[454] Hekatæi Fragment. Fr. 153, 168, ed. Klausen. Hekatæus mentioned the Issêdones (Fr. 168; Steph. Byz. v. Ἰσσήδονες); both he and Damastês seem to have been familiar with the poem of Aristeas: see Klausen, ad loc.; Steph. Byz. v. Ὑπερβόρειοι. Compare also Æschyl. Prometh. 409, 710, 805.
Hellanikus, also, seems to have spoken about Scythia in a manner generally conformable to Herodotus (Strabo, xii, p. 550). It does little credit to the discernment of Strabo that he treats with disdain the valuable Scythian chapter of Herodotus,—ἅπερ Ἑλλάνικος καὶ Ἡρόδοτος καὶ Εὔδοξος κατεφλυάρησαν ἡμῶν (ib.).
[455] Herodot. iv, 100-101. See, respecting the Scythia of Herodotus, the excellent dissertation of Niebuhr, contained in his Kleine Historische Schriften, “Ueber die Geschichte der Skythen, Geten, und Sarmaten,” p. 360, alike instructive both as to the geography and the history. Also the two chapters in Völcker’s Mythische Geographie, ch. vii-viii, sects. 23-26, respecting the geographical conceptions present to Herodotus in his description of Scythia.
Herodotus has much in his Scythian geography, however, which no comment can enable us to understand. Compared with his predecessors, his geographical conceptions evince very great improvement; but we shall have occasion, in the course of this history, to notice memorable examples of extreme misapprehension in regard to distance and bearings in these remote regions, common to him not only with his contemporaries, but also with his successors.
[456] Herodot. iv, 17-21, 46-56; Hippokratês, De Aëre, Locis et Aquis, c. vi; Æschyl. Prometh. 709; Justin, ii, 2.
It is unnecessary to multiply citations respecting nomadic life, the same under such wide differences both of time and of latitude,—the same with the “armentarius Afer” of Virgil (Georgic, iii, 343) and the “campestres Scythæ” of Horace (Ode iii, 24, 12), and the Tartars of the present day; see Dr. Clarke’s Travels in Russia, ch. xiv, p. 310.
The fourth book of Herodotus, the Tristia and Epistolæ ex Ponto of Ovid, the Toxaris of Lucian (see c. 36, vol. i, p. 544 Hemst.), and the Inscription of Olbia (No. 2058 in Boeckh’s Collection), convey a genuine picture of Scythian manners as seen by the near observer and resident, very different from the pleasing fancies of the distant poet respecting the innocence of pastoral life. The poisoned arrows, which Ovid so much complains of in the Sarmatians and Getæ (Trist. iii, 10, 60, among other passages, and Lucan, iii, 270), are not noticed by Herodotus in the Scythians.
The dominant Golden Horde among the Tartars, in the time of Zinghis Khan, has been often spoken of; and among the different Arab tribes now in Algeria, some are noble, others enslaved; the latter habitually, and by inheritance, servants of the former, following wherever ordered (Tableau de la Situation des Établissemens Français en Algérie, p. 393, Paris, Mar. 1846).
[457] Ephorus placed the Karpidæ immediately north of the Danube (Fragm. 78, Marx; Skymn. Chius, 102). I agree with Niebuhr that this is probably an inaccurate reproduction of the Kallippidæ of Herodotus, though Boeckh is of a different opinion (Introduct. ad Inscriptt. Sarmatic. Corpus Inscript. part xi, p. 81). The vague and dreamy statements of Ephorus, so far as we know them from the fragments, contrast unfavorably with the comparative precision of Herodotus. The latter expressly separates the Androphagi from the Scythians,—ἔθνος ἐὸν ἴδιον καὶ οὐδαμῶς Σκυθικόν (iv, 18), whereas when we compare Strabo vii. p. 302 and Skymn. Chi. 105-115, we see that Ephorus talked of the Androphagi as a variety of Scythians,—ἔθνος ἀνδροφάγων Σκυθῶν.
The valuable inscription from Olbia (No. 2058 Boeckh) recognizes Μιξέλληνες near that town.