CHAP. 7-9. 4 THE SIGYNNÆ. 8 215 9. As regards the region lying north of this country no one can say with any certainty what men inhabit it. It appears that you no sooner cross the Ister than you enter on an interminable wilderness. The only people of whom I can hear as dwelling beyond the Ister are the race named Sigynnæ, who wear, they say, a dress like the Medes, and have horses which are covered entirely with a coat of shaggy hair, five fingers in length. They are a small breed, flatnosed, and not strong enough to bear men on their backs; but when yoked to chariots, they are among the swiftest known, which is the reason why the people of that country use chariots. Their borders reach down almost to the Eneti upon the Adriatic Sea, and they call themselves colonists of the Medes, but how they can be colonists of the Medes I for my part cannot imagine. Still nothing is impossible in the the names of towns, in such names as There is some little confirmation of this view to be gathered from the Thracian customs. A good many points of resemblance may be traced between the German customs described by Tacitus, and those assigned by He. rodotus to the Thracians. Common to the two people are-1. the special worship of Mercury and Mars (Tacit. Germ. 9); 2. the contempt of agriculture, and delight in war (ibid. 14); 3. the purity of married life (ibid. 19); 4. the purchase of wives (ib. 18); 5. the practice of burning the bodies of the dead (ib. 27); and 6. the practice of Covering graves with mounds (ibid.). Further, those peculiarities which Herodotus relates of the Getæ (iv. 94-96) and the Trausi, bearing upon the great mysteries of life and death, are in harmony with the general characteristics of the "sad" Teutonic race, which has always leant towards the spiritual, and despised this life in comparison with the next. 3 3 Hungary and Austria seem to be the countries intended in this description. Dense forests and vast morasses would in the early times have rendered them scarcely habitable. 4 The Sigynnæ of Europe are unknown to later historians and geographers. Apollonius Rhodius introduces them into his poem as dwellers upon the Euxine (iv. 320), and his scholiast calls them ἔθνος Σκυθικόν. Curiously enough, Strabo, whose Sigynni (or Siginni) are in Asia near the Caspian, tells the same story, as Herodotus, of their ponies (xi. p. 757). 5 It has been suggested that dogs used in the manner practised by the Esquimaux were the origin of this description; but I should rather understand ponies, like the Shetland. 6 Perhaps the Sigynna retained a better recollection than other European tribes of their migrations westward, and Arian origin. 216 DARIUS REWARDS HISTIÆUS. Book V. long lapse of ages. Sigynnæ is the name which the Ligurians who dwell above Massilia9 give to traders, while among the Cyprians the word means spears.1 10. According to the account which the Thracians give, the country beyond the Ister is possessed by bees, on account of which it is impossible to penetrate farther. But in this they seem to me to say what has no likelihood; for it is certain that those creatures are very impatient of cold. I rather believe that it is on account of the cold that the regions which lie under the Bear are without inhabitants. Such then are the accounts given of this country, the sea-coast whereof Megabazus was now employed in subjecting to the Persians. 8 11. King Darius had no sooner crossed the Hellespont and reached Sardis, than he bethought himself of the good deed of Histiæus the Milesian, and the good counsel of the Mytilenean Coës. He therefore sent for both of them to Sardis, and bade them each crave a boon at his hands. Now Histiæus, as he was already king of Miletus, did not make request for any government besides, but asked Darius to give him Myrcinus 5 7 Herodotus has vauge notions of the great antiquity of the world and of mankind. Though in general he only professed to carry history back for some eight or ten centuries, yet he felt no objection to receiving the Egyptian exaggeration, whereby Menes was referred to B.C. 12,000. In one place (ii. 11) he speculates on the world being 20,000 years old. 8 Niebuhr has collected together (Hist. of Rome, vol. i. pp. 163-166; compare Prichard, Phys. Hist. of Mankind, iii. ch. 3, § 2, and the excellent article in Smith's Geogr. Dict.) all that is known of the Ligurians. They once extended along the coast from Spain to Etruria, and possessed a large portion of Piedmont. They were certainly not Celts; and it is probable that they may have been an Illyrian race. The name may perhaps be connected with that of the Liburnians on the Adriatic, of which it seems to be a mere variant. Note that Liburnum, near the mouth of the Arno, has become Livorno, and with us Leghorn. 9 Massilia, the modern Marseilles, appears to have been founded by the Phocæans about the year B.C. 600. (See Clinton's Fast. Hell. vol. i. p. 220.) 1 Apollonius Rhodius uses the word olyuvos for a spear or dart (ii. 99), and olyóvn occurs in this sense in the Anthology (Anth. Pal. vi. 176). Suidas says that the Macedonians called spears by this name (sub. voc. σiyórn). The Scholiast on Apoll. Rhod., like Herodotus, regards the term in this sense as Cyprian. May we connect it ? סְגוֹר with the Hebrew 2 The mosquitoes, which infest the valley of the Danube, seem to be here indicated. Supra, iv. 137. 4 Supra, iv. 97. 5 The site of Myrcinus cannot be fixed with certainty. It was near the Strymon (infra, ch. 23) on the left bank (Appian, Bell. Civ. iv. p. 1041), and not CHAP. 9-12. PEONIAN WOMAN BEFORE DARIUS. 6 217 of the Edonians, where he wished to build him a city. Such was the choice that Histiæus made. Coës, on the other hand, as he was a mere burgher, and not a king, requested the sovereignty of Mytilêné. Both alike obtained their requests, and straightway betook themselves to the places which they had chosen. 12. It chanced in the meantime that King Darius saw a sight which determined him to bid Megabazus remove the Pæonians from their seats in Europe and transport them to Asia. There were two Paonians, Pigres and Mantyes, whose ambition it was to obtain the sovereignty over their countrymen. As soon therefore as ever Darius crossed into Asia, these men came to Sardis, and brought with them their sister, who was a tall and beautiful woman. Having so done, they waited till a day came when the king sat in state in the suburb of the Lydians; and then dressing their sister in the richest gear they could, sent her to draw water for them. She bore a pitcher upon her head, and with one arm led a horse, while all the way as she went she span flax. Now as she passed by where the king was, Darius took notice of her; for it was neither like the Persians nor the Lydians, nor any of the dwellers in Asia, to do as she did. Darius accordingly noted her, and ordered some of his guard to follow her steps, and watch to see what she would do with the horse. So the very near the sea. Stephen (ad voc. 'Aupimoxis) believed it to have occupied the site of Amphipolis; but it is clear that this was not the case; for Aristagoras attacked Amphipolis from Myrcinus (compare Herod. v. 126, with Thucyd. iv. 102), and Myrcinus continued to be a town of some conse. quence after Amphipolis had obtained its greatest extent (Thucyd. iv. 107). Colonel Leake places Myrcinus to the north of Pangæum, and very near Amphipolis (Travels in Northern Greece, iii. p. 18). 6 The Edonians appear in history as a very ancient Thracian people (infra, vii. 110; Soph. Ant. 956; Strab. x. p. 686; Apollod. iii. 5, § 1). They seem to have dwelt originally in Mygdonia, where they were dislodged by the Macedonians (Thucyd. ii. 99). They possessed at this time a small tract east of the Strymon, where they had the two cities Myrcinus and Ennea-Hodoi (Nine-Ways). Afterwards Drabiscus (Dhrama) is called theirs (Thucyd. i. 100); but it is doubtful if they extended so far at this period. 7 Nicolas of Damascus told the same story of a certain Thracian, who thus exhibited his wife to Alyattes, king of Lydia (Fragm. Hist. Græc. iii. p. 413). The repetition of such tales is a common feature of ancient legendary history. 218 PEONIAN WOMAN BEFORE DARIUS. Book T. spearmen went; and the woman, when she came to the river, first watered the horse, and then filling the pitcher, came back the same way she had gone, with the pitcher of water upon her head, and the horse dragging upon her arm, while she still kept twirling the spindle. seen. 13. King Darius was full of wonder both at what they who had watched the woman told him, and at what he had himself So he commanded that she should be brought before him. And the woman came; and with her appeared her brothers, who had been watching everything a little way off. Then Darius asked them of what nation the woman was; and the young men replied that they were Pæonians, and she was their sister. Darius rejoined by asking, "Who the Pæonians were, and in what part of the world they lived? and, further, what business had brought the young men to Sardis?" Then the brothers told him they had come to put themselves under his power, and Pæonia was a country upon the river Strymon, and the Strymon was at no great distance from the Hellespont. The Pæonians, they said, were colonists of the Teucrians from Troy. When they had thus answered his questions, Darius asked if all the women of their country worked so hard? Then the brothers eagerly answered, Yes; for this was the very object with which the whole thing had been done. 14. So Darius wrote letters to Megabazus, the commander whom he had left behind in Thrace, and ordered him to remove the Pæonians from their own land, and bring them 8 Herodotus, it must be remembered, brought the Teucrians with the Mysians out of Europe into Asia, at a time anterior to the Trojan war (vii. 20). He probably therefore intends here to represent the Pæonians as an offshoot from the Teucrians before they left their ancient abodes in Europe (cf. Niebuhr, R. H. vol. i. p. 51). To what ethnic family the Pæonians really belonged is very uncertain. That they were neither Thracians nor Illy. rians, we may perhaps, with Niebuhr, consider to be "unquestionable." But can we say, with Mr. Grote (vol. iv. p. 19), that they were not Macedonians? They may have been a remnant of the ancient Pelasgic race to which the early Macedonians likewise belonged (cf. Nie. buhr, 1. s. c. and Appendix to Bk. vi. Essay i.); or they may have been a remnant of the primitive Turanian population, which first spread over Europe. There are some circumstances which favour this latter view (see below, ch. 16, note 8). 9 Supra, iv. 143; and v. 1. CHAP. 12-16. PEONIA INVADED BY THE PERSIANS. 219 into his presence, men, women, and children. And straightway a horseman took the message, and rode at speed to the Hellespont; and, crossing it, gave the paper to Megabazus. Then Megabazus, as soon as he had read it, and procured guides from Thrace, made war upon Pæonia. 15. Now when the Pæonians heard that the Persians were marching against them, they gathered themselves together, and marched down to the sea-coast, since they thought the Persians would endeavour to enter their country on that side. Here then they stood in readiness to oppose the army of Megabazus. But the Persians, who knew that they had collected, and were gone to keep guard at the pass near the sea, got guides, and taking the inland route before the Pæonians were aware, poured down upon their cities, from which the men had all marched out; and finding them empty, easily got possession of them. Then the men, when they heard that all their towns were taken, scattered this way and that to their homes, and gave themselves up to the Persians. And so these tribes of the Pæonians, to wit, the Siropæonians,1 the Pæoplians, and all the others as far as Lake Prasias,3 were torn from their seats and led away into Asia. 2 16. They on the other hand who dwelt about Mount Pangæum and in the country of the Dobêres,5 the Agria The Siropaeonians, or Pæonians of Siris, must have dwelt in the fertile plain, which is still known as "the great plain of Seres" (Clarke, iv. p. 404; Leake, Northern Gr. iii. p. 201), lying north of the Strymonic lake. They derived their name from their capital city Siris (Steph. Byz. ad voc.), which is mentioned by Herodotus (viii. 115), and Livy (xlv. 4); the Seres or Serres of modern geographers, now a town of 20,000 inhabitants (Leake, iii. pp. 199206). 2 The Peoplians are mentioned again (vii. 113) in connection with the Dobêres, as dwelling to the north of Mount Pangæum. They probably occupied a portion of the same plain with the Siropæonians (Leake, iii. 212). 3 Colonel Leake's arguments (N. Gr. iii. pp. 210-212) in proof that Lake Prasias is not Lake Bolbe (Besikia) but the Strymonic Lake (Takhino) seem to me completely satisfactory. The Pæonia of Herodotus is entirely el T Zrpuμóvi потaμų (v. S. ch. 13, and infra, note to ch. 17). 4 I regard Mount Pangæum as the range which runs parallel to the coast between the valley of the Anghista (Angites), or eastern portion of the plain of Serres, and the high road from Orfano to Pravista. It is called in some maps Punar Dagh. 5 The Dobêres dwelt on the northern skirts of Mount Pangæum (infra, vii. 113). They can scarcely be the inhabitants of the Pæonian Doberus men |
