Ejemplo: Consumo e Inversi´ on

in their savagery barbarous and murderous; appeasing their gods with their impious arts.'

56. Rostovtzeff, Skythienp.30.

57. For example, Bunbury, A History of Ancient GeographyVol 1, p.185. 58. Ibid.

That this was Herodotos, and not a common source (such as Hekataios), is placed in doubt by several circumstances.

Sky m n o s ' Ephorean passages vary significantly from Herodotos' work at several points.

Firstly, Herodotos locates the Agathyrsoi north of the

59

Danube (in the Carpathian Basin), neighbouring the Neuroi

59. The location and identity of the Agathyrsoi has been greatly disputed in modern scholarship. An exposition of the Soviet views is found in M. Dusek, 'Die thrako-skythische Periode in der Slowakei',

Slovenska Archeologia ix.1-2 (1961) pp.155-174 and D. Popescu,

'Autor de la question des Scythes en Transylvanie'Dacia VI (1962) pp.443-455. Dusek also lists the following scholars 'Die Arbeiten von M.I. Artamonov, I. Terenozkin, A.I. Meljukova, A.I. Iljinskaja, G.I. Smirnov, B.N. Grakov, I.I. Ljapuskin und anderen sowjetsichen Forschern...' pp.156-7. A survey of the debate is also provided in Kornel Bakay, Scythian Rattles in the Carpathian Basin and their Eastern connections_, (1971) pp. 120-121. Herodotos himself seems to present a problem. His claim that 'EH &£ ^Ayadupcxav MapiQ TtOTOFioc; pecav auuutaYeTOU T(p "Iarpcp... ' (IV.49) indicates that the source of

the river lay in the territory of the Agathyrsoi. The Maris may be identified without difficulty as the river Muresul which flows from the east Carpathian mountains through Transylvania and westward into the Danube. Though Popescu (pp.450-2) rightly points out the incon­ sistencies in Herodotos' geography of north Balkan rivers, he con­ cedes that this passage places the Agathyrsoi in Transylvania. The problem is in reconciling this account with two others wherein the Agathyrsoi appear to be neighbours of the Neuroi, a tribe on the upper Hypanis (Her.IV.17-18, 100 and 125). In order to make the two tribes neighbours Popescu finds it necessary to place the Agathyrsoi in Moldavia to the east of the Carpathians. This overlooks numerous other possible explanations. The Agathyrsoi may have lived on both sides of the Carpathians and thus have been at the one time settled in Transylvania and be neighbours of the Neuroi in Moldavia. Kothe,

'Der Skythenbegriff bei Herodot' p.46 would place the Agathyrsoi in Moldavia, but would not seem to reject this possibility. Alternat­

ively, as Herodotos does not in fact call the two tribes neighbours, it may be that they were in fact separated by the Carpathians. This would not necessarily prevent Herodotos mentioning them in sequence. Moreover, Popescu seems to overlook the fact that in IV.100 the

tribes are enumerated in order from the Ister, and as the Agathyrsoi are the first of these tribes, they could not have lived too far north-east of the river. That the Agathyrsoi did in fact live in Transylvania is also suggested by Herodotos' account of how the Neuroi fled before the Persians to the Agathyrsoi (IV.125). Neither the Neuroi nor the Persians were able to break into the Agathyrsoiv> land. It may have been the forests and mountains of the Carpathians that offered natural defences.

His list of tribes between the Hypanis and the B o r y s t h e n e s , extending northwards, is given as Kallippidai, Alazones and

6 0

Neuroi . Ephoros omits the Agathyrsoi from his list of tribes north of the Danube, and this tribe, when m e n tioned in 864 appears to be located beyond the Sauromatai in the far north-east. Borzsak, having observed this 'divergence'

believes the process of idealisation of the Agathyrsoi - evidently underway even at the time of H e r o d o t o s ' writ i n g - had reached the point where the tribe was transferred to the

'mythical n o r t h ' . ^ As Borzsak further concludes: 'Von nun an finden wir sie öfter erwähnt, bald hier, bald dort, aber immer zwischen den my t h i s c h e n oder halbmythischen skythischen

6 2

Völkern'. Though Borzsak is correct to identify a strong tendency to idealise this particular tribe and to associate this phenomenon wirh the development of a tradition locating the tribe in imaginary tribal and geographical contexts, he may err at one point. The reason Ephoros omitted the tribe from the list of those north of the Danube and placed them in the north east, may not have been idealisation. He may not have been following Herodotos at all. The reason may

lie in Ephoros' use of Hekataios. Had Hekataios in fact

located a tribe by this name in this region? It is possible. The name simply means 'The powerful wolfmen', as does 'Thyssa-

6 3

getai' (the same name with the elements reversed). A tribe called the Thyssagetai were located by Herodotos in the north

,64 west

Secondly, though Rostovtzeff sees Ephoros' descriptions of the Sauromatai and Tauroi as evidence that he generally

60. Her IV. 17.

61. Borzsak, p.42. 'Zu dieser Zeit scheint sich ihre Unwandlung in ein fabelhaftes Volk vollzogen zu haben, im hohen Norden gedacht.'

62. Ibid._, pp.44-45. Mela II.1.10; Pliny IV.88; Dionysios Periegetes

318f ; Juvenal XV.124f; Ptolemy III.5.22; Ammanius XXII.8.31, XXXI.2.14; Vibius Sequester (Geogr.Lat.Min 157.17); Avienus 441ff; Priscianus, Periegesis 302.

63. See Appendix I.