HIMILCO, a celebrated navigator of Carthage, a contemporary of Hanno, and equally distinguished for his maritime discoveries. He was the first who ventured to traverse the Northern Ocean, and to examine the shores of Great Britain; but the details of this voyage, which must have been remarkable for its boldness at that early period, have nearly disappeared in the lapse of years (Plin. ii. 67). Festus Avienus, in his work entitled Ora Maritima, has preserved to us a few particulars, which, as it is the earliest notice taken of our island, it may be interesting to give: “Here is the point of a high ridge, called in ancient times CEs l rymnis; the whole lofty mass of rocks faces the warm south. In front of this promontory opens the bay Oestrym-nicus, in which are found the islands Oestrymnides, rich in tin and lead. The country is populous, and the inhabitants are remarkable for their pride, their active industry, and their commercial spirit. They traverse, in small boats made of skins, the boisterous sea and whirlpools of their ocean, abounding in sea monsters. Two days sail, you reach the island of the Hiberni, and near them you have the island of Albion.” The Oestrymnides are e ňdently the Scilly Islands, which were afterwards called Cassiterides. This voyage is supposed to have taken place in the sixth century before the Christian era.

Him’LCo, a senator of the Barcine or popular faction at Carthage, who warmly supported the policy of Hannibal in attacking the Romans in their own country. The successful battle fought 216 b. c. at Cannae, was to him a convincing proof of the correctness of their policy, and he did not fail to take advantage of this opportunity to inveigh loudly and sarcastically against the gloomy predictions of his opponents, and the more cautious policy which they recommended. (Liv. xxiii. 12.) The severe defeats sustained by the Romans in Italy had shaken the fidelity of even their more faithful allies, and it was not to be expected that their more distant conquests in Sicily could be retained without a complete supremacy of power. Many of the cities in that island had abandoned their cause; and Himnco, who commanded the fleet at Pachymnon, 214 b. c., returned to Carthage to press on the attention of the executive the necessity of more decisive measures. His representations were attended to, and he landed at Heraclea with a force which he imagined to be sufficient to drive the Romans from Sicily. He took the city of Agrigentum, but his subsequent success was by no means equal to the sanguine expectations he had entertained. Marcellus still maintained his position before the city of Syracuse, and the fearful example he made of the people of Euna prevented even the most disaffected cities from openly declaring in favour of the Carthaginians. (Liv. xxiv. 35-39.) At last the critical position of Syracuse imperatively required some efforts to be made for its relief, and Himilco, with his colleague Hippocrates, suddenly took up positions so as to render the besiegers the besieged. The boldness of this proceeding was not followed by measures suffii iently vigorous. A pestilential fever succeeded, which attacked the Carthaginians with more severity than the Romans, and Himilco, with the whole body of his countrymen, fell a victim to its ravages, b. c. 212. This melancholy end of Himilco was the death-knell to the liberties of Syracuse. (Liv. xxv. 26.)