All these and their descendants
were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea; and
also, as has been already said, they held sway in the other direction
over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia. Now
Atlas had a numerous and honorable family, and his eldest branch always
retained the kingdom, which the eldest son handed on to his eldest for
many generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was never
before possessed by kings and potentates, and is not likely ever to be
again, and they were furnished with everything which they could have,
both in city and country. For, because of the greatness of their empire,
many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island
itself provided much of what was required by them for the uses of life.
In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found
there, mineral as well as metal, and that which is now only a name, and
was then something more than a name--orichalcum--was dug out of the
earth in many parts of the island, and, with the exception of gold, was
esteemed the most precious of metals among the men of those days.
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