Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/476

462 STRABO. CASAUB. 300. time called these people Hipperaolgi even Hesiod is a witness in the words which Eratosthenes has quoted : " He went and saw the Ethiopians, the Ligurians, 1 and the Scythians, milkers of mares." And when we consider the amount of fraud connected with trading speculations even amongst ourselves, what ground have we to wonder that Homer should have designated as the justest and most noble those who had but few commercial and monetary transactions, and with the exception of their swords and drinking-cups, possessed all things in common, and espe- cially their wives and children, who were cared for by the whole community according to the system of Plato. ^Eschylus too seems to plead the poet's cause, when he says, "But the Scythians, governed by good laws, and feeding on cheese of mares' milk." And this is still the opinion entertained of them by the Greeks ; for we esteem them the most sincere, the least de- ceitful of any people, and much more frugal and self-relying than ourselves. And yet the manner of life customary among us has spread almost every where, and brought about a change for the worse, effeminacy, luxury, and over-great refinement, inducing extortion in ten thousand different ways; and doubt- less much of this corruption has penetrated even into the countries of the nomades, as well as those of the other bar- barians ; for having once learnt how to navigate the sea, they have become depraved, committing piracy and murdering strangers ; and holding intercourse with many different na- tions, they have imitated both their extravagance and their dishonest traffic, which may indeed appear to promote civility of manners, but do doubtless corrupt the morals and lead to dissimulation, in place of the genuine sincerity we have be- fore noticed. 8. Those however who lived before our time, and more especially those who lived near to the times of Homer, were such as he describes them, and so they were esteemed to be by the Greeks. Take for instance what Herodotus relates concerning the king 2 of the Scythians, against whom Darius waged war, and especially the answer he sent [to the messen- 1 This word is corrupt in the MSS. 2 He M'as called Idanthyrsus. See Herodotus, book iv. chap. 127.