Οὔ τινος δοῦλοι κέκληνται φωτὸς, οὐδ' ὑπήκοοι.—1., 240.
None seem to have felt the force of this great truth so much as the Persian despots themselves, or to have estimated the effects of civil liberty higher than they did. The younger Cyrus, before the battle of Cynaxa, addresses his Grecian soldiers in the following memorable words: Ὦ ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, οὐκ ἀνθρώπων ἀπορῶν βαρβάρων συμμάχους ἡμᾶς ἄγω, ἀλλὰ νομίζων ἀμείνονας καὶ κρείττους πολλπῶν βαρβάρων ὑμᾶς εἶναι διὰ τοῦτο προσέλαβον ὅπως οὖν ἔσεσθε ἄνδρες ἄξιοι τῆς ἐλευθερίας, ἧς κέκτησθε, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἧς ὑμᾶς ἐγὼ εὐδαιμονίζω· εὖ γὰρ ἴστε, ὅτι τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἑλοίμην ἂν ἀντὶ ὧν ἔχω πάντων καὶ ἄλλων πολλαπλασίων.—Anab., i., 7. Such being the established opinions of the intelligent portion of mankind in the days of Hippocrates, the sentiment here expressed would then be regarded as a self-evident truth. Plato, indeed, modifies this opinion in so far when he holds despotism to be the consequence and not the cause of servility.—De Repub., viii.
[433] The name Sauromatæ or Sarmatæ was applied by the ancient geographers to certain inhabitants of that vast and, to them, nearly unexplored country, extending from the Sinus Codanus or Baltic Sea, to the Euxine or Black Sea. It comprehends, then, a large portion of Russia, Poland, and perhaps Prussia. (See Pomponius Mela, iii., 4; Ptolemy, Geograph.; and Maltebrun, Geograph., vol. i., p. 126.) That the Sarmatians and Scythians were the same race of men, although some of the authorities make a distinction between them, can scarcely admit of a doubt. Our author, it will be remarked, seems to restrict the name to a peculiar race of Scythians, who lived near the Palus Mæotis (or Sea of Asaph). From the account which he gives of them it is impossible to doubt that he alludes to the Amazonians, so celebrated in ancient legends. The opinion which I entertain of them is pretty fully stated in the Argument to this treatise. That our author should not have doubted the real existence of the Amazonians need excite no wonder, considering the very positive and very circumstantial account of them given by his contemporary Herodotus (iv., 110–18).
[434] It may at first sight appear singular that our author should have mixed up his account of the Scythians with allusions to the Egyptians; but he probably had in view Herodotus (ii., 103–6), who connects the Egyptians with the Scythians, and more especially with the tribe of them called Colchians. He states in particular that the Colchians and Egyptians resembled one another in the fashion of their linen, their whole course of life, and in their language.
[435] Herodotus (iv., 28, 29) and Strabo (Geogr., vii.), assign the same reason for the Scythian cattle not having horns.
[436] This description evidently applies to the wandering tribes which roam over the steppes of Tartary. The passage is of classical celebrity, for I cannot but fancy that certainly Virgil (Georg., iii., 349–83), and perhaps Horace (Od. iii., 24), had it in view when they drew their pictures of the nomadic life of the Scythians. The extraordinary cold of that region, notwithstanding its southern latitude, has not been exaggerated by ancient authors; but to account for it, as the modern traveller, Clark, remarks, is still a problem which no one has solved. Strabo mentions that carts were driven across the Palus Mæotis (Geogr., vii., 3). The chariots covered in from the inclemency of the weather with a roof of felt, are described also by Strabo (Geogr., l. c.); and, according to Dr. Coray, similar contrivances are still to be found among the Kalmucs and other savage nations. (Notes sur le Traité des Airs, etc., h. 1.) A preparation from milk resembling the hippace is still used by the inhabitants of that region. On the people who lived upon this composition from milk, see in particular Strabo, vii., 3.
[437] The following lines of Virgil, referred to above, may be almost said to be a translation of this passage:
“Semper hiems, semper spirantes frigora Cauri.
Tum sol pallentes haud unquam discutit umbras;
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