alternatehistory.com

I found a reference to this fellow Satapses:
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Herodotus (IV 43) reports that King Xerxes (-485 to -469) remitted the sentence of death meted upon a relative by the name of Sataspes on condition that he circumnavigate Africa from the west. Sataspes left with an Egyptian ship and an Egyptian crew, but returned without accomplishing his mission on the ground that upon reaching the land of the Pygmies his ship was brought to a standstill and could not proceed any further. As a result the original sentence was executed upon Sataspes.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]An expedition like that of Sataspes could not have been sent without the approval of the Carthaginians, since by that time they controlled all the coast from their city at least as far as Soleis. If Hanno had not been the first to reach the Gulf of Guinea, he would have spoken in different terms. It seems reasonable to assume that when king Xerxes heard of the exploit of Hanno, he thought that the moment had come to go one step further and to circumnavigate Africa. The Carthaginians were interested in going as far as there was gold to be acquired, but putting the Gulf of Guinea in contact with the Indian Ocean would have been of great advantage to the subjects of the Persian Empire around the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Herodotus states that Sataspes failed to proceed further after reaching the land of the Pygmies, the Equator, whereas the Phoenicians that came from the east succeeded. This is perfectly reasonable, since Sataspes met the resistance of the Benguela current, whereas this would have helped the Phoenicians all along their trip.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Herodotus (IV 43) indicates that it was after the failure of Sataspes’ voyage that Phoenicians sailed from the Arabian Gulf to the Pillars of Herakles. He declares that he doubts their report that they had the sun to the right, that is, to the north. Since they reported a fact that apparently was against accepted cosmology, it must be a matter of empirical experience. They must have gone below the Tropic of Cancer, whereas the maximum extension of the Oikoumene accepted by a Greek geographer is 24 degrees South.[/FONT]

Could Sataspes have been successful? The Benguela current would be a very big obstacle, but I have come across a phenomenon known as the Benguala Nino. Thought to be a result of anomalous atmospheric conditions in the western tropical Atlantic, it is an effect where warm seawater from the equator moves along the southwest coast of Africa towards the pole and penetrates the cold up-welled Benguela Current. Perhaps if Sataspes was lucky, he could arrive in the area at the same time as a Nino effect, making it easier for him to sail south and to round the Cape. After he gets through that, it would be relatively easy to sail northwards to Egypt.

This might inspire Xerxes to commission another expedition, circumnavigating from the East. This could all very well come to nothing, but then again Xerxes was an ambitious and big-thinking sort of guy. Perhaps a Persian colony of sorts at the Cape, to facilitate trade with the Gulf of Guinea?
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