Sertorius hears sailors describe two Atlantic Islands of the Blest.

In the Life of Sertorius (8–9), Plutarch recounts that the Roman general crossed the Strait of Gades and landed near the mouth of the Baetis. There he heard sailors who had just returned from two Atlantic islands called the Islands of the Blest. According to the account, a narrow channel separated them and they lay 10,000 stades from Africa. The sailors described a mild climate, fertile land and abundant fruit, and associated the islands with Homer’s Elysian Fields. This is a literary account conveying sailors’ reports, not evidence that Sertorius landed in the Canaries. The passage does not establish which modern islands they were. The date is given by century because the text supplies no specific year for the encounter.