CHAPTER VIII.

REMAINDER OF EUROPE.

Character of Herodotus's knowledge of the remainder of Europe.Divisions.-I. WESTERN EUROPE. Region beyond the Pillars of Heracles.— Tartessus.— Erytheia.— Gadeira.— Celtae.— Cynetae.— Account of the river Ister or Danube.-Causes of its equal stream.-Explanation of Herodotus's description of the Ister, and account of the Cynetae and Celtae.-The Iberi, Ligyes, and Elisyci.-Italy, singular omission of Rome.-Northern Italy, the Ombrici and Tyrseni.-Southern Italy, occupied by Greek colonies, viz. Rhegium, Taras, Agylla, Hyela in Oenotria, Croton, Metapontium, Sybaris, Siris, Iapygia, Brundusium, Hyria, and Epizephyrian Locrians.-II. NORTHERN EUROPE.Region impenetrable from bees or frost.-The Sigynnes, a Medic colony fond of chariot-driving.-Nations bordering on Scythia.-1. Agathyrsi, occupying Transylvania.-2. Neuri, occupying Poland and Lithuania.3. Androphagi, occupying Smolensk.-4. Melanchlaeni, occupying Orloff.-5. Sauromatae, occupying the country of the Don Cossacks and part of Astracan. 6. Budini and Geloni, occupying Saratoff. III. EASTERN EUROPE.-Great caravan route.-Character of the commerce. ---Olbia, the emporium.-Trade in corn.- Slaves.- Furs.-Gold from the Ural and Altai mountains.-Route northward from the Budini.— Desert of seven days' journey, occupying Simbirsk and Kasan.-Route towards the east.-Thyssagetae, occupying Perm.-Jyrcae on the Ural mountains. Scythian exiles occupying Tobolsk.-Argippaei at the foot of the Altai mountains.-Identification of the Argippaei with the Calmucks.-Unknown region north of the Argippaei occupied by men with goats' feet, and people who slept for six months at a time.-Identification of the Altai.-Eastern route continued.-Issedones.-Arimaspi.-Goldguarding griffins.-Nations on the frontier towards Asia.-General description of Mount Caucasus.-Herodotus's account of the mountain and people.-The Massagetae.-Herodotus's description of the river Araxes. -Explanation of the apparent contradictions.-Manners and customs of the Massagetae.

THE Countries of Europe which we have already EUROPE. noticed include all that was really known to Hero- CHAP. VIII. dotus, and answer to the modern kingdom of Greece, Character of the provinces of European Turkey, and the govern- Herodotus's ments of southern Russia. Beyond these limits his of the rest information loses his distinctness; and if he himself of Europe. could be supposed to have ever arranged his geogra

knowledge

phy upon a similar principle, and under similar EUROPE. headings to those adopted in the present volume, CHAP. VIII. the words "Traditionary Europe" would most probably have been affixed as the title to the present chapter; for his knowledge of the countries therein described was derived, not from personal experience and travel, but from hearsay and tradition. A glance at the modern map of Europe will be sufficient to show how vast a proportion of this great continent was thus veiled from his mental vision. On the other hand, a careful consideration of his statements will strike the reader with astonishment, not only at his knowledge of regions which are even now but imperfectly known, but also at his ignorance of countries whose future inhabitants have taken such an important part in the history of the world.

The territories thus characterized naturally se- Divisions. parate into three divisions, viz. 1. Western Europe, including Spain, France, and Italy, which were but very little known, for the Celtae are merely named, and no mention whatever is made of Rome. 2. Northern Europe, including the countries bordering on Scythia, which our author knew by the light of such information as he could gather whilst residing at the Greek port of Olbia at the mouth of the Dnieper. 3. Eastern Europe, which extended far away over the Ural chain to the foot of the Altai mountains and banks of the Jaxartes. This last division is the most important, if not the most interesting; for the description of the country is apparently derived from Greek merchants, who had opened a line of communication between Olbia and the golden regions of the far east, and it evidently included a description of the nations traversed by the caravan route, which passed northward through the interior of Russia in Europe, and then eastward through the steppes of Russia in Asia and Independent Tartary.' I. To begin with WESTERN EUROPE. The Pillars of 1. WEST

1 It has already been seen that the river Phasis (or Rhion) and the Araxes (or Jaxartes) formed, according to our author, the line of division between Europe and Asia.

ERN EU

ROPE.

yond the

Pillars of
Heracles.

Gadeira.

Celtae.

the river Ister or Danube.

EUROPE. Heracles-or the rocks of Calpe and Abyla, upon CHAP. VIII. which Gibraltar and Ceuta now stand-formed by Region be- no means the most extreme western point of the Europe of Herodotus. Beyond lay the rich port of Tartessus,' which was most probably situated on the Tartessus. island of Isla Major, at the mouth of the GuadalquiErytheia. ver. Also the island Erytheia near Gadeira, where Geryon dwelt; 2 and lastly, the Celtae, and beCynetae. yond them the Cynetae, who were the most westerly Account of people of Europe. Amongst the Celtae, and near the city of Pyrene,' the river Ister took its rise. This was the greatest of all rivers, and flowed equally strong in summer and winter. It was greater than the Nile, from the number of its tributaries; for though the Nile surpassed the main stream of the Ister in quantity, yet it was enlarged by no additional streams. The general equality of the Ister waters in winter and summer is thus accounted for by Herodotus. During the winter its stream, he tells us, is very little swollen, because the country is very little moistened by rain, but entirely covered with the snow. On the other hand, during the summer, the vast quantities of snow dissolve on all sides and flow into the river, whilst frequent and violent rains fall into it; and these additions compensate for the increased mass of water which the sun draws up to him during the summer season. The Ister flowed through all Europe and entered the borders of Scythia, and at last discharged itself into the Pontus through five arms," between Thrace and Scythia, having its mouth turned towards the east. It thus fell into the Pontus near the Milesian colony at Istria,' and somewhere opposite to Sinope.

Causes of its equal

stream.

6

1 iv. 152.

4

8

2 iv. 8. Gadeira was probably the island now called I. de Leon, on which stood the city bearing the same name of Gadeira or Gades, and situated on or near the site of the modern Cadiz. Erytheia has been identified with the smaller island of S. Sebastian, or Trocadero, between the I. de Leon and the main-land.

6 iv. 99. We have already, in chap. vi., described the modern state of the mouths of the Ister.

CHAP. VIII.

Here, as Bobrik properly remarks, we must not be EUROPE. too exact about the word "opposite;" for Herodotus, in another place, calls the Messenian Asina " opposite" to the Laconian Cardamyle,' and yet we surely may presume that the true position of both places must have been well known to him.2

tion of He

of the Ister,

of the Cyne

Celtae.

Herodotus's description of the Ister is partly based Explanaupon conjecture. He had but little means of know- rodotus's ing anything of its source, and readily adopted the description notion of its rising near the city of Pyrene, by which he doubtless referred to the neighbourhood of the Pyrenees, in order to place the fountain of the Ister somewhat over-against the spot where he considered that the Nile took its rise. His knowledge of the Celtae and Cynetae seems to have been de- and account rived from some Phoenician Periplus of the coasts tae and of France and Spain. The Celtae, or Gauls, may have crossed the Alps, and Celtic tribes might have been found in the heart of Spain; yet they had no connexion with the civilized or commercial world, nor did they join the Carthaginian armies, like the Elisyci, the Ligyes, and the Iberi. It was probably from the Phoenicians, who navigated the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay on their way to the tin mines of Britain, that Herodotus derived his knowledge of their name and situation. The Cynetae must have lived in the extreme west, on the coasts of Portugal, Gallicia, and Asturias; whilst the Celtae occupied the whole northern coast eastward of the Cynetae.

Geog. des Herod. § 58.

3 The Ister (or Danube) in reality originates in two streams, Brigen and Pregen, which have their sources on the eastern declivity of the Black Forest in the grand duchy of Baden. These streams unite at Danaueschingen, and some have endeavoured to connect their names with that of Pyrene.

See Arnold, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 491.

:

5 The Celtae and Galatae are undoubtedly only different forms of the same name. The first was the form with which the Greeks were earliest acquainted the second and more correct form, "Galatae," was introduced by the great Gaulish migration of the fourth century before Christ. Many subsequent writers however continued to use the old orthography, and in fact, with the exception of the Galatians of Asia Minor, the other Gauls in all parts of the world are generally called by the Greeks according to their old form of the name, not Galatae, but Čeltae. See Arnold, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 522.