The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3): Literally Translated, with NotesStrabo
History
The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3): Literally Translated, with Notes
Strabo
Geography -- Early works to 1800
26. But how (according to Ephorus) are there three tribes of Greeks who
inhabit the peninsula? Is it because anciently the Athenians and Ionians
were the same people? In that case the Dorians and the Æolians should be
considered as the same nation, and then there would be (only) two tribes
(and not three, inhabiting the peninsula). But if, following modern
practice, we are to distinguish nations according to dialects, there
will be four nations, as there are four dialects. But this peninsula is
inhabited, especially if we adopt the division by Ephorus, not only by
Ionians, but also by Athenians, as we have shown in the account of each
particular place.
It was worth while to controvert the positions of Ephorus, Apollodorus
however disregards all this, and adds a seventeenth to the sixteen
nations, namely, the Galatians; although it is well to mention this, yet
it is not required in a discussion of what Ephorus relates or omits;
Apollodorus has assigned as the reason of the omission, that all these
nations settled in the peninsula subsequently to the time of Ephorus.
27. Passing then to Homer, Apollodorus is correct in saying that there
was a great intermixture and confusion among the barbarous nations, from
the Trojan war to the present time, on account of the changes which had
taken place; for some nations had an accession of others, some were
extinct or dispersed, or had coalesced together.
But he is mistaken in assigning two reasons why the poet does not
mention some nations, namely, either because the place was not then
occupied by the particular people, or because they were comprehended in
another tribe. Neither of these reasons could induce him to be silent
respecting Cappadocia or Cataonia, or Lycaonia itself, for we have
nothing of the kind in history relating to these countries. It is
ridiculous to be anxious to find excuses why Homer has omitted to speak
of Cappadocia [Cataonia] and Lycaonia, and not to inform us why Ephorus
omitted them, particularly as the proposed object of Apollodorus was to
examine and discuss the opinions of Ephorus; and to tell us why Homer
mentions Mæonians instead of Lydians, and also not to remark that
Ephorus has not omitted to mention either Lydians or Mæonians.[277]
28. Apollodorus remarks, that Homer mentions certain unknown nations,
and he is right in specifying Caucones, Solymi, Ceteii, Leleges, and the
Cilicians from the plain of Thebe; but the Halizones are a fiction of
his own, or rather of those who, not knowing who the Halizones were,
frequently altered the mode of writing the name, and invented the
existence of [CAS. 680] mines of silver and of many other mines, all of
which are abandoned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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