cerna or Apa - Alba, where different hills and valleys have even today the names Rudina and Rudaria].
If we do
not know though to this day the true location of the ruins of this city, so
important for its metallurgy, it is enough to mention here that neither the
walls of
The
second market city near the Columns of Hercules, important for the commerce
with metals in the prehistoric times, was Cempsi.
According
to Dionysius Periegetus, Avienus and Priscianus, the market city called Cempsi had its dwellings further
up from Tartessus, on some smaller hills (Priscianus, Periegesis, v. 335-337),
at the feet of the burnt mountains,
which the Greeks called Pyrrhene [2].
[2. In regard to the origin
of the name Pyrenees, Diodorus
Siculus writes (V. 35. 2): And because these mountains were covered in
extensive forests, dark because of the enormous number of their trees, it is
told that in the old times, when the shepherds put fire to them, it happened
that this whole mountainous region has burnt. As the violent fire went on for
days, everything that was on the face of the earth burned, and that’s why these
mountains were named Pyrenaia, burnt. At the same time, a big quantity of silver appeared at the surface of the earth, which by melting,
formed in some parts rivers of pure silver. But the local inhabitants not
knowing the use of this metal, the Phoenicians,
as soon as they got wind of it, bought the silver from them in exchange for
some goods of little value. They won immense riches by transporting the silver
to
These
Even today, one of the main heights
which form the mountainous ridge of Mihadia, is called Arsana, and another mountain called Arsana or Arsanul exists
uphill from Topleti village (T.N. – ars
in Romanian means burnt). Near this
mountain Arsana, which through its name still preserves the memory of an
ancient burning, existed in 1535 a.d. an important Romanian village, Canicia de sus (T.N. – upper Canicia)
and Canicia de jos (T.N. – lower
Canicia), today only Canicia. Near this village there was once settled the
tribe which the ancients called Cempsi.
(And on the
These Conisci of the prehistoric geography were the old inhabitants of
the village Canicia of today. In a Greek form they appear too under the names Cynetes (Avienus, Or. Mar. 200) and Cunetes
(Justinus, lib. XLIV, c. 4).
But we find the most important
testimony about the dwellings of the tribe Cempsi
close to the straits of the
[3.
A third town in the region of the
Columns of Hercules appears at Hecateus
of Miletus under the name Calathe,
or Calathusa (Ephor). It was the
same locality as Cladova of today,
important commercial point on the southern bank of the