[21] Those who desire to instil into us that more perfect freedom from [ignorant] wonder, which Democritus and all other philosophers so highly extol, should add the changes which have been produced by the migrations of various tribes: we should thus be inspired with courage, steadiness, and composure. For instance, the Western Iberians,1 removed to the regions beyond the Euxine and Colchis, being separated from Arme- nia, according to Apollodorus, by the Araxes,2 but rather by the Cyrus3 and Moschican mountains.4 The expedition of the Egyptians into Ethiopia5 and Colchis. The migration of the Heneti,6 who passed from Paphlagonia into the country bordering on the Adriatic Gulf. Similar emigrations were also undertaken by the nations of Greece, the Ionians, Dorians, Achaians, and Æolians; and the Ænians,7 now next neighbours to the Ætolians, formerly dwelt near Dotium 8 and Ossa, beyond the Perrhæbi;9 the Perrhæbi too are but wanderers here themselves. Our present work furnishes numerous instances of the same kind. Some of these are familiar to most readers, but the migrations of the Carians, the Treres, the Teucrians, and the Galatæ or Gauls,10 are not so generally known. Nor yet for the most part are the expeditions of their chiefs, for instance, Madys the Scythian, Tearko the Ethiopian, Cobus of Trerus, Sesostris and Psammeticus the Egyptians; nor are those of the Persians from Cyrus to Xerxes familiar to every one. The Kimmerians, or a separate tribe of them, called the Treres, have frequently overrun the countries to the right of the Euxine and those adjacent to them, bursting now into Paphlagonia, now into Phrygia, as they did when, according to report, Midas11 came to his death by drinking bull's blood. Lygdamis led his followers into Lydia, passed through Ionia, took Sardis, but was slain in Cilicia. The Kimmerians and Treres frequently made similar incursions, until at last, as it is reported, these latter, together with [their chief] Cobus, were driven out by Madys, king of the ‘Scythians.’12 But enough has been said in this place on the general history of the earth, as each country will have a particular account.
1 The Western Iberians are the people who inhabited Spain, and were said to have removed into Eastern Iberia, a country situated in the centre of the isthmus which separates the Euxine from the Caspian Sea. The district is now called Carduel, and is a region of Georgia.
2 The river Aras.
3 The river Kur.
4 The mountains which border Colchis or Mingrelia on the south.
5 According to Herodotus, Sesostris was the only Egyptian monarch who ever reigned in Ethiopia. Pliny says he penetrated as far as the promontory of Mosylon.
6 Veneti.
7 A small people of Thessaly, who latterly dwelt near Mount Œta, which separated them from Ætolia and Phocis.
8 A city and plain in Thessaly, near to Mount Ossa.
9 A people of Macedon, at the time of Strabo dwelling north of the river Peneius.
10 Few nations have wandered so far and wide as the Galatæ. We meet with them in Europe, Asia, and Africa, under the various names of Galatæ Galatians, Gauls, and Kelts. Galatia, in Asia Minor, was settled by one of these hordes.
11 There were many kings of Phrygia of this name.
12 The text of Kramer follows most MSS. in reading ‘Kimmerians,’ but he points it out as a manifest error; and refers to Herodotus i. 103.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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