by Pomponius Mela

This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Latin text of Pomponius Mela, De Chorographia 2.1.12-15.

Pomponius Mela was a first-century Roman geographer. In Book 2 of De Chorographia, his account of European Scythia preserves a compressed Roman catalogue of northern peoples and customs.

This source-unit gives the immediate context for Mela's notice that Mars is the god of all the Scythian peoples in view, that swords and belts are dedicated to him in place of images, and that human beings are struck down as victims.

The English translation was made from the Latin text in PHI Latin Texts / Packhum, with Remacle's public French-facing Mela page consulted only as a control.

Translation

2.1.12

Farther inland, the region and the rites of its inhabitants are rougher and less cultivated. They love wars and killings. When they fight, it is their custom to drink from the very wounds the blood of the first person they have killed.

The more people each man has killed, the more outstanding he is considered among them. To have no share in killing is among the greatest reproaches. Even treaties are not bloodless: those who make agreements wound themselves, mix the blood they have drawn, and taste it. They think this is the surest pledge of lasting faith.

2.1.13

At feasts, the happiest and most frequent subject is for each man to recount how many he has killed. Those who have reported the most drink deeply from two cups. This is the chief honor among them when they are at play.

As the Essedones make drinking-cups from the heads of their parents, so these people strip the heads of their bitterest enemies and use them as cups.

2.1.14

Among the Anthropophagi, even the feasts themselves are prepared from human entrails. The Geloni cover their horses and themselves with the skins of enemies: the horses with the skins of the rest of the body, themselves with the skins of the head.

The Melanchlaeni wear black clothing and take their name from it. For the Neuri, there is a fixed time for each person when, if they wish, they are changed into wolves and then changed back again into those they had been.

2.1.15

Mars is the god of them all. To him, instead of images, they dedicate swords and belts, and they strike human beings as victims.

The lands stretch widely. Because the rivers often overflow their banks, they are fertile everywhere for pasturage, though in some places they are so barren in other respects that the inhabitants, lacking wood, feed their fires with bones.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from the Latin of Pomponius Mela, De Chorographia 2.1.12-15. The English is independently derived from the Latin source text. The working source was the Latin text in PHI Latin Texts / Packhum; Remacle's public French-facing Mela page was consulted only as a control.

This passage is a Roman geographical witness to Scythian war custom and the sword-offering form of Mars worship. It belongs beside Herodotus' Scythian Ares passage and Ammianus' Alan sword-god notice as part of the archive's sword-cult evidence chain.

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

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Source Text: De Chorographia 2.1.12-15

Latin source text from PHI Latin Texts / Packhum's Pomponius Mela, De Chorographia 2.1.12-15. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Pomponius Mela 2.1.12

Interius habitantium ritus asperior et incultior regio est. Bella caedesque amant, mosque est bellantibus cruorem eius quem primum interemerunt ipsis ex vulneribus ebibere. Ut quisque plures interemerit, ita apud eos habetur eximius; ceterum expertem esse caedis inter opprobria vel maximum. Ne foedera quidem incruenta sunt; sauciant se qui paciscuntur, exemptumque sanguinem ubi permiscuere degustant. Id putant mansurae fidei pignus certissimum.

Pomponius Mela 2.1.13

Inter epulas quot quisque interfecerit referre laetissima et frequentissima mentio, binisque poculis qui plurimos rettulere perpotant. Is inter iocantis honos praecipuus est. Pocula ut Essedones parentium, ita inimicissimorum capitibus expoliunt.

Pomponius Mela 2.1.14

Apud Anthropophagos ipsae etiam epulae visceribus humanis apparantur. Geloni hostium cutibus equos seque velant, illos reliqui corporis, se capitum. Melanchlaenis atra vestis et ex ea nomen, Neuris statum singulis tempus est, quo si velint in lupos, iterumque in eos qui fuere mutentur.

Pomponius Mela 2.1.15

Mars omnium deus; ei pro simulacris enses et cinctoria dedicant, hominesque pro victumis feriunt. Terrae late patent, et ob excedentia ripas suas plerumque flumina nusquam non ad pabula fertiles, alicubi usque eo steriles ad cetera, ut qui habitant lignorum egentes ignes ossibus alant.

Source Colophon

The Latin source text was extracted from PHI Latin Texts / Packhum's Pomponius Mela, De Chorographia 2.1.12-15 page, https://latin.packhum.org/loc/929/1/1/39501-39505. The source text was cleaned of navigation and line-break artifacts and normalized into section headings.

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