For our prior musings on Paphlagonia see here and here. For the origin of the Poles as coming from a nearby Colchian country see here. Here we present what is known of the stories of Paphlagonian Veneti. Some of this we have already covered but other portions, we have not. Below is a list of “true” references to Paphlagonian Veneti:
- Homer’s Illiad (Book 2, lines 851-860) (we provide three different translations)
- Strabo’s Geography (Book 1, chapter 3; Book 3, chapter 2; Book 4, chapter 4; Book 5, chapter 1; Book 12, chapter 3; Book 12, chapter 8 (no Veneti mentioned but some interesting ethnographic details); Book 13, chapter 1 (including the first portion of that chapter which has some interesting geographic details as well too as a second portion of that chapter in two separate translations that mentions Sophocles talking about the Veneti)
- Quintus Curtius Rufus’ Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis Libri Qui Supersunt (Book 3, chapter 1)
- Dictys Cretensis of Book IV (mentions “Indians” – whether these are real Indians or Veneti, we leave up to you)
Sinop
Other books such as Dares Phrygius’ De Excidio Trojae Historia or Quintus of Smyrna’s “Fall of Troi” or Pseudo-Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca may mention the Paphlagonians but they do not mention the Veneti. Dio Chrysostom’s (born in Prusa current Bursa) Orations on Troy does mention the Heneti but – interestingly – as people who lived on the Adriatic and were (it seems from the translation) taken over by the Trojans of Antenor – see here.
Homer
Iliad, Book 2, lines 851-860
Samuel Butler:
“The Paphlagonians were commanded by stout-hearted Pylaemanes from Enetae*, where the mules run wild in herds. These were they that held Cytorus and the country round Sesamus, with the cities by the river Parthenius, Cromna, Aegialus, and lofty Erithini. Odius and Epistrophus were captains over the Halizoni from distant Alybe, where there are mines of silver.”
* ἐνετοί (Enetoi); another version of this reference is quoted by Strabo below (12, 3). While Pylaemenes may appear similar to the Slavic plomien or plamen (flame but in Finnish liekki), the name is not anywhere explained by any connection with fire. Nor are his relatives’ names likewise explainable via Slavic – his son’s name was Harpalion (not the only name so evidenced as another Harpalion seems to have fought on the Greek side and another – a wine grower – lived on Lemnos), his father’s name was either Bilsates (Bibliotheca) or Melius (Dictys Cretensis).
A.T. Murray
“And the Paphlagonians did Pylaemenes of the shaggy heart lead from the land of the Eneti*, whence is the race of wild she-mules. These were they that held Cytorus and dwelt about Sesamon, and had their famed dwellings around the river Parthenius and Cromna and Aegialus and lofty Erythini. But of the Halizones Odius and Epistrophus were captains from afar, from Alybe, where is the birth-place of silver.”
Theodore Alois Buckley’s poetic translation:
“The Paphlagonians Pylaemenes rules,
Where rich Henetia breeds her savage mules,
Where Erythinus’ rising cliffs are seen,
Thy groves of box, Cytorus! ever green,
And where Aegialu and Cromna lie,
And lofty Sesamus invades the sky,
And where Parthenius, roll’d through banks of flowers,
Reflects her bordering palaces and bowers.
Here march’d in arms the Halizonian band,
Whom Odius and Epistrophus command.
From those far regions where the sun refines
The ripening silver in Alybean mines.”
Strabo
Geography, Book 1, Chapter 3 (context Adriatic Veneti)
[see here for Strabo’s discussion of whether the Adriatic Veneti came from the Gallic Veneti or from the Paphlagonian ones]
Strabo
Geography, Book 3, Chapter 2
“As regards the latter, on the other hand, one might get hints from the following: In the first place, the expeditions of Heracles and of the Phoenicians, since they both reached as far as Iberia, suggested to Homer that the people of Iberia were in some way rich, and led a life of ease. Indeed, these people became so utterly subject to the Phoenicians that the greater number of the cities in Turdetania and of the neighbouring places are now inhabited by the Phoenicians. Secondly, the expedition of Odysseus, as it seems to me, since it actually had been made to Iberia, and since Homer had learned about it through inquiry, gave him an historical pretext; and so he also transferred the Odyssey, just as he had already transferred the Iliad, from the domain of historical fact to that of creative art, and to that of mythical invention so familiar to the poets. For not only do the regions about Italy and Sicily and certain other regions betray signs of such facts, but in Iberia also a city of Odysseia is to be seen, and a temple of Athene, and countless other traces, not only of the wanderings of Odysseus, but also of other wanderings which took place thither after the Trojan War and afflicted the capturers of Troy quite as much as it did the vanquished (for the capturers, as it happened, carried off only a Cadmean victory). And since the Trojan homes were in ruins, and the booty that came to each Greek was but small, the result was that the surviving Trojans, after having escaped from the perils of the war, turned to acts of piracy, as did also the Greeks; the Trojans, because their city was now in utter ruins; the Greeks, for shame, since every Greek took it for granted that it was “verily shameful to wait long” far from his kindred “and then” back to them “empty-handed go.” Thirdly, the wanderings of Aeneas are a traditional fact, as also those of Antenor, and those of the Henetians; similarly, also, those of Diomedes, Menelaus, Odysseus, and several others. So then, the poet, informed through his inquiries of so many expeditions to the outermost parts of Iberia, and learning by hearsay about the wealth and the other good attributes of the country (for the Phoenicians were making these facts known), in fancy placed the abode of the blest there, and also the Elysian Plain, where Proteus says Menelaus will go and make his home: ‘But the deathless gods will escort thee to the Elysian Plain and the ends of the earth, where is Rhadamanthys of the fair hair, where life is easiest. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor ever any rain; but always Oceanus sendeth forth the breezes of clear-blowing Zephyrus.’ For both the pure air and the gentle breezes of Zephyrus properly belong to this country, since the country is not only in the west but also warm; and the phrase ‘at the ends of the earth’ properly belongs to it, where Hades has been ‘mythically placed,’ as we say. And Homer’s citing of Rhadamanthys suggests the region that is near Minos, concerning whom he says: ‘There it was I saw Minos, glorious son of Zeus, holding a golden sceptre, rendering decisions to the dead.’ Furthermore, the poets who came after Homer keep dinning into our ears similar stories: the expedition of Heracles in quest of the kine of Geryon and likewise the expedition which he made in quest of the golden apples of the Hesperides — even calling by name certain Isles of the Blest, which, as we know, are still now pointed out, not very far from the headlands of Maurusia that lie opposite to Gades.”
Strabo
Geography, Book 4, Chapter 4 (context Gallic Veneti)
[see here for Strabo’s discussion of whether the Adriatic Veneti came from the Gallic Veneti or from the Paphlagonian ones]
Strabo
Geography, Book 5, Chapter 1 (context Adriatic Veneti)
[see here for Strabo’s discussion of whether the Adriatic Veneti came from the Gallic Veneti or from the Paphlagonian ones]
Strabo
Geography, Book 12, Chapter 3
“Tieium is a town that has nothing worthy of mention except that Philetaerus, the founder of the family of Attalic Kings, was from there. Then comes the Parthenius River, which flows through flowery districts and on this account came by its name; it has its sources in Paphlagonia itself. And then comes Paphlagonia and the Eneti. Writers question whom the poet means by “the Eneti,” when he says, “And the rugged heart of Pylaemenes led the Paphlagonians, from the land of the Eneti, whence the breed of wild mules“; for at the present time, they say, there are no Eneti to be seen in Paphlagonia, though some say that there is a village on the Aegialus ten schoeni distant from Amastris. But Zenodotus writes “from Enetê,” and says that Homer clearly indicates the Amisus of today. And others say that a tribe called Eneti, bordering on the Cappadocians, made an expedition with the Cimmerians and then were driven out to the Adriatic Sea. But the thing upon which there is general agreement is, that the Eneti, to whom Pylaemenes belonged, were the most notable tribe of the Paphlagonians,* and that, furthermore, these made the expedition with him in very great numbers, but, losing their leader, crossed over to Thrace after the capture of Troy, and on their wanderings went to the Enetian country, as it is now called. According to some writers, Antenor and his children took part in this expedition and settled at the recess of the Adriatic, as mentioned by me in my account of Italy. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that it was on this account that the Eneti disappeared and are not to be seen in Paphlagonia.”
[* Note that Homer’s Paphlagonians “came from the land of the Eneti” whereas Strabo’s Eneti, as per A.T. Murray, were “the most notable tribe of the Paphlagonians.” It is thus not clear whether the Eneti encompassed Paphlagonians and other tribes, whether the Eneti were just one tribe of the Paphlagonians or whether the latter was the case but there were other Eneti also somewhere else.]
“As for the Paphlagonians, they are bounded on the east by the Halys River,* “which,” according to Herodotus, “flows from the south between the Syrians and the Paphlagonians and empties into the Euxine Sea, as it is called”; by “Syrians,” however, he means the “Cappadocians,” and in fact they are still to‑day called “White Syrians,” while those outside the Taurus are called “Syrians.” As compared with those this side the Taurus, those outside have a tanned complexion, while those this side do not, and for this reason received the appellation “white.” And Pindar says that the Amazons “swayed a ‘Syrian’ army that reached afar with their spears,” thus clearly indicating that their abode was in Themiscyra. Themiscyra is in the territory of the Amiseni; and this territory belongs to the White Syrians, who live in the country next after the Halys River. On the east, then, the Paphlagonians are bounded by the Halys River; on the south by Phrygians and the Galatians who settled among them; on the west by the Bithynians and the Mariandyni (for the race of the Cauconians has everywhere been destroyed) and on the north by the Euxine. Now this country was divided into two parts, the interior and the part on the sea, each stretching from the Halys River to Bithynia; and Eupator not only held the coast as far as Heracleia, but also took the nearest part of the interior, certain portions of which extended across the Halys (and the boundary of the Pontic Province has been marked off by the Romans as far as this). The remaining parts of the interior, however, were subject to potentates, even after the overthrow of Mithridates. Now as for the Paphlagonians in the interior, I mean those not subject to Mithridates, I shall discuss them later, but at present I propose to describe the country which was subject to him, called the Pontus…”
[*Halys River, interestingly, seems similar in name to the Chalusus located by Ptolemy somewhere in East Germany but emptying into the Baltic]
“…But Demetrius [of Scepsis] is not even in agreement with those for whose opinions he pleads; for in fixing the sites round Scepsis, his birth-place, he speaks of Nea, a village, and of Argyria and Alazonia as near Scepsis and the Aesepus River. These places, then, if they really exist, would be near the sources of the Aesepus; but Hecataeus speaks of them as beyond the outlets of it; and Palaephatus, although he says that they formerly lived in Alopê, but now in Zeleia, says nothing like what these men say. But if Menecrates does so, not even he tells us what kind of a place “Alopê” is or “Alobê,” or however they wish to write the name, and neither does Demetrius himself.”
“As regards Apollodorus, who discusses the same subject in his Marshalling of the Trojan Forces, I have already said much in answer to him, but I must now speak again; for he does not think that we should take the Halizoni as living outside the Halys River; for, he says, no allied force came to the Trojans from beyond the Halys. First, therefore, we shall ask of him who are the Halizoni this side the Halys and “from Alybê far away, where is the birth-place of silver.” For he will be unable to tell us. And we shall next ask him the reason why he does not concede that an allied force came also from the country on the far side of the river; for, if it is the case that all the rest of the allied forces except the Thracians lived this side the river, there was nothing to prevent this one allied force from coming from the far side of the Halys, from the country beyond the White Syrians [Leuco-Syrians]. Or was it possible for peoples who fought the Trojans to cross over from these regions and from the regions beyond, as he says the Amazons and Treres and Cimmerians did, and yet impossible for people who fought as allies with them to do so? Now the Amazons would not fight on Priam’s side because of the fact that he had fought against them as an ally of the Phrygians, against the “Amazons, peers of men, who came at that time,” as Priam says, “for I too, being their ally, was numbered among them”; but since the peoples whose countries bordered on that of the Amazons were not even far enough away to make difficult the Trojan summons for help from their countries, and since, too, there was no underlying cause for hatred, there was nothing to prevent them, I think, from being allies of the Trojans.”
“Neither can Apollodorus impute such an opinion to the early writers, as though they, one and all, voiced the opinion that no peoples from the far side of the Halys River took part in the Trojan war. One might rather find evidence to the contrary; at any rate, Maeandrius says that the Eneti first set forth from the country of the White Syrians and allied themselves with the Trojans, and that they sailed away from Troy with the Thracians and took up their abode round the recess of the Adrias, but that the Eneti who did not have a part in the expedition had become Cappadocians. The following might seem to agree with this account, I mean the fact that the whole of that part of Cappadocia near the Halys River which extends along Paphlagonia uses two languages which abound in Paphlagonian names, as “Bagas,” “Biasas,” “Aeniates,” “Rhatotes,” “Zardoces,” “Tibius,” “Gasys,” “Oligasys,” and “Manes,” for these names are prevalent in Bamonitis, Pimolitis, Gazelonitis, Gazacenê and most of the other districts. Apollodorus himself quotes the Homeric verse as written by Zenodotus, stating that he writes it as follows: “from Enetê, whence the breed of the wild mules”; and he says that Hecataeus of Miletus takes Enetê to be Amisus.* But, as I have already stated, Amisus belongs to the White Syrians and is outside the Halys River.”
* note too that Amissus bears a striking resemblance to the river Ems (Amisia). The Turkish Emesa was a place of anti-Christian riots where all churches were burned save one – that one was converted to a temple of Dionysus.
Strabo
Geography, Book 12, Chapter 8
“Contributing to the creation of myths of this kind are the confusion of the tribes there and the fertility of the country this side the Halys River, particularly that of the seaboard, on account of which attacks were made against it from numerous places and continually by peoples from the opposite mainland, or else the people near by would attack one another. Now it was particularly in the time of the Trojan War and after that time that invasions and migrations took place, since at the same time both the barbarians and the Greeks felt an impulse to acquire possession of the countries of others; but this was also the case before the Trojan War, for the tribe of the Pelasgians was then in existence, as also that of the Cauconians and Leleges. And, as I have said before, they wandered in ancient times over many regions of Europe. These tribes the poet makes the allies of the Trojans, but not as coming from the opposite mainland. The accounts both of the Phrygians and of the Mysians go back to earlier times than the Trojan War. The existence of two groups of Lycians arouses suspicion that they were of the same tribe, whether it was the Trojan Lycians or those near Caria that colonised the country of the other of the two. And perhaps the same was also true in the case of the Cilicians, for these, too, were two‑fold; however, we are unable to get the same kind of evidence that the present tribe of Cilicians was already in existence before the Trojan War. Telephus might be thought to have come from Arcadia with his mother; and having become related to Teuthras, to whether he was a welcome guest, by the marriage of his mother to that ruler, was regarded as his son and also succeeded to the rulership of the Mysians.”
“Not only the Carians, who in earlier times were islanders, but also the Leleges, as they say, became mainlanders with the aid of the Cretans, who founded, among other places, Miletus, having taken Sarpedon from the Cretan Miletus as founder; and they settled the Termilae in the country which is now called Lycia; and they say that these settlers were brought from Crete by Sarpedon, a brother of Minos and Rhadamanthus, and that he gave the name Termilae to the people who were formerly called Milyae, as Herodotus says, and were in still earlier times called Solymi, but that when Lycus the son of Pandion went over there he named the people Lycians after himself. Now this account represents the Solymi and the Lycians as the same people, but the poet makes a distinction between them. At any rate, Bellerophontes set out from Lycia and “fought with the glorious Solymi.” And likewise his son Peisander “was slain when fighting the Solymi” by Ares, as he says. And he also speaks of Sarpedon as a native of Lycia.”
“But the fact that the fertility of the country of which I am speaking was set before the powerful as a common prize of war is confirmed by many things which have taken place even subsequent to the Trojan War, since even the Amazons took courage to attack it, against whom not only Priam, but also Bellerophontes, are said to have made expeditions; and the naming of ancient cities after the Amazons attests this fact. And in the Trojan Plain there is a hill “which by men is called ‘Batieia,’ but by the immortals ‘the tomb of the much-bounding Myrina,’ ” who, historians say, was one of the Amazons, inferring this from the epithet “much-bounding”; for they say that horses are called “well-bounding” because of their speed, and that Myrina, therefore, was called “much-bounding” because of the speed with which she drove her chariot. Myrina, therefore, is named after this Amazon. And the neighbouring islands had the same experience because of their fertility; and Homer clearly testifies that, among these, Rhodes and Cos were already inhabited by Greeks before the Trojan War.”
“After the Trojan War the migrations of the Greeks and the Trerans, and the onsets of the Cimmerians and of the Lydians, and, after this, of the Persians and the Macedonians, and, at last, of the Galatians, disturbed and confused everything. But the obscurity has arisen, not on account of the changes only, but also on account of the disagreements of the historians, who do not say the same things about the same subjects, calling the Trojans Phrygians, as do the tragic poets, and the Lycians Carians; and so in the case of other peoples. But the Trojans, having waxed so strong from a small beginning that they became kings of kings, afforded both the poet and his expounders grounds for enquiring what should be called Troy; for in a general way he calls “Trojans” the peoples, one and all, who fought on the Trojan side, just as he called their opponents both “Danaans” and “Achaeans”; and yet, of course, we shall surely not speak of Paphlagonia as a part of Troy, nor yet Caria, nor the country that borders on Caria, I mean Lycia. I mean when the poet says, “the Trojans advanced with clamour and with a cry like birds,” and when he says of their opponents, “but the Achaeans advanced in silence, breathing rage.” And in many ways he uses terms differently. But still, although such is the case, I must try to arbitrate the several details to the best of my ability. However, if anything in ancient history escapes me, I must leave it unmentioned, for the task of the geographer does not lie in that field, and I must speak of things as they now are.”
Strabo
Geography, Book 13, Chapter 1
“…The Rhodius flows from Cleandria and Gordus, which are sixty stadia distant from the Beautiful Pine; and it empties into the Aenius.”
“In the dale of the Aesepus, on the left of the stream, one comes first to Polichna, a place enclosed by walls; and then to Palaescepsis; and then to Alizonium (this last name having been fabricated to support the hypothesis about the Halizones, whom I have already discussed); and then to Caresus, which is deserted, and Caresenê, and the river of the same name, which also forms a notable dale, though smaller than that of the Aesepus; and next follow the plains and plateaux of Zeleia, which are beautifully cultivated. On the right of the Aesepus, between Polichna and Palaescepsis, one comes to Nea Comê and Argyria, and this again is a name fabricated to support the same hypothesis, in order to save the words, “where is the birthplace of silver.” Now where is Alybê, or Alopê, or however they wish to alter the spelling of the name? For having once made their bold venture, they should have rubbed their faces and fabricated this name too, instead of leaving it lame and readily subject to detection. Now these things are open to objections of this kind, but, in the case of the others, or at least most of them, I take it for granted that we must give heed to him as a man who was acquainted with the region and a native of it, who gave enough thought to this subject to write thirty books of commentary on a little more than sixty lines of Homer, that is, on the Catalogue of the Trojans. He says, at any rate, that Palaescepsis is fifty stadia distant from Aenea and thirty from the Aesepus River, and that from this Palaescepsis the same name was extended to several other sites. But I shall return to the coast at the point where I left off.”
Strabo
Geography, Book 13, Chapter 1 (continuation)
“The Scepsian (Demetrius) supposes that Scepsis was the palace of Æneas, situated between the dominion of Æneas and Lyrnessus, where, it is said, he took refuge when pursued by Achilles.
“Remember you not,” says Achilles, “how I chased you when alone and apart from the herds, with swift steps, from the heights of Ida, thence indeed you escaped to Lyrnessus; but I took and destroyed it.”
“Present traditions respecting Æneas do not agree with the story respecting the first founders of Scepsis. For it is said that he was spared on account of his hatred to Priam:”
“’he ever bore hatred to Priam, for never had Priam bestowed any honour upon him for his valour.’”
“His companion chiefs, the Antenoridæ, and Antenor, and myself, escaped on account of the hospitality which the latter had shown to Menelaus.”
“Sophocles, in his play, ‘The Capture of Troy,’ says, that a panther’s skin was placed before Antenor’s door as a signal that his house should be spared from plunder. Antenor and his four sons, together with the surviving Heneti, are said to have escaped into Thrace, and thence into Henetica on the Adriatic; but Æneas, with his father Anchises and his son Ascanius, are said to have collected a large body of people, and to have set sail. Some writers say that he settled about the Macedonian Olympus; according to others he founded Capuæ, near Mantineia in Arcadia, and that he took the name of the city from Capys. There is another account, that he disembarked at Ægesta in Sicily, with Elymus, a Trojan, and took possession of Eryx and Lilybæus,and called the rivers about Ægesta Scamander and Simoïs; that from Sicily he went to Latium, and settled there in obedience to an oracle enjoining him to remain wherever he should eat his table. This happened in Latium, near Lavinium, when a large cake of bread which was set down instead of, and for want of, a table, was eaten together with the meat that was laid upon it.”
“Homer does not agree either with these writers or with what is said respecting the founders of Scepsis. For he represents Æneas as remaining at Troy, succeeding to the kingdom, and delivering the succession to his children’s children after the extinction of the race of Priam:”
“‘the son of Saturn hated the family of Priam: henceforward Æneas shall reign over the Trojans, and his children’s children to late generations.'”
“In this manner not even the succession of Scamandrius could be maintained. He disagrees still more with those writers who speak of his wanderings as far as Italy, and make him end his days in that country. Some write the verse thus:”
“’The race of Æneas and his children’s children,’ meaning the Romans, ‘shall rule over all nations.’”
Strabo
Geography, Book 13, Chapter 1 (continuation)
(Horace Leonard Jones translation)
“Demetrius thinks that Scepsis was also the royal residence of Aeneias, since it lies midway between the territory subject to Aeneias and Lyrnessus, to which latter he fled, according to Homer’s statement, when he was being pursued by Achilles. At any rate, Achilles says: “Dost thou not remember how from the kine, when thou wast all alone, I made thee run down the Idaean mountains with swift feet? And thence thou didst escape to Lyrnessus, but I rushed in pursuit of thee and sacked it.” However, the oft‑repeated story of Aeneias are not in agreement with the account which I have just given of the founders of Scepsis. For according to these stories he survived the war because of his enmity to Priam: “For always he was wroth against goodly Priam, because, although he was brave amid warriors, Priam would not honour him at all”; and his fellow-rulers, the sons of Antenor and Antenor himself, survived because of the hospitality shown Menelaüs at Antenor’s house. At any rate, Sophocles says that the capture of Troy a leopard’s skin was put before the doors of Antenor as a sign that his house was to be left unpillaged; and Antenor and his children safely escaped to Thrace with the survivors of the Heneti, and from there got across to the Adriatic Heneticê, as it is called, whereas Aeneias collected a host of followers and set sail with his father Anchises and his son Ascanius; and some say that he took up his abode near the Macedonian Olympus, others that he founded Capyae near Mantineia in Arcadia, deriving the name he gave the settlement from Capys, and others say that he landed at Aegesta in Sicily with Elymus the Trojan and took possession of Eryx and Lilybaeum, and gave the names Scamander and Simoeis to rivers near Aegesta, and that thence he went into the Latin country and made it his abode, in accordance with an oracle which bade him abide where he should eat up his table, and that this took place in the Latin country in the neighbourhood of Lavinium, where a large loaf of bread was put down for a table, for want of a better table, and eaten up along with the meats upon it. Homer, however, appears not to be in agreement with either of the two stories, nor yet with the above account of the founders of Scepsis; for he clearly indicates that Aeneias remained in Troy and succeeded to the empire and bequeathed the succession thereto to his sons’ sons, the family of the Priamidae having been wiped out: “For already the race of Priam was hated by the son of Cronus; and now verily the mighty Aeneias will rule over the Trojans, and his sons’ sons that are hereafter to be born.” And in this case one cannot even save from rejection the succession of Scamandrius. And Homer is in far greater disagreement with those who speak of Aeneias as having wandered even as far as Italy and make him die there. Some write, “the family of Aeneias will rule over all, and his sons’ sons,” meaning the Romans.”
Quintus Curtius Rufus
[see here]
Book IV of Dictys Cretensis*
“On the following day, Memnon, the son of Tithonus and Aurora, arrived with a large army of Indians and Ethiopians, a truly remarkable army which consisted of thousands and thousands of men with various kinds of arms, and surpassed the hops and prayers even of Priam. All the country around and beyond Troy, as far as eye could see, was filled with men and horses, and glittered with the splendor of arms and standards. Memnon had led these forces to Troy by way of the Caucasus mountains. At the same time he had sent another group of equal size by sea, with Phalas as their guide and leader. These others had landed on the island of Rhodes, which they soon discovered to be an ally of Greece. At first, fearing that when the purpose of their mission was known, their ships might be fired, they stayed in the harbor. Later, however, dividing their strength, they went to the wealthy cities of Camirus and Ialysus. Soon the Rhodians were blaming Phalas for trying to aid Alexander, the same Alexander who had recently conquered Phalas’ country, Sidon. In order to stir up the army, they said that whoever defended this crime was in no way different from a barbarian; and they added many such things as would incense the common soldiers and make them take their side. Nor did they fail in their intent, for the Phoenicians, who composed a majority of Phalas’ army, whether influenced by the accusations of the Rhodians, or wishing to gain control of the wealth their ships were carrying, made an attack against Phalas and stoned him to death. Then, dividing their gold and whatever booty they had, they dispersed to the cities we mentioned above.”
[* Note that Dictys Cretensis (Δίκτυς ὁ Κρής) of Knossus was the legendary companion of Idomenus during the Trojan War and the purported author of a diary of its events, that deployed some of the same materials worked up by Homer for the Iliad. In the 4th century AD a certain Q. Septimius published Dictys Cretensis Ephemeridos belli Trojani, (“Dictys of Crete, chronicle of the Trojan War”) in six books, a work that professed to be a Latin translation of the Greek version. According to the prologue to the Latin text details how the manuscript of this work, written in Phoenician characters on tablets of limewood or tree bark, survived: it was said to have been enclosed in a leaden box and buried with its author, according to his wishes: “There it remained undisturbed for ages, when in the thirteenth year of Nero’s reign, the sepulchre was burst open by a terrible earthquake, the coffer was exposed to view, and observed by some shepherds, who, having ascertained that it did not, as they had at first hoped, contain a treasure, conveyed it to their master Eupraxis (or Eupraxides), who in his turn presented it to Rutilius Rufus, the Roman governor of the province, by whom both Eupraxis and the casket were despatched to the emperor. Nero, upon learning that the letters were Phoenician, summoned to his presence men skilled in that language, by whom the contents were explained. The whole having been translated into Greek, was deposited in one of the public libraries, and Eupraxis was dismissed loaded with rewards.” (William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology).]
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