[482] The ten thousand Greeks in their homeward march passed
through a people called Chalybes between Armenia and the town of
Trapezus, and also again after eight days’ march westerly from
Trapezus, between the Tibarêni and Mosynœki: compare Xenophon,
Anabas. iv, 7, 15; v, 5, 1; probably different sections of the
same people. The last-mentioned Chalybes seem to have been the
best known, from their iron works, and their greater vicinity
to the Greek ports: Ephorus recognized them (see Ephori Fragm.
80-82, ed. Marx); whether he knew of the more easterly Chalybes,
north of Armenia, is less certain: so also Dionysius Periêgêtês,
v, 768: compare Eustathius, _ad loc._
The idea which prevailed among ancient writers, of a connection
between the Chalybes in these regions and the Scythians or
Cimmerians (Χάλυβος Σκυθῶν ἄποικος, Æschyl. Sept. ad Thebas, 729;
and Hesiod. ap. Clemen. Alex. Str. i, p. 132), and of which the
supposed residence of the Amazons on the river Thermôdôn seems to
be one of the manifestations, is discussed in Hoeckh, Kreta, book
i, pp. 294-305; and Mannert, Geographie der Griechen und Römer,
vi, 2, pp. 408-416: compare Stephan. Byz. v. Χάλυβες. Mannert
believes in an early Scythian emigration into these regions. The
ten thousand Greeks passed through the territory of a people
called Skythini, immediately bordering on the Chalybes to the
north; which region some identify with the Sakasênê of Strabo
(xi, 511) occupied, according to that geographer, by invaders
from Eastern Scythia.
It seems that Sinôpê was one of the most considerable places for
the export of the iron used in Greece: the Sinopic as well as the
Chalybdic (or Chalybic) iron had a special reputation (Stephan.
Byz. v. Λακεδαίμων).
About the Chalybes, compare Ukert, Skythien, pp. 521-523.
Herodotus seems to have conceived only one invasion of Asia by the
Cimmerians, during the reign of Ardys in Lydia. Ardys was succeeded
by his son Sadyattês, who reigned twelve years; and it was Alyattês,
son and successor of Sadyattês, according to Herodotus, who expelled
the Cimmerians from Asia.[483] But Strabo seems to speak of several
invasions, in which the Trêres, a Thracian tribe, were concerned,
and which are not clearly discriminated; while Kallisthenês affirmed
that Sardis had been taken by the Trêres and Lykians.[484] We see
only that a large and fair portion of Asia Minor was for much of this
seventh century B. C. in possession of these destroying nomads, who,
while on the one hand they afflicted the Ionic Greeks, on the other
hand indirectly befriended them by retarding the growth of the Lydian
monarchy.
[483] Herodot. i, 15-16.
[484] Strabo, xi, p. 511; xii, p. 552; xiii, p. 627.
The poet Kallinus mentioned both Cimmerians and Trêres (Fr. 2, 3,
ed. Bergk; Strabo. xiv, pp. 633-647).
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