CHAP. 14. (13.)—NATIONS IN THE VICINITY OF THE SCYTHIAN OCEAN.
Having now stated all that bears reference to the interior
of Asia, let us cross in imagination the Riphæan[1] Mountains,
and traverse the shores of the ocean to the right. On three
sides does this ocean wash the coasts of Asia, as the Scythian
Ocean on the north, the Eastern Ocean on the east, and the
Indian Ocean on the south; and it is again divided into
various names, derived from the numerous gulfs which it
forms, and the nations which dwell upon its shores. A great
part of Asia, however, which lies exposed to the north,
through the noxious effects of those freezing climates, consists of nothing but vast deserts. From the extreme north northeast to the point[2] where the sun rises in the summer, it is
the country of the Scythians. Still further than them, and
beyond[3] the point where north north-east begins, some writers
have placed the Hyperborei, who are said, indeed, by the
majority to be a people of Europe.[4] After passing this point,[5]
the first place that is known is Lytarmis,[6] a promontory of
Celtica, and next to it the river Carambucis,[7] where the chain
of the Riphæan Mountains terminates, and with it the extreme
rigour of the climate; here, too, we have heard of a certain
people being situate, called the Arimphæi,[8] a race not much
unlike the Hyperborei.[9] Their habitations are the groves, and
the berries their diet; long hair is held to be disgraceful by the
women as well as the men, and they are mild in their manners.
Hence it is that they are reported to be a sacred[10] race, and
are never molested even by the savage tribes which border
upon them, and not only they, but such other persons as well
as may have fled to them for refuge. Beyond these we
come straight to the Scythians, the Cimmerii, the Cisianthi,
the Georgi, and a nation of Amazons.[11]
These last extend
to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea.[12]
1. It is difficult to say what chain of mountains, if indeed any in particular,
he would designate by this name. Parisot remarks that these mountains
would seem to belong rather to the region of poetry and fable than of fact,
and states that it is pretty clear that the Balkan chain, the districts in
which the Danube takes its rise, the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Hercynian
mountains, and even the chain of Taurus and Caucasus, have at different
times been described or mentioned under the name of Riphæan Mountains.
It was evidently Pliny's belief that the great Northern or Scythian Ocean
skirted the northern shores of Asia, a little above the latitude perhaps
of the northern extremity of the Caspian. In B. iv. c. 26, we find him
crossing these, perhaps imaginary, mountains, and then proceeding to the
left, along, as he supposes, the extreme northern shores of Europe; here
he seems to start from the same point, but turns to the right, and proceeds
along the northern, eastern, and southern shores of Asia.
2. North-east.
3. I. e. more to the west.
4. See B. iv. c. 26.
5. The extremity of the supposed shores of the Hyperborei
6. D'Anville supposes that he means the headland called Cande-Noss or
Kanin-Noss, in the White Sea. Parisot, who thinks that Pliny had no
idea of the regions which lie in those high latitudes, supposes that he
refers to Domnes-Ness in the Baltic, and that by the Carambucis he means
the river Niemen.
7. Ansart thinks that he means the Dwina, which falls into the Gulf of
Archangel.
8. Previously mentioned in c. 7.
9. For a full description of them, see B. iv. c. 26.
10. See the Note to c. 7, p. 15. This description is borrowed from that
given by Herodotus. Their sacred character has been explained as referring to the class or caste of priests among this Eastern people, whoever
they may have been.
11. Ansart thinks that the Cicianthi, the Georgi, and the Amazons, inhabited the modern governments of Archangel and Vologda. It seems
almost akin to rashness to hazard a conjecture.
12. It has been already stated that the Caspian Sea was, in one portion
of it, so called, and in another the Hyrcanian Sea .