Re: The Bastarnians

> >
> > > According to Wikipedia, the Perigesis ad Nicomedem Regem of
> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-Scymnus
> > > was composed around 90BCE, not 133-116.
>
> > GK: Wikipedia gives no arguments for its date. Your earlier
> > source (Pekkanen) offers lengthy ones for 133-116.
>
> Well, not really. This is all:
> 'The poem was in all probability written between 133 - 116 B.C.3
> ...
> 3 Ginsinger, RE III A, 674.'
> where
> 'RE = Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft,
> Stuttgart 1894 ff.'
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/67478
>
> which means the arguments should be found there.
>
> *****GK: I did find an argumented German text online, but neglected
> to keep the reference... Unfortunately the RE article is not yet
> ready for electronic inspection.

The author's name is Gisinger, not Ginsinger:
http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Paulys_Realencyclop%C3%A4die_der_classischen_Altertumswissenschaft/Autoren
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Gisinger

> But the article on Bastarnae is. Here's the reference for interest's
> sake:

> http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/RE:Bastarnae

 

> One argument re Ps/Skymnos is that it repeatedly states that it
> takes its information about the geography of the eastern Black Sea
> area from Demetrius of Callatis (I think Mullenhof mentions this
> point), whose work is dated as very late 3rd c. BCE.

*Some* of its information. Here is Pekkanen's text:'The Bastarnae appear in Nic. 794 as neighbours of the Thracians: Θρα,~κες τε Î'αστάρναι τ` `επήλυδες . . . Müllenhoff concluded that Pseudo-Scymnus derived his information about the Bastarnae from Demetrius of Callatis,4 whom he mentions by name in vv. 117, 719,
793(796),
[ο`υ δυνατόν `εστ` `ήπειρον `απὸ ταύτης `ιδει̃ν,
καίπερ `απεχούσης στάδια τη̃ς χώρας `άπο
τετρακόσι`, ´ως δὴ συγγράφει Î"ημήτριος. ...
Θρα̣̃κές τε Î'αστάρναι τ` `επήλυδες. ... ]
879
[τέμνων (γε) τὴν `ήπειρον ´εκατέραν δίχα,
πρώτοι νέμονται Σαρμάται,δισχίλια
στάδι` `επέχοντες· ε`ι̃τα Μαιωτω̃ν γένος
`Ιαζαματω̃ν λεγόμενον, ´ως Î"ημήτριος
ε`ίρηκεν, ´ω `Έφορος δέ, Σαυροματω̃ν `έθνος.],
and Müllenhoff's views have generally been accepted.5
...
4 DA II, 104; III, 38; cf. Ginsinger, RE III A, 685.
5 Schmidt, Die Ostgermanen pp. 87 f.; Schwarz, Germ. St. p. 47.

> Of course the
> counter argument is that Ps/Sk is multi-layered and the "arrivals"
> note could have been a later postscript.
> ******

Torsten