[108] Herod. IX. 75.
[109] Strabo, 618. 29. Didot.
[110] Cf. Isaiah xlv. 14.
[111] The Debae of Agatharchides and Artemidorus are held by almost all scholars to be the people of Ptolemy’s Θῆβαι πόλις, i.e. Dhahabân, from Dhahab, gold, with term.-ân.
[112] Strabo, 661. 45. Didot.
[113] Diodorus Sic. II. 50. 1 sq.
[114] This story about their connection with Boeotia doubtless arose from the confusion between Δέβαι and Θῆβαι.
[115] Diod. Sic. III. 45. 4.
[116] His description of the size of the largest nuggets of gold varies slightly; in his second reference he compares them to “royal nuts” (κάρυα βασιλικά), which are generally admitted to be walnuts, though walnuts are sometimes also called “Persian nuts” (κάρυα Περσικά), the latter name reminding us of the derivation of walnut itself; in the first passage he likens them in size to chestnuts (κάρυα κασταναικά) or κασταναῖα, the name being said to be derived from Castanaea, a city of Pontus. It would seem from this then that Diodorus got his accounts from two slightly different sources. Strabo has been so cautious as not to give us any specific epithet for the large nut, which we may accordingly regard as we please either as a chestnut or a walnut. There can be no doubt about the fruit to which Strabo compares the medium-sized nuggets. The mespilon, Latin merpilum (from which comes the French nèfle), is undoubtedly the medlar, whilst perhaps the most likely meaning for the smallest of the three fruits is olive-stone.
[117] Diodorus, III. 12-14.