It was a town named from, or at any rate bearing the same name with, an important river of southern Spain,[5164] probably the Guadalquivir.

It was not Gades, for Scymnus Chius mentions both cities as existing in his day;[5165] it was not Carteia, for it lay west of Gades, while Carteia lay east.

Probably it occupied, as Strabo thought, a small island between two arms of the Guadalquivir, and gradually decayed as Gades rose to importance.

It certainly did not exist in Strabo's time, but five or six centuries earlier it was a most flourishing place.[5166] If it is the Tarshish of Scripture, its prosperity and importance must have been even anterior to the time of Solomon, whose "navy of Tarshish" brought him once in every three years "gold, and silver, and ivory, and apes, and peacocks."[5167] The south of Spain was rich in metallic treasures, and yielded gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin;[5168] trade along the west coast of Africa would bring in the ivory and apes abundant in that region; while the birds called in our translation of the Bible "peacocks" may have been guinea-fowl.

The country on either side of the Guadalquivir to a considerable distance took its name from the city, being called Tartessis.[5169] It was immensely productive.