truth of it. The progeny of Magog, Meshech, and Tubal, planted both the Scythias, and confequently the country of the antient Moguls and Tartars, as has been already observed. Some traces of Magog appear in the word Mogli, the old name of the Muscovites and Tartars, which feems only a corruption or abbreviation of Magagli, the fons of Magog. The pofterity of Meshech and Tubal we find denominated Mofchi and Tibareni (B) by Herodotus, who joins them together in the already obferved in the hiftory of the Armenians (1). (B) That the country of the Tibareni was called Tibar or Tubar, may be inferred from Diodorus Siculus, Eufebius, and Strabo. Now the Greek Tibar, or Tubar, answered to the Hebrew Tubal, as may be proved from the Septuagint verfion of the Old Teftament compared with the original Hebrew. This clearly appears from xp for Phicol, Zapad for Saled, Bends for Be Σαράδ Β:λιαρ lial, and other proper names that might be produced. Some ima gine, that the Muscovites were the defcendents of the Mofci, and that these last had for their great progenitor Mefbech the brother of Tubal, which to us appears not improbable. Others believe, that fome traces of Tubal are ftill preferved in the river Tobol, and the city Tobolski; which feems not remote from truth. It is true, M. Bayer does not come into either of thefe opinions. Butthen neitheris the etymon, or reafon, of the name Mufcow, he, from Brenner, transcribes, fatisfactory; to wit, Mufcow from Mofkoi, a monaftery in the neighbourhood of the city, fo called from its being the feat or habitation of men. As this therefore, at first fight, appears forced, improbable, and unnatural, every thing Mr. Bayer builds upon it must be allowed very tottering and precarious, if it does not neceffarily fall to the ground. But, indeed, this whole piece of M. Bayer, which he has intituled Origines Ruffice, is imperfect and incomplete, as will be easily discovered by every fagacious reader, who perufes it with proper attention. Nor ought we to be surprised at this, when we confider, that the editor of it has advertised the learned world, that it was one of those differtations left unfinished by the author. In our opinion, he ought to have revised and re-examined his whole plan, as doubtless he would have done, had he lived, and made fome alterations in it. This we hope clearly to evince, when we com to treat of the origin of the Ruffians, in a future part of the Univerfal Hiftory (2). (1) Th. Sig. Bayer de orig. Scytbar. in comment. acad. fcientiar. imperial. Petropolit. com. i. p. 390. Petropoli, 1728. Herodot, I. vii. c. 73. Fer. c. 1. ver. 27. Unro, bift. vol. ix. p. 489. (2) Diod. Sic. I. iv. p. 413. Eufeb. de præp. evang. lib. i. Strab. 1. i. Sam. Bihart. in Phal. l.iii. c. 12. Th. Sig. Ba yer. orig. Ruffic. in comment. acad. fcientiar, imperial, Paropolit. tem, viii. ad an. 1736. p. 388---437. Petropoli, 1741. fame manner that Mofes and Ezekiel do Mefhech and Tubal. The ftrict union and perfect harmony that reigned between them most evidently appears from the former author, when he informs us, that they were armed in the fame manner, and commanded by the fame general Ariomardus. As the Turks and Tartars were originally the fame people, whatever is advanced concerning the first progenitors, and early antiquities, of the one, muft be allowed to be, with the utmost propriety, applicable to thofe of the other c. WE may form fome notion of the power of this nation from the military atchievements of the antient Scythians, as well as from the vast tract they inhabited. With regard to the latter, if the antients are to be depended upon, it was moft extensive and (C) prodigious. But its limits we have already defined in a former part of this work, and fhall confider them more minutely hereafter; fo that there is no reason for us to be very particular on this head here. In general, however, it may be obferved, that the people in view are fuppofed to have spread themselves at leaft over the two Scythias, the European and Afiatic Sarmatia, which fome affirm to have appertained to the former countries, and Iberia. This very confiderable part of the globe feems to have comprehended moft of the Ruffian empire, Great and Little Tartary, Georgia, the Polish and Mufcovian Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, • MOHAMMED EBN EMIR KHOANDSCHAH in raoudhat alfafa, vol. v. KHONDEMIR in khilaffat alakhbar. D'HERBEL. bibl. Orient. p. 897, & alib. ABU'L GHAZI BAHADUR KHân, ubi fupra, par. 1. C. 2. Univ. hift. vol. vi. p. 57, 58.. HERODOT. lib. vii. c. 78. ВосH. Phal. lib. iii. c. 12. Gen. c. x. ver. 2. EZEK. C. xxxviii. v. 2, & alib. (C) The prefent of five arrows, fent by Indathyrfus to Darius the Perfian monarch, plainly alludes to the number of tribes or cantons united in defence of their country, against the efforts of that prince. These were the Gelonians, Budians, Sarmatians, and the royal tribes conducted by their king. Hence we learn, that the tribes under regal government amounted to two; which is likewife countenanced by Herodotus, when he tells us, in his defcription (3) Herodot, lib. iv. c. 20. of Scythia, that beyond the Gherrus were fituated and Bankia, thofe called the royal tribes. For this feems to imply, that two cantons of Scythians at least must have been governed by kings, or, in the Tartarian language, khans, in the reign of Darius Hyftafpis. But the farther difcuffion of this point we muft beg leave to defer, till we come to the modern history of the Tartars (3). Univ. Hif, vol. vi. p. 92. many many provinces of Hungary and Transylvania, Walachia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, belides fome part at leaft of Finland, Lapland, and Sweden. The three laft countries were very thinly, if at all, peopled, before the extinction of the Roman republic d. BUT, though feveral of the antients feem to have applied the name of Scythia to all thofe immenfe regions extending from the Hyperborean ocean, the fources of the Ifter, the Viftula, the Baltic, Euxine, and Cafpian feas, to the fartheft extremity of the Eaft known in their days, yet the proper or original Scythia was probably confined within much narrower bounds. For, when Darius Hyftafpis undertook an expedition against the Scythians, about 514 years before the birth of Chrift, their antient dominions fcarce exceeded the tract limited on the east by the Tanais, and on the weft by the Borysthenes; though fome of their colonies had paffed the latter river, and advanced almoft to the fource of the Tyras. This may very justly be inferred from Herodotus, as has been obferved by M. Bayer. Nay, that the Scythian territories were bounded even on the weft by the Volga, called the Araxes by Onomacritus, Ariftotle, and other Greek writers, in the reign of Phraortes king of Media, has been rendered extremely probable by that ingenious author. Before that time, the Cimmerians were undoubtedly feparated from the Scythians by the Araxes, the Rha, or, according to the modern appellation, the Volga; for, that these names denoted the fame river, after what has been advanced by M. Bayer, will admit of no difpute. But then the Scythians, under the conduct of their king Madyes, feized upon the country before occupied by the Cimmerians, and pursued that nation into the Upper Afia, as from Herodotus will more fully appear. HOWEVER, though M. Bayer seems to have thoroughly fettled the point before us, yet, in one particular relating to the Scythian or Tartarian hiftory, he can scarce be deemed confiftent with himself. He ftrongly intimates, or rather di • Univ. hift. ubi fupra, & alib. THE. SIG. BAYER de origin. Scythar. in comment. acad. imperial. Petropolitan. tom. i. Petropoli, 1728. EPHOR. apud Cofm. Indicopleuft. in topogr. Chrifian. BAYER. ubi fup. tom. v. p. 347, 348. Petropoli, 1758. EPHOR. apud Cofm. Indicopleuft. ubi fupra. THEOPHIL. SIGEFRID. BAYER, de orig. & prifc. fed. Scythar. in comment. acad. fcientiar. imperial. Petropolitan. tom. i. p 385-400. HERODOT. ONOMACRIT. ARISTOT. PTOLEM. MEL. ACATHEMER. AMMIAN. MARCELLIN. apud BAYER. ubi fup. p. 394, 395, 396. HERODOT. lib. iv. BAYER de Scyth. fit. fub ætat. Herodot. ubi fup. p. 400-425. Petropoli, 1728. realy afferts, that the Lithuanians, Pruffians, Courlanders, Livonians, Efthonians, Finlanders, Laplanders, and fome few of their neighbours only, are the defcendents of the antient Scythians whereas, from the whole tenor of his hiftorical obfervations, every unprejudiced reader will conclude, that the proper original Scythians never reached the territories belonging to any of those nations. He alfo denies the Turks or Tartars to bear any relation to the antient Scythians, and yet affirms the Scythians to come originally from a country not far from Turkeftan, where his favourite Tartar hiftorian has fixed the progenitors of the Turkish or Tartar nation, from the remoteft antiquity. In fine, though he has fettled the geography of Scythia, as it appears to have ftood in the days of Darius Hyftafpis, with uncommon learning, fagacity, and precision; yet we cannot infer from thence, that the region going under that denomination amongst the Greeks and Romans, was always of fo narrow an extent as the Scythia defcribed by Herodotus. On the contrary, that the Scythia of the Greek and Roman authors fometimes, at leaft, included the vast tracts above-mentioned, he himself exprefly allows. Nor is this conceffion unfupported by Abu'l Ghazi Bahadur Khan and M. Philip John Von Strahlenberg, who have obliged the republic of letters with the best account of the antient Tartars that has hitherto made its appearance in the world f. IT may, therefore, be looked upon as highly probable, that both the prefent Turks and Tartars are defcended from the Scythians of Arifteas Proconnefius, and the Scythian Nomades of Herodotus. Now, upon this fuppofition, the antient Turks or Tartars can neither be confidered as one of the earliest nations of antiquity, nor as occupying a tract for many ages of very confiderable extent. For they fcarce made any figure at all before the reign of Cyaxares king of the Medes, or the time of Ogus Khan, about 637 years before the birth of Chrift, when they drove the Cimmerians from their territories bordering upon the Palus Maotis into the Upper Afia. Nor could their primitive feat, upon the eaftern bank of the Volga or Araxes, at that time have been very fpacious or extenfive; fince it is well known, that they were then a people of little note, and in the vicinity of fome nations who were pushing for unlimited empire. Nay, Scythia lay only between the 45th and 57th degrees of longitude, and the 47th and 55th degrees of north latitude, in the time of Herodotus. So that the Scy ABU'L GHAZI BAHADUR par. i. c. z. M. PHILIP f THEOPH. SIG. BAYER. ubi fup. KHAN's genealogical hift. of the Tat. JOHN VON STRAHLENBERG's introduct. p. 51. thians can by no means be confidered as a very formidable power, even when Herodotus firft obliged the world with his invaluable hiftory %, We are told by that venerable hiftorian, that the first Scythian king did not live, at fartheft, above a thousand years before Darius Hyftafpis invaded Scythia, in the year before Chrift 514. Now, confidering that not only the Greeks, but all other antient nations, placed events of remote antiquity too high, as has been demonftrated by the incomparable Sir Ifaac Newton, we may fairly suppose the first Scythian prince not to have preceded Darius Hyftafpis above 800 years. And, as no confiderable number of men could poffibly have fubfifted long together, without being formed into a regular fociety, and appointing fome perfon or perfons to prefide over them, we may from hence prefume, that the countries bordering upon the Palus Maotis, as well as the Euxine and Cafpian feas, were very thinly peopled 1300 years before the commencement of the Chriftian æra. This will naturally fuggeft to us, that the countries directly to the east of the Volga, and efpecially thofe at a very remote distance from that river, in fuch a direction, muft have been then almoft deftitute of inhabitants; and confequently that the Alyrian hiftory of Cteftas is almoft totally void of truth. From hence it is alfo manifeft, that the high antiquity of the Chinefe empire must be deemed little better than a fiction, notwithstanding what has been fo confidently advanced in favour of fuch antiquity by fome late celebrated writers h. As the proper Scythians, according to Herodotus, were no very formidable power, when they made an irruption into the Cimmerian territories, the Cimmerians themfelves seem not to have been a people of any great figure at the time of that event. This amounts to a strong prefumption, that the tract about mount Caucafus, the Palus Maotis, Euxine and Cafpian feas, was then far from being replenished with inhabitants. Which if we admit, it will follow, that the pofterity of Gomer could not even then probably have peopled the largest part of EuTope. So that Italy, one of the laft European regions to which the defcendents of that planter advanced, did not receive any number of Gomerians, as may be fairly prefumed, till about 600 years before the birth of Chrift. From whence we may conclude, that no Celtic or Gallic colonies fettled either ARISTEAS PROCONNESIUS apud HERODOT. lib. iv. ut & ipfe HERODOT. ibid. TH. SIG. BAYER, ubi fupra, & in chronolog Scythic. p. 302. Petropoli, 1732. h HERODOT. ubi fup. NEWTON's chronol. CTES. apud Diod. Sic. lib. ii. CoUPL. MARTIN. DU HALDE, &C. |
