Note 456 — Chapter XVII · LYDIANS. — MEDES. — CIMMERIANS. — SCYTHIANS.
Reading edition
Herodot. iv, 17-21, 46-56; Hippokratês, De Aëre, Locis et Aquis, c. vi; Æschyl. Prometh. 709; Justin, ii, 2.
It is unnecessary to multiply citations respecting nomadic life, the same under such wide differences both of time and of latitude,—the same with the “armentarius Afer” of Virgil (Georgic, iii, 343) and the “campestres Scythæ” of Horace (Ode iii, 24, 12), and the Tartars of the present day; see Dr. Clarke’s Travels in Russia, ch. xiv, p. 310.
The fourth book of Herodotus, the Tristia and Epistolæ ex Ponto of Ovid, the Toxaris of Lucian (see c. 36, vol. i, p. 544 Hemst.), and the Inscription of Olbia (No. 2058 in Boeckh’s Collection), convey a genuine picture of Scythian manners as seen by the near observer and resident, very different from the pleasing fancies of the distant poet respecting the innocence of pastoral life. The poisoned arrows, which Ovid so much complains of in the Sarmatians and Getæ (Trist. iii, 10, 60, among other passages, and Lucan, iii, 270), are not noticed by Herodotus in the Scythians.
The dominant Golden Horde among the Tartars, in the time of Zinghis Khan, has been often spoken of; and among the different Arab tribes now in Algeria, some are noble, others enslaved; the latter habitually, and by inheritance, servants of the former, following wherever ordered (Tableau de la Situation des Établissemens Français en Algérie, p. 393, Paris, Mar. 1846).