Cassiterides (from the Greek for tin, i.e. Tin Islands) are in ancient geography the name of islands regarded as being situated somewhere near the west coasts of Europe. Herodotus (430 BC) bad dimly heard of them. Later writers, Posidonius, Diodorus, Strabo and others, call them smallish islands off (Strabo says, some way off) the north-west coast of Spain, which contained tin mines, or, as Strabo says, tin and lead mines though a passage in Diodorus derives the name rather from their nearness to the tin districts of north-west Spain. Ğ Ăǘē ĒØĂŷ ĞŐąËò Bust of Herodotus Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: ΗΡΟΔΟΤΟΣ, Herodotos) was an ancient historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC - 430s BC - 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC Years: 435 BC 434 BC 433 BC 432 BC 431 BC - 430 BC - 429 BC 428 BC... The bust of Posidonius as an older man depects his character as a Stoic philosopher. ... Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian, born at Agyrium in Sicily (now called Agira, in the province of Enna). ... Strabo (squinty) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. ... General Name, Symbol, Number tin, Sn, 50 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous gray Atomic mass 118. ... General Name, Symbol, Number lead, Pb, 82 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 6, p Appearance bluish white Atomic mass 207. ...

While geographical knowledge of the west was still scanty and the secrets of the tin-trade were still successfully guarded by the seamen of Gades and others who dealt in the metal, the Greeks knew only that tin came to them by sea from the far west, and the idea of tin-producing islands easily arose. Later, when the west was better explored, it was found that tin actually came from two regions, north-west Spain and Cornwall. Neither of these could be called small islands or described as off the north-west coast of Spain, and so the Cassiterides were not identified with either by the Greek and Roman geographers. Instead, they became a third, ill-understood source of tin, conceived of as distinct from Spain or Britain. Modern writers have perpetuated the error that the Cassiterides were definite spots, and have made many attempts to identify them. Small islands off the coast of north-west Spain, the headlands of that same coast, the Scillies, Cornwall, the British Isles as a whole, have all in turn been suggested. But none suits the conditions. Neither the Spanish islands nor the Scillies contain tin, at least in serious quantities. Neither Britain nor Spain can be called small islands off the north-west of Spain. It seems most probable, therefore, that the name Cassiterides represents the first vague knowledge of the Greeks that tin was found overseas somewhere in or off western Europe. This article is about the Spanish city. ... Motto: Onan hag oll (Cornish: One and all) Englands Great Toe Geography Status Ceremonial and (smaller) Administrative county Traditional county Duchy of Cornwall Region South West England Area - Total - Admin. ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that existed in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East between 753 BC and its downfall in AD 476. ... The Isles of Scilly (Cornish: Ynysek Syllan) are an archipelago of islands off the Cornish coast. ... The British Isles consist of Great Britain, Ireland and a number of much smaller surrounding islands. ...

References

Chief references in ancient literature

• Herodotus iii. 115
• Diodorus V. 21, 22, 38
• Strabo ii. 5, iii. 2,, 5, v. II
• Pliny, Nat. Hist, iv. 119, Vii. 197, xxxiv. 156-158

• T. R. Holmes, Ancient Britain (1907), appendix, identifies the Cassiterides with the British Isles.

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) represents, in many ways, the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...