II. 
232 FROM THE PASSAGE OF MOUNT H^MUS, 
CHAP, the mildness of his manners, joined an accom- 
plished and liberal mind. Ovid addressed to 
Cotys one of his Epistles'. Rhescuporis ruled 
over those wild and desolate plains of Thrace, 
which we had so recently traversed ; and the 
character of the people has not altered, in all 
the centuries that have since elapsed : they 
were constantly in a state of insurrection ^ It 
was to Augustus that he owed his kingdom :' 
and during the life-time of that Emperor, he 
restrained his ambitious projects within due 
bounds ; but, upon the death of his patron, 
he gave full scope to his designs of aggran- 
dizement, and took possession of the more 
cultivated and fertile territories belonging to 
Cotys'. It is necessary to insert this brief 
(1) In which Coti/s is represented as distinguished by his application 
to literature and poetry. When we consider that the Roman Poet is 
writing from the barbarous region of his exile to a Thracian Prince, 
thefollowjnj lines, upyn the effect of such studies, are read yrith 
additional interest : 
" Adde, quod ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes, 
Emollit mores, nee siuit esse feros. 
Nee regum quisquara magis est instructus ab illis, 
Mitibus aut studiis tempora plura dedit. 
Carmina testantur ; qure, si tua nomina demas 
Threicium juvenem composuisse negera, 
Neve sub hoc tractu vates foret unicus Orpheus ; 
Bistonis ingenio terra superba tuo est." 
(2) Vide Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. c. 65, &c. 
(3) Ibid. • ' ^ ' ' . ' 
