Note 482 — Chapter XVII · LYDIANS. — MEDES. — CIMMERIANS. — SCYTHIANS.

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.