Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1203

 THRACIA. to protect it, as lie supposes, from the severity of the clinicate; by which also he accounts for tlie cultivation, in some parts of the country, of the triltcum triinestre and blmestre, so called because those varieties were reaped in the third and second month respectively after they were sown. Corn was exported from Thrace, and especially from the Cher- sonesus to Athens (Theoph. de riantis, viii. 4 ; Lys. in Diogit. p. 902), and to Rome (Plin. /. c). Millet was cultivated in some parts of Thrace; for Xeno- phon {Anab. vii. 5. § 12) states that ou the march to isalmydessus, Seuthes and his allies traversed the country of the " millet-eating Thracians " (cf. Strab. vii. p. 315.) The less important vegetable produc- tions of Thrace may be briefly mentioned: a species of water-chestnut {trihulus) grew in the Strymon, the le.aves of which were used by the people who Jived on its banks to fatten their horses, while of its nuts they made a very sweet kind of bread. (Plin. xxi. ,58, xxii. 12.) Roses {Rosa centifolia) grew wild on the Pangaeus, and were successfully transplanted by the natives (Id. xxi. 10). The mountains, in general, abounded in wild-thyme and a species of mint (Id. xix. 55). A sort of morel or truffle (itoii) was found in Thrace (Id. xix. 12; Athen. ii. p. 62), and a styptic plant (ischaemo7i)^ which was said to stop bleeding from even di- vided blood-vessels. (Theoph. de Plant, ix. 15; Plin. XXV. 45.) Several varieties of ivy grew in the country, and were sacred to Dionysus. (Theoph. de Plant, iii. 16; Plin. xvi. 62.) Herodotus (iv. 74) states that the Scythians had hemp both wild and cultivated; and as he proceeds to say that the Thra- cians made clothing of it, we may fairly infer that it grew in Thrace also. " The Athenians imported their timber chiefly from the country about the Strymon, for the Thracian hills abounded in oak and fir-trees." (Nieliuhr, Led. Anc. Hist. i. p. 292, Eng. trans.). M. Viquesnel states that the Strandja- dagh is covered with forests of oak (p. 314), and that in some parts of the district of Ehodope tobacco is now cultivated (p. 320). Among the animals of Thrace, white horses are repeatedly mentioned. The famous steeds of Rhesus were "whiter than snow." (Hom. //. x. 437; Eu- rip. Rhes. 304.) When Xerxes reached the banks of the Strymon in his onward march, the magi sacri- ficed white horses (Herod, vii. 113), which were probably Thracian, for the same reason, whatever that was, that the human victims spoken of in tiie next chapter were the children of natives. Xeno- phon states that, during a banquet given by Seuthes, a Thracian entered, leading a white horse, which he presented to his prince, with an encomium on its fleetness (^Anah. vii. 3. § 26). Virgil speaks of Thra- cian hor.ses with white spots (^Atn. v. 5G5, ix. 49). Horses were no doubt j)lentif'ul iu Thrace: Homer (//. xiv. 227) calls the Thracians iVTroTroAoj ; and cavalry always formed a large part of their armies. Thus Thucydides (ii. 98) estimates the number of horsemen in the army with which Sitalres invaded JIacedunia at about 50,000. One of the twelve ial)ours of Hercules was to bring to Jlycenae the savage mares of Diomedes, king of the Bistones in Thrace, who fed them with human flesh. (Ov. Met. ix. 194.) Herodotus (vii. 126) states that lions were found throughout the countiy bounded on the AV. by the Aclielous and on the E. by the Nestus; a statement which is repeated by Aristotle (//. A. vi. 31, viii. 28); so that the part of Thrace between the Strymon and the Nestus must have been in- THRACIA. 1179 festod, at least in early times, by those formidable animals. Herodotas says tliat they attacked the b;iggage-caniels of Xerxes during the march of Ids army from Acanthus to Therme (vii. 125). Cattle, both great and small, were abundant, and seem to have constituted the chief wealth of a people who, like most barbarians, considered agriculture a base occupation. (Herod, v. 6.) The fertile valleys were well adapted for oxen, and the thyme-covered hills for sheep ; and it is clear, from several passages in Xenophon, that even the wildest Thracian tribes were rich in this kind of wealth. {Anab. vii. 3. § 48, 7. § 53.) Aristotle informs us that the Thracians had a peculiar method of fattening swine (//. A. viii. 6). He attributes the smallness of their as.ses to the coldness of the climate {lb. 28). Cranes are often mentioned as belonging to Thrace. (Viri:. Georg. i. 120; Ov. ^. ^. iii.'l82; Juv. xiii. 167.) Aristotle says that an aquatic bird of the pelican kind (TreAsKKfej) migrates from the Strymon to the Ister(//. .4. viii. 11); and that the people in .some marshy districts of Thrace were assisted in catching water-lbwl by hawks; which do not seem to have been trained for the purjiose, but, though wild, to have been induced by a share of the game, to second the proceedings of their human associates {lb. ix. 36). Eels were caught at certain seasons in the Strymon {lb. viii. 2, ad fin.). The tunny fishery was a source of great wealth to Byzantium. (Strab. vii. p. 320.) The principal mineral productions of Thrace were gold and silver, most of which came from tlie moun- tainous district between the Strymon and the Nestus. There, at the southern extremity of the Pangaeus, was situated Crenides, founded by the Th:isians, and afterwards called I'hilippi, in a hill near which, named the hill of Dionysus (Appian, B. C. iv. 106), were the most productive gold mines of Thrace, lo get possession of which was Philip's prin- cipal object in annexing the district in question to his dominions. He is said to have derived from the mines an annual income of 1000 talents. (Diod. xvi. 8 ; cf. Strab. vii. p. 323.) * Strabo (xiv. p. 680) says that the wealth of Cadmus came from the mines of the Pangaeus; and Pliny refers to the same tradition when he states (vii. 57) that according to some authorities, the Pangaeus was the place where Cadmus first discovered gold-mines, and the art of melting their produce {conjlatur(i). Herodotus (vii. 112) mentions silver, as well as gold, mines in the Pangaeus, which in his time were in the possession of the native tribes called Pieres, Odomanti, aiid Satrae. He states also (vi. 46) that the Thasians had gold mines at Scaptc Hyie, near Abdcra, from which they derived an (annual) revenue of about 80 talents; and that a part of the revenues of Peisistratus came from the Strymon, by which the mines on its banks are probably meant (i. 64). (See also, ix. 75 ; Ivuiip. Rhes. 921; Strabo (or rather his epitomiscr), vii. p. 331.) According to Pliny (xxxiii. 21) gold waa found in the sands of the Hebrus ; and this is con- firmed by Paul Lucas {I. c), and by Vii|uesiirl, who states (p. 204) that in rainy years the aflluents of that river are frequented bj' gold-finders, who wash the sands which contain gold in grains {in pailltttfit). Thucydides was interested in gold mines and works near Aniphipolis, as he him.selt informs us (iv. 105). Of the other minerals of Tlirace wo may mention the and Geog. i. pp. 285, 295, Eng. trans.
 * On these mines, sco Nicbuhr, Led. Ethnog.