Re: Imperialism as the source of new geograpohical knowledge

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

>
> > > 2. Strabo has telescoped information from a number of Pontic
> > > campaigns in the north. We know, for instance, that the military
> > > help provided to Chersonesos against the Scythians occurred much
> > > earlier, after the death of Skilur (Skiluros) c. 112 (who had
> > > been responsible for the "sack" i.e. the conquest of Chersonesos
> > > holdings in the northern Crimea), when his son Palak was
> > > Scythian King. Mithradates' general was Diophantes, and at that
> > > time Chersonesos retained its full political autonomy. Cf. the
> > > decree on Diophantos at 
> > http://www.chersonesos.org/?p=museum_coll_ep1&l=eng
>
> > More like 110-108 BCE. And I would maintain that Strabo in this
> > passage refers only to that period, not some later war with
> > Bastarnae and Sarmatae.
>  
> ****GK: The Diophantes campaigns are now definitely dated to ca.
> 110-108 BCE.  Ca. 112 is a putative date for the death of
> Skilur (who is no longer alive when Diophantes acts).
> I don't think Mithradates was planning any assault on Rome that
> early. Neither does anyone else. His own active presence in northern
> climes is not otherwise attested for those early years.****

So it's you and everybody else against Strabo (and Harmatta) on this one. My money is on Strabo. It is difficult to explain away

1) that Strabo in this passage is referring to a campaign on behalf of Mithridates against the barbarians who lived beyond the isthmus (of Perekop) as far as the Borysthenes (Dniepr) and the Adriatic which took place when Khersonesos appealed to Mithridates for help against the (same?) barbarians, ie in 110-108 BCE.

2) that Strabo states that this was preparatory to a campaign against the Romans.


and since

> > the Scythians, settled at that time in both the Crimea and in
> > Dobrogea,

> ****GK: I.e. at the time of the Diophantos campaigns (110-108 BCE).
> That is actually the only portion of your objection worth
> discussing. Namely, when did the Scythians lose political control of
> "Little Scythia"? And how does the arrival of the Bastarnae relate
> to this (if it does)? A starting point would be the newly discovered
> Skilur inscription at Neapolis which affirms that c. 120 BCE his
> empire stretched "from the Thracians to the Maeotians".****

as you say, since Skiluros' empire stretched 'from the Thracians to the Maeotians' appr. 120 BCE, this was the one Khersonesos was up against, thus Diophantos' campaign against them was just opening another theater of war in a war already begun. This was then the war which broke the Scythians, resulting in the Tauric Scythians and the Dobrogea Scythians being isolated from each other.



Torsten