Corbilo () was a trading city on the

Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the so ...

river described by

Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...

and

Pytheas Pytheas of Massalia (; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης ''Pythéās ho Massaliōtēs''; Latin: ''Pytheas Massiliensis''; born 350 BC, 320–306 BC) was a Greeks, Greek List of Graeco-Roman geographers, geographer, explo ...

. Neither original sources have survived, but Pytheas is quoted by Polybius, who is in turn quoted by

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

Quote

Strabo's (''

Geographia The ''Geography'' (, , "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, compiling the geographical knowledge of the 2nd-century Roman Empire. Originally wri ...

'' 4.2.2) is the only surviving text from antiquity to mention the city. In the original ancient Greek:

"πρότερον δὲ Κορβιλὼν ὑπῆρχεν ἐμπόριον ἐπὶ τούτωι τῶι ποταμῶι͵ περὶ ἧς εἴρηκε Πολύβιος͵ μνησθεὶς τῶν ὑπὸ Πυθέου μυθολογηθέντων͵ ὅτι Μασσαλιωτῶν μὲν τῶν συμμιξάντων Σκιπίωνι οὐδεὶς εἶχε λέγειν οὐδὲν μνήμης ἄξιον ἐρωτηθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ Σκιπίωνος περὶ τῆς Βρεττανικῆς͵ οὐδὲ τῶν ἐκ Νάρβωνος οὐδὲ τῶν ἐκ Κορβιλῶνος͵ αἵπερ ἦσαν ἄρισται πόλεις τῶν ταύτηι͵ Πυθέας δ᾽ ἐθάρρησε τοσαῦτα ψεύσασθαι."

English translation by Jones (1923):

"Formerly there was an emporium on this river [the
Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the so ...
], called Corbilo, with respect to which
Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...
, calling to mind the fabulous stories of
Pytheas Pytheas of Massalia (; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης ''Pythéās ho Massaliōtēs''; Latin: ''Pytheas Massiliensis''; born 350 BC, 320–306 BC) was a Greeks, Greek List of Graeco-Roman geographers, geographer, explo ...
, has said: 'Although no one of all the Massiliotes who conversed with Scipio was able, when questioned by Scipio about
Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
, to tell anything worth recording, nor yet any one of the people from
Narbo Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...
or of those from Corbilo, though these were the best of all the cities in that country, still Pytheas had the hardihood to tell all those falsehoods about Britain.'”

Location

Strabo gives no further details about the location of Corbilo besides that it was "ἐμπόριον ἐπὶ τούτωι τῶι ποταμῶι": an emporium formerly (e.g. in Strabo's time; 1st century BC - 1st century AD) on the river

. Assuming it to be near the mouth of the Loire in the region of

Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Oc ...

Couëron Couëron (; Gallo: ''Coéron'' or ''Couéron'', ) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. It is part of the historic French Brittany. Couëron is one of the 24 communes of the Nantes Métropole. History Couëron ...

and

Corsept Corsept (; Gallo: ''Corsèt'', ) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Etymology It is believed that the name comes the Latin "Corpus Septimum" because it was the seventh parish on the banks of the Loire under the ...

have been suggested based on

toponymic Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...

similarity.{{Cite book , last=Smith , first=William , url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofgree01smituoft , title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman geography , date=1870 , publisher=Boston : Little, Brown , others=Robarts - University of Toronto , pages=668–9 Polybius states that together with Narbo and Massalia,Corbilo was amongst the "best of all the cities" in the

Greek colonies Greek colonisation refers to the expansion of Archaic Greeks, particularly during the 8th–6th centuries BC, across the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The Archaic expansion differed from the Iron Age migrations of the Greek Dark Ages ...

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

. By Strabo's time, approximately a century and a half later, Corbilo had been abandoned or destroyed. It is implied that Polybius either visited the city in person, or was able to gather intelligence from people who did; likewise it is implied that Pytheas visited it during his voyages.

References

Ancient Greek cities

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Location

See also

References