14B 
AMAZONS. 
Biodorus also mentions another race of Amazons, who dwelt in 
Africa, and whom he speaks of as being of greater antiquity than 
those who lived near the Thermodoon. In the western parts of Libya, 
says he, upon the borders of those tracts that are habitable, there was 
anciently a nation under the government of women, whose manners 
and mode of living were altogether different from ours. It was the 
custom for these women to manage all military affairs, and for a cer- 
tain time, during which they preserved their virginity, they went out 
as soldiers into the field. After some years employed in this manner, 
when the time appointed for this purpose was expired, they associated 
themselves with men, in order to obtain children ; but all public 
offices, they kept entirely in their own hands. The men, as the women 
are with us, are employed in household duties, submitting themselves 
wholly to the authority of their wives. They are not permitted to 
take any part in military affairs, or to have any public authority, which 
might tend to encourage them to cast off the yoke of their wives. As 
soon as any child was born, it was delivered to the father, to be fed 
with milk, or such other food as was suitable to its age. If females 
w'ere born, they seared their breasts, &c. 
Justin represents the Amazonian republic to have been in Scythia. — 
The Scythians had a great part of Asia under their dominion up- 
wards of 400 years, till they were conquered by Ninus, the founder 
of the Assyrian empire. After his death, which happened B.C. 1150, and 
that of Sermiramis and their son Ninias, Ilinus and Scolopites, princes 
of the blood royal of Scythia, were driven from their country by other 
princes, who, like them, aspired to the crown. They departed with 
their wives, children, and friends; and being accompanied by a great 
number of young people of both sexes, they passed into Asiatic Sar- 
matia, beyond mount Caucasus, where they formed an establishment, 
supplying themselves with the riches they wanted, by making excur- 
sions into the countries bordering on the Euxine sea. The people of 
these countries, exasperated by the incursions of their new neighbours, 
united, surprised, and massacred the men. The women then deter- 
mining to revenge their death, and at the same time, to provide for 
their own security, resolved to form a new kind of government, to 
choose a queen, enact laws, and maintain themselves, without men, and 
even against the men themselves. This design was not so very sur- 
prising as at first sight appears; for the greatest number of girls 
among the Scythians had been inured to the same exercises as the 
boys — to draw the bow, to throw the javelin, and to manage other 
arms, to riding, hunting, and even the painful labours that seem 
reserved for men; and many of them, as among the Sarmatians, 
accompanied the men in war. Hence they had no sooner formed 
their resolution, than they prepared to execute it ; and exercised 
themselves in all military operations. They soon secured the peace- 
able possession of the country ; and not content with shewing their 
neighbours that all their efforts to drive them thence, or subdue them, 
were ineffectual, they made war upon them, and extended their own 
frontiers. 
They had hitherto made use of the assistance of a few men that 
remained in the country ; but finding at length that they could stand 
