Skylax

Quelle: Kaplan, Philip. Skylax of Karyanda (709). In: Brill's New Jacoby. Brill 2009.

T 1
Suda s.v. Σκύλαξ: Translation
Subject: genre: geography
Source Date: 10th century AD
Historian's Date: 6th-5th century BC
Historical Period: 519-516 BC

Καρυανδεύς (πόλις δ᾽ ἐστὶ τῆς Καρίας πλησίον ῾Αλικαρνασσοῦ τὰ Καρύανδα)· μαθηματικὸς καὶ μουσικός. Περίπλουν τῶν ἐκτὸς τῶν ῾Ηρακλέους στηλῶν· Τὰ κατὰ ῾Ηρακλείδην τὸν Μυλασσῶν βασιλέα· Γῆς Περίοδον· ᾽Αντιγραφὴν πρὸς τὴν Πολυβίου ἱστορίαν.
A Karyandan (Karyanda is a city in Caria near Halikarnassos ); a mathematician and scholar. Circumnavigation of Lands Beyond the Pillars of Heracles . On Herakleides, King of the Mylassans . Circuit of the Earth ; Reply to the history of Polybius .

Commentary

The entry in the Suda is notoriously confused. It names Skylax the inhabitant of Karyanda as a mathematician and a scholar (or musician). There is no other evidence that he was accomplished in these fields; it is likely a confusion with Skylax of Halikarnassos , an astrologer and magistrate and friend of Panaetius (Cicero, De Divinatione 2.42 [88]; cf. F. J. González Ponce, ‛Suda, Σκύλαξ. Sobre el título, el contenido y la unidad de FGrHist 3C 709’ GeogrAnt 6 (1997) 37). Of the works it attributes to him, the two geographical works, the Circumnavigation of Lands Beyond the Pillars of Herakles and the Circuit of the Earth , may correspond to the original account of Skylax’s journey to the east, and to the later Periplous of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast of Africa that circulated under his name; but the match is not exact. Gēs Periodos would be a reasonably accurate title for the original exploration account, as it took Skylax to the outer edges of the known world (and it is a title used for Hecataios ’ geographical work, which was influenced by Skylax). Circumnavigation of Lands Beyond the Pillars of Herakles is more problematic, as it does not describe the pseudonymous Periplous tēs thalassēs tēs oikoumenēs Eurōpēs kai Asias kai Libuēs well. Vossius, followed by Müller (GGM vol. I, xxxviii), emended the title to ἐκτὸς καὶ ἐντὸς (outside and within) to make it conform better to the extant pseudonymous text, but there is not sufficient warrant for this change, and Adler kept the original reading in her edition. Periplous may in fact be an alternate title of the original account of his eastern voyage; it is used by Harpokration as the title of Skylax’s work on the east (F 6). The Pillars may refer to some boundary in the east, rather than the more commonly known Pillars at the Straits of Gibraltar (Strabo [3.5.6] suggests that Pillars of Herakles were pointed out in India at the time of Alexander ’s expedition). Others have suggested that Skylax made a subsequent venture into the Western Mediterranean (so S. Hornblower, Mausolus (Oxford 1982), 20), and wrote a comprehensive work describing the ends of the earth; but there is no evidence in the fragments definitely attributable to him that he visited the west. The work on Herakleides belongs to the early Skylax, although Jacoby did not accept it; see G. Schepens, ‛Skylax of Karyanda’ No. 1000J. Bollansée, J. Engels, G. Schepens and E. Theys (eds), FrGrHist IV A: Biography. I. The Pre-Hellenistic Period (Leiden/Boston/Köln 1998), 2—27). Herakleides, son of Ibanollis , led an ambush against the Persian army in the course of the Carian revolt (Herdotos 5.121), and successfully engaged the enemy; he also took part in the battle of Artemisium —the famous battle against the Persians off of Euboea , although some have seen him fighting offshore of an obscure Artemisium in the Western Mediterranean—according to a fragmentary papyrus of Sosylos in Würzburg (BNJ176 F 1; U. Wilcken, ‛Ein Sosylos-Fragment in der Würzburger Papyrussammlung’ Hermes 41 (1906), 103—141; see V. Krings, Carthage et les Grecs c. 580-480 Av. J.C. (London/Boston/Köln 1998), 218-219). As a contemporary of Skylax and king of neighboring Mylassa , Herakleides would have been a suitable subject for a biography, which, if Sosylos’ description of Herakleides’ clever maneuver derived from Skylax (so Krings, Carthage, 225), was favorable. The reply to Polybius is not the Karyandan’s, and most likely belongs to the Halikarnassian.

Vollständiger Artikel als pdf-Datei: Philip Kaplan. Skylax of Karyanda (709). In: Brill's New Jacoby. Brill 2009.