Mention Is Made In It Of Dardanus, Rhetium, And Illium, In
The Troad; Whereas There Is Great Doubt Whether Rhetium Was In Existence In
The Time Of The Real Scylax:
Besides, it is remarkable that nothing is said
respecting India in the treatise now extant.
That the original and genuine
work described India is, however, undoubted, on the authority of Aristotle,
who mentions that there was such a person as Scylax, that he had been in
India, and that his account of that country was extant in his (Aristotle's)
time.
In fact, the work which we possess under the name of Scylax, is evidently a
collection of the itineraries of ancient navigators: it may have been drawn
up by the Scylax whom Darius employed, though, if that were the case, it is
very extraordinary he should not have included the journal of his own
voyage; or his name, as that of a celebrated geographer may have been put
to it; or there may have been another geographer of that name. The
collection is evidently imperfect; what is extant contains the coasts of
the Palus Maeotis, the Euxine, the Archipelago, the Adriatic, and all the
Mediterranean, with the west coast of Africa, as far as the isle of Cerne,
which he asserts to be the limit of the Carthaginian navigation and
commerce in that direction. The sea, according to him, is not navigable
further to the south than this island, on account of the thick weeds with
which it was covered. The mention of this impediment is adduced by
D'Anville to prove the reality of the Carthaginian voyages to the south: it
is not, indeed, true, that the sea is impassable on account of these weeds
to modern navigators, but it is easy to conceive that the timidity and
inexperience of the ancients, as well as the imperfect construction of
their vessels, would prevent them from proceeding further south, when they
met with such a singular obstacle. If a ship has not _much way_ through the
water, these weeds will impede her course. It has been very justly
remarked, that if the latitude where these weeds commence was accurately
determined, it would fix exactly the extent of the voyages of the
Carthaginians in this direction. The weed alluded to is probably the fucus
natans, or gulf-weed.
Hitherto the knowledge that the ancients possessed of the habitable world,
had not been collected by any writer, and is to be gathered entirely from
short, vague, and evidently imperfect narrations, scattered throughout a
great number of authors. Herodotus has been celebrated as the father of
history; he may with equal justice be styled the father of geographical
knowledge: he flourished about 474 years before Christ. In dwelling upon
the advances to geographical knowledge which have been derived from him, it
will be proper and satisfactory, before we explain the extent and nature of
them, to give an account of the sources from which he derived his
information; those were his own travels, and the narrations or journals of
other travellers. A great portion of the vigour of his life seems to have
been spent in travelling; the oppressive tyranny of Lygdamis over
Halicarnassus, his native country, first induced or compelled him to
travel; whether he had not also imbibed a portion of the commercial
activity and enterprize which distinguished his countrymen, is not known,
but is highly probable. We are not informed whether his fortune were such
as to enable him, without entering into commercial speculations, to support
the expences of his travels; it is evident, however, from the extent of his
travels, as well as from the various, accurate, and, in many cases, most
important information, which he acquired, that these expences must have
been very considerable. From his work it is certain that he was endowed
with that faculty of eliciting the truth from fabulous, imperfect, or
contradictory evidence, at all times so necessary to a traveller, and
indispensably so at the period when he travelled, and in most of the
countries where his enquiries and his researches were carried on. His great
and characteristic merit consists in freeing his mind from the opinions
which must have previously occupied it; - in trusting entirely either to
what e himself saw, or to what he learned from the best authority; - always,
however, bringing the information acquired in this latter mode to the test
of his own observation and good sense. It is from the united action and
guidance of these two qualifications - individual observation and experience
gained by most patient and diligent research and enquiry on the spot, and a
high degree of perspicacity, strength of intellect, and good sense,
separating the truth from the fable of all he learnt from the observation
and experience of others, that Herodotus has justly acquired so high degree
of reputation, and that in almost every instance modern travellers find
themselves anticipated by him, even on points in which such a coincidence
was the least likely.
His travels embraced a variety of countries. The Greek colonies in the
Black Sea were visited by him: he measured the extent of that sea, from the
Bosphorus to the mouth of the river Phasis, at the eastern extremity. All
that track of country which lies between the Borysthenes and the Hypanis,
and the shores of the Palus Maeotis, he diligently explored. With respect
to the Caspian, his information affords a striking proof of his accuracy,
even when gained, as it was in this instance, from the accounts of others.
He describes it expressly as a sea by itself, unconnected with any other:
its length, he adds, is as much as a vessel with oars can navigate in
fifteen days: its greatest breadth as much as such a vessel can navigate in
eight days. It may be added, as a curious proof and illustration of the
decline of geographical knowledge, or, at least, of the want of confidence
placed in the authority of Herodotus by subsequent ancient geographers,
that Strabo, Pomponius Mela, and Pliny, represent the Caspian Sea as a bay,
communicating with the great Northern Ocean; and that even Arrian, who, in
respect to care and accuracy, bears no slight resemblance to Herodotus, and
for some time resided as governor of Cappadocia, asserts that there was a
communication between the Caspian Sea and the Eastern Ocean.
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