Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/480

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466
STRABO.
CASAUB. 303.

for I wish to show by these references, that there was a general impression among both the ancients and moderns with regard to the nomades, that some were very far removed from the rest of mankind, that they subsisted on milk, and were very frugal,[g 1] and the most just of men, and that all this was not the mere invention of Homer.

10. It is but just too that Apollodorus should give some explanation respecting the Mysians mentioned in the Epic poems of Homer, whether he takes them to be but people of his feigning, when the poet says,

“Of the close-fighting Mysians and the illustrious Hippemolgi,”[q 1]

or would he regard them as the Mysians of Asia? Now if he should declare that he considers them to be those of Asia, he will misinterpret tlie poet, as has been before observed; but if he should say they were but an invention, as there were no Mysians in Thrace, he will be guilty of a palpable misstatement, for even in our own times Ælius Catus has removed from the opposite side of the Danube into Thrace fifty thousand Getæ, who speak a language cognate with the Thracian. They still inhabit the very spot, and pass by the name of Mœsi. Whether those of former times were so designated, and had their name slightly varied in Asia, or, as is more suitable to history and the poet’s expression, those in Thrace were at the first called Mysians,[q 2] is not certain. But enough of this; we must now return to our geography. 11. Let us pass over the early history of the Getæ, and occupy ourselves with their actual condition. Bœrebistas, one of the Getæ, having taken the command of his tribe, reanimated the men who were disheartened by frequent wars, and raised them to such a degree of training, sobriety, and a habit of obedience to orders, that he established a powerful dominion within a few years, and brought most of the neighbouring states into subjection to the Getæ. He at length became formidable even to the Romans, fearlessly crossing the Danube, and laying waste Thrace as far as Macedonia and Illyria; he also subdued the Kelts who live among the Thracians and Illyrians, and thoroughly annihilated the Boii who were subject to Critasirus and the Taurisci. In order to

  1. ↑ ἀβίους.
  1. ↑ Iliad xiii. 5.
  2. ↑ See chap. iii. § 3, 4, of this book.
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