120 EXPEDITIONS BEFORE ALEXANDER. [CHAP.
is certainly in favour of this conclusion, that it contains no refer-
ence to Alexandria, or any of the other great cities which after-
wards arose, for these would undoubtedly have been introduced
by one who was writing for a subsequent generation. If the former
of the suppositions here mentioned is correct, it would seem to be
almost a hopeless task to endeavour to distinguish those parts of
the work, as we possess it, which are original and genuine. On
the other hand, if the earlier date is the true one, its contents are
of great value, because of the general view that they present to us
of the Greek world at that time.
The most interesting notices which this Periplns contains are
those which relate to the Italian peninsula. Here
^or tne ^rst ^me *n anv extant author the name of
Rome occurs1; but it is introduced incidentally,
and it is remarkable that, whereas the writer elsewhere pays
especial attention to the rivers, in this connexion he makes no
mention of the Tiber, nor does he notice any of the coast-towns
between that point and Massilia. A much fuller enumeration,
also, is found here of the tribes that inhabited Italy than in any
previous writer, for the Latins, Volscians, Samnites, Umbrians and
Celts are all named, and are assigned to their rightful localities.
The mention of the Celts is especially remarkable, inasmuch
as before this time no notice occurs in any writer of peoples
of that race being found south of the Alps, for Hecataeus and
Herodotus place them in the west of Europe. They are here
spoken of as occupying a narrow tract of North Italy, and reaching
to the Adriatic; and as having been "left behind from their
expedition," by which is meant the invasion of Italy in the course
of which they captured Rome2 (390 B.C.). Scylax also is the first
author in whom is found the confusing view, which afterwards
obtained wide acceptance, that the Ister divided into two branches,
one of which entered the sea at the head of the Adriatic, the
1 Scylacis Caryandensis Pcriphis, § 5, in C. Muller's Gcogr. Gr. Minores,
vol, i.
8 § 18. It is not intended by what is here said to exclude the view, which
is maintained chiefly on archaeological grounds, that the earlier inhabitants of
the valley of the Po were of Celtic extraction. See Bertrand and Reinach,
Les Celtes dans ks valtees du Pd ct du Danube.