that I can say of the time wherein Asia suffered the violence of these oppressors.

(2.) What nations they were that broke into Asia, with the cause of their journey,

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TOUCHING the expedition itself, Herodotus tells us, that the Cimmerians, being driven out of their country by the Scythians, invaded and wasted some part of Asia; and that the Scythians, not contented with having won the land of the Cimmerians, did follow them, I know not why, into far-removed ters of the world, so, (as it were by chance,) falling upon Media and Egypt, in this pursuit of men that were gone another way into Lydia. Hereby we may gather, that the Cimmerians were an odious and base people; the Scythians as mischievous and foolish; or else Herodotus, and some other of his countrymen, great slanderers of those by whom their nation had been beaten, and Ionia more than once grievously ransacked. The great valour of the Cimmerians, or Cimbrians, is so well known, and their many conquests so well testified in histories of divers nations, that the malice of the Greeks is insufficient to stain them with the note of cowards. These were the posterity of Gomer, who peopled the greatest part of our western world, and whose reflow did overwhelm no small portion of Greece and Asia, as well before and after as in the age whereof we do now entreat. He that would more largely inform himself of their original and actions, may peruse Goropius Becanus's Amazonica; of many things in which book that may be verified which the learned Ortelius is said to have spoken of all Goropius's works, That it is easy to laugh at them, but hard

to confute them.' There we find it proved by such arguments and authorities as are not lightly to be regarded, that the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians, were all of one lineage and nation, howso

ever distinguished in name, by reason of their divers tribes, professions, or, perhaps, dialect of speech. Homer, indeed, hath mention of the Cimmerians, whose country, whether he placeth in the west, as near unto the ocean and bounds of the earth, or in the north, as being far from the sun, and covered with eternal darkness, certain it is that he would have them near neighbours of hell; for he had the same quarrel to them which Herodotus had, and therefore, belike, would have made them seem a kind of goblins. It was the manner of this great poet, (as Herodotus, writing his life, affirms,) to insert into his works the names of such as lived in his own times, making such mention of them as the good or ill done by them to himself deserved. And for this reason it is proved by Eustathius, that the Cimmerians were so disgraced by him because they had wasted his country. Perhaps that invasion of Phrygia by the Amazons, whereof Homer puts a remembrance into Priamus's discourse with Helen, was the very same which Eusebius noteth to have happened somewhat before the age of Homer, at what time the Cimmerians, with the Amazons together, invaded Asia.

This is certain, that both the Amazons and the Cimmerii, (who in after times were called Cimbri,) did often break into Greece and Asia; which though it be not in express terms written, that they did with joint forces, yet, seeing they invaded the self-same places, it may well be gathered that they were companions. One journey of the Amazons into Greece, mentioned also by Eusebius, was by the streights of the Cimmerians, as we find in Diodorus': who further telleth us, that the Scythians therein gave them assistance. The same author, before his entry into those discourscs of the Amazons, which himself acknowledgeth to be fabulous, doth report them to

have been wives of the Scythians, and no less warlike than their husbands; alleging the example of that queen who is said to have slain the great Persian Cyrus. That it was the manner of the Cimbri to carry their wives along with them to the wars, and how desperate the courage was of those women, the terrible descent of them into Italy, when Marius the Roman overthrew them, gives proof sufficient, I will not here enter into a discourse of the Amazons; another place will give me better leisure to speak of them; but seeing that they are noted by divers historians to have belonged unto the Cimmerians, to the Scythians, and to the Sarmatians, we may therefore the better approve Goropius's conclusion, that these three nations were one, at least that they were near allies.

Now as concerning the expulsion of the Cimmerians by the Scythians, it appears to have been none other than the sending a colony of them forth into Asia, with an army of Scythians to help them, in purchasing a new seat, and establishing the plantation.

The Sarmatians also were companions in this journey. For the city of Novogorod in Russia, (which country is the same that was called Sarmatia,) stood in their way homewards, as shall anon be further shewed. So that all the north was up in arms; and therefore it is no marvel, though many countries felt the weight of this great inundation. Such another voyage was that which the same people made five hundred years and more after this, when they were encountered by the Romans. For they issued from the parts about the lake Mæotis; they were then likewise assisted, (saith Plutarch in the most likely report of them3,) by the Scythians their neighbours; they had in their army above three hundred thousand fighting men, besides a huge multitude of wo

3 Plutarch in the life of Marius.

men and children; they wandered over many countries, beating all down before them; and finally thinking to have settled themselves in Italy, they divided their company, for the more easy passage thither, and were consumed in three terrible battles by the Roman consuls. Mere necessity enforced these poor nations to trouble the world, in following such hard adventures. For their country being more fruitful of men than of sustenance, and shut up on the north side with intolerable cold, which denied issue that way to their overswelling multitudes; they were compelled to discharge upon the south, and by right or wrong to drive others out of possession, as hav ing title to all that they had power to get, because they wanted all that weaker, but more civil, people had. Their sturdy bodies, patient of hunger, cold, and all hardiness, gave them great advantage over such as were accustomed unto a more delicate life, and could not be without a thousand superfluities. Wherefore most commonly they prevailed very far; their next neighbours giving them free passage, that they might the sooner be rid of them; others giving them, besides passage, victuals and guides to conduct them to more wealthy places; others hiring them to depart with great presents; so as the farther they went on, the more pleasant lands they found, and the more effeminate people.

(3.) Of the Cimmerians war in Lydia.

THE first company of these, consisting for the most part of Cimmerians, held the way of the Euxine seas, which they had still on the right hand; leaving on the other side, and behind them, the great mountains of Caucasus. These having passed through the land of Colchis, that is now called Mingrelia, entered the country of Pontus, and being arrived in Pa

phlagonia, fortified the promontory whereon Sinope, a famous haven town of the Greeks, was after built. Here it seems that they bestowed the weakest and most unserviceable of their train, together with the heaviest part of their carriages, under some good guard; as drawing near to those regions, in conquest whereof they were to try the utmost hazard. For in like sort afterwards did the Cimbri, (of whom I spoke even now,) dispose of their impediments, leaving them in a place of strength, where Antwerp now stands, when they drew near unto Gaul, upon which they determined to adventure themselves in the purchase. From Sinope, the way into Phrygia, Lydia, and Ionia, was fair and open to the Cimmeri ans, without any ledge of mountains or any deep rivers to stay their march; for Iris and Halys they had already passed.

What battles were fought between these invaders and the Lydians, and with what variable success the one or other part won and lost, I find not written, nor am able to conjecture. This I find, that in the time of Ardys, the Cimmerians got possession of Sardes the capital city of Lydia; only the castle holding out against them. Further I observe, that whereas Herodotus tells of the acts performed by Gyges and Ardys kings of Lydia, before this invasion, and by Halyattes and Croesus in the times following; all that Ardys did against the Cimmerians, and all, save burning the Milesians corn-fields, that was done in twelve years by Sadyattes his son, (who perhaps had his hands so full of this business, that he could turn them to nothing else,) is quite omitted; whereby it may seem, that neither of the two did any thing worthy of remembrance in these wars, but were glad enough that they did not lose all,

Certainly, the miseries of war are never so bitter and many, as when a whole nation, or great part of

4 Herod. l. 4.