Columnae Herculis

Calque of Ancient Greek Ἠράκλειοι Στῆλαι (Ērákleioi Stêlai).

Columnae Herculis f pl (genitive Columnārum Herculis); first declension

1. Pillars of Hercules (two promontories at the Strait of Gibraltar)
   • c. 64 BCE – 17 BCE, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Astronomy 1.8.1.11:

     Eurōpam igitur ab Āfricā dīvidit mare ab extrēmīs Ōceanī fīnibus et Herculis Columnīs.

     Thus, the sea divides Europe from Africa, beginning at the farthest bounds of the Ocean and the Pillars of Hercules.

   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 23.5.11, (one other occurrence in Livy):

     nōn cum Samnīte aut Etrūscō rēs est ut quod ā nōbīs ablātum sit in Ītaliā tamen imperium maneat; Poenus hostis nē Āfricae quidem indigenam ab ultimīs terrārum ōrīs, fretō Ōceanī Herculisque Columnīs, expertem omnis jūris et condiciōnis et linguae prope hūmānae mīlitem trahit.

     This is neither a war with the Samnite nor the Etruscan, where, even if something is taken from us, the empire still remains in Italy; the Carthaginian enemy brings as a solider not even a native of Africa, but someone from the farthest borders of the world, the strait of the Ocean and the Pillars of Hercules, devoid of all law and civil status and of language that is nearly human.

   • c. 1 CE – 100 CE, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni 10.1.17:

     ipse animō īnfīnīta complexus statuerat omnī ad orientem maritimā regiōne perdomitā ex Syriā petere Āfricam, Carthāginī īnfēnsus, inde Numidiae sōlitūdinibus peragrātīs cursum dīrigere—ibi namque Columnās Herculis esse fāma vulgāverat—, Hispāniās deinde, quās Hibēriam Graecī ā flūmine Hibērō vocābant, adīre et praetervehī Alpēs Ītaliaeque ōram, unde in Ēpīrum brevis cursus est.

     He himself, having envisioned boundless ambissions in his mind, had resolved, with every maritime region in the East subdued, to head from Syria towards Africa, bearing hatred towards Carthage; from there, having traversed through the Numidian wilderness, he directed his course to Gades, for tradition stated that the Pillars of Hercules were there; then to enter Spain, which the Greeks called Hiberia after the river Hiberus, and to pass by the Alps and Italian coast, from whence the passage to Epirus is short.

   • c. 43 CE, Pomponius Mela, A Description of the World 1.27.1:

     deinde est mōns praealtus, eī quem ex adversō Hispānia adtollit objectus: hunc Abilam, illum Calpēn vocant, Columnās Herculis utrumque.

     Next, there is a very high mountain opposite to it, which Spain raises facing it: they call this one Abila, that one Calpe, and both the Pillars of Hercules.

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 13.138.4, (five other occurrences in Pliny):

     extrā Herculis Columnās porrī fronde nāscitur frutex et alius laurī ac thymī, quī ambō ējectī in pūmicem trānsfigūrantur.

     Beyond the Pillars of Hercules, a shrub with the leaf of a leek grows, and another of laurel and thyme, which both, when thrown into pumice, are transformed.

   • c. 98 CE, Tacitus, Germania 34.2.1:

     ipsum quīn etiam Ōceanum illā temptāvimus; et superesse adhūc Herculis Columnās fāma vulgāvit, sīve adiit Herculēs, seu quicquid ubīque magnificum est, in clāritātem ejus referre cōnsēnsimus.

     Indeed, we even attempted the Ocean itself with that, and the rumour spread that the Pillars of Hercules still exist, whether Hercules reached them or we agreed to attribute whatever is magnificent anywhere in the world to his glory.

   • c. 74 CE – 130 CE, Florus, Epitome of Roman History 1.22.147:

     Scīpiō, cui jam grande dē Āfricā nōmen Fāta dēcrēverant, bellātrīcem illam, virīs armīsque nōbilem Hispāniam, illam sēminārium hostīlis exercitūs, illam Hannibalis ērudītrīcem—incrēdibile dictū—tōtam ā Pȳrēnaeīs montibus in Herculis Columnās et Ōceanum recuperāvit, nesciās citius an fēlīcius.

     Scipio, to whom the Fates had already decreed a great name from Africa, recovered the whole of that warlike Spain, renowned for men and arms, that nursery of an enemy army, that teacher of Hannibal, from the Pyrenees Mountains to the Pillars of Hercules and the ocean — unbelievable to say, you wouldn't know whether he did it more quickly or successfully.

   • c. 125 CE – 180 CE, Apuleius, De mundo 6.2, (one other occurrence in Apuleius):

     sed occiduārum partium mare per angustiās ōrīs artātum in artissimōs sinūs funditur et rūrsus ā Columnīs Herculis refūsum, in inmēnsam lātitūdinem panditur saepiusque coëuntibus terrīs, velutī quibusdam fretōrum cervīcibus, premitur et īdem rūrsus cēdentibus est terrīs inmēnsum.

     But the esa of the western regions, confined through narrow straits of the coast, flows into very narrow bays, and then, flowing back from the Pillars of Hercules, it spreads out into a vast expanse; rather often, where the lands close in, like certain necks of straits, it is compressed, and again, where the lands recede, it is boundless.

   • c. late 4th century CE – early 5th century CE, Servius, In Vergilii Aeneidem commentarii 11.262.21:

     quod autem ait 'Prōteī Columnās' ratiōne nōn vacat: nam Columnās Herculis legimus et in Pontō et in Hispāniā.

     However, his saying "The Pillars of Proteus" is not without reason: for we read the Pillars of Hercules both in Pontus and Spain.

First-declension noun with an indeclinable portion, plural only.