Britain Key
To
World History
By
Comyns Beaumont
III.
THE VICISSITUDES OF BATH,
CITY OF
AMMON
Although Ab'Ram prepared strong defences at Hebron in the event of enemies approaching from
the north or east, the Book of Genesis evinces his early and strong interest in the land of Havilah,
which, according to it, was situated in the Garden of Eden. In this same region, among others,
was the famous city of Ai, also called Hai, or Aiath, or Ajalon. In close proximity to Ai was
Bethel, the place of the Stone of Jacob, while nearby was Beersheba, and not far distant was the
Philistine city of Gath, its stronghold and capital. In addition to these there flourished not far
distant another city of great fame, providing a link with the Atlantis of Plato, namely Gades, the
city of Gad, known also as Tartessus or as Tarshish. Its earliest Bible name was Sodom, destroyed
by the hand of God by means of fire from heaven. The name Sodom signifies the city of the
south.
It is this region I propose to examine for further clues to the pre-history of Britain, as culled from
Biblical, Greek, and native sources.
When Ab'Ram and Lot parted company the latter patriarch moved to the plain of Jordan and
termed it "The Garden of the Lord," pitching his tent towards Sodom, whose descendants,
according to the same Book of Genesis, became the Ammonites and Moabites. Of the important
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tribe of Gad, whose totem was the Old Lion, and who were Cushites (or Chaldeans), we are told
that its later borders reached to Jazer (or Gaza), all Gilead and half the land to Aroer before (or
opposite) Rabbah.[50]
Another mention is made of Gad's northern boundary in Ezekiel, which lay, it is said, "over
against Hamath," the "river" on the "great sea."[51] The name Hamath, or "great Hamath,"
prefixed by the words "the entering in," signified a river estuary, the equivalent of our word
"mouth" of a river, but sometimes, the word was employed to indicate a port at the mouth of a
river. It explains why Solomon (whose maritime trade with Tarshish or Gades, the city of Gad,
was so closely associated with the long treasure voyages to Ophir), built "store-palaces" or
warehouses at Hamath for the returning vessels' cargoes, that most important river mouth which
I shall endeavour to show in due course related to the mouth of the Bristol Avon. Maps of the
present Palestine, based on the O.T., fail completely to indicate any of these points and wrench
Gad entirely away from its true situation.
In the immediate vicinity of Hamath was Tarshish or Gades, and not far away, closely associated
with it commercially, was Gath, which, as I have suggested, was later re-named No Ammon or
Rabbath-Ammon, the very important first capital of the Egyptians or Philistine Pharaoh. The
first word Rabbath, applied to Ammon, and sometimes used alone as Rabbah, "populous," or
from the root Rab, prophet or teacher. The Ammonites as was mentioned, were worshippers of
the god Ammon or Hermes, and it would appear that generally Gad was closely associated with
the Ammonites. Rabbath-Ammon from very early times was the capital of a king, and in the
reign of David was described by Joab as the "royal city" and the "city of the waters," which he
besieged for so long.
Bible students apparently fail to recognise that No-Ammon and Rabbath-Ammon were one and
the same, so it is not surprising that, in the confused and misleading geography and territorial
distribution accorded to the present Palestine, No-Ammon is generally regarded as a name for
Egyptian Thebes and Rabbath-Ammon, as the city of the Ammonites, is placed in the arid regions
east of the Jordan, for which error, as in many similar instances, the Romans, probably in the
time of Constantine the Great, are partly to blame. Nevertheless, a careful examination of Bible
references should make it plain that they were one and the same. The description of No-Ammon
by Nahum gives some idea of its true situation, and he also stresses it as a "city of the waters,"
in proximity to the sea. Comparing it with Nineveh, he says as follows:
Art thou better than No-Ammon that was situated among the rivers, that had waters
round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall from the sea? Cush and
Mizrairn were her strength and it was infinite. Put and Ludim were (her) helpers.
Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were
dashed in pieces at the top of the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men,
and all her great men were bound in chains.[52]
Such was the fate of No-Ammon, the former great ruling at a critical period in the history of the
world. That this was identical with the Philistine Gath is indicated in more one passage. In the
savage wars between Philistines and Israelites in the days of Samuel and Saul, King Achish of
Gath had supreme command over the other Philistine lords, who, none the less, did not hesitate
to criticise him strongly when he came the patron and friend of the renegade David, to whom
gave refuge and material .assistance after the latter's flight from the vengeance of Saul. The
Philistine lords distrusted David thoroughly. He offered, or pretended to offer, his assistance to
the Philistines against his own people. The Philistine Seren regarded his followers as undesirable
allies. "What do these Hebrews here?" they demanded of Achish, "make this fellow return."[53]
Achish, King of Gath, certainly demonstrated great kindness David during his years of exile, his
life in continuous danger from Saul, for he harboured him for sixteen months, together with two
wives and 600 irregulars, presenting him in addition with an estate and maintenance until the
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Philistine princes forced his dismissal.[54] Yet for all that, we have David's subsequent unfriendly
return for past favours, possibly in collusion with Hiram of Tyre, whose dependant he was in
effect, when .deliberately he made war on the King of Rabbath-Ammon, on the frivolous pretext
that when he sent emissaries to congratulate the son and successor of Nahash, because, he said,
“his father showed kindness unto me," the embassy was roughly treated.[55]
Now, there is no Bible record of any such king as Nahash, nor of any independent monarch who
showed favours to David other than Achish, although we possess more details of David's youth
and reign than of any other king, so that no other king but Achish could have patronised the
young upstart whose romantic career makes him outstanding. In other words the Nahash, King
of Rabbath-Ammon, was identical with Achish, King of Gath, and the two renderings are seen
to be practically similar when the initial "N" in Nahash is dropped. Such being the case it is plain
that Gath and Rabbath-Ammon were one and the same, which explains the difficulty of the writer
on the subject of Gath in Sir William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, when he admits that "Gath
as a name disappeared at a comparatively early date." Another example of their mutual identity
occurs in the report of the war of Uzziah against the Philistines, who broke down the walls of
Gath, after which the Ammonites "gave gifts to Uzziah," and "his name spread abroad to the
entering in of Egypt," otherwise Great Hamath.[56]
Who were these Philistines? They were among the original Rephaim or Giants, who, according
to the O.T., were the wicked men destroyed by the deity because mankind had filled the earth
with violence and corruption. The giant Repha or Rapha of Gath, and his four enormous sons,
one having double toes and thumbs, originally gave the name Rephaim to the Hebrew vocabulary.
The huge Goliath, the knight who challenge the best man among the Israelites to settle the dispute
when the Philistines were besieging Hebron, who was preceded by his squire carrying his gigantic
shield, was another man of Gath. That David held the Philistines as of great account as soldiers
is demonstrated as stated by the fact that when a power in Jerusalem he formed his royal
bodyguard of mercenaries, including Cherethites (Cretans), Pelethites (Philistines or Carians)
and Gittites (men of Gath) of whom he employed six hundred.[57]
The Philistines were included ethnologically as Mizraimites or Egyptians. Josephus says, "All
the children of Mezraim being eight in number, possessed the country from Gaza to Egypt
although it retained the name of one only, the Philistim.[58] They were by origin the Leleges of
classic note, another name for the Carians, from whom it would appear the Western Hebrideans
and the Bretons are descended. The Philistines were a reliable brave, warlike, chivalrous people,
aristocratic, imperious, and haughty, but withal generous, a formidable military power who could
place 30,000 chariots in the field against Saul. They possessed warships and merchant vessels,
conducted much commerce by land and sea, and Isaiah says that their land was full of gold and
silver. Like other Egyptians they employed oracles, soothsayers, and seers, were addicted to the
infernal deities, and made a "baldness between the eyes" in religious ceremonies concerned with
the Underworld worship of Osiris and Isis. They may be considered to provide a definite link
with the Underworld cult so widely spread in ancient Britain and Ireland, as was also the case
in the Mediterranean Egypt, much of which esoteric faith seems to be centred round the original
and prehistoric King Arthur. According to Mr. Lewis Spence, King Arthur and Osiris were
derived from one original. He remarks as follows:
That Arthur and Osiris are indeed figures originating in a common source must be
reasonably clear to the student of myth. Druidism is only the cult of Osiris in another
form, and Arthur seems to have a common origin with Ausar or Osiris.[59]
Apart from esoteric resemblances between the Philistines and the legendary King Arthur, there
are similes in more material pursuits. The Philistines were governed by aristocratic chiefs who
stood in the position of feudal lords, and might be acclaimed as the originators of the code of
chivalry, for they, like King Arthur's bold knights, possessed an order of knight errantry. They
even used the title of "Sir," for the five Philistine lords were called "Seren," the plural for "Ser"
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or "Sir." Admittedly of the same race as the Careni or Carians, to whom I have referred previously
as dwelling in north-western Scotland and the Isles, this people, says Herodotus, were the first
to fasten crests on helmets, put devices on their shields, and were a great maritime people in the
time of Minos, as the Philistines undoubtedly were in the reign of Solomon. They were a very
religious people according to their lights, moral, and held adultery in the greatest detestation. Of
all the early races we know, perhaps they were the noblest; who more than once showed their
chivalry towards their enemies. They may surely be esteemed as a northern people utterly alien
to all oriental characteristics. I suggest that they were Ionians by origin, like the Athenians.
The geographical situation of Gath may perhaps be denoted in a passage of Amos, when he says,
"Pass ye unto Calneh to see; and from thence to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the
Philistines."[60] If we may regard Calneh as referring to Caine, on the Great West Road, between
Avebury and Bath, a very ancient township great Hamath as signifying the mouth of the Severn
at Bristol, and Gath as the illustrious city of Bath, to which the traveller was to go down from
Hamath, as would be the case on the assumption suggested here, these fit into the general scheme,
and the description of Nahum, already cited, of No-Ammon, also agrees with the topography of
Bath. It is situate "among the rivers," and the Avon winds "round about it," in addition to which
prehistoric Bath had a rampart (part of the Wansdyke) which seems to have guarded the river
approaches to the city from Burwalls, opposite Clifton, where the Avon narrows and becomes
more shallow. Burwalls ("Borough Walls") was a strongly fortified Celtic fortress which
commanded the high banks of the Avon towards its mouth at its one point of crossing, and might
be described as "her wall from the sea." Bath for many ages has been described as "the city of
the waters," and it is conceivable that Joab knew of its thermal springs when he so termed the
city of Rabbath-Ammon, although according to Geoffrey of Monmouth the baths were first built
by Bladud in the eleventh century B.C.
The names accorded to it, viz., Rabbath-Ammon and No. Ammon, are probably not so obscure
as they may seem. It was often the custom in Biblical times to give additional cognomens to
places, such as in the case of Ramah and Ramoth-Gilead, or of Ashdod and Ashdoth-Pisgah, the
springs of Ashdod. Rabbath, or, properly Rabbah, as I have stated, signified populous,
well-populated, by extension a capital, derived from the Hebrew rab, a multitude, or rab, hence
rabbi, a teacher or prophet. No-Ammon is more obscure, but if I am entitled to use Gnossos as
a clue, the "city of Knowledge," derived from the Teacher Hermes, No-Ammon, rendered
phonetically, like other Egyptian or Philistinish words, would signify also the city of the
One-Who Knows, Ammon, whose divine powers in the south had been transferred from Ramah
or Abaris, the seat of Ammon's former oracle, and established in what had been the Philistine
city of Gath. It helps to explain why the relic of Og, or Ab'Ram, was preserved there.
In the period antecedent to the Great Catastrophe, as I fully described in my previous work from
the metaphysical point of view, there took place the thirteen years' war wherein No-Ammon or
Rabbath-Ammon played a leading part in the struggle, to which it would seem the prophet Nahum
was referring in the description he gives of her great men being led into captivity in chains.
Amos, in a prophecy, to be regarded like in many similar cases as ex post facto, speaks of fire
on the wall of Rabbath, which devours its palaces, of shouting in the day of battle, and of its king
and princes led into captivity, as says Nahum, who curls his account by stating that there occurred
a "tempest and whirlwind."[61] Jeremiah reports an alarm of war in Rabbah of the Ammonites
and pictures it as a desolate heap burned with fire.[62] Ezekiel, who definitely classes No-Ammon
and Rabbath Ammon as one and the same, says, "I will execute judgments in No. And I will cut
off Rabbath-No, and I will set a fire in Mizraim. Sin shall have great pain and No shall be rent
asunder. The young men of Aven and Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword and these cities shall go
into captivity."[63]
When we assemble the evidence from these sources all pointing to the one momentous epoch,
stark drama vividly stands out. We may reconstruct a situation in which this great city was
besieged, its walls broken down by fire—suggestive of gun-fire—the city then stormed and
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sacked, its king and chief men led away captive in chains as slaves, the city devastated and ablaze.
But that is not the end. We are suddenly confronted with the words of Amos, "tempest" and
"whirlwind," also Ezekiel's “No shall be rent asunder," and "I will cut off Rabbath-No." These
sentences do not approximate to the fighting aspect, but to something unusual, hence, too, the
use of the first personal pronoun restricted usually to a declaration by the Deity himself, “I will
execute judgment in No," etc. It seems to imply that at the crisis in the fate of the city there was
a tempest, a whirlwind, and that it was "rent asunder" by earthquake, for only such a conclusion
would apply to these words. Meanwhile, adapting the statements of Ezekiel to the city of Bath,
be it noted that the names "Sin" and "Aven" are used in relation to "Rabbath-No." The first may
relate to the ancient Sion Hill, of Bath, regarded by authorities as the site of the ancient citadel;
and "Aven" of course can answer to the River Avon which winds round the city.
The word "Rabbath," may have been related to the populous city, from rab, a multitude, but the
last syllable "bath" remains unexplained unless it signified "populous Bath." Yet, taken in
conjunction with No-Ammon, rab, related to teach, instruct, implying divine teaching, prophecy,
may seem more in accord. One of the gates of Heshbon, whence the road led to Rabbath, was
named "Bath-rabbim," which seems to relate Bath to sacred doctrine.[64]
Possibly, and purely conjecturally, we may exploit name Gath by shearing off the initial
letter—for Rolleston, authority on the Celtic race, contends that the Erse is the purest surviving
Celtic tongue in which names beginning with vowels were preferred to consonants, the Goidels
far later being addicted to the initial letters "B," "G," "L," and "P,"—in which "Gath" becomes
"Ath," by extension Athenai, otherwise Athens, whose tutelary deities were Athene (or Minerva),
and Poseidon, both of whom appear to have acted in a like role in regard to Bath. It is admittedly
a slight clue, if one at all, to consider Rabbath-Ammon as the prehistoric Athens, but the
prehistoric Athens and Cadmeian Thebes were apparently not far distant from one another, that
Thebes was traditionally in Greek myth overthrown by the men of Argos, and, if a coincidence,
Bashan was originally called Argob in the O.T., in addition to which, the inundation or destruction
to both Athens and Thebes in the Great Catastrophe—the Deucalion Flood in Thessaly—was
called Ogygian in the case of these two cities and we may perceive the reason why this
accordingly should have indicated the connection between Thebes and Rabbath-Ammon as
Athens.
The possible link may be stronger yet. Rabbath or No-Ammon, according to the prophetical
works cited, became the vortex of a vital struggle, the climax to the thirteen-year war between
the gods and the giants, in which that city fought desperately against invading hordes, strongly
armed, from the east. It stands out as the heroic city of the Scriptural records veiled carefully as
they were, and it may seem to have performed deeds attributed to Athens by the priest of Sais,
as recorded by Plato, who placed Athens in the island of Atlantis. The passage question is in the
Timaeus:
For there was a time, Solon, before that great deluge of all when the city which now
is Athens, was first in war, and was preeminent for the excellence of her laws, and
is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution
of any of which tradition tells---
And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having
undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the
invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjected.
The priest of Sais goes on to describe how the warriors of Athens were destroyed in this Deluge
like those of the enemy, and there is Bible evidence also which indicates the same fate as
overtaking both invaders and defenders of Rabbath. This is suggested by the prophets cited with
macabre mention of "tempest," "whirlpool," "rent asunder" and "cut off." Surely such words
were not merely loose statements to describe a siege and the sacking of a city?
From British accounts, so meagre of the remote past, there is little that can be claimed as relating
definitely to Bath. Geoffrey of Monmouth indicates it as an important city, the seat of a king, in
the time of the first Trojan invaders, c. 1100-1050 B.C., in which Bladud, cured from leprosy
by bathing in the hot thermal waters nearby, in consequence established baths for curative
purposes. The Fosse Way offers testimony of its pristine importance, for this most important
means of inland transport was not originally a road alone but a canal, seemingly the centre of a
chain of inter-communicating canals which served the Midlands, the south to Seaton, and
extended north-east as far, at least, as York, and perhaps farther yet. The name "Fosse" indicates
a ditch, accordingly a waterway, and it passed through the centre of Bath from north to south.
Indeed, Bath must be regarded as the focus of this traffic whence supplies from across the seas
were taken to the Avon mouth, where lay the great high seas port, thence up the Avon to Bath
in barges, for it was navigable so far, and finally transferred to other craft to be taken eventually
to their destination. It appears to be the "ditch" referred to by Plato in his description of the
advanced civilisation of Atlantis.[65] In addition Bath was situated near the Mendip Hills, where
lay valuable silver-lead mines, regarded anciently as silver mines, which would create further
traffic.
This fair city, laid waste many times in its past history long before Vespasian both destroyed
and restored it, and who—or his son Titus—was reputed to have built the Roman baths, was four
centuries later again laid waste by the invading Saxons. Bath is built in the decayed crater of a.
very ancient volcano, its amphitheatre of hills, like Lansdown and Beechen Cliff, having formed
part of the original crateral walls. Formerly the city spread north-westward to Sion Hill, and to
Lansdown, which dominates the city below. Collinson, in his well-known History of Somerset,
says that Sion Hill originally possessed fortifications, and this same Sion (cp. Zion, God), may
explain Ezekiel's Sin, "the strength of Mizraim," the citadel of No-Ammon. In olden days Bath,
like every city of importance, possessed its fortress to which the people could resort in times of
danger.
Solsbury Hill, an almost isolated eminence to the north-east of the city, has a truncated summit
of thirty acres, but it bears no trace of any earthworks and lies too far from the city proper to
have been its fortress. Its name suggests a temple of the sun-god, but the unknown god of Bath
is represented by a large stone plaque of the head of a deity with head and beard composed of
fiery serpents. Some think it represents the Sun, and it bears a close resemblance to the coins of
Rhodes, an island of volcanic character where both Helios and Poseidon were honoured, primarily
the former if we remember our Odyssey. In the Antonine Iter the city is described as Aquae Solis,
the Waters of the Sun, and the Romans may have assumed that the British god Sul was their
Sol—as very likely he was. Yet for all that it may well represent Poseidon.
Linked with this unidentified deity—like the "unknown god" of Athens--was the goddess Minerva
or Athene, goddess of wisdom, and tutelary protectress of Bath, whose once magnificent temple
stood on the site of the present Pump Room. Her symbols, the helmet and owl, appear on many
a sculptured stone. Like Bath, Athens was built originally on a volcanic site and the ancient
tradition had it that Poseidon and Athene vied with one another as to which should become its
chief deity, a contest won by Athene. Bath in no way answers topographically to the historic
Athens, but the first Athens drowned in the Atlantean Flood may have been erected on the site
of Bath. I repeat it as merely a possible hypothesis.
Minerva's temple in Bath stood on the east of the Fosse Way, nearly midway between the North
and South Gates. Its portico was supported by large fluted Corinthian columns crowned with
sculptured capitals. The frieze, says Collinson, was decorated with gigantic images, figures of
birds and beasts—perhaps symbolical deities and "groups of foliage." There was found the
immense head of the unknown god with his fiery locks, and also a head of Artemis and, in
addition, a caduceus of Hermes. After the Roman withdrawal in A.D. 410, Bath's chequered
career remains a blank until it was overthrown by Ceawlin of Wessex, who took it by storm, and left it in ruins as recorded in a crude Saxon poem entitled "The Ruined City," which even then
must have retained some vestiges of its illustrious past. The verse is as follows:
Strange to behold is the stone
of this wall broken by fate,
The stronghold is bursten,
The work of giants decaying,
Roofs are fallen, towers are tottering,
And mouldering palaces are roofless.[66]
To what giants does the Saxon poet refer in this lament?
At all events as late as the reign of Henry VIII certain antiquities had survived the holocausts of
war. It was still a walled city, and by the North and South Gates statues and mural engravings
displayed, with other objects, a head of Hercules, and near it a whole length figure of the Hero
strangling two serpents; a foot soldier with sword and shield; several foliage wreaths; two images
embracing one another; two heads with ruffled locks and a running greyhound; near the West
Gate was a Medusa head and also Laocoön of Troy encompassed with serpents; between the
North and West Gates Cupids with wreaths of vine leaves and two images, one grasping a serpent;
an oblong stone with a statue of Persephone, consort of Pluto, Queen of Hades, with her
cornucopia thrown over her left shoulder; and also another Medusa head, shaking her snaky
locks.[67] Taken altogether these relics give an impression of not being the usual type of Roman
decorations, but more like as would be expected of Trojan survivals, such as Laocoön and the
Medusa heads.
Collinson says that the British name for Bath was Caer Palladwr, derived of course from Pallas
Athene, which might be translated as the city of Pallas, or the city of Wisdom, but it should be
recollected that the statue of Pallas also defended Troy. With all her vicissitudes, unlike cities
in Greece and elsewhere, Bath refused to expire. She was too vital, situated in the heart of affairs
in the ancient world, and to-day, exalted and venerable, she yet thrives as one of the oldest and
most beneficent cities in the history of the past. I recommend noble Bath to you as the heroic
No-Ammon, city of the Philistines, an illustrious and enterprising people, closely concerned with
King Arthur.
IV.
GADES OR SODOM AND AVONMOUTH
We will now pursue the antiquities of Wessex, in relation to Ab'Ram, his Israelites and Mizraim.
In discerning the history of the past and the part played in it by the people of the Bible and classic
nations, including also Plato's Atlanteans, one of the most important clues turns on the great port
of Tarshish, which through the ages bore various names. It was the city of Gad or Kadesh, it was
Gades or Gaddir or Gadara, and it also was Tartessus, the region of the traditional final destruction
of the giants when the gods defeated the giants and threw them deep in the earth; and it was, in
addition to all others, the city of Sodom.
As Gades it was mentioned by Plato in relation to the island of Atlantis. That famous Athenian
philosopher records that Gadeirus, the younger twin brother of Atlas, settled in the extremity of
the island in question and built the city called, as he says, Gades after him. Bible geographers,
who find it possible to slur over many Scripture sites, and conveniently ignore for example the
evident relationship between Tarshish and Gades, have always been in a quandary to explain
away the geographical position of Tarshish. They have to agree that it was identical with
Tartessus, and they compromise by vaguely conceding the point that, together with the Isles of
Chittim or the Isles of the West, it lay in Spain, and are consequently willing to recognise the
present city of Cadiz as the site of this ancient port, so famous in Bible history as the venue of
embarkation and return of the renowned ships of Tarshish which sailed to Ophir on their three-year voyages under the auspices of Hiram of Tyre and King Solomon, and was, moreover,
the great port for tin and other ores.
Nevertheless, it was not situate in Spain, for how could Gades, expressly described by Plato as
placed in the extremity of the island of Atlantis, have been on the mainland of Europe? Nor,
incidentally, could the Isles of Chittim, the "Tin Islands," have existed off the coasts of Spain,
where the ocean depths preclude any such possibility. But, say the wise men, Cadiz is a variation
of Gades, and if there has never been tin nearby it is found in the north of Spain. The answer to
such objections is that Cadiz only obtained the name of Gades as late as in the time of Julius
Caesar, so its prehistoric value is nothing, that the tin north of Lusitania was not mined in
prehistoric days and that the "Tin Islands" were known as the Cassiterides, and these definitely
lay off Britain, not Spain. For all that, when Bible experts are compelled to concede that Tarshish
and the Isles of Chittim lay in the West—in the Atlantic region—it opens up a big question, for
they are inseparable from the geography of Palestine.
How in this case did Palestine exist in the Near East? Why did Hiram's and Solomon's ships sail
to and from this port in the Atlantic, more than 2,500 miles supposedly from Tyre or Joppa?
To disclose the real site of Gades or Tarshish, I will first touch on Gadara or Gadaris, prominent
in the times of the Maccabees under that name, but really the same city. Let us recollect that the
apocryphal books of the Bible were composed various ages by scribes sometimes differing not
only in epochs, but in nationality as well. Gadara was a place of strength and noted for its remedial
waters. It stood, we are told, at the extremity of the Great Plain, which included Bashan, and
adjoined the Sea of Galilee, as also did Hamath. It was famed for the healing virtues of its thermal
and medicinal springs fed by a stream called Callirhoë, among its patrons being Herod the Great,
who took the waters of Gadara as a cure for the abdominal disease from which he died in great
agony, probably from cancer. Strabo says that the citadel of Gadara stood on a height, at whose
foot on the banks of the river were warm and healing springs and baths called Amatha--the Greek
rendering of Hamath.
The name Callirhoë, given to the spring or springs, is curious for it was the same name mythically
borne by the legendary mother of Geryon, who dwelt on an island near Gades, and it was also
given to the water supply of Athens, according to Thucydides. These curative waters of Gadara,
called Callirhoë, are related by Josephus to Lake Asphaltitis, near Sodom, and were associated
in some way with the destruction of Sodom. Lake Asphaltites, a seismic or meteoric lake of tar
or pitch—like many similar lakes caused by earthquakes in modern times—in the time of the
Maccabees had dwindled into a mere pond.[68]
My previous researches have led to the mouth of the River Avon and the Severn Mouth, or "Great
Hamath," and I mentioned that the Sea of Galilee could apply to none other than the Bristol
Channel, the true Galil or Gaul, a name having every relation to Galil or Wales but none to the
Near East. In this vicinity stood the city of Gadara and I claim that we may identify the citadel
of Gadara with the precipitous eminence, a prehistoric fortress, controlling the north bank of the
Avon at Clifton, 12 miles west of Bath. This eminence was known as Gaer Oder, City of the
Chasm, the former seat of an Arch-Druid, and stands immediately over St. Vincent's Rocks. It
covers an area of about 510ft. by 300 ft., and is connected with the two forts on the opposite
bank of the river, one being Burwalls, and also with a defence system which embraces the Bristol
area for many miles. At the foot of this eminence of Caer Oder is the site of former hot wells
and baths to this day commemorated by a railway station bearing the name of Hot Wells—such
is Progress!
The legend of King Bladud, cured of leprosy, by the hot thermal waters, as related by Geoffrey
of Monmouth, is that Bladud, the father of King Lear, being afflicted with leprosy, was driven
an outcast from his throne. He became a swineherd on the banks of the Avon, and observing that
his swine, suffering from sores and scabs, were wont to plunge madly down the river's steep bank to wallow in hot mud caused by a subterranean thermal stream issuing there, and were freed of their sores, followed their example and found himself cured of his leprosy. Thus restored to
health and to his throne he built hot baths at Bath, setting one expressly apart for lepers, and one
such bath existed there in Collinson's time, as he mentions, not much over a century ago. Whether
Bladud erected the baths at Clifton or at Bath itself may be problematical, for the supposed site
of his cure is still named Swineford and lies about halfway between the two. If these hot streams
emanated from the direction of Sodbury, east of the present Bristol and the coalfield, the possible
site of Lake Asphaltitis, as the original source of their heat, might be explained.
There is another significant indication of its Bible relationship.
Gadara, as all know, provided the story of the Gadarene swine, one of the most striking Parables
of Jesus of Nazareth, and Jesus, it might be permissible to remark, according to Glastonbury and
Cornish traditions, was known to the people in the West-country, and as a boy accompanied his
uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, who later founded the first Christian church in Glastonbury. The
parable of the swine of Gadara who dashed down a steep place into the sea would have failed
of its intent had not His listeners understood its application to relate to a well-known episode,
otherwise the Bladud legend, In this story, therefore, we find in close proximity the origin of the
Gadarene swine tradition and Gadara itself where was Hot Wells.
That Gadara was situate on a precipitous height by a river is emphasised by Josephus who relates
that the Gadarenes clamoured against the tyrannical Herod, and in desperation “some of them
threw themselves down precipices and others cast themselves into the river and destroyed
themselves of their own account."[69] The Jewish historian portrays in these words a citadel by
a river with precipitous cliffs such as Clifton affords, and some sought death by throwing
themselves into the river below. Is it by chance that this very site of Caer Oder, the City of the
Chasm, commands just such a chasm, to-day spanned by the Clifton Suspension Bridge, from
whence many an unhappy soul has committed suicide? The alleged site of Gadara in Palestine
explains none of these matters, but really it has no existence at all except as part of an arid plain.
We read in the Wars of Josphephus that Vespasian captured and destroyed Gadara, where many
rich men dwelt.[70] Yes—at Gades, not in the arid wastes of the Near East! Vespasian destroyed
Gadara as he destroyed Bath nearby!
We now turn to the evidence of the Roman writer, Rufus Festus Avienus, who vividly describes
the west coast of England from Land's End northwards, in the fourth century A,D., and who
visited Gaddir, as Gadara or Gades was then named, or utilised the earlier information of the
Carthaginian mariner Himilco.[71] According to his Orae Maritimae, and starting from
“Œstrymnis" Peninsula (the Farthest West Peninsula), his name for Land's End, he describes
with a wealth of detail the coastline from Cornwall to the mouth of the Avon and beyond. He
mentions that beyond the strait he has described (the English Channel), the sea develops a vast
gulf to the Isle of Ophiusa (that is, “Serpent” Isle), and states that the mainland opposite was
called Œstrymnis, and was inhabited by the Œstrymnici (Extreme or Far Western people), but
that "a multitude of serpents drove out the inhabitants of Ophiusa and gave the name to an
abandoned land."
This reference, concerned with the coastline along the west of Cornwall and Devon, can only
apply to Lundy. That strange, granite earthquake-racked island, which lies twelve miles off
Hartland Point, answers in every way to Ophiusa, for "serpent" was consistently employed by
the ancients to indicate celestial fire or lightning, accompanying an earthquake frequently, or if
struck by a meteor. Its towering and perpendicular cliffs yield every evidence of its former
devastation from on high, notably the Devil's Lime Kiln, a deep-funnelled cavity gouged out of
the rock by some celestial weapon, its missing portion being probably the Shutter Rock nearby;
its Punch Bowl, another meteoric residue; and, in another category, an ancient logan stone,
indicating its ancient inhabitants. This island, once far greater in size, was at some time pulverised
by a celestial bombardment of extreme violence and all signs of its former occupation were swept away except for a few tumuli and the logan stone aforesaid. Incidentally, here may remain one
of the Isles of Chittim, the Isles of the West, which included the original Cyprus, once the resort
of the fleets of Tyre and Tarshish. Ovid, we recall, in his Metamorphoses, accorded this very
same name of Ophiusa to Cyprus, which was devastated by earthquake.
Proceeding northward from Ophiusa Isle, Avienus next mentions a temple consecrated to the
goddess of the Lower Regions, a "grotto of deep obscurity" which lay beside the "vast marsh
called Erebea." This vast marsh or swamp agrees entirely with the former inland and marshy
lagoon of Somerset, to which the Romans accorded the name of Uxella. The allusion to Erebea
recalls the "Meribah in Kadesh" of the O.T., both being probably derived from the Hebr, Erebh,
the dark or west side of the earth, like Erebus, a name for the Underworld, with which the obscure
grotto sacred to the goddess of Hades, Persephone, accords as consistent with this region. Mr.
Whatmore, in his Insulae Britannicae, suggests, that the name of Europe, fabled "sister" of
Cadmus and Cilix, whom they went to seek in the west, was another version of Erebus or Erebh,
and it originally indicated, not the present Europe, but only the farthest west of Britain.
This ancient waterway, most of it formerly swampy except where certain heights stood out as
islands, owing to its low level into which surged the tides and the outgoings from four rivers,
stretched from the foot of the Mendip Hills to the vicinity of Taunton. Collinson thus describes
it: "The coast from this point (the mouth of the Parrett) northward is flat and composed of vast
sandbanks, repelling the inundation of the sea, and which, in ancient times, precedent to the birth
of history, washed over these shoals and flowed up into the country to a very considerable
distance, covering with its waters that vast territory called Brent Marsh and the moors as far as
Glastonbury and Somerton."[72] Altogether it occupied an area of over four hundred square
miles.
From this Erebea, then, Avienus sailed onwards and observed other landmarks. In citing him I
place the suggested interpretations in brackets:
Thence from the marsh flows the Iberus [River Brue] whose. waters fertilise the
fields, Most people aver that the Iberes owe their name to this river and not to that
Iberus which flows through the midst of the turbulent Vasconas [Spanish Ebro], for
all the territories which border the river on the west are called Iberian. The eastern
parts contain the Tartessians and the Cilbiceni [Celt-Iceni?).
---Then Mount Cassius rises [Tin Mountain] and because of it the Greek tongue has
given the name cassiteros to tin, One sees there a temple which advances to the sea
and the height of Gerontis [Worlebury], so-called by ancient Greece, viewed from
afar whence Geryon received his name. There stretch the coasts of the Tartessian
Gulf [Bristol Channel], and from the River Tartessus [River Parrett], to this place
[Gerontis] is a day's journey. There is the city Gaddir; first it was called Tartessus,
formerly a great and rich city, now despoiled, humble, poor, a heap of ruins. Except
for the cult of Hercules we have seen nothing remarkable about this place.
The River Tartessus, spreading widely from the Ligustian swamp [Uxella] covers
all parts in its course. It flows not in a single current, hollows out no one bed, but
from the side of the dawn washes across the fields by three channels, and by four
others washes the cities of the south, Above the Ligustian swamp stretches Mount
Argentarius [Mendip], so-called by the ancients because of its fame.[73]
When we analyse these statements more closely, certain Features emerge. Avienus' allusion to
the Iberus River, to-day the Brue, proves that he is speaking of Britain and not of Spain, for he
carefully discriminates between the Brue or Iberus and the Ebro (or Iberus), both drawing their
name from the Iberians, but that the Iberes of Britain were the older. As to the Iberes in the west
of Somerset differing from those in the east, it is a well-known fact that an Iberian people inhabited the western parts of Somerset from the Neolithic period at least, in contrast to those
of the eastern parts. Knight says that the eastern Somerset folk are yet tall with fair hair and dark
eyes; those of the western half are shorter with darker skins and hair.[74]
The description of the River Tartessus completely agrees with the character of the Parrett, the
principal Somerset river apart from the Avon. It does advance through the agricultural lands by
three channels or tributaries, the Isle, Ivel, and Tone; they do flow from the east; and four streams
meander through the former Uxella, namely the Parrett itself, the Brue, Axe, and the north
Somerset Yeo, which formerly helped to flood the swamp which Avienus called the Ligustian
swamp as well as Erebea. The Tin Mountain Cassius is a likely reference to the zinc mines of
Mendip, where zinc of old was often identified with tin as an alloy of copper. Mount Argentarius
is more easily recognised as relating to the once famous silver-lead workings on Mendip, an
ancient industry largely exploited by the Romans.
Some years ago a large pig of silver-lead was unearthed at Charterhouse-on-Mendip, stamped
with the letters EX ARGVE., interpreted as "from the silver-bearing vein," but the word could
better still have signified, ex Argentario vena, from the Argentarius mine or vein, for the one is
a generalisation, the other characterises and qualifies the exact location on Mendip. Mendip
silver-lead, it may be added, was once esteemed as silver and as such was minted by Charles II,
William III, and the three succeeding monarchs, hall-marked with the rose.[75]
Another direct pointer to the direction of Gaddir is the reference to the height of Gerontis.
According to mythology Geryon dwelt on an island called "Erythia the Reddish," where his oxen
were guarded by the three-headed monster Eurytion and his two-headed dog, Orthros. Hercules,
in his tenth Labour reached Geryon's island by sea, seized his oxen and sailed with them to
Tartessus, after which he erected one of his famous pillars at Gades and the other in Libya
opposite, the latter allusion to the Pillars being possibly a later embellishment.
Geryon, a king or magician, according to one version a son of the Gorgon Medusa, famed for
"magic" arts, and to another as the son of Chrysaor, the Pelasgic name for Hephaestus, the arch
sorcerer, dwelt near Gades or Tartessus in the hitherto fabulous Garden of the Hesperides. These
clues to Geryon's "magical" connections, added to his monstrous guardian-familiar Eurytion and
his barking, savage, two-headed dog, Orthros, convey in such matters the suggestion that the
island was strongly fortified by certain ancient ordnance, possibly by three barking guns one
direction and two lesser pieces in another. To get to the truth one must euhemerism such tales.
Geographically we realise its close proximity to Gades or Tartessus, and that, it is seen, lay in
the vicinity of the Bristol Channel. When Hercules erected his Pillars, one at Gades or
thereabouts, and the other at Libya opposite, it may be noted that, according to Avienus, Libya
faced the left coast of Europe, which, he indicates in another work, represented Ireland.[76] Thus
we may find a solution to the meaning attached to the Pillars of Hercules.
We may identify with some certainty, I think, that the reddish island of Erythia was the red and
rocky peninsula of Worlebury Camp, which towers above the town of Weston-super-Mare, a
former outlying and very powerful fortress which guarded the sea approach to the Avon, and
also defended the silver mines of Mendip. The stratum of this notable landmark is red marl of
which a vein stretches southward in a narrow band from opposite Caer Oder and of which
Worlebury is the outlier crop. Its summit there is crowned with the remains of stupendous stone
fortifications, and it possesses in addition some 93 unexplained pits, thought by some antiquarians
to have been former storage places for the silver-lead ore mined on the adjoining Mendips.
But what did the "oxen" signify which Hercules traditionally seized from Geryon's hold? Sir
William Ridgeway, whose authority in regard to Greek mythology and antiquities few would
question, has contended that in prehistoric times "oxen" were actually ingots or pigs of silver,
stamped with an ox head, it being the original token of value. Here, may we say, lies the possible
( Page 62 )
explanation. Geryon's "oxen" were stamped ingots or pigs of the silver-lead ore from the
Argentarius mine!
Avienus has therefore conducted us from one outstanding topographical feature to another until
we attain the Avon River a little beyond the ancient, one could say fabulous, island of Geryon,
except that an understanding of its site and purpose makes the mythical at once logical and proper.
The region we have been examining of Somerset—and, as will be duly seen, the most sacred
pagan territory in all Britain, not excluding Iona and Staffa—leads us directly to the port of Gades
or Tartessus itself, as Avienus states, only a day's journey (sail) from the mouth of the Tartessus
(or Parrett) River. This coastal region was once a part of the territories of the tribe of Gad, this
explaining many "Cad" (i.e. Gad) place-names in it to this day.
The situation of Gades included the famous silver mines of antiquity, and it was noted also for
its fisheries. Strabo mentions. that tunny fish were caught in large numbers off the coast—as
they are yet—and that shell-fish were also abundant.[77] The salted eels of Tartessus, as
Aristophanes observes, were a delicacy at Athenian tables. It so happens that the inland waters
of Somerset were, and are yet, particularly renowned for the great quantity of eels they produce.
In Doomsday Book two eel fisheries belonging to Muchelney Abbey alone produced 6,000 eels
annually. Young eels, known as elvers, come up the Parrett in immense numbers every spring
from across the ocean, and are, or were, made into appetising fish-cakes.[78] But beyond all,
Tarshish was famed for its silver mines, and there the Romans employed some 40,000 slaves,
from which 25,000 drachmas of silver were refined yearly.[79] Jeremiah mentions that "silver
spread into plates is brought from Tarshish," which suggests that as far back as his day the silverl•
lead of Mendip was known and being worked.[80] The truth is we know so little about our
country until after the Roman occupation.
All this coastal region of Somerset therefore is described by Avienus as Tartessian. Here lay the
great metal centre of remote antiquity, the ores from Cornwall, Devon also, including tin, copper,
lead, zinc, silver (silver-lead), and even gold from washings in certain areas, brought by track
or boat to their destination to be smelted and worked. Tin, so essential in the Bronze Age for the
manufacture of weapons of war, was vital as the essential alloy, and here it was in plenty and
nowhere else discoverable until far later.
It is often stated that tin was mined at or near Gadcs or Tarshish in southern Spain, altogether
misleading, accepted without examination, for the stratum contains no tin in that region, except
in the very north where there are few indications of prehistoric workings. Britain and the
Cassiterides were the one source. When Dionysius Periegetes says that "in the Hesperides,
whence comes tin, dwell the sons of the noble Iberes," he intended Britain. In the Book of Enoch,
which describes the feverish manufacture of arms in these very regions, the "Garden of Eden"
in the West, Enoch is conducted by an "Angel" to the "Garden of Righteousness" just before the
Flood, and perceives the dumps of raw materials. The passage continues:
A mountain of iron, a mountain of copper, of gold, of soft metal (tin), of lead. "What
are these which I have seen in secret?" he asked the Angel of Peace. He replied, "All
these things which thou hast seen shall serve the dominion of His Anointed that he
may be potent and mighty on the earth.'"[81]
In other words Enoch was shown dumps of various ores which had evidently been collected for
the enrichment or strength of "His Anointed." All this is depicted as happening in the Garden of
Eden, in Havilah, which as will be duly seen was situated in these very same parts.
Gades, Tarshish, or Tartessus, the great industrial city and port, exported ores and manufactured
goods to the civilised world. Isaiah terms her the "daughter of Tyre," as certainly may be said to
have been the case, closely associated with the "Isles of Chittim," or "Isles of the West," with
Elishah, where according to Ezekiel, purple and scarlet silk was produced for sails of ships.[82]
The "pedigree" chapter of Genesis states that Javan was the "father" of Elishah, as also of
Tarshish, the Isles of Chittim, and Dodanim (or Dedanim), all being termed "sons of die
Gentiles,"[83] Javan in turn is given as the "son" of Gomer, and Josephus adds to this by saying
that the latter was the progenitor of the Gomerii or Galatai, who were the Cimrnerians, or, as I
have striven to show in my former work, the Chaldaeo-Phoenicians.[84]
These genealogical names are mainly geographical. Javan (or Avan) appears thus to represent
none other than the River Avon, and hence "Javan" is used occasionally to signify Tarshish,
situated on that same river. The Isle of Chittim (or Kittim) were the Isles of the Cassi, or Catti,
known as the Cassiterides, or "Tin Islands," most of which have been destroyed or submerged
by various cataclysms or earthquakes which have periodically afflicted the coasts of Cornwall
and North Devon and Somerset. Whether Elishah were an island or not is uncertain, but mention
of the manufacture of purple and scarlet silks for sails suggests its proximity to Tarshish. The
Dedanim (not Dodanim, nor the marginal Rodanim) were placed in the area of Taunton, on the
verge of the Parrett River. Thus we find Ezekiel saying, "Dan and Javan going to and fro occupied
thy (Tyre's) markets,"[85] meaning that the sons of Dan (Dedan) and the men of Tarshish were
busily engaged in trading with Tyre. Synonyms like "Javan" to imply Tarshish were popular
with the prophets just as they also expressed the maritime strength of Tarshish in the words "ships
of Chittim."
Tarshish possessed a great ship-building trade besides being a port, for it not only lay in the most
convenient site on the "Great Sea" or Ocean, but employed a large army of skilled labour engaged
in maritime pursuits as mariners and shipwrights. The port had all the materials handy, such as
timber caulking with tar, sails and other equipment for extended voyages. Sails were an essential
factor in her industrial pursuits. They were made, like tents, from the long silky hair of a special
breed of goats, kept for that purpose, and Avienus, describing the country near Tartessus, says
that on a rocky shore numerous long-haired goats wandered in the undergrowth or scrub, their
hair furnishing a strong and unbreakable silk for making tents and sails, and were specially bred
for that purpose.[86] Plato refers to the same trade indirectly, when he says that Gadeirus, the
twin brother of Atlas, who built Gades, signified "rich in goats.'
Josephus, in stating that Tarshish was a son of Javan (or Avon), adds the illuminating words, for
"so was Cilicia of old called.'[87] This goat silk or mohair was named cilicium, the name; derived
from Cilix, the brother of Cadmus, who corresponds to Lot as Cadmus does to Ab'Ram. Cilicium,
when given a sibilant pronunciation, is analogous to our word "silk," in Old English, "silk," and
silk or siluk was the name given to the mohair.
In this we face a strange problem when we consider that Javan was called Cilicia, that the
specially cultivated mohair was named cilicium, and that this relationship is all linked up with,
Tarshish or Tartessus in the west, like the Isles of Chittim, and yet we apparently find another
Cilicia in Asia Minor, also with a city named Tarsus or Tarshish, where St. Paul was supposed
to have been born and to have been a tent-maker. I can only presume that the Asiatic Tarsus and
Cilicia were colonised by the Phoenicians, and named afterwards, but as for St. Paul, there are
most circumstantial accounts of his travels and missions and residence in Britain, accounts which
it would be blindness to ignore for they are authenticated in many ways apart from his friend
and convert Claudia, wife of Pudens, who was a British woman of noble birth, whom Marcian
praises for her beautiful blue eyes and red hair.[88]
Apart from this Cilician origin of St. Paul there is also St. George, England's patron saint, also
reputed to have been a Cilician. "It is generally known," says a writer on the subject, "that Cilicia
is the native country of the renowned St. George, who was born at Epiphaneia, a small town near
the Amavian Gates, in a fuller's shop."[89] Epiphaneia, incidentally, was a later name said to
have been given to Hamath. Other accounts say he was born, martyred, and buried at Lydda, in
Saron; that he was a tribune under Diocletian; that he was Archbishop of Alexandria, murdered
by a furious rabble in A.D. 361, and that Constantine the Great dedicated the church of St. George
( Page 64 )
to him at Alexandria as the warrior saint. Finally, the Welsh had a tradition that he fought and
slew the Dragon near Abergele, and show the marks of the hoofs of his steed to this day as
witness! For my part I should opine that he was a variation of St. Michael, as he in turn became
a Christian apotheosis of Apollo or Horus.
64s
These lands of the West, including the Cilicia (or silk area) that was Javan, are referred to in a
striking passage in the Book of Judith. King Nabuchodonosor, King of Assyria—who answers
to Sennacherib—sent his messengers "westward" to demand homage from all who dwelt in
Cilicia, Carmel, Galaad (Gilead), Galilee, and Kades, the "river of Egypt," Taphnes and Ramesse,
"until ye come beyond Tanis and Memphis."[90] Every one of these place-names can be identified
in the west of England, or in South Wales, and they all fit into the one region to which
undoubtedly they belonged. On the other hand, when transferred to the supposed sites relating
to the Scriptures, they are dispersed and rendered ridiculous. The Assyrian king on accepted
topography sent to Anatolian Turkey (as Cilicia); Palestine (as Carmel); Transjordania (as
Gilead); northern Palestine (as Galilee); also Kades or Kadesh (locality undetermined);Nile delta
(River of Egypt), which Delta also answers for Ramesses and Taphnes; and finally beyond Cairo
(Memphis). The Assyrians in question were not roving over a region of some 500 miles in length
and requiring a large array of armies to overcome it, while it is to be noted that only specified
places are named as in the west. The entire fabric of ancient geography requires complete revision
if we are to understand past history.
To return to British Cilicia, where the traditions of Ab'Ram and Lot agree so completely in
topography with Cadmus an Cilix, it is interesting to record that ancient coins of Tarshish, which
closely resemble pre-Roman coins of Britain, display a figure very like our Britannia, or a goat
with the inscription SEL or SIL, the proper pronunciation, no doubt, of a name derived from that
ancient word "siluk." Are our scholiasts justified in sounding so many Latin words beginning
with "C" as a hard "K"?
Tarshish had close and intimate relations with King Solomon in that monarch's maritime traffic,
with his store-houses at Hamath, and his ships sailed by men of Tarshish who went on their
three-year voyages to Ophir, or Paruaim, or Peru, the land of gold. His activities in the swamp
area of Somerset may possibly be recovered, but he certainly acquired the port of Ezion-geber
in Edom, where he built ships taken to Tarshish to form part of the convoy to Ophir.[91] How,
in the modern interpretation of Bible geography, were ships built in Edom able to go by sea to
Tarshish? Edom, or Dumah, later Idumæa, was really the present Cornwall and part of Devon,
and was given the name of Dumnonia in Roman days in Britain. The resemblance of Cornwall
to a man's leg is the otherwise inexplicable sentence of the Psalmist, "Over Edom will I cast my
shoe," perhaps a somewhat grim topographical jest. Edom is to-day. dumped in the Arabian
desert as desert it has been from early geological ages, and yet Edom is praised for her culture,
fertility, industry, and her wealth in Biblical times.
In 1939 an industrious American archaeologist, Professor Nelson Glueck, of the U.S. School of
Oriental Research, "discovered" Ezion-geber at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, in Southern
Arabia. His authority for such a claim was that he found some walls, remnants of nondescript
pottery, and signs of smelting, the rest being a prodigious amount of wishful thinking. Consider
what that site would have meant. There was no Suez Canal in those days! Thus these ships to
reach Tarshish, whence they set out with Hiram's on those long voyages, would have been
compelled to sail round the entire African Continent, and up the Atlantic to the River Avon; or,
if we presume for argument's sake that the Tarshish was the Cilicia now supposedly Anatolia,
after rounding Africa they would have had to sail the entire length of the Mediterranean Sea to
boot! Geography ridicules the theory. We read that in the reign of Jehoshaphat, ships built in
Ezion-geber, intended to sail for Ophir via Tarshish, were "broken," and unable to go thither.[92]
The inference was that they had not far to sail to Tarshish but were wrecked on their way.
I propose that the real site of Ezion-geber was the ancient town of Marazion, in Cornwall,
adjoining St. Michael's Mount, a mining centre like the land of Edom. Marazion from ancient
times has been known locally as "Jews' Town," as also its ancient smelting sites have been
designated "Jews' Houses," from time immemorial. In the reign of Henry VIII it was yet a port
and smelting town of importance, returned two members of Parliament and was described by
Leland as a "great long town" Gold was once mined at West Webburn and below Lethidor, with
tin from Redruth to Totnes, where there once flourished tin and copper mines. Sir Edward Creasy,
in his History of England, perhaps spoke more truly than he knew when he said, "The British
mines mainly supplied the glorious adornment of Solomon's temple." The name of Marazion
may be a corruption of mar or mer (cp. mare), and Azion or Ezion, both words being used of
old, while "geber" appears to be a variation of Eber or Heber, hence the name signifying the
Hebrew Azion or Ezion-on-sea. In Ward Lock & Co.'s Guide to Penzance, the writer says,
"There is a traditional story that Joseph of Arimathea himself was connected with Marazion,
when he and other Jews traded with the ancient tin-miners of Cornwall." St. Joseph of Arimathea
was certainly closely connected with Avalon or Glastonbury.
Returning now to our main quest, Tarshish or Gades or Gaddir, which Avienus treats with scant
respect as in ruins, humble, and poor; and with the evidence of the Avon estuary where the grim
fortress of Caer Oder, otherwise Gadara, commanded the Avon six miles from its mouth, we
must necessarily turn our eyes to Bristol, of which the prehistoric fortress is an outlier. Bristol
stands on a tongue of land, forming a peninsula, bounded on two sides by the Avon and Frome
which unite in the city, and by the Bristol Channel on the other. Built partly on low ground,
partly on eminences, its importance in Roman times is demonstrated by a chain of twenty-five
forts or camps extending for forty miles to the north-east, beginning from Caer Oder, and all in
direct signalling call from one to another in case of need.
From as early a date as any records exist, Bristol conducted a considerable shipping trade,
especially with the Irish and Scandinavian lands. It exported salt fish, including tunny and eels,
as well as rough cloth to the Baltic and Ireland. The trade with Wales was also large and there
existed a trajectus or ferry service between Portishead, on the southern mouth of the Avon, and
Portskewit. Phelps, the historian and antiquarian of Somerset, speaks of Bristol as the great port
of the Brigantes, whence the city acquired the name of Brigastow or Brigstow.[93] It commanded
the passages across the Severn, and the Romans, who desired to control this lucrative trade,
blockaded the Severn with a chain of forts, their pretext being to protect the city from the
incursions of the Silures. This so angered the Bristol rulers that they foolishly declared war on
Rome, because the Romans interfered with their traffic in ores and probably in coal transport.[94]
It seems likely that the sequel to this war was the ruined city of Gaddir spoken of by Avienus.
A few remarks should be made here about the Brigantes. At the time of the Claudian invasion
of A.D. 43, according to Tacitus, the Brigantes were the most populous and important of British
tribes, with their capital in York. From Solway Firth and the Tyne this people dominated the
country south between the Mersey and Humber, excluding Wales and East Anglia, or the south
as a whole. They seem to have acted from the first as allies of the Romans, early made peace
and traded with them, They betrayed Caractacus, the great leader of the Silures, the British
Caradoc, a damning spot in their history.[95]
The Triads refer to them as the Gwyddelian Fichti (Goidels), who came over the sea of Llychlyn,
and united with the Saxons to deprive the Cymry of the monarchical crown. They dwelt first in
"Alban" or Albany, and there is little doubt that they were actually descended from the Trojans
or Phrygians, who occupied Scotland from Fifeshire to the Solway Firth as the ancient Dalriae
legends describe. Procopius terms them "Phrissones" (Frisians), and they apparently first invaded
Britain about c. 1103 B.C., from Frisia and the Low Countries. The scepticism respecting the
well-authenticated Trojan dynasty in Britain, although accepted unquestionably in Elizabeth's
time, is mainly because their origin as Phrygians is wrongly ascribed to Asia Minor. They may
be traced properly to Hanover and the Low Countries. Baxter, a learned antiquarian, classifies them as Phrygians, later Frisian, who became masters of almost all Europe at an early date, and
says they spoke the Frisian tongue.[96]
In their own annals they claimed to be originally descended from the tribe of Gad, and if
Herodotus be correct in stating that the Bryges or Brygi of Thrace claimed to have been the
ancestors of the Phrygians or Trojans, this is justified, for their origin was that of the Chaldeans
or Caledonians, the original home of the tribe of Gad or the Cushites, as I have previously
indicated. This claim is commemorated in a bardic poem of Caedmon, the Brigantine poet,
entitled, "I sing of the origin of the Gadalians," in which he claimed that Breoganus, descended
from Gad, founded Brigantia in "Spain" and that his posterity sailed for Ireland. Chas. Squire
(in Myths of the British Islands) says that "Spain" in ancient traditions was often a synonym
for the Celtic Underworld, but on the authority of Ortelius the Brigantes were certainly also
settled in Waterford and Kilkenny.
Tradition speaks of their city named Brigantium or Brigantia, where Breoganus built a pharos
or lighthouse from whence he espied Ireland and sent a colony there. Orosius, the historian, says
that Brigantium was built by the Tyrian Hercules—like Gades or Gaddir—and Posidonius locates
it near the "port of the Artabrians," which would point towards Bristol. Bardic legends speak of
emigration from Brigantium to Ireland under two chiefs named Eremon (or Heremon) and Eber,
and infer that it lay in Britain. It is likely, however, that Brigantium lay in Galloway, now
Wigtownshire. It would seem that they entered Britain some 200 years after the Great
Catastrophe, and subsequently established or re-established Bristol, the original city of Gad or
Gades in the west, as their port. Bristol is mentioned in the Roman Notitia as Brig, in conjunction
with Avernum, the Severn
Although this historic port must have occupied more or less the site of Bristol, there is reason to
believe that Gades occupied a considerable area on the south side of the Avon where lies
Portishead—head of the port! An ancient British track way led from where is now Gloucester
to Caer Oder, and, crossing the Avon at the Chasm, continued through a narrow defile and the
steep escarpment on either side, at the summit being the two strong camps of Stokeleigh and
Burwalls, facing one another They both possess a double fosse or ditch with a triple agger or
mound formed originally of large stones cemented with pure lime. Stokeleigh is the more
elaborately fortified of the two.
Continuing from Stokeleigh (331 ft.) there is a range of red, marl hills which crosses a peninsula
from Long Ashton to Clevedon with Worlebury beyond, giving a ridgeway never below 450 ft.,
sometimes rising to above 500 ft., and thus forms the base of a triangular promontory of which
Portishead is the apex, washed by the Avon mouth or the Bristol Channel on either side.
Stokeleigh and Bourton Water are at the northern extremity of the base and Cadbury Camp I at
its southern, having Failand (with an ancient camp) in its centre. Inside this triangular piece of
land was a fort at Portbury, at the mouth of the Avon, and Portishead—"head of the Port"—was
protected by a fort of 16 acres in size on Macs Knoll, a wooded height to-day. Such is the region
of what may have been, and very likely was, the original city of Gades or Tartessus.
Along the base of this aforesaid triangle are four villages strangely named Easton-in-Gordano
(East Town), Clapton-in-Gordano (Middle Town. O.E.), Weston-in-Gordano (West Town), and
near the last-named, at the extremity, Walton-inGordano (Wall Town), the town by the wall.
These names signify a former city with its east, middle, west, and walled area, a city of
considerable size, but what is the significance of "in- Gordano?" The Wades suggest a derivation
from "gorden" or "gordene," signifying a wedge-shaped piece of land.[97] cannot believe that
four quarters of an ancient town stressed that they were built merely in a wedge shape, such as
"Easton-in-the wedge." Rather the names appear to preserve a city of great and ancient repute
and I should conjecture that the words "in-Gordano" signified simply "in-the-Garden," not any
ordinary garden, but the Garden of Eden, or Garden of the Lord, the sacred spot immortalised
by the Scriptures and classic writers; and that here lay the original city of Sodom, the southern
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city, from whence those represented by Lot fled to seek refuge from the destruction of these parts
and sought refuge in caves of Mendip nearby. Such a possibility would fit in with many other
matters in this marvellous region of remote antiquity.
In view of the importance and amplitude of Gades, or Tarshish, or Tartessus, we must recollect
that at its door and under its control lay the silver mines of Mendip. One "Cadbury" fort has been
noted, and there is a second on the edge of the Mendip country, a name which implies the
influence of Cad or Gad, Gades being also known as Kades or Kadesh. Beyond Cadbury Camp
II stands Dolbury Camp with a huge vallum of stone and an immense fosse, considered by
antiquarians to have been used as a watch-tower in the vicinity of the mines. Another landmark
relating to the famous silver mines (so-called) takes us again to Worlebury, which I have proposed
was the original of the Height of Gerontis, for Worlebury, continuing as the strata of red marl,
lies near the "in-Gordano" area of a formerly largely inhabited site. Of this height Phelps observes
It is singularly formed and of great antiquity; and from its commanding situation
must have been a most important post, connected no doubt with the commercial
intercourse of the Phoenicians and subsequent navigators of these seas. It commands
the course of the Severn completely and consists of a huge vallum defended in the
north by the rocky escarpment of the hill. There are various traces of earthworks.[98]
It was thus evidently a considerable stronghold both by sea and land, and the unexplained 93
pits which have been considered to have been repositories for the ingots or pigs of lead, from
the Mendip Mines [whereby Geryon's "Oxen," as was explained by Professor Ridgeway that
"oxen" was a term used to describe such ingots stamped with an ox head as a sign of value], give
a common sense explanation of the raid by Hercules, perhaps one carried out by the sons of Dan,
who dwelt not far away and were given to such adventures.
To sum up the preceding evidence of the past, I may claim that the strongest case has been made
out---so far as evidence of prehistoric times is available—to prove that the great city of Gad, or
Tarshish, or Tartessus, stood on the site of Bristol and on the opposite bank of the Avon River,
the "Javan" of the Scriptures, on the promontory where is Portishead, the Head of the Port. What
port? Hamath? Portbury cannot explain the name sufficiently.
These place-names afford striking evidence of the past, and Somerset has no fewer than 17 forts
or barrows named Cad, an indication of the ubiquity of the famous tribe. Then take the case of
Gadara, where in conjunction with the entire surroundings it is surely impossible to dismiss
features so characteristic as the hot springs, and the citadel on a height by a river commanding
a deep precipice, together with the legend of the Gadarene swine and the story of King Bladud
and the swine whose example cured him of his leprosy; or take the detailed description of
outstanding features given by Avienus along the shores from Land's End to the city of Gaddir,
his account of the swamp lands which covered so much of Somerset until about a hundred years
ago when they were drained; or the silver mines so-called, and used as such by our own modern
kings to mint coins; or that outstanding mine of Argentarius, corroborated by a stamped ingot
bearing the first three letters of the word; or that Javan was called Cilicia according to Josephus,
the region where the' long-haired goats were cultivated for the manufacture of sails and tents at
Tartessus or Tarshish; or the remarkable antiquities of Worlebury which appear to be associated
with the mythological Geryon—these are outstanding indications which point to the climax,
namely the site of the great port which apparently the Brigantes named Brigstow, whence our
modern Bristol. Can all this accumulated evidence be cast aside as of little account?
Whether or no I am justified in attributing the significance of those so strangely named villages
on the border of the ancient city of Tarshish, "in-Gordano," as a stressing of the claim that they
were situated in the "Garden of the Lord," or the "Garden of the Hesperides," or, the Scriptural
term, the "Garden of Eden," may be conjectural for I have yet to produce the evidence which
proves this to have been the case. The Garden of Eden was placed by the ancient scribes who composed the Old Testament as in: the region of Havilah, and here it was in that same region
that we are told Sodom or Kadesh was destroyed by fire from Heaven. If any doubt the application
of such descriptions to these ancient parts, perhaps almost the oldest inhabited land as witness
the geological evidence of the Mendip Caves, permit me to cite a description of the heritage of
Israel according to Ezekiel, on the south and west:
And the south side southward, from Tamar to the waters of Meribah (or strife) in
Kadesh, the river (or valley) to the great sea. The west side shall be the great sea from
the border (or coast) till a man come over against Hamath. This is the west side.[99]
Do we not find the River Tamar, bordering on North Devon and Cornwall? Cannot we trace the
waters of Meribah in the "great marsh" of Erebea as described by Avienus, where the "waters
of strife" relate to a special event in those parts? Have we not the "Great Sea" in the Atlantic
Ocean beating against those same shores in the west? And have we not Hamath defined as the
mouth of the Avon, where stood the famed city of Kadesh or Gades?
One may stretch the long arm of coincidence but stretch it too far, and it collapses! These famous
and sacred spots in the history not only of Britain but of the world of long ago fit into their
allotted place, as I have said before, like a huge mosaic pavement, not yet completely filled in,
it is true, but sufficiently to give an outline of the other parts belonging to it. For as yet I have
not completed my task, which is to describe the last days of the ancient world before the Great
Catastrophe as it unfolds and revolves largely around these very parts. There is yet the subject
of Avalon or Glastonbury and its surroundings to be considered, perhaps the most revealing
centre of all in the hitherto concealed history of the past, as it reached its appointed end for a
period only to emerge once more like the Phoenix when it renewed its life.
Thus I now turn to the hidden story of Glastonbury.
next
V The Romance of Glastonbury
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