either in villages or caves; their dress consisted, as at present,
of skins of the musimon (_mastrucae Sardorum_), forming a sort of fur
jackets. They were very poor mountaineers, and the only booty the Romans
made there consisted of slaves. In a letter of pope Gregory the Great,
in his Regestum, a people of the name of _Barbaricini_ is mentioned in
the interior, and this confirms the identity of the Sardinians with the
Libyans, for Barbaricini is only a derivative form of Barbari, a name by
which the Greeks and Romans designated more particularly the Berbers in
Africa. During the Punic period there were, properly speaking, only three
towns that were of any importance, viz., Caralis, Sulci, and Nora.
CARALIS, the modern Cágliari (not Cagliári, as it is commonly pronounced,
for the inhabitants themselves say Cágliari), was the Carthaginian
capital with an excellent harbour.
SULCI and NORA, likewise of Phoenician origin, are mentioned indeed in
history, but were places of no particular importance. Considerable ruins
of the Roman period are still found at Nora, and Caralis has what is
called a beautiful ancient theatre. In the accounts I have seen of it, it
is called so, but owing to the uncritical manner in which the subject is
treated, I cannot say whether it is a real theatre or an amphitheatre.
Sardinia is still the country in which European civilisation and the
change of manners resulting from it, have taken less root than in any
part of Europe: those who regard civilisation as an evil, must consider
Sardinia to be a paradise. In no country have witches been burnt at
so recent a period, and the practice, perhaps, still prevails; the
government has not yet been able to suppress the custom of taking
revenge for bloodshed. The villages make war upon one another, and no
one can travel with safety along the high roads, unless he purchase the
protection of a party or a village, as in the East, or else he must
acquire the rights of hospitality. According to the accounts we have of
the condition of the island, we may imagine it to be something like that
which certain persons call the golden period of the middle ages. But with
all this barbarism, the greatest immorality prevails, especially among
the priests. The country is in a perfect state of anarchy, being governed
according to ancient privileges, which have never been changed at all;
the country population is in a state of complete dissolution. When the
island has an able governor, he can keep order only by the utmost rigour,
without which he can do absolutely nothing. It is deplorable that, in
these circumstances, the administration of the island is not entrusted
to able men, the propriety of which I have often urged. I sometimes
desired natives of Sardinia to come to me that I might examine their
language, which is very peculiar; you cannot say that it is Italian, it
contains indeed very much Latin, but much also that is quite foreign.
The Sardinian mountaineers are said to have many words in their dialect
which are radically different from all other European languages. As much
information has at present been collected about the Berber language,
my object was to question the natives and to examine their words to
see whether they were Berber or Basque. But I could not succeed, the
people were too timid and did not come. I have now placed my hope upon a
friend, Count Castiglione, of Milan, a great linguist, who has studied
the language of the Berbers; he may perhaps be more successful. The
island, from the earliest times, always made the impression of a wild
and ungenial country, which, poor as it was, was severely treated by
the Carthaginians, for they are said to have forbidden the cultivation
of grain, in order to compel the Sardinians to import their supplies
from Spain and Africa. In like manner Spain, for a long time, would not
tolerate the cultivation of European grain in her American possessions,
and when at length she allowed it, she forbade the planting of olives and
vines.
It was the universally established opinion among the ancients, that
Sardinia was the largest island, and larger than Sicily. This opinion,
though erroneous, is found in all ancient writers, and we cannot say what
may have given rise to it.
CORSICA.
Whether _Corsica_ and the Greek name Κύρνος are etymologically connected
with each other, must be left undecided; I for my part believe, that the
resemblance of the first syllable in the two names is only accidental.
Corsica was regarded by the ancients as still more wild, uninhabitable,
unhealthy, and barbarous than Sardinia; it was inhabited partly by
Ligurians and partly by Iberians, and its inhabitants maintained their
independence till about the time of the first Punic war, when the
Carthaginians seem to have established themselves in the island, at least
near its magnificent harbours. It would indeed be inconceivable, if they
had overlooked a harbour like that of S. Lorenzo. It is self-evident,
however, that the inhabitants of the interior remained quite independent,
for even the Genoese, though they lived so much nearer the island, were
never able entirely to subdue them. At present it is, properly speaking,
in a state of anarchy, though it is connected with the powerful monarchy
of France; what, therefore, must have been its condition under the
Carthaginians, whose dominion did not last long! At an earlier time
the Phocaeans had attempted to settle at Alalia (Aleria), but had not
succeeded. The Romans undertook an expedition to it as early as the
first Punic war; but the only result of it was, that they expelled the
Carthaginians, without they themselves being able to take possession of
the island. It was not till a much later period that they subdued it, but
they seem to have felt that it was not worth while to spend so much money
and blood for the purpose of enabling themselves to remain there.
MARIANA and ALERIA are the only two towns of Corsica deserving to be
noticed; both were Roman military colonies, the former founded by Marius,
and the latter by Sulla. At the time of the Roman emperors, Corsica, like
several islands in the Archipelago, served as a place to which condemned
persons were exiled, _relegatio in insulam_.
Corsica is altogether a mountainous island, with the exception of a
narrow tract of coast, which forms unhealthy lowlands with small rivers.
The mountains are not high, and form one of the ramifications of the
Apennines, but are very impassable and intricate.
HISPANIA.
The name Hispania, as Bochart correctly states, is in all probability
of Punic origin, derived from צפן, _Sapan_, _Span_, from which, an
_i_ being prefixed, _Ispania_, or _Hispania_, was formed. In southern
as well as eastern languages, the pronunciation of an _s_, followed by
a consonant, is facilitated by prefixing a vowel, whence _Scipio_, in
ordinary life, is called _Iscipio_. You recollect the notion of the
Greeks about the four parts of the world, according to which Hesperia was
the western and Europe the northern part; in this division, Spain was a
part of Hesperia. The Greeks called the people _Iberians_, the country
_Iberia_, and the river _Iberus_. This name of the river must have been
of native origin or have been used by the Carthaginians, for the Romans
also employed it, though they called the people _Hispani_ and the country
_Hispania_. We do not know by what name the people called themselves;
it is possible that the Basque language may throw light upon it; but in
the masterly treatise on that language by Baron Humboldt, nothing is
said about this point. Afterwards, and in the Acts of the Apostles, the
country was called _Spania_, and it may have borne this name generally
among the Alexandrians and in the unjustly decried Hellenistic language.
The Byzantine writers also call it so, unless they employ the correct
name Iberia.
Spain is destined by nature, almost more than Italy, to form one compact
state; no one can have a doubt about this, when looking at the three
seas by which it is surrounded. Nevertheless, however, it did not become
united as one whole till a late period, though this happened before the
time of which we have written records; for there can be no doubt that
previously it was divided into two distinct countries. On the one side,
the Pyrenees formed its natural boundary towards Gaul (in the course of
time, however, they were crossed, and the Iberians ruled over the country
from the Garonne to the Rhone); but at an earlier period another natural
boundary line was formed by the Sierra Morena, an extensive range of
mountains, which, for a couple of centuries, formed the boundary between
the Christian and Mahommedan parts of Spain. These same mountains, no
doubt, also separated the Iberians from the Celts. The heights in the
north of Spain, whence the Tagus, Durius, and Minius, flow towards
the sea, and whence, on the other side, smaller rivers carry their
waters towards the Ebro, were inhabited by Celts, who are also called
_Celtiberians_. Other Celts bearing the name _Celtici_ dwelt in Algarbia
and the Portuguese Estremadura, and others again inhabited the province
Entre Douro e Minho in the north of Portugal. These three Celtic nations
were quite isolated in Spain. The Celtiberians were not pure Celts, but
as even their name indicates, a mixture of Celts and Iberians; but the
Celts in Portugal are expressly stated to have been pure Celts. These
latter attracted the attention even of the ancients, especially of the
excellent Posidonius, who made so many correct observations, but allowed
himself in this instance to be misled. He is of opinion that the Celts
had immigrated into Spain, for he reasoned thus: as the Celts could
migrate into Italy and across the Danube as far as the Dniepr, it was
far less difficult for them to enter the neighbouring country of Spain.
But such isolated parts of a nation cannot have arrived in a country by
immigration; on the contrary, the Iberians appear extending themselves
and in possession of Aquitania and Languedoc at a very early period;
how then could the Celts, not being able to maintain the Pyrenees, have
spread over the whole peninsula? It is probable, nay almost evident,
that it was the Iberians that migrated and extended themselves, and this
opinion agrees with the most ancient traditions of the Celts in Ammianus
Marcellinus, according to which they were once masters of all the west
of Europe, but were expelled from many parts. If we suppose that the
Celts dwelt as far as the Sierra Morena, and that the Iberians, perhaps
reinforced by their kinsmen from Africa, pressed them forward, this
supposition would account for some Celtic ruins which are still extant,
and the Celts may have capitulated in a manner similar to that described
in the book of Joshua. As one part of England was occupied by Germans so
completely as to destroy every trace of the ancient inhabitants, while
elsewhere, as e.g., in Devonshire, the Britons, in large numbers, lived
among the Germans and became mixed with them; so the Iberians expelled
the ancient Celtic population, wherever the nature of the country did
not protect it; but the Celts maintained themselves in the mountains
between the Tagus and the Iberus, and the Iberians only subdued them, and
then settled among them. In the course of time the two nations became
amalgamated, and thus formed the Celtiberians, whose character, however,
is essentially Iberian.
Spain may be naturally divided into four main parts. The first is
Andalusia, which is formed by the Sierra Morena, which separates the
valley of the Baetis (Guadalquivir) from that of the Guadiana. This
part is a compact country by itself, being separated from Murcia by the
heights in the east. The second part is bounded on the south by the
range of Orospeda, and in the north by that of Idubeda, which extends
in an eastern direction towards the sea. These mountains separate the
river basins of the Tago and Douro from that of the Ebro, and run at a
right angle with the Sierra Morena. This division comprises the greater
part of Valencia, Aragon, and Catalonia, that is, the whole river basin
of the Ebro. The third division consists of the mountainous countries of
Galicia, Asturias, and Cantabria. The fourth, lastly, consists of the
river basin of the Tago. These divisions are so completely founded on the
natural features of the country, that throughout the history of Spain
they appear with perfect distinctness, and hence they may also be taken
as a guide in ancient history.
Andalusia, the southernmost part, is almost identical with ancient
_Baetica_, and, as is observed even by Strabo, is a country quite
different from the rest of Spain. It has indeed many points of
resemblance with Valencia, but is at the same time essentially different
from it: it is in fact a country of a superior character. While Valencia
is flat, and well watered, but wanting in energy, Andalusia and Granada
are countries matured by the sun in the highest degree; they are scarcely
European, but almost like tropical countries. The eastern division, or
the country of the Iberus, if we examine its northern parts, Aragon and
Catalonia, already greatly resembles a northern country. Valencia stands
in the middle between them. The whole of the northern division is a
mighty mountainous country; the mountains in Asturia and Biscay are very
high, though they do not reach the snow line; the highest parts are in
the neighbourhood of the sources of the Douro. The country of the Tago
is throughout a table-land, very high at its commencement, piercingly
cold and unhealthy as far as the frontier of Portugal, and almost without
any mountains; at the commencement alone we have the ranges separating
Old and New Castile. Between the Sierra Morena and the Douro, we have
the large plain of Estremadura, which is fertile but unhealthy, and
perfectly flat; the plain of Leon is scarcely inhabitable on account of
its drought and barrenness; the southern parts of Castile are productive,
and the continuation of the valley into Portugal changes its character so
much as to become extremely rich; it still contains large plains, but the
greater part is a beautiful hilly country.
The principal rivers are the _Baetis_ (Guadalquivir), _Anas_ (Guadiana),
_Tagus_ (Tago), _Durius_ (Douro), _Minius_ (Minho), and in the east,
the _Turia_ (Guadalaviar) and the _Iberus_ (Ebro). In antiquity, Spain
was particularly celebrated for its gold and silver mines, and for the
gold found in the sand of its rivers, as in that of the Tagus, which,
for this reason, is called by poets _aurifer amnis_. The largest silver
mines, where both silver and lead were found, existed in the territory
of Carthagena in Murcia; but Asturia, too, contained veins of precious
metal. Spanish wool was not particularly valued in antiquity, and it was
not till the middle ages that sheep-breeding was improved in Spain.
Baetica produced abundance of grain, besides which the ancients derived
from other parts of Spain a kind of hemp, called _spartus_, which was
spun like hemp, and out of which ropes and cables were manufactured.
The ancients were universally of opinion that the Spaniards, exclusive
of the Celtic inhabitants and the few Greeks and Punians who had settled
there, consisted of two nations, the _Turdetanians_ and the _other
Spaniards_. This opinion originating with Artemidorus, is set forth
by Strabo so confidently, that we must believe him to have had other
and more weighty authorities than Artemidorus. They even speak of a
difference in language. For a long time, I too entertained this opinion,
because I trusted the ancients; but I have only a very vague notion of
the Iberian language. W. von Humboldt is the only man in Europe who has
examined those languages with a true grammatical genius, and he has
declared that all the proper names from one end of Spain to the other,
absolutely belong to one and the same language, and that the names of
places among the Cantabri, Ilergetes, Lusitani, Turdetani, etc., must
all be traced to roots in the Cantabrian language. To this argument we
must submit; nothing can be said against it: in matters of this kind, the
later Greeks often went very far astray, for which reason we ought not
to admit them as authorities without great caution. But, admitting that
all names of places are Cantabrian, the opinion of the ancients may be
based upon something else, viz., the knowledge that the nation, during
its extension from the south to the northern parts, underwent various
modifications, and that more especially those who dwelt in the north
among the conquered people, assumed a character quite different from that
of the inhabitants of Andalusia, who lived by themselves.
The Turdetanians were a people possessing a considerable degree of
civilisation, for they had an alphabet of their own; and many of their
inscriptions and coins with characters unknown to us are still extant.
Many Spanish coins cannot be explained at all, and of many the meaning
is extremely uncertain. I hope that, if the investigations are carried
on judiciously, the Libyan alphabet, which is said to be like that of
the Spaniards, will be discovered in the course of time, and the Libyan
inscriptions will be explained. Men will then rise up like Baron von
Humboldt, who will fathom the Libyan language, and then the Spanish
inscriptions also will be read. In Cilicia, too, inscriptions have
been found, which have not yet been read, and many more may still be
discovered; but no one has as yet occupied himself with them. These
investigations, however, ought to be undertaken with a sober mind, for
otherwise they lead to nothing. In ancient history, we often fancy we
see nothing, and yet there is much to be discovered. Lately, e.g., an
Englishman travelling in Cilicia from Adana to Tarsus,[65] where a pass
is cut along the sea-coast for the purpose of making a road (just as
above Coblenz the rocks advance close to the river), found, as he himself
told me, a large inscription on the side of the rock in characters
which are quite unknown. There still are alphabets to be deciphered and
languages to be discovered; in these matters a rich harvest may yet be
made. I do not think that the inquiries into eastern languages will ever
be carried on with any excess of zeal; but I do believe that we shall
arrive at a point where we may regard them as a step gained for further
historical investigations. When the Zend language is once discovered,
we shall be able to read the inscriptions of Persepolis, and also those
of Babylon. These things may be likened to the horizon: the farther you
advance, the more the circle widens. Historical knowledge is as capable
of extension as physical knowledge, and great discoveries remain yet to
be made. Klopstock says: “Many laurels are yet to be gained,” we must
only strive to gain them. The Spanish inscriptions have been treated as
senselessly as the Etruscan ones, nay, even more so. Without any point
to start from, which is not quite wanting in the Etruscan inscriptions,
these Spanish records have been explained by means of a barbarous mixture
of Greek and Latin, which the decipherers themselves invented for their
own convenience. And such nonsense even finds its admirers! It will
indeed be difficult to explain those inscriptions with the aid of the
Basque language, for the present Basque is certainly not the same as that
spoken in the time of the Romans, though it may not be as different as,
for example, the modern high German literary language is from that of
the earlier ages; but the difference certainly cannot be less than that
existing between the present popular dialect of Suabia and that of the
thirteenth century.
The nations of Spain presented the greatest differences in their manners,
for they formed compact nations, and much closer unions than either in
Greece or in Italy; but we cannot say what were the causes which kept up
this union. Thus much is clear, that during the historical period most of
the Iberian nations had their kings, whom the Romans call _reguli_. The
Romans greatly respected the Spaniards on account of their courage and
determination, but what distinguishes them most, is their attachment to
their chiefs, which was even stronger among the Iberians than among the
Celts; it was quite common with the followers of a chief to make away
with themselves, if he fell in battle, that they might serve him in his
future state. Isolated instances of cities being defended with desperate
courage also occur among other nations of antiquity, as in the case of
Abydos and Petelia; but in Spain this was the general rule: the towns
never surrendered either in their wars against Carthage or against Rome,
and when they could no longer resist the force of hunger, they devoted
themselves to destruction. The same obstinacy in defending their towns
appears in the middle ages, and in modern times, as, for example, at
Saragoza and Gerona: nothing in modern history can be compared with this,
except the defence of Missolunghi.
Another peculiarity is, that the Spaniards, except the Celtiberians,
had in antiquity the same weakness which still characterises them. I
allude to the complete alienation and the great exasperation between the
several nations; they show the same inveterate national hatred which
still exists, e.g., between the Castilians and Aragonians. I was once
acquainted with an Aragonian, who, though otherwise an honourable man,
told me, that it would be quite impossible for him to form a friendship
with a Castilian. The same is at present the case in Italy, but in former
times people of the same race, such as the Sabellians, often faithfully
kept together; but the Spanish nations never appear united. It is equally
remarkable that the Spaniards, again excepting the Celtiberians, though
excellent defenders of their towns, are good for nothing as soldiers in
the field. The Spanish militia defended itself behind its walls, but did
not persevere in the field; the Samnites, on the other hand, are the
very reverse, for they are by no means distinguished in their sieges. In
Condé’s history of the Arabs, a general, in his despatch to the Kaliph,
says of the Spaniards: on horseback they are eagles, in the defence of
their towns, lions, but in the field they are women. Such they were in
the wars against the Arabs, and such also in those against Napoleon: they
never fought a battle in the open field that did not bring disgrace upon
them; and the same men, who, in their towns, would bury themselves under
their ruins, rather than listen to a word about capitulation, took to
flight without any necessity. The Celtiberians, on the other hand, appear
in a very favourable light; and the Cantabrians and Asturians, too,
defended themselves in their mountains almost as in fortresses.
All Spain is full of towns.
Modern Andalusia, the country of the Turdetani, claims a very ancient
civilisation, for its inhabitants had a literature and laws composed in
verses, and are also said to have had a kind of historical books.
In the traditions of the Greeks, Iberia belongs to Hesperia, and their
earliest information about it refers to _Tartessus_, which was visited
at an early period by the Phocaeans. Its situation is beyond a doubt;
it is justly placed in the neighbourhood of Seville, near the mouth of
the Baetis; but whether it was a town or a country, whether as a town it
was different from Hispalis, or whether it was identical with ancient
Hispalis, these are questions which we can answer only by conjectures.