[1976]. Didym. ap. Geopon. x. 68. 1. Plin. Nat. Hist. xv. 22.
[1977]. Dioscor. ii. 105.
[1978]. Lucian. Navig. § 23. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 2. 12.
[1979]. There are in modern times few countries where horses are cheaper and more numerous than in Colchis:—“Il n’y a point d’homme si pauvre dans la Colchide qui n’ait un cheval, car il ne coute rien à entretenir; entre les gentilshommes il y eu a qui en nourrissent deux cens et le prince en a cinq mille.” Lamberti, Relation de la Mingrelie, Voyages au Nord, t. vii. p. 193.
[1980]. Aristoph. Nub. 109. The woods of Colchis abound still in pheasants and partridges. Busbequius, Epist. iii. p. 205. Lamberti, however, relates, that the race of partridges was almost extinct in Colchis, through the abundance of birds of prey. Voyages au Nord, t. vii. p. 192.
[1981]. Thucyd. iii. 2. Plut. Sympos. v. 7. 1. Eurip. in Alcest. 675.
[1982]. There was likewise in Pontos a honey of a bitter taste, (Dion. Chrysost. i. 289, seq.) collected, according to Dioscorides (ii. 103), and Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxi. 44), from the purple flowered dwarf rhododendron which abounds on the northern shores of the Black Sea, more particularly in the vicinity of Trebizond. (Tournefort, t. iii. p. 74, sqq.) This, apparently, was the honey that produced effects so extraordinary upon the Ten Thousand, (Xenoph. Anab. iv. 8. 20,) and had the reputation of causing temporary madness. The shrub above named must be carefully distinguished from the common rhododendron which yields no honey. Della Rocca, i. 352, seq. Another cause of the bitterness of the Colchian honey is assigned by Lamberti: “Ils mettent quelquefois leur miel dans des écorces de citrouilles amères, ce qui a peut-être donné sujet à Strabon, [l. xi. c. 2. t. ii. p. 409, Tauchnitz.] d’en parler comme il a fait, et il est vrai aussi que celui qu’on ramasse dans les montagnes, dans le tems que le laurier-rose est en fleur, fait vomir ceux qui en prennent: si bien que les païsans, faute d’autre remède, s’en servent pour se purger.” Voyages au Nord, t. vi. p. 197.
[1983]. Dioscor. iii. 2. It has been conjectured by Prosper Alpinus that the Rha was brought to Pontos from the banks of the Volga, as Ammianus Marcellinus in fact, relates: Rha vicinus est amnis, in cujus superciliis quædam vegetabilis ejusdem nominis gignitur radix, proficiens ad usus multiplices medelarum, l. xxii. c. 8, p. 340.
[1984]. See the whole question ably discussed by Prosper Alpinus, De Rhapontico, cap. ii. p. 9.
[1985]. Ἡ δὲ ἰχθυόκολλα λεγομένη κοιλία ἐστὶν ἰχθύος κητώοὺ Dioscor. iii. 102.