Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/471

. vn. c. in. 6. GET^E. 457 men, he there passed his life, rarely communicating with any- body except the king and his ministers. The king himself assisted him to play his part, seeing that his subjects obeyed him more readily than formerly, as promulgating his ordi- nances with the counsel of the gods. This custom even continues to our time ; for there is always found some one of this character who assists the king in his counsels, and is styled a god by the Getae. The mountain likewise [where Zamolxis retired] is held sacred, and is thus distinguished, being named Cogaeonus, 1 as well as the river which flows by it ; and at the time when Byrebistus, against whom divus Caesar prepared an expedition, reigned over the Getae, Deca3- neus held that honour : likewise the Pythagorean precept to abstain from animal food, which was 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 with regard to the Mysians and the illustrious Hippemolgi : but what 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 well versed in every thing that related to Greece, but were in a state of considerable ignorance as to places at a distance, in consequence of the impossibility of their making long journeys by land or voyages by sea. In support of this he asserts, 2 that Homer designated Aulis as ' rocky,' as in- deed it is ; Eteonus as ' mountainous and woody,' Thisbe as ' abounding in doves,' Haliartus as ' grassy;' but that neither Homer nor the others were familiar with localities far off; for although there are forty rivers which discharge themselves into the Black Sea, 3 he makes no mention whatever even of the most considerable, as the Danube, 4 the Don, 5 the Dnieper, 6 the Bog, 7 the Phasz, 8 the Termeh, 9 the Kisil-Irmak, 10 nor does 1 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. 2 See Strabo's former remarks on this identical subject, book i. chap, ii. 3, page 25. 3 tie TOV HOVTOV. 4 Ister. 5 Tanais. 6 Borysthenes. 7 Hypanis. 8 Phasis. Thermodon. 10 Halys.