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.
475/542 page 461
![to compare what we have advanced with the remarks of Posidonius and the other critics. Now, in the first place, they have universally proved tlie very contrary of the allega- tions which they had undertaken to maintain ; for where they undertook to show that amongst the ancients there was a greater amount of ignorance as to places far from Greece than there was among the moderns, tliey have proved the very contrary, and that not only with regard to the countries more remote, but even with respect to Greece itself; but, as I have said before, let the other matters remain in abeyance while we consider carefully the subject now before us. Thus they say that it was through ignorance Homer and the anci- ents omitted to speak of the Scythians, and their cruelty to strangers, whom tliey sacrificed, devoured their flesh, and af- terwards made use of their skulls as drinking-cups, for w'hich barbarities the sea was termed the Axine,* or inhospitable; but in place of these they imagined fables as to illustrious Ilippemolgi, Galactophagi, and Abii, the most just of man- kind, who never existed any where in this world. But how came it that they named the sea the Axenus, if they were so ignorant of the barbarism of that region, or of those savages who were the most barbarous on earth ? But these undoubt- edly are the Scythians! Or in the early times were not those who dwelt beyond tlie Mysians, and Thracians, and Get®, Hippemolgi, (or milkers of mares,) Galactophagi, and Abii? Nay rather, they exist at this very day, being called Hamax- oeci and Nomades, living on tlie herd, milk and cheese, and especially on cheese made of mare’s milk, and being ignorant how to lay up treasure or deal in merchandise, except the sim- ple barter of one commodity for another. How then can it be said that the poet [Homer] knew nothing of the Scythian.s, since he doubtless designates some of them by the names ot Hippemolgi and Galactophagi? And that the men of that nourished, in living, and most just of men. Iliad .xiii. 5. 1 he word which Cowper renders “ blest with length of days,” and Buckley “ simple in living,” in ciflioi. Its signilicalion is very uncertain. Some propose to derive it from a, privative, and /3t»c, a bow, or bowless ; while others regard it as a proper name, Abii. In Lucian’s Dialogues ol the Dead, xv. .3, it means, without a living, poor, as derived from a, privative, and fSiog, a means of living, livelihood. Cowper’s meaning is made up from a, intensive, and j3tog, life. ' Fontus Axenus. ,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24872556_0001_0475.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
