IV.] CONTENTS OF HIS WORK. 73
knowledge of that time. With the northern coasts of the Mediter-
ranean, especially those of Greece, Sicily and
southern Italy, he shews himself familiar; and he
mentions not only the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, but also
that of Aethale (Elba), which was even then famous for its iron
mines. •' On the other hand, he is unacquainted with any sea to the
north of Europe, and indeed with any lands or peoples north of
the parallel of the Alps, except the Scythians far away towards
the north-east, and other tribes—two of which, the Melanchlaeni
and the Issedones, we also read of in Herodotus—and the chain
of the Caucasus in the same direction. He knows that the
Iberians are the inhabitants of Spain, and the Celts of Gaul: and
in the former of these countries he mentions Tartessus, though he
does not notice Gades; and in the latter the town of Narbo
(Narbonne), which he characterises as a commercial centre. In
Italy, which was not yet known by that name, he notices the
principal races which occupied various regions—the Tyrrhenians
towards the north, the Ausonians in the centre, and the Oenotrians
in the south; and also a number of native towns in the neighbour-
hood of the colonies of Magna Graecia, but neither Rome nor
any of the great cities of Etruria. At the head of the Adriatic he
places the Istri, and also the town of Adria, which was situated
between the mouths of the Po and the Adige, where he remarks
on the extraordinary fertility of the soil.
In the other section of the work, which treats of Asia and
Africa, we find that the writer is intimately acquainted
with Asia Minor, and further to the north the
Colchians are mentioned and the Araxes. The Caspian Sea, into
which that river flows, is spoken of as being surrounded by lofty
wooded mountains, a description which only applies to its western
shore. Media is designated as a region near the Caspian Gates,
and the Persian Gulf is named, but no notice is taken of Babylon
or the other great cities in that region. But the knowledge of
India—that is, of the district of that country west of the Indus—
which Hecataeus possessed, is certainly remarkable, especially
when we remember that that province was annexed to the Persian
empire within his lifetime. The name of that land occurs for the
first time in this treatise, and he makes special mention of