Atlantis and the Silver City

by Peter Daughtrey

  In the next place, they had fountains, one of cold and another of hot water, in gracious plenty flowing; and they were wonderfully adapted for use by reason of the pleasantness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings about them and planted suitable trees; also they made cisterns, some open to the heavens, others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths; there were the kings’ baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept apart; and there were separate baths for women, and for horses and cattle, and to each of them they gave as much adornment as was suitable. Of the water which ran off they carried some to the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil, while the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts along the bridges to the outer circles; and there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some for men, and others for horses in both of the two islands formed by the zones; and in the center of the larger of the two there was set apart a racecourse of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all around the island, for horses to race in. Also there were guardhouses at intervals for the guards, the more trusted of whom were appointed to keep watch in the lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis, while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel, near the persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the royal palace.

  Leaving the palace and passing out across the three, you came to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbor, and enclosed the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest of the harbors were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices, and din and clatter of all sorts night and day.

  I have described the city and the environs of the ancient palace nearly in the words of Solon, and now I must endeavor to represent the nature and arrangement of the rest of the land. The whole country was said by him to be very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea; it was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia, but across the center inland it was two thousand stadia. This part of the island looked toward the south, and was sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains were celebrated for their number and size and beauty, far beyond any which still exist, having in them also many wealthy villages of country folk, and rivers, and lakes, and meadows supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and much wood of various sorts, abundant for each and every kind of work.

  I will now describe the plain, as it was fashioned by nature and by the labors of many generations of kings through long ages. It was for the most part rectangular and oblong, and where falling out of the straight line followed the circular ditch. The depth, and width, and length of this ditch were incredible, and gave the impression that a work of such extent, in addition to so many others, could never have been artificial. Nevertheless I must say what I was told. It was excavated to the depth of a hundred feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was carried around the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding around the plain and meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Farther inland, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to the sea: these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they brought down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth—in winter having the benefit of the rains of heaven, and in summer the water which the land supplied by introducing streams from the canals.

  As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had to find a leader for the men who were fit for military service, and the size of a lot was a square of ten stadia each way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand. And of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country there was also a vast multitude, which was distributed among the lots and had leaders assigned to them according to their districts and villages. The leader was required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a war chariot, so as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots; also two horses and riders for them, and a pair of chariot horses without a seat, accompanied by a horseman who could fight on foot carrying a small shield, and having a charioteer who stood behind the man-at-arms to guide the two horses; also, he was bound to furnish two heavy armed soldiers, two slingers, three stone-shooters, and three javelin men, who were light-armed, and four sailors to make up the complement of twelve hundred ships. Such was the military order of the royal city—the order of the other nine governments varied, and it would be wearisome to recount their several differences.

  As to offices and honors, the following was the arrangement from the first. Each of the ten kings in his own division and in his own city had the absolute control of the citizens, and, in most cases, of the laws, punishing and slaying whomsoever he would. Now the order of precedence among them and their mutual relations were regulated by the commands of Poseidon, which the law had handed down. These were inscribed by the first kings on a pillar of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the kings were gathered together every fifth and every sixth year alternately, thus giving equal honour to the odd and to the even number. And when they were gathered together they consulted about their common interests, and inquired if any one had transgressed in anything and passed judgment, and before they passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another in this wise:—There were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten kings, being left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the god that they might capture the victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the bulls, without weapons but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of it so that the blood fell upon the sacred inscription. Now on the pillar, besides the laws, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When, therefore, after slaying the bull in the accustomed manner, they had burned its limbs, they filled a bowl of wine and cast in a clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they put in the fire, after having purified the column all around. Then they drew from the bowl in golden cups and, pouring a libation on the fire, they swore that they would judge according to the laws on the pillar, and would punish him who in any point had already transgressed them, and that for the future they would not, if they could help, offend against the writing on the pillar, and would neither command others, nor obey any ruler who commanded them, to act otherwise than according to the laws of their father Poseidon. This was the prayer which each of them offered up for himself and for his descendants, at the same time drinking and dedicating the cup out of which he drank in the temple of the god; and after they had supped and satisfied their needs, when darkness came on, and the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of them put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on the ground, at night, over the embers of the sacrifices by which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple, they received and gave judgment, if any of them had an accusation to bring against anyone; and when they given judgment, at daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and dedicated it together with their robes to be a memorial.

  There were many special laws affecting the several kings inscribed about the temples, but the most important was the following: they were not to take up arms against one another, and
they were all to come to the rescue if any one in any of their cities attempted to overthrow the royal house; like their ancestors, they were to deliberate in common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to the descendants of Atlas. And the king was not to have the power of life and death over any of his kinsmen unless he had the assent of the majority of the ten.

  Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land for the following reasons, as tradition tells: for many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned toward the god, whose seed they were; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue, caring little for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtue and friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect for them, they are lost and friendship with them. By such reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we have described grew and increased among them; but when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable race was in a woeful plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most holy habitation, which, being placed in the center of the world, beholds all created things. And when he had called them together, he spake as follows:

  *The rest of the Dialogue of Critias has been lost.

  NOTES AND REFERENCES

  CHAPTER TWO

  1. Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock: William Heinemann, 1995.

  2. There is confusion about the exact dates of Plato’s life. Wikipedia gives 424/423 to 348/347.

  CHAPTER THREE

  3. The Antediluvian World, by Ignatius Donnelly: reprinted by Echo Library, 2006.

  4. Books on Atlantis by Charles Berlitz are The Mystery of Atlantis: Souvenir Press, 1976, and Atlantis, the Lost Continent: G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1984.

  5. Discovery of Atlantis, by Robert Sarmast: First Source Publications, 2006.

  6. U.S. Geological Survey of Mid-Atlantic Ridge, by Charles S. Piggot, 1936.

  7. The Sunken Kingdom, by Peter James: Pimlico, 1996.

  8. The Atlantis Blueprint, by Rand Flem Ath and Colin Wilson: Little, Brown and Co., 2000.

  9. Dr. Sunil Prasannan’s article appeared on Graham Hancock’s web site. Professor Arysio Santos’s book, Atlantis: The Lost Continent Finally Found, broadly advances the same theory: Atlantis Publications, 2011.

  10. BBC News web site, 19 January 2002. Underworld. Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age, by Graham Hancock: Michael Joseph, 2002. There is also an excellent article detailing the amount of research on the site on the Graham Hancock web site, headed “Gulf of Cambay, Cradle of Ancient Civilisation.”

  11. Underworld, Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age, by Graham Hancock: Michael Joseph, 2002.

  12. Gateway to Atlantis, by Andrew Collins: Headline Publishing, 2000.

  13. Edgar Cayce’s Atlantis, by Drs. Greg and Lora Little and John Van Auken: ARE Press, 2006.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  14. BBC Home web site. Edited guide entry. “The Great Earthquake 1755.”

  15. BBC News web site, August 15, 2005. Nature magazine, July 22, 2005. Survey by Dr. Marc Andre Gutscher.

  16. Ibid.

  CHAPTER SIX

  17. The Siege and Conquest of Silves in 1189, by Jonathan Wilson: Mesquita Press, 2009.

  18. The first Roman invasion of the Iberian Peninsula occurred in 219 B.C. Wikipedia, “The History of Portugal.”

  19. Wikipedia, Viriathus (Viriato in Portuguese).

  20. The city of Pax Julia was so named by Julius Caesar in 48 B.C. after peace was made with the local Lusitanian tribes. The ruins are very close to the modern town of Beja.

  21. The Holy Kingdom, by Adrian Gilbert, Alan Wilson, and Baram Blackett: Bantam, 1998.

  22. Atlantis in Andalucia, by E. M. Wishaw: republished by Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Ibid.

  25. The original information came from the Greek historian Herodotus. He wrote that Kolaios reached the capital of Arganthonius after two days’ sailing from Gades (Cádiz). This is evidence that the capital could not have been as close as Huelva, or elsewhere in the general area, which is currently accepted by historians for Tartessos. Two days’ sailing would have taken him much farther, well along the Algarve coast.

  26. Strabo (The Geographer) lived from 64 B.C. to A.D. 24. He is most famous for his seventeen-volume work Geographica, in which he gives much information about southwest Iberia.

  27. Atlantis in Spain, by E. M. Wishaw: republished by Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997.

  28. Wikipedia. Rameses III is thought to have reigned from 1186 to 1155 B.C. The Sea Peoples invaded in year eight of his reign.

  29. Atlantis in Spain, by E. M. Wishaw: republished by Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997.

  30. Ibid.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  31. Gateway to Atlantis, by Andrew Collins: Headline Book Publishing, 2000.

  32. www.atlantisquest.com, the web site of Cedric Leonard.

  33. Harold T. Wilkins was a Cambridge-educated journalist and author, 1891–1960.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  34. The Greek Lexicon, by Liddle and Scott. There are many editions.

  35. This mistranslation in the recognized English versions is confirmed by Chalcidius’s early translation into Latin.

  36. Wikipedia.

  37. “The deluged civilization of the Caucasus,” by Reginald Fessenden (1866–1932). Published in www.radiocom.net/Deluge/Deluge1-6.htm

  38. Wikipedia. Universidad Computers de Madrid, Geology of the Iberian Peninsula.

  39. Web site: “Plato’s Atlantis was a River Delta,” by Dr. Ulf Richter, Germany.

  40. A detailed study of the use of the word “pelagos” in Plato’s era by Georgeos Diaz-Montexano established that it was always associated with “Salt marshes, lagoons, seas of low bottoms with stumbling blocks or Islands.” Later, the Greeks used the word to mean “Open sea, high sea, or deep sea,” which is what you will find in standard dictionaries of ancient Greek. Interestingly, another earlier use of the word was for a “flooded plain.” That could not be more apt for the area in front of southwest Iberia (George Liddle, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, and Roderick Mckenzie). Chalcidius, who attended Plato’s academy, completed the very first translation into Latin and used the “Fretum” for pelagos. This means salt marshes, etc. Much later, Marcilio Ficino used the same word in his translation into Latin.

  41. “The ocean beyond the Pillars” in the geographer Scylax’s Periplus, thought to date from the fourth century B.C.

  42. The Phoenician Himlico was the first known sailor to reach the northwest shores of Europe. The oldest recorded source for his voyage is in Natural History, by the Roman Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23–79).

  43. Pliny the Younger (A.D. 61–113).

  44. Plutarch (A.D. 46–120).

  45. Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, by Charles H. Hapgood: republished by Adventures Unlimited Press, 1996.

  46. The philosopher Chalcidius had been a student in Plato’s academy. In 321 B.C.
, he translated Timaeus into Latin.

  47. http://www.georgeosdiazmontexano.com. He has several other web sites, some only in Spanish.

  48. Jonas Bergman, an Atlantologist from Uppsala in Sweden, has an excellent web site in which he strives to identify Atlantis with Morocco.

  49. Eberhard Zangger, a Swiss geoarchaeologist who has written several books on ancient civilizations. While working for Cambridge University in 1989, he advanced the theory that Troy was Atlantis.

  CHAPTER NINE

  50. Herodotus was shown the statues in the Temple of Thebes. It is detailed in Book 11 of his History.

  51. The best analysis can be found on www.atlantisquest.com

  52. Wikipedia, under “Tumbago.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  53. Wikipedia, under “Younger Dryas.”

  54. www.atlantisquest.com/taming

  55. Ibid.

  56. New Scientist magazine, January 3, 1985.

  57. The Algarve Tiger, by Siobhan Mitchell and Edwardo Goncalves: Vista Iberics Publicacoes, 2001.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  58. Atlantis in Spain, by E. M. Wishaw: republished by Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997.

  59. Ibid.

  60. Ibid.

  61. The Atlantis Effect, by Dr. Roger Coghill: Ker Menez, Lower Race, Pontypool, UK.

  62. Algarve Goodlife magazine, February 2003.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  63. Dr. Frank C. Hibben was a professor of archaeology at the University of New Mexico. He visited Alaska in 1941, and the results were published in his book The Lost Americans: Apollo Editions, 1961.