[68] Tradition has affirmed, with some color of reason, that Egypt planted on the Phasis a learned and polite colony, [69] which manufactured linen, built navies, and invented geographical maps.

The ingenuity of the moderns has peopled, with flourishing cities and nations, the isthmus between the Euxine and the Caspian; [70] and a lively writer, observing the resemblance of climate, and, in his apprehension, of trade, has not hesitated to pronounce Colchos the Holland of antiquity.

[71] [Footnote 65: The Periplus, or circumnavigation of the Euxine Sea, was described in Latin by Sallust, and in Greek by Arrian: I.The former work, which no longer exists, has been restored by the singular diligence of M.de Brosses, first president of the parliament of Dijon, (Hist.

de la Republique Romaine, tom.ii.l.iii.p.

199--298,) who ventures to assume the character of the Roman historian.