Some enquiries concerning the first inhabitants, language, religion, learning and letters of Europe / By a member of the Society of Antiquaries in London [i.e. F. Wise].

Francis Wise

Date:: 1758

Credit: Some enquiries concerning the first inhabitants, language, religion, learning and letters of Europe / By a member of the Society of Antiquaries in London [i.e. F. Wise]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$the reft of Europe feems to have been peopled; either by voluntary motions of the Cimmerians, or when they were pufhed forward by their neighbours. Many queftions have been raifed about the word Cimmerians; as whether they were {fo called from Gomer eldeft fon of Japhet, as if they were (1) Gomerians ; and whether they were the fame with the Cimbrians as (2) Strabo, (3) Plutarch, and other Greek writers were of opinion. They were without difpute fome of thofe roving northern people, whofe firft migrations were of too early a date, to come within the Sphere of (4) Grecian hiftory. And as to their name, I think they (1) Goropius Becanus Antiqu. Antwerp. Lib. IV. p.374, 375. Camden. Proleg. de Britan. Pezron Antiq. of Nations. (2) “Berbur I of Kipsert weary more ty eS Bozmpw Suayuy dybrep xo} Kimuser@ Bharoess avouddy. sro A etow of Ts Thu mecrdzeuay oineyTas by Tois SBiois wepeot Tod Tlivte peer levies Shdeduorres. Strabo Lib. XI. “Om ancecnol ovres yo} mradvntes of KipCest, ® waxes W aes rd Meudny mihowr seats’ aa Zxewvev } xo) 6 Kinpeesos xanein Bbanv- eG, ofoy KiuCecnos, Kieeeetes T3s Kipbos bya mony TeV F Ea\twov. Idem Lib. 7° (3) Kipseececeny Be & dows, m7 3 Kipbeor, &x ne TeTe ameganryorovoeoy. Plutarch. in Mario. ABPOI.—Kiploo, ds més pact Kyypcerss. Steph. Byzant. de Urb. Ope Kipcets ale Boamops, Dionyf. Perieg. Ver. 167. Taps, 09 @ newru of Kippseco, ro Sxucixy @v@. Euftath. in loc. Cimmerians feems to me to be only the older name of the Scythians, and common to all the Northern nations. Kimmer, Kimber, Kemper, and Kempfer, may mean on- ly a Souldier, or Man of War. (4) That the Greeks had but a very imperfect knowledge of the North- ern nations in the time of Herodotus, appears from the fourth book of his hiftory ; the account of them there given being not to be depended upon, nor believed by Herodotus himfelf. Several particulars of his relation are merely poetical fables, fuch as ‘* The air of the Hyperboreans being darken- “ed with feathers ;” which the hiftorian himfelf could explain by the falling of Snow: ‘The Gryphons, who guarded the Gold country ;” which may have a poetical meaning, not fo eafily accounted for as the former: ‘‘ The *« Arimafpians or people with one eye,”’ which may allude to the Scythian manner of taking aim in fhooting, by clofing the other. So fays Euftathius. Aiggaos 3 Movaxe Sreeny [Arimafpios] tvoudler, Dba reEmoreret ores Shwe * Ere esv tpSaruoy, Ale 70 wess ri Borlw eisonov. Comm. in Dion. Perieg. v. 31. He- rodotus feems to acknowledge that he took his account chiefly from ss ea 3 ep three$