and Hesiod, in his poem entitled “Travels round the World,” who says that Phineus was taken by the Harpies
“To the land of the Galactophagi, who have their dwellings in waggons.”
Ephorus then proceeds to state the causes of their justice, because they are frugal in their mode of life, not hoarders of wealth, and just towards each other; they possess everything in common, both their women, their children, and the whole of their kin; thus when they come into collision with other nations, they are irresistible and unconquered, having no cause for which they need endure slavery. He then cites Chœrilus, who in his “Passage of the Bridge of Boats,” which Darius[2661] had made, says,
“And the sheep-feeding Sacæ, a people of Scythian race, but they inhabited
Wheat-producing Asia: truly they were a colony of the nomades,
A righteous race.”
And again Ephorus declares of Anacharsis, whom he designates as “The Wise,” that he was sprung from that race; and that he was reckoned as one of the Seven Sages, on account of his pre-eminent moderation and knowledge. He asserts too that he was the inventor of the bellows, the double-fluked anchor, and the potter’s wheel.[2662] I merely state this, although I know very well that Ephorus is not at all times to be relied on, especially when speaking of Anacharsis; (for how can the wheel be his invention, with which Homer, who is anterior to him, was acquainted; [who says],
“as when, before his wheel
Seated, the potter twirls it with both hands,” &c.;[2663])
for I wish to show by these references, that there was a general impression among both the ancients and moderns with regard to the nomades, that some were very far removed from the rest of mankind, that they subsisted on milk, and were very frugal,[2664] and the most just of men, and that all this was not the mere invention of Homer.