Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/506

 474 HISTORY OF GREKCF. residents were clothed in skins, or leather ; while the women, ig- norant both of spinning and weaving, were employed either in grinding corn or in carrymg on their heads the pitcliers of water.^ By these same bai-barians, Olbia also (on the right bank of the i The picture drawn by Ovid, of his situation as an exile at Tom?, can never fail to interest, from the mere beauty and felicity of his expression : but it is not less interesting, as a real description of Hellenism in its last phase, degraded and overborne by adverse fates. The truth of Ovid's picture is fully borne out by the analogy of Olbia, presently to be mentioned. His complaints run through the five books of tlic Tristia, and the four books of Epistolae ex Ponto (Trist. v. 10, 15). " Innumerie circa gcntes fera bella minanfur, Quse sibi non rapto vivere turpe putant. Nil extra tutum est : tumulus defenditur a^re Mcenibus exiguis ingenioque soli. Cum minime ciedas, ut avis, densissimus hostis Advolat, et praedam vix bene visus agit. Saepe intra mnros clausis venientia portis Per medias Icgimus noxia tela vias. Est igitur rarus, rus qui colcrc audeat, isque Hac arat infelix, hac tenet arma manu. Vix ope castelli defendimur: et tamen intus Mista facit Graecis barbara turba metum. Qnippe simul nobis habitat discrimine nullo Barbarus, et tecti plus quoque parte tenet. Quos ut non timcas, possis odisse, videndo Pellibus et long3, corpora tecta coma. Hos quoque, qui gcniti Graiii creduntur ah urbe, Pro patrio cuUu Persica bracca tegit," etc. This is a specimen out of many others : compare Trist. iii. 10, 53; iv. 1, 67; Epist. Pont. iii. 1. Ovid dwells especially upon the f;ict that there was more of barbaric than of Hellenic speech at Tomi — "Graiaque quod Getico victa loqncJa sono est" (Trist. v. 2, G8). Woollen clothing, and the practice of spinning and weaving bv the free women of the family, were among the most familiar cir- cumstances of Grecian life; the absence of these feminine arts, and the use of skins or leather for clothing, were notable departures from Grecian hab- ite (Ex I'onto, iii. 8) : — " Yellera dura ferunt pecudes ; et Pallndis nti Arte Tomitanse non didicere nnrus. Femina pro s k Cerealia munera frangit, Suppositoque gravem vertice portat aquam."