and not one of the Sanatorian Procunſuls. He mentions, that his reports on this ſubject were tranſmitted in the Latin language, in which the properly official communications were always made.
Arrian derives the name of this place from Absyrtus, the brother of Medea, whom ſhe is ſaid to have murdered at this place, and whoſe sepulchre was ſtill to be ſeen.
I wiſh to observe here, that the numerous traditions and local evidences of the Argonautic expedition, which Arrian diſcovered on this coast, and which other writers have recorded to have existed in the neighbouring countries, are ſtrong preſumptive proofs that such a voyage was once undertaken, and that the history of it is not merely an allegorical tale invented by poets, or perſons of fertile and flowery imagination, but a narrative of a real event. The purpoſe of it is undoubtedly very mysterious, and the circumſtances, which accompany it, complicated with poetical imagery and mythological machinery; but that such a hero as Jaſon commanded ſuch an expedition, ſeems to me unqueſtionable. The proofs of it are not derived from Greece [1], the region of fabulous invention, but were found to ſubſist in countries barren, uncultivated, and of vaſt extent, ſuch as no forgery of ſuch a kind could influence, or probably penetrate.[2] Strabo and Diodorus obſerve,
- ↑ Græciæ fabuloſitas. Plin. lib. iv. in Præf.
- ↑ Strabo, lib. i. p. 45, 46. lib. xi. p. 526. Diadorus, lib. xiv. c. 30
governors in their reſpective provinces; that thoſe named by the Senate ſhould be civil officers, merely with the title of Proconsul, but without the power of the ſword, or any military rank; and they are not to remain in office longer than one year; that the officers to be named by the Emperor ſhould have military rank, with the title of Propœtor, and were to act in the capacity of his Lieutenants, accountable only to himself, and to hold their commiſſions during his pleaſure. Ferguſon's Hiſt. of the Progreſs and Termination of the Roman Republic, vol. iii. p. 360. ed. 4to.
that
