Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/510

 478 HISTORY OF GREECE. boring tribes derived their supply of salt.* Hence arose a puny after-growth of Olbia — preserving the name, traditions, and part of the locality, of the deserted city — by the return of a por- tion of the colonists -with an infusion of Scythian or Sarmatian residents ; an infusion indeed so large, as seriously to dishellen- ize both the speech and the personal names in the town.- To this second edition of Olbia, the rhetor Dion Chrysostom paid a summer visit (about a century after the Christian era), of which he has left a brief but interesting account. Within the wide area once filled by the original Olbia — the former circum- ference of -which was marked by crumbling walls and towers — the second town occupied a narrow corner ; with poor houses, low walls, and temples having no other ornament except the ancient statues mutilated by the plunderers. The citizens dwelt in perpetual insecurity, constantly under arms or on guard ; for the barbaric horsemen, in spite of sentinels posted to announce their approach, often carried oif prisoners, cattle, or property, from the immediate neighborhood of the gates. The picture drawn of Olbia by Dion confirms in a remarkable way that given of Tomi by Ovid. And what imparts to it a touching interest is, that the Greeks whom Dion saw contending with the difficulties, privations, and dangers of this inhospitable outpost, still retained the activity, the elegance, and the intellectual aspi- rations of their Ionic breed ; in tliis respect much superior to the Tomitans of Ovid. In particular, they were passionate admirers of Homer ; a considerable proportion of the Greeks of Olbia could repeat the Iliad from memory.* Achilles (locahzed under 1 Dion Chiysost, Oral, xxxvi. (Borysthenit.) p. 75, 76, Reisk. Olbian Inscriptions, part xi. p. 108-116. •' Dion, Orat. xxxvi. (Borysthenit.), p. 78, Reiske Kal TaWa /lev ovKETi (japtjf e?Ji.Jivi^ovr£c, did. to tv fieaoLQ oIkeIv toIq [3ap,3upoic, o/iuf rr/v ye 'l/uu6a oXiyov Truvreg laaaiv a-b arofiaToc. I translate the words oXi- yov TTuvTsc with some allowance for rhetoric. The representation given by Dion of the youthful citizen of Olbia — Kallistratus — with Avhom he conversed, is curious as a picture of Greek manners in tliis remote land ; a youth of eigliteen years of age, with genu- ine Ionic features, and conspicaous for his beauty {slxs noT^Aovc i(iaaTu^) a zealot for literature and philosophy, but especially for Homer; clothed ii|
 * See Boeckh's Commentary on tlie language and personal names of tha