Through thee I rest secure beneath the shade, Such plenty hath thy generous bounty made, But for thy favor, Melibœus, sent Where Bætis’ waves the western plains indent, Plains at the earth’s extremest verge, expos’d To the fierce Moors, which Geryon once inclos’d. There had I now been doom’d to tend for hire Iberian flocks, or else of want expire: In vain I might have tun’d my seven-fold reed: Mid thickets vast no soul my strains would heed: Not even Pan on that far-distant shore Would lend his vacant ear, or be my solace more. Juvenal in his Twelfth Satire (_l._ 37-42.) describes a merchant overtaken by a dreadful storm, and to save the ship throwing his most valuable goods into the sea. It will be observed, that the poet attributes the excellence and fine natural color of the woollen cloth of Bætica to three causes, the rich herbage, the occult properties of the water, and those of the air. “Over with mine,” he cries; “be nothing spar’d;” To part with all his richest goods prepar’d; His vests of Tyrian purple, fit to please The softest of the silken sons of ease, And other robes, which took a native stain From air and water on the Bætic plain. _Owen’s Translation._ Strabo (iii. 144. p. 385. _ed. Sieb._) gives the following account of the wool of Turdetania. Πολλὴ δὲ καὶ ἐσθὴς πρότερον ἤρχετο· νῦν δὲ καὶ ἔρια μᾶλλον τῶν Κυραξῶν, καὶ ὑπερβολή τις ἐστὶ τοῦ κάλλους· ταλαντιαίους γοῦν ὠνοῦνται τοὺς κριοὺς εἰς τὰς ὀχείας, ὑπερβολὴ δὲ καὶ τῶν λεπτῶν ὑφασμάτων, ἅπερ οἱ Σαλτιῆται κατασκευάζουσιν. “Much cloth used formerly to come from this country. Now also fleeces come from it more than from the Coraxi; and they are exceedingly beautiful, so that rams for breeding are sold for a talent each. Also the fine webs are very famous, which are made by the Saltiatæ.”--_Yates’s Translation._ The reader will please to remark, that this is the passage of Strabo, formerly referred to as containing evidence respecting the Coraxi. Martial, a Spaniard by birth, frequently alludes to the sheep of Bætica and especially to the various natural colors of their wool, which were so much admired, that it was manufactured without dyeing. Two of his epigrams (iv. 28. and viii. 28.) have been already quoted, as they refer also to the sheep of Tarentum: to these the seven following may be added. In the Tartessian lands a house appears, Where Cordova o’er placid Bætis rears Her wealthy domes; and where the fleeces show Metallic tints, like living gold that glow. ix. 62. Corduba, more joyous far Than Venafrum’s unctuous boast; Nor inferior to the jar, That renowns glad Istria’s coast: Who surmount’st the fleecy breed, That the bright Galesus laves; Nor bidd’st lying purple bleed O’er the hue, that nature craves. xii. 63.--_Elphinston’s Translation._