XIII.] DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES. 281
which it pursues for a time a northerly course, and then once
more turns eastward towards the mouths of the Ganges. Beyond
that point lay a district called Chryse, and an island of the same
name, in both of which perhaps we may find an intimation of
the Malay peninsula, which in Ptolemy's time was known as
the Golden Chersonese1. Finally, the position of
China is indicated, when we are told that far away 1S ina)'
towards the north, and bordering on the eastern ocean, there
was a land called This, containing a great city named Thinae,
from which silk was exported, both raw and spun and woven
into textures3. To this statement is appended an interesting
intimation of the two routes by which that article was brought
from China into India, one being by the upper country through
Bactria to Barygaza, the other by way of the Ganges to Musiris
and Nelcynda. The name of Serica, which was given by the
Romans to the northern region of China, is not mentioned in
the Periplus. It seems to have originally signified the f silk-
producing country/ being derived from the old Chinese word
for silk, which in Mongolian is 'sirkek,' From this again was
formed the name of Seres to represent the inhabitants3.
Another geographical work should here be mentioned, which,
though it was of no real importance, at one period
attained a considerable popularity—the Periegesis
or Description of the World of Dionysius, who
from the title of his book was called Periegetes. The date of
its composition has been much disputed, for it
, , V . , . . j ' , His Date.
has been assigned to various periods from the
Augustan age even down to the beginning of the fourth century
of our era: but it seems now to be determined with a fair
amount of certainty that it belongs to the reign of Domitian.
That it cannot be earlier than Vespasian appears from the
account there given of the Aegean islands, for the Cyclades
are assigned to Asia, and it was under that emperor that they
were first attached as a province to that continent*. And it is
*/>«•»>/«*,§§ 61-63. 2§64.
4 Kiepert, Lekr&uch, p. 44; cp. Skeat, Etyrn. Diet., $.v. Silk-
4 Dionys., Peritg., w. 525 foil., in C. Mailer's Gtogr. Gr* Minores, voL a;
where see the editor's note*