Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, Book 2

This Good Works Translation opens Justin's second book, where the epitome of Pompeius Trogus begins the story of Scythian deeds from the origin of the people.

The passage is useful for the Scythian shelf because it gives a compact Latin ethnographic profile: the Scythians are called ancient, unconquered in spirit, wagon-dwelling, pastoral, materially restrained, and just by custom rather than by written law.

The English below is a Good Works Translation from the Latin text in The Latin Library.

Translation

In recounting the deeds done by the Scythians, which were broad enough and magnificent enough, the beginning must be taken up from their origin. For they had beginnings no less renowned than their empire, and they were made famous no more by the virtues of their men than by those of their women, since the men founded the empires of the Parthians and Bactrians, while their women founded the kingdoms of the Amazons. Looking at the deeds of their men and women alike, it is altogether uncertain which sex among them was the more illustrious.

The Scythian nation has always been held to be very ancient, although there was long a dispute between the Scythians and the Egyptians over the age of their race. The Egyptians declared that, at the beginning of things, when some lands burned beneath the excessive heat of the sun and others stiffened beneath the violence of cold, so that they could neither first generate human beings nor even receive and protect newcomers before coverings for the body had been devised against heat or cold and before the defects of places had been softened by remedies found through skill, Egypt had always been so temperate that neither winter cold nor summer heat pressed upon its inhabitants, and its soil so fruitful that no land was richer for the nourishment of human beings.

Therefore, they said, human beings ought rightly to be thought to have been born first where they could most easily be nourished. Against this the Scythians held that the temperateness of the sky was no proof of age. For nature, as soon as it first distinguished the growths of heat and cold, immediately generated living creatures suited to the endurance of their places; and the kinds of trees and crops too were varied fittingly according to the condition of the regions. And the harsher the Scythian sky was than the Egyptian, so much harder were their bodies and their spirits.

Moreover, if the parts of the world that now exist were once a unity, whether a flood of waters held the lands buried at the beginning of things or whether fire, which brought forth the world, possessed all things, the Scythians were before the Egyptians in the origin of either beginning.

For if fire was the first possession of things, and then, little by little extinguished, gave place to the lands, no part would have been separated from the fire by the chill of winter before the northern part, so much so that even now no part stiffens more with cold; but Egypt and the whole East were tempered very late, since even now they burn with the scorching heat of the sun.

But if all lands were once submerged beneath the deep, surely each highest part was first uncovered as the waters ran down, while on the lowest ground that same water lingered longest; and the earlier each part of the lands was dried, the earlier it began to generate living things.

They said further that Scythia is so much higher than all lands that all rivers born there run down into Maeotis, and then into the Pontic and Egyptian sea; but Egypt, though fortified by the care and expense of so many kings and so many ages, and built up with such great embankments against the force of rushing waters, and cut by so many canals so that the waters may be held back by some and received by others, nevertheless could not be cultivated unless the Nile were shut out. It could not seem very ancient in human age, since by the embankments of kings or by the mud dragged down by the Nile it seems the newest of lands.

By these arguments the Egyptians were overcome, and the Scythians have always been thought the more ancient.

Scythia, stretching toward the east, is enclosed on one side by the Pontus, on the other by the Riphaean mountains, and at its back by Asia and the river Phasis. It lies wide in both length and breadth. Among the people themselves there are no boundaries. For they do not work the soil, nor do they have any house or roof or fixed seat, but they always pasture herds and flocks and are accustomed to wander through uncultivated solitudes. They carry their wives and children with them in wagons, which they cover with hides against rain and winter, and use as houses.

The justice of the nation is cultivated by disposition, not by laws. No crime among them is heavier than theft; for since their flocks and herds have no protection of roof or wall, what would remain among the woods if stealing were permitted? They do not seek gold and silver as the rest of mortals do. They live on milk and honey. The use of wool and garments is unknown to them, and although they burn beneath continuous cold, they nevertheless use the skins of wild beasts and mice.

This self-restraint in their way of life produced justice in their conduct too, since they desire nothing belonging to another; for the desire for wealth exists only where the use of wealth exists.

Translation Notes

This translation preserves Justin's argument as ethnographic rhetoric, not as modern historical fact. The antiquity contest with Egypt is part of the ancient literary frame.

The final sentence is the key moralizing claim: Scythian justice arises from material restraint. This can be read beside Strabo's discussion of Homeric Abii, Hippemolgi, and Galactophagi.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from the Latin text of Justin, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, Book 2, as presented by The Latin Library.

The English translation is independently derived from the Latin. No modern English translation was used as the base text.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Scytharum gens antiquissima

Latin source text from Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, Book 2, The Latin Library. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

[I] In relatione rerum ab Scythis gestarum, quae satis amplae magnificaeque fuerunt, principium ab origine repetendum est. Non enim minus inlustria initia quam imperium habuere, nec virorum magis quam feminarum virtutibus claruere, quippe cum ipsi Parthos Bactrianosque, feminae autem eorum Amazonum regna condiderint, prorsus ut res gestas virorum mulierumque considerantibus incertum sit, uter apud eos sexus inlustrior fuerit.

Scytharum gens antiquissima semper habita, quamquam inter Scythas et Aegyptios diu contentio de generis vetustate fuerit Aegyptiis praedicantibus, initio rerum cum aliae terrae nimio fervore solis arderent, aliae rigerent frigoris inmanitate, ita ut non modo primae generare homines, sed ne advenas quidem recipere ac tueri possent, priusquam adversus calorem vel frigus velamenta corporis invenirentur vel locorum vitia quaesitis arte remediis mollirentur, Aegyptum ita temperatam semper fuisse, ut neque hiberna frigora nec aestivi solis ardores incolas eius premerent, solum ita fecundum, ut alimentorum usum hominum nulla terra feracior fuerit.

Iure igitur ibi primum homines natos videri debere, ubi educari facillime possent. Contra Scythae caeli temperamentum nullum esse vetustatis argumentum putabant. Quippe naturam, cum primum incrementa caloris ac frigoris distinxit, statim ad locorum patientiam animalia quoque generasse;sed et arborum ac frugum pro regionum condicione apte genera variata. Et quanto Scythis sit caelum asperius quam Aegyptiis, tanto et corpora et ingenia esse duriora.

Ceterum si mundi, quae nunc partes sunt, aliquando unitas fuit, sive inluvies aquarum principio rerum terras obrutas tenuit, sive ignis, qui et mundum genuit, cuncta possedit, utriusque primordii Scythas origine praestare.

Nam si ignis prima possessio rerum fuit, qui paulatim extinctus sedem terris dedit, nullam prius quam septemtrionalem partem hiemis rigore sub igne secretam, adeo ut nunc quoque nulla magis rigeat frigoribus; Aegyptum vero et totum Orientem tardissime temperatum, quippe qui etiam nunc torrenti calore solis exaestuet.

Quodsi omnes quondam terrae submersae profundo fuerunt, profecto editissimam quamque partem decurrentibus aquis primum detectam, humillimo autem solo eandem aquam diutissime inmoratam; et quanto prior quaeque pars terrarum siccata sit, tanto prius animalia generare coepisse.

Porro Scythiam adeo editiorem omnibus terris esse, ut cuncta flumina ibi natam in Maeotim, tum deinde in Ponticum et Aegyptium mare decurrant; Aegyptum autem, quae tot regum, tot saeculorum cura inpensaque munita sit et adversum vim incurrentium aquarum tantis structa molibus, tot fossis concisa, ut, cum his arceantur, illis recipiantur aquae, nihilo minus coli nisi excluso Nilo non potuerit, nec possit videri hominum vetustate ultima, quae aggerationibus regum sive Nili trahentis limum terrarum recentissima videatur.

His igitur argumentis superatis Aegyptiis antiquiores semper Scythae visi.

[II] Scythia autem in orientem porrecta includitur ab uno latere Ponto, ab altero montibus Riphaeis, a tergo Asia et Phasi flumine. Multum in longitudinem et latitudinem patet. Hominibus inter se nulli fines. Neque enim agrum exercent, nec domus illis ulla aut tectum aut sedes est, armenta et pecora semper pascentibus et per incultas solitudines errare solitis. Uxores liberosque secum in plaustris vehunt, quibus coriis imbrium hiemisque causa tectis pro domibus utuntur.

Iustitia gentis ingeniis culta, non legibus. Nullum scelus apud eos furto gravius: quippe sine tecti munimento pecora et armenta habentibus quid inter silvas superesset, si furari liceret? Aurum et argentum non perinde ac reliqui mortales adpetunt. Lacte et melle vescuntur. Lanae his usus ac vestium ignotus et quamquam continuis frigoribus urantur, pellibus tamen ferinis ac murinis utuntur.

Haec continentia illis morum quoque iustitiam edidit, nihil alienum concupiscentibus; quippe ibidem divitiarum cupido est, ubi et usus.

Source Colophon

The Latin source was checked in The Latin Library: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/justin/2.html. The page claims only an independent source-language rendering from the named witness.

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