The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS 229
Virgil alludes in the following passage of the Georgics, which
is surpassed by few as a happy example of the art of the poet
in describing the various modes of pastoral life.
Wliy should I sing of Libya's artless swains
Her scatter'd cottages and trackless plains?
By day, by niglit, without a destined home,
For many a month their flocks all lonely roam •,
So vast th' unbounded solitude appears.
While, with his flock, his all the shepherd bears,
Ills arms, his household god, his homely shed,
His Cretan darts, and dogs of Sparta bred.
Georg. iii. 339-345.
—
;
Warton's Translation.
It is to be observed, that, although the Libyan shepherd ac-
cording to Virgil's description led a migratory life, conducting
his sheep from place to place in search of pasture, yet the scale,
upon which he carried on his operations, was widely different
from that which has always characterized the nomadic tribes
of Asia. The poet represents the Libyan shepherd as a soli-
tary wanderer, bearing with him all his arms and implements,
just as a Roman soldier (1. 346.) carried his miUtary accoutre-
ments. On the other hand, as we have seen, the Syrian or
Arabian shepherd goes in a kind of state, with camels and
horses to carry his wife and children, his tents, and the rest of
his equipage ; and he is followed by thousands, instead of hun-
dreds or perhaps scores, of sheep and goats.
Let us now pursue the progress of this employment in another
direction, viz. towards the north-west, and across the Eux-
ine Sea and the straits connected with it into Europe.
Near the eastern extremity of the Euxine Sea we meet with
a very remarkable instance of the attention paid to the produce
and manufacture of wool in a tribe called the CoraxL Strabo
alludes to the value of their fleeces in a passage which we shall
produce in speaking of the wool of Spain, to which it more di-
rectly refers. At present w^e shall only consider the following
evidence preserved by Joannes Tzetzes.
'Epjn ra MiXfjirtu xaWiara yap riav iravToiv,
K^v cjffi Twv Kopa|t»(wi'