Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/266

 252 STHABO. CASAUB. 168. malefactors, though few in number, having associated with the pirates in those seas, they all got a bad name, and Me- tellus, surnamed Balearicus, marched against them. He it was who built the cities. But owing to the great fertility of the country, these people have always had enemies plotting against them. Although naturally disposed to peace, they bear the reputation of being most excellent slingers, which art they have been proficient in since the time that the Phoe- nicians possessed the islands. It is said that these l were the first who introduced amongst the men [of the Baleares] the custom of wearing; tunics with wide borders. They were ac- customed to go_^nto battle naked, having a shield covered with goat-skin in their hand, and a jajglin hardened by fire at the "point, very rarely with an iron tip, and wearing round the head three slings of black rush, 2 hair, or sinew. The long sling they use for hitting at far distances, the short one for near marks, and the middle one for those between. From childhood they were so thoroughly practised in the use of slings, that bread was never distributed to the children till^they had won_it by the sling? On this account Metellus, when he was approaching the islands, spread pelts over the decks, as a shelter from the slings. He introduced [into the country] 3000 Roman_colonists from Spain. 2. In addition to the fruitfulness of the land, noxious animals are rarely to be met with. Even the rabbits, they say, were not indigenous, but that a male and female having been introduced by some one from the opposite continent, from thence the whole stock sprung, which formerly was so great a nuisance that even houses and trees were overturned, [being undermined] by their warrens, and the inhabitants 1 Viz. the Phoenicians. 2 Immediately after the word ptXayKpaivaQ, which we have translated black rush, the text of our geographer runs on as follows : " resembling the schoenus, a species of rush from which cords are made. Philetas in his Mercury [says] ' he was covered with a vile and filthy tunic, and about his wretched loins was bound a strip of black rush, as if he had been girt with a mere schoenus.' " It is evident that this passage is the scholium of some ancient grammarian, and we have followed the example of the French editors in inserting it in a note, as it is a great impediment in the middle of Strabo's description of the equipment of the island warriors. 3 " Cibum puer a matre non accipit, nisi quern, ipsa monstrante, per- cussit." Florus, lib. iii. c. 8. The same thing is stated by Lycophron, v. 637, and Diodorus Siculus, 1. v. c. 18.