Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/88

74 STRABO. BOOK i. since, in that case, the expedition was directed to a populous and well-known country. But if, as [Demetrius] of Skep- sis asserts, on the authority of Miranermus, ^Eetes dwelt by the Ocean, and Jason was sent thither far east by Pelias, to bring back the fleece, it neither seems probable that such an expedition would have been undertaken into unknown and obscure countries after the Fleece, nor could a voyage to lands desert, uninhabited, and so far remote from us, be con- sidered either glorious or renowned. [Here follow the words of Demetrius. J. " Nor as yet had Jason, having accomplished the arduous journey, car- ried off the splendid fleece from ^Ea, fulfilling the dangerous mission of the insolent Felias, nor had they ploughed the glorious wave of the ocean." And again : " The city of ./Eetes, where the rays of the swift sun recline on their golden bed by the shore of the ocean, which the noble Jason visited." CHAPTER III. 1. ERATOSTHENES is guilty of another fault in so fre- quently referring to the works of men beneath his notice, sometimes for the purpose of refuting them ; at others, when he agrees with them, in order to cite them as authori- ties. I allude to Damastes, and such as him, who even when they speak the truth, are utterly unworthy of being appealed to as authorities, or vouchers for the credibility of a statement. For such purposes the writings of trustworthy men should only be employed, who have accurately described much; and though perhaps they may have omitted many points altogether, and barely touched on others, are yet never guilty of wilfully falsi- fying their statements. To cite Damastes as an authority is little better than to quote the Bergaean, 1 or Euemerus the Messenian, and those other scribblers whom Eratosthenes 1 Antiphanes of Berga, a city of Thrace. This writer was so noted for his falsehoods, that flepyai&tv came to be a proverbial term for design- ating that vice.