is given us by Justin, who says, that they were accustomed to wander through uncultivated solitudes, always employed in tending herds and flocks (armenta et pecora). He, however, adds, that they were strangers to the use of woollen garments, being clothed in skins and furs[1]. Hence it appears, that they were too rude and ignorant to have acquired the arts of spinning and weaving.
If we may trust to the authority of Strabo, the Medes did not tend sheep; for he says of them, "They eat the flesh of wild animals; they do not bring up tame cattle[2]." Nevertheless, their southern neighbors, the Persians, with whom they were united under one government, had sheep in abundance. These animals are strikingly represented in the bas-reliefs of Persepolis. In one of them, which represents a long procession sculptured on the wall of a splendid staircase, two rams, attended by keepers, are accompanied in the same train by horses, asses, camels, and oxen[3]. Herodotus, in his account of the manners and institutions of the Persians (L. i. cap. 133.), mentions all these animals together in the following passage: "Of all days they are accustomed to observe most that on which each individual was born. On this day they set before their guests a more abundant feast than on any other. The wealthy provide an ox, a horse, a camel, and an ass, roasted whole in furnaces; and the poor provide the smaller cattle." By "the smaller cattle," this author always means sheep and goats.
The superior excellence of the rich plains of Mesopotamia for the pasture of sheep as well as oxen, is attested by Dionysius Periegetes[4], and his account illustrates in an interesting manner the history of Jacob as contained in the book of Genesis,, &c. l. 992-996.
In English,
"As for the land, which lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris, called the land Between the Rivers, the herdsman would not contemn its pastures, nor he who tends flocks folded in the fields, and honors with his syrinx Pan who has horny hoofs."]
