Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/661

COLCHIS. Greela called Sardonic, or, as Lander thinks, Sardian, firom Sardes), and also from their language, from the natural complexion of their skin, which was of a dusky colour, like that of the ancient inha- bitants of the valley of the Nile, and from their having curlj hair. Strabo (2. c.) alludes to, but seems hardlj to credit, this story. Yet many modem scholars have held that there us some truth In it, and have attempted variously to account for the connection between the two people. (Comp. Heeren, I4(un^ vol. i. pt. 1 p. 405 ; Michaelis, Laws of Moses, vol. iv. p. 185, &c.) Herodotus is so far a good authority, that he does not speak from hearsay, but from personal observation. Pindar {Pyth, 4.378), too, calls the Colchiaas dark-complexioned. Ammianus (xxiL 8) probably na«ly copies the words of Hero- dotus. Dionysins Perieg. (v. 689) confirms the general tradition of the Ej^ptian descent of the Colchians. The Colchi were subdivided into numerous tribes, chiefly settled, as we have stated, akng the coast of the Euxine : as the Machelones, Hauochi, Zy- dretae, Lazi, to the S. of the river Phaais: the Apsidae, Abasci, Samigae, Coraxi, to the N. of it ; the Coli, Melanchlaeni, Geloni, and Suani, along the mountun range of the Caucasus to the N.and W.,and the Moschi to the S£., among the Moschid Montes, an outlying spur of the same great chain. (See under these names.) It may be remarked here, that of these tribes, the Lazi gave their name to the Regie Lazica, a title whereby the whole country was known at a late period of history (Procop. B. P. ii. 15, Goth, iv. 1 ; Ptol. V. 10. § 5, as compared with Arrian, PeripluSj p. ll)t and that the Abasci have no doubt perpetuated their name in the modeni Abbatia (Rennell's Map) or Abkhasia (Ritter). It may also be noticed that the names Coli, and Colias, are found in connection with the Indian Colchis ; not impossibly through the carelessness of transcribers or editors. [Colchi Imdiae.] The only river of any importance was the Phasis (now Fdz or Riant), which was according to some writers the S. boundaiy of Colchis, but more probably flowed through the middle of that country from the Caucasus W. by S. to the Euxine, and the Anticitos or Atticitus (now Kuban), Arrian {Periplus, p> 10) mentions many others by name, but they would seem to have been little more than mountain torrents: the most important of them were Charieis, Chobus or Cobus, Singames, Tarsuras, Hippus, Astelephus, Chiysorrhoas, several of which are ah>o noticed by Ptolemy and Pliny* The chief towns were Dioscurias or Dioscuris (under the Romans called Sebastopolis) on the sea- board of the Euxine, Sarapana (now ScAarapani), Surium, Anrhaeopolis, Blacheiresis, and Cyta or Cutatisium (now KchiUxu), the traditional birth-pkce of Medea. The country itself was celebrated, as we have seen, from the earii^t times {or its cultivation of the trade in linen (Her. ii. 105 ; Strab. xi. p. 498). During the time of the Romans, and still later under Constantine, many castles and factories occu- pied its coasts, so as to maintain the general trade of the district (Procop. JB, G, iv. 2, B, P, ii. 28 ; Zosim. ii. 33) ; which produced, besides linen, timber for ship-building, hemp, flax, wax, pitch, and gold dust. (Strab. xi. p. 498 ; Appian. MUhr. c 103.) Among many of the poets ^ antiquity, and especially among those of tlie later and Roman times, Colchis, as the scene of the parentage of Medea, and of the subsequent voyage of the Argo- nanti and the capture of the GoUen Fleeee, was the COLIS. 643 native seat of all sorceries and witchcrafts. (Horat. Carmm ii. 13. 8, Epod, v. 21, xtL 57 ; Juv. vi. 643 ; Pro|)eTt. ii. 1. 53 ; Martial, x. 4. 35.) The existence and growth in the countxy of the Iris plant (Dioscor. in Proem, lib. vi. ; Plin. xxviii. 9), from the bulbous root of which the medicine we call Colchicum is extracted, may have led to some of the tales of sorcery attributed to Medea. (Ovid. A. Am, ii. 89 ; Lucan. vi. 441.) We have occasional notices of the history of Colchis incidentally recorded in various passages of the classical writers, from which we may gather:—- 1. That during the time of Herodotus it was the northern limit of the Persian empire (Her. iii. 97); though subsequently the people appear to have thrown off this yoke, and to have formed an inde- pendent state (Xen. Andb. iv. 8. § 9, vii. 8. § 25). Still later, in the time of Alexander the Great, the Colchians were not included in the sway of the Per- sians. (Arrian, Andb. iv. 15. § 4.) 2. During the period of tiie contests between Mithridates and the Romans, Colchis was consi- dered to be one of the territories which the king of Pontus had annexed to his paternal tenitoiy (Ap- pian, Mithr. 15), though its allegiance was even then uncertain and doubtful (^IbicL 64). During the Second Mithridatic War, Mithridates made his son Machares king of Colchis (^Ibid, 67), who ap- pears to have held his power but for a short period. Finally, on the overthrow and death of l^Iitliridates, Ponipey made Aristarchus the governor of this dis- trict. {Ibid. 114; comp. Dion Cass, xxxvi. 33, xxxvii. 3.) On the fall of Pompey, Phamaces, son of Mithridates, took advantage of Caesar being occu- pied in Egypt, and reduced Colchis, Armenia, and some part cf Cappadocia, — defeating Cn. Domitius Calvinns, w^hom Caesar subsequently sent against him. His triumph was, however, short-lived. (Dion Cass. xlii. 45.) 3. Under Polemon, the son and successor of Phar» naces, Colchis was part of the kingdom of Pontus and the Bosporus. (Strab. xi. pp. 493—499.) Lastly, from Thcoph. Byzant. {Fragm. 4), it ap- pears that in the eighth year of Justin, a. d. 572, the Colchians and Abasgi joined the king of Arme- nia as the allies of Chosroes in his war against Mar- cian. At this period the district itself, as already remarked, was generally known as Terra Lazica. (Menand. Prot. Fragm. 3 of his Conimwdion of ike History ofAgathias.) [V.] COLENDA (KoA«V5o: perhaps CueUar), a city of the Arevacae in Hisjiania Tarraconensis, men- tioned by Api»an {ffisp. 99, 100; Ukert, vol. ii. pL l,p.456). ^ [P.S.] COLI (KwXoi), a people of the Caucasus, in the north of Colchis, inhabiting a district called after them, KuXiieti. The nurthem part of the Caucasus was also called KuKixh. opTi. (Steph. B. s. v. KwAoi ; Scylax, p. 31, where Kuhucfi should be read for KvpiKii; Plin. vi. 5. s. 5; Mela, 1. 19^ COLIAS. [Athenae, p. 305, b.J COLICA'RLA, a place in Gallia Cisalpina, on the Po, between Mutina and Hostilia, near Af tnw- dola. (It. Ant.) COLIS (K»Afr, Dion.Perieg. 1148; MeU, iii. 7; Fest Avienus,v. 1355),adistrict on tlieMalabar coast, opposite to Ceylon, and a little to the northward of Cope Comorin, As stated elsewhere [Colchi Indlakj, there is a great confusion in the names which the ancients have preserved of the places on this coast; and it is veiy likely that the names Calligicunl, Co- TT 2