450 STUABO. CASAUB. 293. approached it, before even they could see it with their eyes, could not by any means terrify them so as to put them to night, as if they had been surprised by some unexpected catastrophe. 2. For such fables as these, Posidonius justly blames these writers, and not inaptly conjectures that the Cimbri, on ac- count of their wandering life and habits of piracy, might have made an expedition as far as the countries around the Palus Mceotis, and that from them has been derived the name of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, or what we should more cor- rectly denominate the Cimbrian Bosphorus, for the Greeks call the Cimbri Cimmerii. He likewise tells us that the Boii formerly inhabited the Hercynian Forest, and that the Cimbri, having made an in- cursion into those parts, were repulsed by them, and driven towards the Danube, and the country occupied by the Scor- disci, a Galatic tribe, and from thence to the Tauristse, or Taurisci, a people likewise of Galatic origin, and farther to the Helvetii, who were at that time a rich and peaceful people ; but, perceiving that the wealth of these freebooters far ex- ceeded their own, the Helvetii, and more especially the Tigu- reni and the Toygeni, associated themselves with their expe- ditions. But both the Cimbri and their auxiliaries were vanquished by the Romans, the one part when they crossed the Alps and came down upon Italy, the others on the other side of the Alps. 3. It is reported that the Cimbri had a peculiar custom. They were accompanied in their expeditions by their wives ; these were followed by hoary-headed priestesses, 1 clad in white, with cloaks of carbasus 2 fastened on with clasps, girt with brazen girdles, and bare-footed. These individuals, bearing drawn swords, went to meet the captives throughout the camp, and, having crowned them, led them to a brazen vessel containing about 20 amphorse, and placed on a raised 1 Tacitus, De Morib. Germanor. cap. viii., says that these priestesses were held in great reputation, and mentions one Veleda as " diu apud plerosque numinis loco habitam." 2 Pliny, lib. xix. cap. 1, describes this carbasus as very fine flax, grown in the neighbourhood of Tarragona in Spain. The Pfere Hardouin considers that the carbasus or fabric manufactured of this flax was simi- lar to the French batiste. The flax and the fabric were alike called carbasus.
