Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/63

 CHAP. II. INTRODUCTION. 49 at the same time have been much more simple, had he said that the Ethiopians dwelt on either side of the ocean from the rising to the setting of the sun. In this case what difference does it make whether we follow his version, or adopt the reading of Aristarchus, " These towards the west, and those towards the east ? " which also means, that whether east or west, on either side of the ocean, Ethiopians dwell. But Aristarchus rejects this hypothesis. He says, " The Ethiopians with whom we are acquainted, and who are farthest south from the Greeks, are those described by the poet as being separated into two divisions. But Ethiopia is not so separated as to form two countries, one situated towards the west, the other towards the east, but only one, that which lies south of the Greeks and adjoins Egypt ; but of this the poet was ignorant, as well as of other matters enumerated by Apollodorus, which he has falsely stated concerning various places in his second book, containing the catalogue of the ships." 25. To refute Crates would require a lengthened argu- ment, which here perhaps may be considered out of place. Aristarchus we commend for rejecting the hypothesis of Crates, which is open to many objections, and for referring the expression of the poet to our Ethiopia. But the remain- der of his statement we must discuss. First, his minute ex- amination of the reading is altogether fruitless, for whichever way it may have been written, his interpretation is equally applicable to both ; for what difference is there whether you say thus In our opinion there are two Ethiopian, one to- wards the east, the other to the west; or thus For they are as well towards the east as the west ? Secondly, He makes false assumptions. For admitting that the poet was ignorant of the isthmus, 1 and that he alludes to the Ethiopia contiguous to Egypt, when he says, The Ethiopians separated into two divisions ; 2 what then ? Are they not separated into two divisions, and could the poet have thus expressed himself if he had been in ignorance ? Is not Egypt, nay, are not the Egyptians, sepa- 1 The isthmus of Suez. 2 Odyssey i. 23. VOL. i. E