The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-01-29
-
Blakcslyss Herodotus.

n
eral centuries by the reputation thar their
Teutonic rivals have acquired from the I'M
mense f,a,eses which they have given TO cias-
s,c., learning on the continent, and the result
| e likely Il, proye highly beneficial to the
! Ioarped world From Oxford we have sue
| cession of trapsIatons, executed literally and
with as tonishing accuracy, including vast
number of classical works heretofore in great
/ degree sealed books to the unframed. Cam
bridge seems TO have paid more attention to
the comparison and publication of the text.
in this respect rivalling, if she does not
pass, the iabors OF tho German Universities.
The work we have put q, tho head of this ar
'icle is of tho latter class. Tho editor, Mr..
BLAKKsLY, is fellow of Trinity College, Cam
bridge, He has executed his task with great
care, and with full understanding and ap
probation of the labors of his predecessors.-
The copy which We hayp is beautifully ex
ecuted !, was given 10 us by Mr.. j. W. RAN
poLpH
We once before took occasion to express our
admiral ton Of the venerable father of btssory-
ofbis rare simplicity, his viviadescriptiens, his
| skill in the CONSTRUCTION of his work. and the
| felicity With which he contriyes to work up
| vast n.raber Of details, comprising the history
| of the human race from the earliest times TO the
reign OF NERVES, and the Persian invasion OF
! Greece into a nara tive resembling an epic
! poem in everything but verse. We said little
about the accuracy Of his history. or the al
iowances which ought 10 be made for his i'm
perfect means OF obtaining information. 1t
would be unfair TO condemn him upon the
! evidence Of those who have visited the scenes
! In which many of his events are laid within
/ the present century, and have thus enjoyed
/ an opportunity of verifying his statements by
I the evidence of their own eye-slght. II must
/ be recollected that he lived in an age in which
intercourse between the existing nations was
! limited and difIicnlt-when perls of every
description beset the path, and impeded the
+ advance of the traveler-when travelling was
not performed by solitary individuals, but in
/ caravans, and at stated periods-when the
! travellers We're almost wholly merchants,
! whom spirit OF enterprise and the hope OF
J large profits allured TO the most remote re
gions--when nothing but a superstitious dread
of their local divinities under whose protec-
ton the fancicd merchants Were taken
prevented the inhabitants of the marts
in which their journeys terminated. from
following the natural propensity of semi
barbarous populations, by numbering the
owners and appropriating the goods To
.
is due the number of magnificent temples
erected In the ancient market towns of the
! world and 10 the shifting course of trade may
! be also attributed the neglect and decay into
| which many Of them had fallen, even so early
is the time of which HERoDoTCs treats. 1t
was TO the priest of these temples that he owed
the greater part of the information concerning
distant countries which he has recorded in his
work, and they, in their turn. We're indebted
for il to the merchants who periodically Wis
tied their cities. 1t is plain that intelligence
thus obtained could not be of the most relia-
bic character; but it was the best he could
get, and he never seems disposed to give it for
more than it is worth L answers, moreover,
the purpose of revealing TO us the opinions
and belief of the people OF that age, with re-
gard to the particular subjects of which it
treats-a matter not to be overlooked by those
who read history in order to form some con-
cepfion of the manners and character OF ma
tons and eras 1t moreover indicates, with
an accuracy confirmed by modern observation,
the principal channels through which the
commerce of the world was conducted, at the
most remote>periods of its history.
In this question of ancient commerce, 1t is
worthy OF remark what q prominent place is
held by tire Nile. Already early the
reign ofPsANMITIcHrs, $50 years before CHRIST,
many States OF Greece, by. the express invi-
tation of that monarch, had formed mercan-
tileestablishm snts in the islands its mouths.
Afterwards, bv the enlightened policy of
ANAsIs, Naucra It's, on the Canopic branch,
became the eatre, ,ot of all the trade between
lower Egypt and the interior, even as far as
Thebes, through be agency of the Etesian
days every year, ena sied vessels TO overcome
the rapidity of the c, u'rent- From Thebes 10
Myos Hormus, on the Red Sea, merchandise
- AS carried through III desert, on the backs
of ensnels. In return, Greece received the
Inks Of China, the very Of India, and
the spices of Arabia aud Ceylon. From
tho remotest period an active commerce
axisted between Egypt sn Thebes and the
Mediterranean Sea, if we may place any con-
fdesce in HOMER, who eel ebrates tho wealth
AVID grandeur of Thebes but at that time
tho traffic was carried on by land. The
station was originally 7he Great Oasis,
pov Ell Wah, afterwards the Oasis of Am
mon whence the labor OF transportation was
not difficult to PLACES in the negbborhood of
Lake Tritopis, we should judge, since from
this quarter issued those immense swarms of
IN u
III @ north OF Africa. In proportion, however,
r., the growth OF Lower Egypt in wealth and
imN,ortance, the land route declined from the
surs riority OF N7ater carriage to transpcrta-
tioa ,on the backs of camels. The memory OF
This ancient mode of traffic, however, sur
vived The ravageA of time and the mutations
of ira, &c, i'll the myth of the compact between
the chi.ds of tho Argonautic expedition and
the God CRIToS, as sung by PISpAR, IN the no.
blest of all his odAes, Attn Pythian.
The comm, Tce which was conducted through
Asia flowed 70 Sa.rdis or Sinope. From the
latter point there was snip navigation to
phasis during the spring season OF the year,
thence IL was takSri by iand-carriase TO The
river CYRUS where Ii was paced again upon
heats and thus carried 10 the caspian Sea
Thence il was distribute IN Bactrla or Me-
dia as the state OF the mai ket required 1t is
not at all probable, howA"er, mat men OF
Grectan lineage ventured into these distant
regions. The more rational isupposition is
that the castom observed elsewhere, was
observed likewise here--that distractions
were thrown in the way OF foreign merchants,
as they were of foreign trN yellers for the pur-
pose of creating monopeiies under the mista-
ken idea that they furnish the only road TO
wealth. Ii is not probable that the travels OF
HEgoDorrs in this directions extended beyond
Phasis, or. Mt farthest, beyond what is now
called Schropani.
! From Sardis, the capital of Lydia, TO Susa,
! the capital of Persia, there was military
road guarded by fortresses, established at reg
ular intervals. Among these posts was Cri-
ITALIA, celebrated by HERoDorus as the spo'
! upon which XERxEs collected his army, when