88 M. L. EOUSE_, ON THE PEDIGREE OF THE NATIONS. 



Greek colony; but of course it took its name from the river, just 

 as Isca Dumniorum (Exeter) took its name from the river Isca, 

 or Exe, and as Isca Silurum (Caerleon) took its name from the 

 Isca, or Usk. The territory of the Kimmerioi, which the 

 Scythians appropriated, had indeed extended to the Tyras ; for 

 they buried nigh to its eastern bank the bodies of their royal 

 clan when it i'ell in the civil broil that ensued on the Scythian 

 invasion* : but, large river as it was, the Tyras may well have 

 formed the boundary of a nation whose centre was the Crimean 

 peninsula, as is shown by their having protected this with a long 

 rampartf ; and, if so, the Thracians would certainly at that time 

 have been spread over the sixty-mile space between the estuaries 

 of Ister and Tyras. 



But were they not spread there even in Herodotus's own time ? 

 It is remarkable that, when beginning to describe Scythia in 

 detail, he says, " Starting from the Ister, I shall now describe 

 the measurements of the seashore of Scythia. Immediately 

 that the Ister is crossed. Old Scythia begins, and continues as 

 far as the city called Carcinitis fronting towards the south wind 

 and midday. "J Now by Old Scythia he could not have meant 

 that part of the Scythians' dominion in which they originated ; 

 for he had already given his opinion that they had wandered 

 from Asia and crossed the Volga when they attacked the 

 Ximmerioi and took their place in Southern Itussia§ ; and 

 elsewhere he states that the Sacae, who dwelt by the Bactrians 

 and Caspians — that is, in Turkestan — were a branch of the 

 Scythian race.|| Therefore by the phrase in question he must 

 have meant a ])art of Sc3'thia that used (in his opinion) to be 

 occupied by Scythians, but was now filled with other tribes, 

 though tribes that obeyed Scythia's king. Again, Strabo says that 

 the Get?e and the Mysi, two Thracian tribes, were dwelling on 

 both sides of the Ister, when some of the Mysi came southwards 

 and eastward and conquered the region in Asia, which was in 

 his time called Mysia.t But in the latter statement he must 

 have referred to a real or fancied migration many centuries 

 "before his own time** ; since the Mysi were already in Asia 

 when Xerxes invaded Greece, in B.C. 484, and marched in his 

 army, clad and accoutred as Herodotus describes them. Thus 

 Strabo, who was of course thoroughly familiar with Herodotus's 



* Her. IV, 11 {cf. Bible Pedigree I, 5-7). 

 + Strabo XI, ii, 5, and B.P., ]>. G. 

 X Her. IV, 99 (Rawlin sou's Traiusl. A-erified) 

 i< Id. IV, 11. !| Id. VH, r.4 ai]d III, 93. 



Strab. VI [, iii, 2. (n.c. 10.) 



