Geography

​As for the southern part of Germany beyond the Albis, the part contiguous to it is still occupied by the Suevi. Then immediately the land of the Getae borders on it, at first narrow, stretching along the Ister on its southern part, and on the opposite side along the mountain-range of the Hercynian Forest, itself also occupying a part of the mountains, and then it widens toward the north as far as the Tyregetae; but we are unable to state the precise boundaries. And because of the ignorance of these regions, those who mythologize about the Rhipaean Mountains and the Hyperboreans have been deemed worthy of credit, as also the falsehoods which Pytheas of Massalia told concerning the ocean-coast, using his investigation of celestial and mathematical matters as a pretext. So let those men be dismissed; for not even if Sophocles writes tragically about Oreithyia, saying that having been carried off by Boreas she was borne “over the whole sea to the ends of the earth, and to the sources of night and the unfoldings of heaven, the ancient garden of Phoebus,” would it be of any relevance to the present matters, but it must be dismissed, just as Socrates also does in the Phaedrus. But let us speak of those things which we have received from both ancient history and the present.

​The Greeks, then, considered the Getae to be Thracians; and they dwelt on both sides of the Ister, both these and the Mysians, who were themselves Thracians and whom they now call Moesians, from whom also set out the Mysians who now dwell between the Lydians, Phrygians, and Trojans. And the Phrygians themselves are Brigians, a Thracian tribe, just as are also the Mygdonians, Bebrycians, Medobithynians, Bithynians, and Thynians, and I think also the Mariandynians. These, then, have all completely abandoned Europe, but the Mysians remained. And Poseidonius seems to me to conjecture correctly that Homer names the Mysians in Europe (I mean those in Thrace) when he says: “But he turned back his shining eyes, looking away towards the land of the horse-tending Thracians and the close-fighting Mysians.” For if one were to understand the Mysians in Asia, the passage would be disconnected. For to turn one’s gaze away from the Trojans to the land of the Thracians, and to include with it that of the Mysians—who are not far off but border on the Troad and are situated behind it and on either side, and are separated from Thrace by the wide Hellespont—would be the act of one who confuses the continents and at the same time does not understand the phrasing. For “turned back” is especially “to the rear”; and he who shifts his sight from the Trojans to those who are not behind them or to their side shifts it further forward indeed, but not back at all. And what follows is also proof of this very thing, because he connected with them those who milk mares, feed on milk, and are Abii, who are indeed the wagon-dwelling Scythians and Sarmatians. For indeed even now these Thracian tribes are mixed with them, as well as the Bastarnic tribes, more so with those outside the Ister, but also with those inside. And with these also the Celtic tribes, the Boii, Scordisci, and Taurisci. And some call the Scordisci “Scordistae”; and they say that the Taurisci are also called “Teurisci” and “Tauristae”.

​And Poseidonius says that the Mysians, out of piety, abstain from living things, and therefore also from domestic animals; and that they use honey, milk, and cheese, living in quiet, and for this reason they are called “god-fearing” and “kapnobatae”. And that there are some of the Thracians who live without women, who are called “ktistae”, and are consecrated out of honor and live in safety; and that the Poet collectively calls all of these “noble mare-milkers, milk-feeders, and Abii, most just of men.” And that he calls them “Abii” chiefly because they are without women, since he considers the life of a widower to be half-complete, just as he considers the house of Protesilaus to be “half-complete” because it was widowed. And that he calls the Mysians “close-fighting” because they are unconquered, just like good warriors; and that in the thirteenth book of the Iliad one should read, instead of “and of the close-fighting Mysians,” “and of the close-fighting Moesians.”