cavils at the arbitrary names of these three conti- INTROD nents. He says that, according to the Lydians, Asia CHAP. II. was called after Asius; hence a tribe in Sardis was called the Asian tribe. Also that Europa of Tyre never entered Europe at all, but only passed from Phoenicia to Crete and Lycia. He would indeed have been better pleased with the twofold division, after the Persian fashion, into Europe and Asia; but he contented himself with bringing forward these objections, and then following the common usage of the Greeks by adopting the three names of Europe, Asia, and Libya.' and Asia. The line of separation, however, between the Separation three continents occasioned another difficulty. The of Europe Greeks, as we have already mentioned, were divided in opinion as to whether the Phasis, (or Rhion,) or the Tanais, (or Don,) was the proper separation between Europe and Asia. Herodotus extended Europe eastward to the utmost bounds of his knowledge, and therefore made the river Phasis, (or Rhion,) which runs between the Euxine and the Caspian, the line of division, and probably continued it by an imaginary line, eastward of the Caspian, along the river Araxes, thus placing Asia on the south instead of on the east of Europe. In the geographical arrangement of the present day, the boundary line between the two continents is formed by the range of Mount Caucasus, which may be regarded as almost the same as the course of the Phasis, but then, instead of going eastward, the line runs towards the north along the Ural mountains and course of the river Ural. The Europe of Hero1 iv. 45; Dahlmann, Life of Herod, v. 1. 3 2 iv. 37, 38. 3 iv. 40. This was the eastern Araxes, or the Jaxartes, the modern Sirr-deria. The difficulty respecting this river is explained in another place. See Index, Araxes. 4 Believing themselves to be permanently separated by the sea, the European naturally included in his Europe, and the Asiatic in his Asia, the discoveries made by each along the northern and southern shore of the Euxine; till in their progress, they met on the banks of the Phasis and Araxes, which thence became the first arbitrarily assumed line of demarcation. Even in the time of Herodotus, however, this division was growing uncertain, and a line formed by the Cimmerian Bosphorus, the Palus Maeotis, and the Tanais was superseding it. This line was sub C INTROD. dotus therefore included the whole of Russia in Asia CHAP. II. and a large portion of Independent Tartary or Turkestan. Separation of Asia and Libya. In dividing Asia from the continent of Libya,' the great difficulty lay in the fact that the Greeks were ignorant of the real size and extent of the Arabian Gulf, which we call the Red Sea. Herodotus himself was apparently only acquainted with the western arm, which we call the Gulf of Suez, and therefore supposed that the whole sea was equally narrow, and only half a day's sail across. Of the outlet into the Persian Gulf through the Straits of Babel-mandeb he could have had but the vaguest notion, and he regarded the eastern coast of Africa, between the Nile valley and the Red Sea, as belonging to Arabia. Accordingly the Greeks took the river Nile as the line of separation, and generally agreed in dividing Aegypt into two parts, of which the eastern belonged to the Asiatic continent, and the western to the Libyan. The Ionian geographers however entertained the opinion that the Delta alone comprised Aegypt Proper, and that all south of Cercasorus where the Nile divides, belonged partly to Arabia and partly to Libya. But Herodotus rejected this division, and considered that the frontier of Aegypt formed the boundary between the two continents, though he does not say whether he meant that on the eastern or that on the western side. At the same time he jested at the theory of the Ionians, who assigned to a people as ancient as the Aegyptians, a country with an alluvial soil, which could only have 2 sequently universally adopted as the eastern limit of Europe. Little or nothing was known of this region during the middle ages, and when the arms of Russia laid it open to observation, the winding course of the Don, (or Tanais,) with which the ancients were imperfectly acquainted, betrayed the geographers of the last century into an inextricable labyrinth of contradictions and absurdities. At length the academy of St. Petersburg fixed the present boundary. Comp. MacCulloch, Geog. Dictionary. 1 Libya was a name sometimes applied by Herodotus to western Africa, and sometimes to the entire continent. See Libya. 2 See also the introduction to the geography of Libya. been brought into existence within a comparatively INTROD. recent period.1 Herodotus thus, after many demurs, adopted the threefold division of the earth, viz. 1. Europe, divided from Asia by the river Phasis (or Rhion). 2. Asia, separated from Libya by the frontier of Aegypt. 3. Libya. He thus makes Europe as large, if not larger, than all that was known to him of Asia and Libya put together.2 4 3 СНАР. 11. The various seas navigated by the Greeks Hero- Seas bounddotus describes as far as he is able; but of those vast earth's exing the waters which washed the west and southern coasts of tremities. the ancient world, he could know nothing beyond wild traditions, which he cared not to repeat. He passes over with a dignified silence worthy of the historic muse, the fabled isles of Aeolus or of Circe, the Elysian plain, or ever-receding Hesperides, and he contents himself with the barest possible mention of names. The Mediterranean he frequently men- Mediterrations as "this sea❞—ñde ÿ Oúλaσoa, but gives no fur- nean. ý ther account of it whatever; for the ancient Phoenician merchants, and others, who must have explored the whole length of the sea in their voyages to Gades and Tartessus, were induced by commercial jealousy to conceal their discoveries. The Atlantic Atlantic. he also mentions as being the same sea as the Erythraean, or at any rate connected with it. Under the name of the Erythraean or Red Sea, he com- Erythracan prises the whole expanse of waters between Arabia and Africa on the west, and India on the east, including the two great gulfs of Arabia and Persia." The rocks of porphyry on the Aegyptian side of the Arabian Gulf supplied a natural cause for this appellation, throwing out their red colour far into the sea; and the Persians to this day retain the antithesis by calling the Mediterranean the White Sea. There may also be some connexion between the name of Erythraean and that of Edom, which signifies 1 ii. 17; iv. 41. 2 Comp. iv. 42. 3 See Europe, chap. i. ♦ iv. 41. 5 i. 202. INTROD. "red," " and was applied by the Jews to the counCHAP. II. try bordering on the north of the Arabian Gulf. "And Solomon made a navy of ships.. on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom."1 Voyages of In conclusion we may just mention, that, accordStranding to the Aegyptian priests, Sesostris was the first Sesostrisand Sataspes. The who set out with a naval armament from the Arabian 1 Kings ix. 26, quoted by Major Rennell. 2 ii. 102. EUROPE. CHAPTER I. GENERAL SURVEY. Extent of Herodotus's knowledge.-Western Europe.-Region north of the upper course of the Ister.-Region north of the lower course of the Ister.-Caravan route over the Ural.-Nations on the frontier towards Asia.-Nations south of the lower course of the Ister.-Seas of Europe. Pontus Euxinus.-Palus Maeotis (Maeetis).-Propontis.-Caspian.—Adriatic.—Ionian. CHAP. I. knowledge. THE geography of that vast territory which He- EUROPE. rodotus included under the name of Europe, is only partially described or briefly noticed in his history. Extent of The Alpine mountains, which encompass Italy and Herodotus's the Adriaticin a semicircular bulwark, were unknown to him, as were also the Apennines, which run off through the entire length of the Italian peninsula. At the eastern extremity of the Alps, however, commences the Balkan chain, which extends eastward from the head of the Adriatic to the shore of the Euxine, and is clearly alluded to under the names of Haemus and Rhodope.' Towards the south the Balkan fills part of Thrace, and also Macedonia and Greece, with its numerous ramifications. Northwards of the Balkan Herodotus describes the Ister or Danube, as traversing nearly all Europe from west to east, and separating Thrace from Scythia; whilst still farther to the north and east are the rivers of Scythia and mountains of the Ural and Altai, which all find a place in the geography of our author. 1 iv. 49. |