[483] Herodot. i, 15-16.
[484] Strabo, xi, p. 511; xii, p. 552; xiii, p. 627.
The poet Kallinus mentioned both Cimmerians and Trêres (Fr. 2, 3, ed. Bergk; Strabo. xiv, pp. 633-647).
[485] Herodot. i, 105. The account given by Herodotus of the punishment inflicted by the offended Aphroditê on the Scythian plunderers, and on their children’s children down to his time, becomes especially interesting when we combine it with the statement of Hippokratês respecting the peculiar incapacities which were so apt to affect the Scythians, and the religious interpretation put upon them by the sufferers (De Aëre, Locis, et Aquis, c. vi, s. 106-109).
[486] See, in reference to the direction of this ditch, Völcker, in the work above referred to on the Scythia of Herodotus (Mythische Geographie, ch. vii, p. 177).
That the ditch existed, there can be no reasonable doubt; though the tale given by Herodotus is highly improbable.
[487] Herodot. i. 106. Mr. Clinton fixes the date of the capture of Nineveh at 606 B. C. (F. H. vol. i. p. 269), upon grounds which do not appear to me conclusive: the utmost which can be made out is, that it was taken during the last ten years of the reign of Kyaxarês.
[488] From whom Polyænus borrowed his statement, that Alyattês employed with effect savage dogs against the Cimmerians, I do not know (Polyæn. vii, 2, 1).
[489] Herodot. i, 20-23.
[490] Herodot. i, 18. Polyænus (vii, 2, 2) mentions a proceeding of Alyattês against the Kolophonians.