Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/947

 SCAMANDRIA. name Xantlms to the yellow or brownish colour of its water (comp. II. vi. 4, xxi. 8). Notwithstanding this distinct declaration of the poet that the two names belonged to the same river, Pliny (v. 33) mentions the Xanthus and Scamander as two distinct rivers, and describes the former as flowing into the Portus Acliaeorum, after having joined the Simoeis. In regard to the colour of the water, it was believed to have even the power of dyeing the wool of sheep which drank of it. (^Ariitot. II ist. Anim.. AAi-dn, Hist. Aniin. viii. 21; Plin. ii. 106; Vitruv. viii. 3,14.) Homer {II. xxii.147, &c.) states that the river had two sources close to the city of llion, one sending forth hot water and the other cold, and that near these springs the Trojan women used to wash tlieir clothes. Strabo (xiii. p. 602) remarks that in liis time no hot spring existed in those districts; he further asserts that the river had only one source ; that this was far away from Troy in Mount Ida; and lastly that the notion of its rising near Troy arose from the circumstance of its flowing for some time under ground and reappearing in the neigh- bourhood of llion. Homer describes the Scamander as a large and deep river {II. xx. 73, xxi. 15, xxii. 148), and states that the Simoeis flowed into the Scamander, which after the junction still retained the name of Scamander {II. v. 774, xxi. 124; comp. Plin. ii. 106; Herod, v. 65; Strab. xiii. p. 595). Although Homer describes the riveras large and deep, Herodotus (vii.42) states thatits waters were not suf- ficient to afford drink to the army of Xerxes. The Scamander after being joined by the Simoeis has still a course of about 20 stadia eastward, before it reaches the sea, on the east of Cape Sigeum, the modern Kum Kale. Ptolemy (v. 2. § 3), and ap- parently Pomp. Mela (i. 18), assign to each river its own mouth, the Simoeis discharging itself into the sea at a point north of the mouth of the Scamander. To account for these discrepancies, it must be assumed that even at that time the physical changes in the aspect of the country arising from the muddy deposits of the Scamander had produced these ett'ects, or else that Ptolemy mistook a canal for the Scamander. Even in the time of Strabo the Sca- mander reached the sea only at those seasons when it was swollen byrains, and at other times it was lost in marshes and sand. It was from this circumstance, that, even before its junction with the Simoeis, a canal ■was dug, which flowed in a western direction into the sea, south of Sigeum, so that the two rivers joined each other only at times when their waters were high. Pliny, who calls the Scamander a na- vigable river, is in all probability thinking of the same canal, which is still navigable for small barges. The point at which the two rivers reach the sea is now greatly changed, for owing to the deposits at the mouth, the coast has made great advances into the sea, and the Portus Achaeorum, probably a con- siderable bay, has altogether disappeared. (Comp. Leake, Asia Minor, p. 289, foil., and the various Works and treatises ou the site and plain of ancient Troy.) [L. S.] >SCAMA'NDPvIA, a small town of Mysia, no doubt situated on the river Scamander in the plain of Troy (Plin. V. 33; Hierocl. p. 662, where it is called Scamandros). Leake {Asia Minor, p. 276) conjectures that it stood on a hill rising below Bu- narhaschi. An inscription referring to this town is preserved in the museum at Paris (Choiseul-Goufher, VoijfKie I'iituresque, torn. ii. p. 288.) [L. S.] SOAMBO'NIDAE. [Atiiknak, p. 302, a.] SCANDIA 927 SCAMPAE. [iLLYRicuM, Vol. II. p. 36, b.] SCANDARIU1L [Cos.] SCANDEIA. [Cytukka.] SCA'NDIA (S/coi/Sia) or SCANDINA'VIA. Until about the reign of Augustus the countries north of the Cimbrian Chersonesus were unknown to the ancients, unless we assume with some modem writers that the island of Thule, of which Pytheas of Massilia spoke, was the western part of what is now sometimes called Scandinavia, that is Sweden and Norway. The first ancient writer who alludes to these parts of Europe, Pomp. Mela, in the reign of Claudius, states (iii. 3) that north of the Albis there was an immense bay, full of large and small islands, between which the sea flowed in narrow channels. No name of any of these islands is men- tioned, and Mela only states that they were inha- bited by the Hermiones, the northernmost of tlie German tribes. In another passage (iii. 6) the same geographer speaks of an island in the Sinus Codanus, which, according to the common reading, is called Codanonia, or Candanovia, for which some have emended Scandinavia. This island is described by him as surpassing all others in that sea both in size and fertility. But to say the least it is very doubt- ful as to whether he alludes to the island afterwards called Scandia or Scandinavia, especially as Mela describes his island as inhabited by the Teutones. The first writer who mentions Scandia and Scandi- navia is Pliny, who, in one passage (iv. 27), like- wise speaks of the Sinus Codanus and its numerous islands, and adds that the largest of them was called Scandinavia; its size, he continues, is unknown, but it is inhabited by 500 pagi of Helleviones, who regard their island as a distinct part of the worid {alter terrai-um orbis). In another passage (iii. 30) he mentions several islands to the east of Bri- tannia, to one of which he gives the name of Scan- dia. From the manner in which he speaks in this latter passage we might be inclined to infer that he regarded Scandinavia and Scandia as two different islands; but this appearance may arise from the fact that in each of the passages referred to he fol- lowed different authorities, who called the same island by the two names Scandia and Scandinavia. Pto- lemy (ii. 11. §§33, 34, 3 5) speaks of a group of four islands on the east of the Cimbrian Chersonesus, which he calls the Scandiae Insulae (2«a»'5iO( r^croi), and of which the largest and most eastern one is called Scandia, extending as far as the mouth of the Vistula. In all these accounts there is the fundamental mistake of regarding Scandinavia as an island, for in reality it is connected on the north- east with the rest of Europe. Pliny speaks of an immense mountain, Sevo, in Scandinavia, which may possibly be Mount Kjolen, which divides Sweden from Norway, and a southern branch of which still bears the name of Seve-Kyggen. The different tribes mentioned by Ptolemy as inhabiting Scandia are the Chaedini (XaiSei^ol), Phavonae {'tav6vai), Phiraesi {^ipaiaai), Gutae (roCrai), Dauciones (Aou/cicoves), and Levoni (Afuoii'oi). At a later time, Jornandes {de lieh. Get. p. 81, &e.) enume- rates no less than twenty-eight different tribes in Scandinavia. Tacitus does not indeed mention Scandia, but the Sitones and Suiones (whence the modern name Swedes) must uniiuestionably be con- ceived as the most northern among the German tribes aiul as iiihai)iting Scandia {Germ. 44, 45). It is well known that according to Jornandes the Goths, and according to Paulus Diaconiis (v. 2) the