Volume 1
The geography of Strabo / Literally translated, with notes. The first six books by H. C .Hamilton, esq., the remainder by W. Falconer.
- Strabo
- Date:
- 1854-1857
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The geography of Strabo / Literally translated, with notes. The first six books by H. C .Hamilton, esq., the remainder by W. Falconer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
471/542 page 457
![men, he there passed liis life, rarely communicating Avith any- body except the king and his ministers. The king himself assisted him to play Ids part, seeing that his subjects obeyed him more readily than formerly, as promulgating Ids ordi- nances with the counsel of the gods. Tlds custom even continues to our time ; for there is always found soni6 one of this character who assists the king in his counsels, and is styled a god by the Get®. The mountain likewise [wliere Zamolxis retired] is held sacred, and is thus distinguished, being named Cogajonus,’ as well as the river which llows by it; and at the time Avhen Byrehistus] against Avhom divus Cassar prepared an expedition, reigned^over the Getoe, Decas- neus held that honour: likewise the Pythagorean precept to abstain from animal food, which Avas originally introduced by Zamolxis, is still observed to a great extent. 6. Any one may well entertain such questions as these touching the localities mentioned by the poet [Homer], and Avith regard to tlie Mysians and the illustrious Hippeinolgi: but Avhat Apollodorus has advanced in his preface to the Ca- talogue of Ships in the Second Book [of the Iliad] is by no means to be adopted. For he praises the opinions of Eratos- thenes, who says that Homer and the rest of the ancients were Avell versed in every thing that related to Greece, but Avere in a state of considerable ignorance as to places at a distance, in con.sequence of the impossibility of their making long journeys by land or voyages by sea. In support of this he asserts,^ that Homer designated Aulis as ‘ rocky,’ as in- deed it is; Eteonus as ‘ mountainous and woody,’ Tliisbe as ‘abounding in doves,’ Haliartus as ‘grassy;’ but that neither Homer nor the others were familiar Avith localities far off; for although there are forty rivers Avhich discharge themselves into the Black Sea,^ he makes no mention Avhatever even of the most con.siderable, as the Danube,'’ the Don,''’ the Dniejicr,® the Bog,^ the PliasK,” the Termeh,'-’ the Kisil-Irmak,'“ nor does ' D’Anville imagines that this is the modern mountain Kaszon, and the little river of the same name on the confines of Transylvania and Moldavia. ^ See Strabo’s former remarks on this identical subject, book i. chap, ii. § .3, page 2.b. * t!(; Tov riovTov. * Ister. ° Tanais. * Borysthenes. ’’ Hypanis. * Phasis. * Theruiodon. Ilalys.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24872556_0001_0471.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
