Columnis Herculis

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [kɔˈɫʊm.niːs ˈhɛr.kʊ.lɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [koˈlum.nis ˈɛr.ku.lis]

Columnīs Herculis f pl

1. dative/ablative of Columnae Herculis (“the Pillars of Hercules”)
   • c. 64 BCE – 17 BCE, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Astronomy 1.8.1.11, (ablative):

     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, (ablative, one other ablative 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 a soldier not even 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. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 2.167.1, (ablative, two other ablative occurrences in Pliny):

     ā Gādibus columnīsque Herculis Hispāniae et Galliārum circuitū tōtus hodiē nāvigātur occidēns.

     From the Gades and the Pillars of Hercules, by the circuit of Spain and Gaul, the whole western Ocean is today navigated.

   • c. 125 CE – 180 CE, Apuleius, De mundo 6.2, (ablative, one other ablative 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.