صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

an to us, because

ficiencies, and to

insur

as many
not understand

Ige of the phy
imilar localities,

which separates

number of them
The original
y are preserved
aning, they were
which succeeded
untries in which
lly the case
and the countries
man and Greek
Turkish transla

cure in the de-
detailed descrip
then universally
contemporaries,
ions. In short,
ire the result of
ted their minds

s, are generally
required before

either from the
n. Such revo
iers, who either
vations to their
ge of the ancient

ntribution from
It might have
inople defended

Khalifs, or the

described by in his descrip

tion of the battle-field, might happen to give us that circumstantial information which we miss in the imperfect account of the other. The dulness of the middle ages has overshadowed ancient science, art, and enlightened opinions. A Frankish historian will be a bad source for the knowledge of the government of the Cæsars; a monk of mount Athos is regarded as a bad critic, when he condemns the mythology of his ancestors; and the Byzantine artists who built the first Christian church on the banks of the Borysthenes, and adorned it with the painting of the Virgin on gold ground, would scarcely have been able to appreciate the master-works of Apelles and Phidias. But it is not so with geography, a science which has derived more information from the keen eye of a soldier, or the vigilance of an unlettered sailor, than from the meditations of Plato and Aristotle.

The geographical observations made during the middle ages are as correct as those of Pliny and Strabo; and whether they are made by Arabs, Greeks, or Latins, they will often be useful for the understanding of obscure passages of the ancients.

The statements of Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Ptolemy, and Arrian, concerning the Bosporus Cimmerius, the present island of Taman, and the mouths of the Kuban, which seem to be, and partly are, so very contradictory, derive a satisfactory explanation from a Greek author of the middle ages. This is Constantine Porphyrogeneta, who wrote his geography under circumstances and with an object which are too important in determining the trustworthiness of the author, not to deserve a few remarks.

stances.

The century, in which the emperor Constantine Porphyrogeneta lived, was a dangerous epoch for the Byzantine empire, which was then constantly exposed to the invasions of the Russians, a nation whose first appearance in history took place under strange circumIn the ninth and tenth centuries they were under the sway of the Waregues or Normans, who, still fond of the piratical life of their ancestors, forced the continental nations, which they had vanquished in the very heart of the boundless woods of Sarmatia, to undertake maritime expeditions. Kiew, the capital of the Norman-Russian empire, was situated at a distance of almost three hundred miles from the Euxine, but on following the curve of the Borysthenes, on the banks of which that city was, and is still

situated, the traveller has to traverse through double of tance before he arrives at the sea-shore. In Kiew, how the midst of a vast continent, the Russians used to arm fleets. Commanded by their Norman chiefs they descer Borysthenes in spacious barges; they penetrated into the and more than once laid siege to Constantinople.

The destructive incursions of these barbarians comp emperors of Byzantium to conclude alliances with the negues and the Khazars, or those Turkish and Finnis which were scattered over the vast steppes between the the Caspian. These nations being united with Byzantium common interest, the Russians had no chance of attac imperial dominions without crossing a great extent o country; and although they could not always be preven descending to the shores of the Euxine, they at least make their incursions without fighting their way through t of the Petzenegues, who lay in ambush round the cat the Borysthenes. The Emperor Constantine Porphy in his work De Administrando Imperio, recommend alliances to his son Romanus, as the best means of the empire against the northern barbarians; and he d attention of the young prince to every thing concerning tory and geography of that part of Scythia. The pol portance of these countries, and the extensive trade of t on the Tanais and the Borysthenes, are so many guar their geography being well known to the Byzantines; a only expect that the imperial author of the work cit who was a well-instructed man, and who certainly de knowledge from the most authentic sources, has given us correct information which it was possible to gather in It is true that he makes an egregious blunder in stating was an uninterrupted communication by water between and the upper part of the Borysthenes; but this is very since the spot he speaks of was situated beyond the lim rect knowledge, in one of those hyperborean countries Herodotus relates, though not without his doubts, show thers fall from the foggy sky, covering the fields and trees. In all his statements, however, concerning thos

uble of that disew, however, in to arm powerful y descended the into the Euxine,

compelled the with the Petze

of which an exact knowledge could be obtained, the emperor is

correct and accurate.

The commentators of Constantine Porphyrogeneta have written some very good notes; but the geographical part of the work, De Administrando Imperio, especially as far as Southern Russia is concerned, was far from being cleared up in a satisfactory manner, until Bayer, one of the earliest and most distinguished members of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, published his commentary, which is excellent in many respects, and which is contained in the ninth volume of the Commentarii Academiæ Petropolitana.

I Finnish tribes en the Don and zantium through of attacking the xtent of hostile prevented from least could not rough the arrows the cataracts of Porphyrogeneta mmended these ns of protecting the directs the cerning the his The political im de of the Greeks y guarantees fr nes; and we can ork cited abore inly derived h ven us the most her in his time. stating that there tween Norgond very excusable

he limits of cor untries where, as showers of fea and the leafless those countries

[ocr errors]

,

Bayer lived at a time when the whole extent of Southern Russia was almost inaccessible to scientific investigation, on account of its being in the hands of the Tatars of the Crimea, whose jealous temper could hardly distinguish between an innocent astronomer and a Russian spy. He had no such detailed maps as have since been engraved by order of the Russian government; and he lived long before the time of Dr. Clarke, and Pallas, that illustrious traveller, who has given us the best description of the countries between the Don, the Volga, and the range of the Caucasus. Although Bayer always tries to restore or discover the correct names, he does not always venture to give his fair opinion about the situation of the localities which are designated by those names. Sometimes also he labours under palpable mistakes, or has recourse to a particular kind of wit, which, among the German scholars of the past century, was admired as esprit, but which is far from agreeing either with the taste or the criticism of the present age. In later years, the learned Count Potocki, Frähn, the eminent oriental scholar, Müller, the author of Der Ugrische Volksstamm, Eichwald, and several other distinguished men, have treated on the same subject, although their purpose was by no means to write commentaries upon Constantine Porphyrogeneta.

In 1840, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres of Paris, proposed as a prize-essay the history of the nations which lived in Southern Russia from the third to the tenth century, with particular regard to the geography of Constantine Porphyrogeneta. One memoir was presented and rejected in 1841,

[ocr errors]

and the problem was renewed; but it will not be bef month of August in this year that we shall know the of it.

The passage of Constantine Porphyrogeneta concern Palus Mæotis, which throws light on the passages of Ptolemy, Pliny, and Arrian, treating the same subject, 1 sented great difficulties to the commentators; and until t it has not been explained in a satisfactory way. This is of great importance, because it enables us to prove ence of a second Bosporus Cimmerius, which has now disa but which continued open in the tenth century of our er following is a translation of the passage.

"A great many rivers empty themselves into the part of the Palus Mæotis, (among which are remarka Tanais, which comes down from the castle of Sarcel, Choracul, in which the fish called Berzeticon are caug sides these there are the Bal, the Burlic, the Chader, and number of other rivers; there is also a channel (called) which is a mouth of the Mæotis, through which this into the Euxine, at the very same place where the Bospo into it. Opposite the (town of) Bosporus there stands t of Tamatarcha; the breadth of the above-mentioned ch tween them (Tamatarcha and Bosporus) is eighteen m half-way of this distance there is a large flat island of of Atech. At a distance of from eighteen to twenty m the castle of Tamatarcha there flows the river Ucru separates the island of Tamatarcha from the co Zichia, which extends from the river Ucruch to 7 Nicopsis 2."

2 De Administrando Imperio, cap. 42, p. 180, 181, ed. Bonn.—“Εἰς δὲ τὸ ἀνατολικώτερον μέρος τῆς Μαιώτιδος λίμνης εἰσέρχονται πολλοί τινες ποταμοί· ὅ τε Τάναϊς ποταμός, ὁ ἀπὸ τὸ κάστρον Σάρκελ ἐρχόμενος, καὶ τὸ Χωράκουλ, ἐν ᾧ καὶ τὸ βερζήτικον αλιεύεται· εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ ἕτεροι ποταμοί, ὁ Βαλ, καὶ ὁ Βουρλίκ, ὁ Χαδὴρ καὶ ἄλλοι πλεῖστοι ποταμοί· ἐκ δὲ τῆς Μαιώτιδος λίμνης ἐξέρχεται στόμιον τὸ Βουρλὶκ ἐπονομαζόμενον, καὶ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Πόντου θάλασ

σαν καταρεῖ ἐν ᾧ ἐστὶν ὁ Αντικρὺ δὲ τῆς Βοσπόρου τὸ λεγόμενον κάστρον ἐστί· τὸ τοῦ περάματος τοῦ τοιού ἐστὶ μίλια ιη'. ἐν δὲ τῷ μέσ ιη' μιλίων ἐστὶ νησίον μέγα λεγόμενον Ἀτέχ. ἀπὸ τὸ Ταμ ποταμὸς ἀπὸ μιλίων ιη' ἢ κα νος Οὐκρούχ, ὁ διαχωρίζωι καὶ τὸ Ταμάταρχα. ἀπὸ δὲ μέχρι τοῦ Νικόψεως ποτα ἡ χώρα τῆς Ζιχίας.”

t be before the
know the result

concerning the ages of Strabo,

ubject, has pre

d until this day

This passage prove the exist now disappeared,

f our era. The

Ento the eastern remarkable) the Sarcel, and the e caught. B der, and a great (called) Burli this sea flows Bosporus flows

tands the castl

Bayer remarks with regard to this passage, that it is very difficult to find out the modern names and the situation of all these rivers, the ancient names having disappeared without leaving any trace. According to him, the Tanais and the Chader are the extreme limits between which the remaining rivers are to be placed; but as he leaves the reader in doubt with regard to the situation of the Chader, these limits, though fixed in the north by the Tanais, remain vague in the south. It is evident that he believes these two rivers to be the extreme limits, because it happens that the emperor begins with the Tanais, and finishes with the Chader. But an attentive examination of the Greek text will show, that the author was far from enumerating the rivers of the Mæotis in the order in which we find them successively crossing our way in travelling along the shore from northeast to south-west. The rivers which are mentioned before all the others, are the Tanais and the Choracul; and the author leads the attention of the reader to them by putting their names together within the space of a single clause, while all the other rivers are enumerated separately. By thus pointing out two rivers, one of which is known to be one of the largest of Europe, the author evidently intended to speak first of the two most considerable objects of his inquiries. He mentioned first and conjointly the Tanais and the Choracul, because they surpassed the others in magnitude; and he did not comply with the method of Ptolemy, who, as a mere mathematical geographer, and always with a view to longitude and latitude, keeps strictly to the geographical order and position of the localities. We have of course only to find out that river which is the most considerable after the Don. This is undoubtedly the Chernaïa Protoka, one of the two branches of the Kuban, both of which flow into the Sea of Azof, (Palus Mæotis); the other branch, the Kazatchei Yerik, is less considerable. The Chernaïa Protoka runs through a swampy country, and its upper course, though very wide in some places, is narrow in others, its bed being obstructed by reeds and sand-banks; but its mouth is large and deep enough to afford a good harbour for the Russian galley-fleet, opposite the fortress of Achuïef. The mouth of the main branch of the Kuban, which empties itself into the Black Sea, is neither as wide nor as deep as that of

ned channel be teen miles, and and of the name enty miles from Ucruch, which he country of to the river

ἐστὶν ὁ Βόσπορος, όρου τὸ Ταμάταρχα στί· τὸ δὲ διάστημα

τοιούτου στομίου

τῷ μέσῳ τῶν αὐτῶν

· μέγα χαμηλὸν τὸ τὸ Ταμάταρχά ἐστι ιη' ἢ καὶ κ', λεγόμεν

νωρίζων τὴν Ζιχίαν ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ Οὐκρού ποταμοῦ.....ἐστι

« السابقةمتابعة »