TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK, WITH NOTE S, BY THE REV. WILLIAM BELOE. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. III. THE THIRD EDITION. LONDON: Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons, near Lincoln's-Inn Fields; for LEIGH AND SOTHEBY; J. WALKER; R. LEA; J. NUNN; AND J. FAULDER. BOOK IV. MELPOMENE CONTINUED. CHAP. XCIX. HAT part of Thrace 106 which stretches to the sea, has Scythia immediately contiguous to it; where Thrace ends, Scythia begins, through which the Ister passes, commencing at the southeast, and emptying itself into the Euxine. It shall be my business to describe that part of Scythia which is continued from the mouth of the Ister, to the sea-coast. Ancient Scythia extends from 106 That part of Thrace.]-This chapter will, doubtless, appear perplexed on a first and casual view: but whoever will be at the trouble to examine M. D'Anville's excellent maps, illustrative of ancient geography, will in a moment find every difficulty respecting the situation of the places here described effectually removed.-T. VOL. III. B from the Ister, westward, as far as the city Carcinitis. The mountainous country above this place, in the same direction, as far as what is called the Trachean Chersonese, is possessed by the people of Taurus; this place is situated near the sea to the east. Scythia, like Attica, is in two parts bounded by the sea, westward and to the east. The people of Taurus are circumstanced with respect to Scythia, as any other nation would be with respect to Attica, who, instead of Athenians, should inhabit the Sunian promontory, stretching from the district of Thonicus, as far as Anaphlystus. Such, comparing small things with great, is the district of Tauris: but as there may be some who have not visited these parts of Attica, I shall endeavour to explain myself more intelligibly. Suppose, that beginning at the port of Brundusium 107, another nation, and not the Iapyges 108, should occupy that country, as far as Tarentum, 107 Brundusium.]-This place, which is now called Brindisi, was very memorable in the annals of ancient Rome: here Augustus first took the name of Cæsar, here the poet Pacuvius was born, and here Virgil died:-It belongs to the king of Naples; and it is the opinion of modern travellers, that the kingdom of Naples possesses no place so advantageously situated for trade.-T. 18 Iapyges.]--The region of Iapygia has been at different times called Messapia, Calabria, and Salentum: it is now called Terra d'Otranto: it derived its name of Iapyges from the wind called Iapyx: Sed Tarentum, separating it from the rest of the continent: I mention these two, but there are many other places similarly situated, to which Tauris might be compared. C. The country above Tauris, as well as that towards the sea to the east 09, is inhabited by Scythians, who possess also the lands which lie to the west of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and the Palus Sed vides quanto trepidet tumultu Peccet lapyx. Where I suppose the Albus, contrasted to Ater, means that this wind surprized the unwary mariner, during a very severe sky. Others are of opinion, that the Iapyges were so named from Iapyx, the son of Dædalus; and that the wind was named Iapyx, from blowing in the direction of that extremity of Italy; which is indeed more conformable to the analogy of the Latin names for several other winds. 109 To the east.]-This description of Scythia is attended with great difficulties; it is not, in the first place, easy to seize the true meaning of Herodotus; in the second, I cannot believe that the description here given accords correctly with the true position of the places. I am, nevertheless, astonished that it should be generally faithful, when it is considered how scanty the knowledge of this country was: the historian must have laboured with remarkable diligence to have told us what he has. By the phrase of "the sea to the east," Bellanger understands the Palus æotis; but I am convinced that when he describes the sea which is to the south, and to the west, he means only to speak of different points of the Euxine.-Larcher. |