Res Gestae

In truces they are faithless and unreliable, strongly inclined to sway to the motion of every breeze of new hope that presents itself, and sacrificing every feeling to the mad impulse of the moment. Like unreasoning beasts, they are utterly ignorant of the difference between right and wrong; they are deceitful and ambiguous in speech, never bound by any reverence for religion or for superstition. They burn with an infinite thirst for gold, and they are so fickle and prone to anger, that they often quarrel with their allies without provocation, more than once on the same day, and make friends with them again without a mediator.

This race of untamed men, without encumbrances, aflame with an inhuman desire for plundering others’ property, made their violent way amid the rapine and slaughter of the neighbouring peoples as far as the Halani, once known as the Massagetae. And since we have come to this point, it is in place to tell of the origin and dwelling-place of this people also, and to point out the confused opinions of geographers, who after many different attempts to deal with the subject have at last come upon the core of the truth.[*](The passage is fragmentary and the exact meaning is uncertain. Only the general sense can be given.)

The Hister,[*](The Danube.) filled to overflowing by a great number of tributaries, flows past the Sauromatians, and these extend as far as the river Tanais,[*](The Don.) which

Among these the Nervii[*](Cf. xxii. 8, 40; these are the Neuri of Herodotus (iv. 105).) inhabit the interior of the country near the lofty, precipitous peaks nipped by the north winds and benumbed with ice and snow. Behind these are the Vidini[*](The Budini of Herodotus, iv. 108–9.) and the Geloni, exceedingly savage races, who strip the skins from their slain enemies to make clothing for themselves and coverings for their horses in war.[*](See Mela, ii. 1, 14.) On the frontier of the Geloni are the Agathyrsi, who checker their bodies and dye their hair with a blue colour[*](This detail is not mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 101).) —the common people with a few small marks, but the nobles with more and broader spots of dye.[*](Cf. Pliny, N.H. iv. 80; Mela, ii. 1, 10.)

Beyond these are the Melanchlaenae[*](According to Herodotus, iv. 107, they get their name from their black clothing.) and the Anthropophagi, who according to report lead a nomadic life and feed upon human flesh; and because of this abominable food they are left to themselves and all their former neighbours have moved to distant parts of the earth. And so the entire north-eastern[*](Oriens aestivus, north-east (Pliny, N.H. xvii. 105), so called because the sun rises in that quarter in summer. Hibernus oriens for south-east also occurs, and occidens aestivus for north-west (Columella, i. 6, 2); o. h.,, Livy, xliv. 46, 5. Cf. Gesner, Lex. Rusticum, s.v. aequinoctialis oriens. ) tract, until one comes to the Seres,[*](Chinese of Central and E. Asia (see xxiii. 6, 64). The Seres and the Ganges are not mentioned by Herodotus, nor the Halani except perhaps as Massagetae (i. 204).) has remained uninhabitable.