[He fancied that he had made his fortune], however, he was greatly deceived, for Euergetes took possession of the whole treasure. On the death of that prince, his widow, Cleopatra, assumed the reins of government, and Eudoxus was again despatched with a richer cargo than before. On his journey back, he was carried by the winds above Ethiopia, and being thrown on certain [unknown] regions, he conciliated the inhabitants by presents of grain, wine, and cakes of pressed figs, articles which they were without; receiving in exchange a supply of water, and guides for the journey. He also wrote down several words of their language, and having found the end of a prow, with a horse carved on it, which he was told formed part of the wreck of a vessel coming from the west, he took it with him, and proceeded on his homeward course. He arrived safely in Egypt, where no longer Cleopatra, but her son, ruled; but he was again stripped of every thing on the accusation of having appropriated to his own uses a large portion of the merchandise sent out.
However, he carried the prow into the market-place, and exhibited it to the pilots, who recognised it as being come from Gades. The merchants [of that place] employing large vessels, but the lesser traders small ships, which they style horses, from the figures of that animal borne on the prow, and in which they go out fishing around Maurusia, as far as the Lixus. Some of the pilots professed to recognise the prow as that of a vessel which had sailed beyond the river Lixus, but had not returned.
From this Eudoxus drew the conclusion, that it was possible to circumnavigate Libya; he therefore returned home, and having collected together the whole of his substance, set out on his travels. First he visited Dicaearchia, and then Marseilles, and afterwards traversed the whole coast as far as Gades. Declaring his enterprise everywhere as he journeyed, he gathered money sufficient to equip a great ship, and two boats, resembling those used by pirates. On board these he placed singing girls, physicians, and artisans of various kinds, and launching into open sea, was carried towards India by steady westerly winds. However, they who accompanied him becoming wearied with the voyage, steered their course towards land, but much against his will, as he dreaded the force of the ebb and flow. What he feared actually occurred. The ship grounded, but gently, so that it did not break up at once, but fell to pieces gradually, the goods and much of the timber of the ship being saved. With these he built a third vessel, closely resembling a ship of fifty oars, and continuing his voyage, came amongst a people who spoke the same language as that some words of which he had on a former occasion committed to writing. He further discovered, that they were men of the same stock as those other Ethiopians, and also resembled those of the kingdom of Bogus [* Spelled Bogos by Strabon but Bokchos or Bocchus by other ancient writers.]. However, he abandoned his [intended] voyage to India, and returned home. On his voyage back he observed an uninhabited island, well watered and wooded, and carefully noted its position. Having reached Maurusia in safety, he disposed of his vessels, and travelled by land to the court of Bogus. He recommended that sovereign to undertake an expedition thither.
This, however, was prevented on account of the fear of the [king's] advisers, lest the district should chance to expose them to treachery, by making known a route by which foreigners might come to attack them. Eudoxus, however, became aware, that although it was given out that he was himself to be sent on this proposed expedition, the real intent was to abandon him on some desert island. He therefore fled to the Roman territory, and passed thence into Iberia. Again, he equipped two vessels, one round and the other long, furnished with fifty oars, the latter framed for voyaging in the high seas, the other for coasting along the shores. He placed on board agricultural implements, seed, and builders, and hastened on the same voyage, determined, if it should prove too long, to winter on the island he had before observed, sow his seed, and having reaped the harvest, complete the expedition he had intended from the beginning.
5. "Thus far," says Posidonius, "I have followed the history of Eudoxus. What happened afterwards is probably known to the people of Gades and Iberia;" "but," says he, "all these things only demonstrate more clearly the fact, that the inhabited earth is entirely surrounded by the ocean."
Poseidonios' account contains obvious errors. For example, Kleopatra III was not out of power upon Eudoxos' second return from India; she reigned continuously, first with one son and then with the other, down to her death in—89. It is incredible that any tribe on the west coast of Africa should at this time have spoken the same language as another tribe on the east coast. And the island discovered by Eudoxos on his first African voyage was probably Fuerteventura, the easternmost of the Canaries; but Fuerteventura is not "well-wooded." Notwithstanding, the story as a whole may be believed, despite Strabon's own incredulity.
Plinius the Elder and Pomponius Mela cite a garbled version of this story. Plinius (II, lxvii, 169) says: "We have it on the authority of Cornelius Nepos that a certain contemporary of his named Eudoxus when flying from King Lathyrus emerged from the Arabian Gulf and sailed right around to Cadiz ..." Mela (III, ix), citing the same source, uses much of the same wording.
Poseidonios ends his tale ambiguously, without saying what finally became of Eudoxos. Probably the explorer sailed away and vanished. But it is not impossible that he returned to Gades, and I have made this assumption for the sake of the story.
Hippalos is mentioned by several ancient writers, the most informative being the anonymous author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (57): "This whole voyage as above described, from Cana to Eudaemon Arabia, they used to make in small vessels, sailing close to the shores of the gulfs; and Hippalus was the pilot who by observing the location of the ports and the conditions of the sea, first discovered how to lay his course straight across the ocean. For at the same time when with us the Etesian winds are blowing, on the shores of India the wind sets in from the ocean, and this southwest wind is called Hippalus from the name of him who first discovered the passage across."
Nobody states when Hippalos lived, or who he was. His date had been estimated by modern scholars at anywhere from that of Eudoxos' Indian voyages (-119 to -116) to that of writing of the Periplus (about +60). My assumption, that he was Eudoxos' first officer, is a plausible guess, which cannot be proved or disproved.
Besides Eudoxos and Hippalos, the historical characters in this story are the various Ptolemies and Kleopatras, the Judaean officers Chelkias and Ananias, the geographers Agatharchides and Artemidoros, the librarians Kydas and Ammonios, the physician Kallimachos, King Bocchus of Mauretania. King Jugurtha of Numidia, and various rulers alluded to like Mikipsa, Mithradates, and Odraka, who do not appear on stage. All others are fictitious.