THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ? 345
346 WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ?
Strabo is evidently quite alive to the importance of the
Illyrian or by mixed tribes of Celts and lUyrians. As Strabo
difference between the languages spoken by some of the
in describing the coast of Illyria moves from north to south,
various tribes of Epirus and lUyria. It is
probable that
the reverse of his method when treating of Epirus,
it would
from the head of the Adriatic down to Cape Matapan every
be inconvenient for us to follow his order. We shall therefore
man could converse with his neighbour, just as every one from
continue to advance from south to north, giving the substance
John o' Groat's to Land's End can communicate freely with
of his statement instead of his actual words.
those who dwell either south or north of him, but in each case,
Passing up the coast from Rhizon, we meet in Strabo's^ time
if the man from the extreme north were brought face to face
the Ardiaei, who from of old had been the next neisfhbours of
with one from the extreme southern point, an interpreter would
the Autariatae, separated from the latter by a stream, the
probably be needed to enable them to communicate freely and
waters of which wei-e strongly impregnated with salt. The
accurately^ Thus if tribes really related by blood and language,
struggle for the salt manufacture led to many wars. In the
but who have long dwelt far apart, are brought together, they
end might prevailed and the Ardiaei were overpowered by
may find their dialects so far divergent as to be their rivals.
unintelligible
to each other, and thus for purposes of intercourse they become
On the coast north of the Ardiaei lay the Liburnians, so
practically bilingual.
famous in Roman times for their swift galleys and incorrigible
I have already cited a passage in which Strabo makes
love of piracy. North of these came the lapodes (Croatia), an
it clear that men could be termed l)arbai-ous-speaking,'
Illyi-ian tribe with an intermixture of Celts. They adopted
who used a language which was practically so closely akin
Celtic dress and arms, but practised tattooing^, like all the
to Greek that it was little short of being a Greek dialect.
other Illyrian and Thracian tribes.
The Thesprotians or lllyrians who under their tribal name of
Behind the lapodes lay the Celtic tribe of Carni, whose
Thessali became the masters of the (jld population of Thessaly
name still survives in the modern Karnten, Carinthia, Carniola,
would all the more readily adopt thii language of the conquered,
if their own tongue was closely related to that of the
and Krain. On returning to the coast we meet next after the
population among whom lapodes the important pt ople of the Istri, who have left their
they settled, and into which they
name in Istria. In Strabo's time they were the last of the
were Jai'gcly absorbed. As far as J am awaiv, no modern
peoples on the coast included in Illyria,
for the land of the
scholar doubts that such an adoption
i^lid take place.
Veneti was accounted part of Italy.
But political geographers
If one tril)e from Epirus could thus adopt the language
cannot make the Ethiopian change his skin, neithei' could they
of the c(n(jU('i'(_'d people of Thessaly. there is no i-eason why
make the Veneti anything else save Ill3'rians.
The evidence
another tribe called .Acheaus, who came from the same (piarter,
for their connection with the latter stock is indubitable, and
should not ha\(' done exactly the; saine thing at an earlier date.
this lias some importance for an argument to be used later on.
But this subject we shall deal with at length in a later chapter
The tei-ritoiy of the V^'ueti extended to the mouth of the Po,
on the Homeric; dialect.
and their chief towns were Patavium (Padua), Vicetia (Vicenza),
Let us now returu to Sti'abo's account of the peoples
i)f
and Opitergium (Odeizo).
Illyria ])ro|)eilv so called, aud of the vast I'egion, which bordei'ed
X(H'th of the Ai-(liaei lay inland the Dalmatae, whose name
on it, and which in
many cases was occuj)ie(l by peoples wholly
still abides in Dalniatia. They wi're a vciy i)rimitive ])eo])le,
for Strabo notes the fact that
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So willi the Ik'ibcrs !i llilT ciinnot umlcistancl "the after eveiy seven years they had
llaratiii nf tlic Dniii,
wlio '
speak Dniuia, th()U),'li tlic Sliloh of Uads and the intcnni'iliate oases