Thymiaterium

For the religious object, see Thymiaterion.

Thymiaterium or Thymiaterion (Ancient Greek: Θυμιατήριον),^[1] Scylax called it Thymiaterias (Θυμιατηρίας),^[2] was an ancient Carthaginian colony in present-day Morocco. The Periplus (Περίπλους) of Hanno the Navigator claims that he founded it on his journey of exploration beyond the Pillars of Hercules.^[3][4] The manuscript is a copy of another Greek work which translated the Punic original and is part of the Codex Palatines Graecus 398 which belongs to the Heidelberg University.^[3]

Thymiaterium is seen here at the lower left, on what is now the Atlantic coast of Morocco.

According to Hanno, he founded the colony, the first of his journey, two days' sail past the Pillars of Hercules.^[5] Schoff, citing Karl Müller, identified it with the town of Mehedia, currently known as Mehdya. The location of Thymiaterium is also given at Mehedia in the Atlas of Ancient & Classical Geography.^[6] Hanno may have been deliberately vague about the location of colonies he founded to prevent enemies of Carthage from finding them.^[7]

References

1. Periplus of Hanno, 2
2. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Thymiaterion
3. Hanno: Carthaginian Explorer
4. Hanno the Navigator (1912). The Periplus of Hanno, a Voyage of Discovery down the African Coast, by a Carthaginian Admiral of the Fifth Century B.C. Translated by Schoff, Wilfred H. Philadelphia: Secretary of the Commercial Museum.
5. Hanno the Navigator (2)
6. Butler, Samuel (1907). Atlas of Ancient & Classical Geography. London: JM Dent & Co.
7. B. H. Warmington, Carthage, p. 64, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1960 Internet Archive OCLC 59366

Karl Müller, Geographi Græci Minores, vol. 1, Firmin-Didot, 1882