Against Apion | Page 8

neither inhabit a maritime country, nor do we delight
in merchandise, nor in such a mixture with other men as arises from it; but the cities we
dwell in are remote from the sea, and having a fruitful country for our habitation, we take
pains in cultivating that only. Our principal care of all is this, to educate our children well;
and we think it to be the most necessary business of our whole life to observe the laws
that have been given us, and to keep those rules of piety that have been delivered down to
us. Since, therefore, besides what we have already taken notice of, we have had a peculiar
way of living of our own, there was no occasion offered us in ancient ages for
intermixing among the Greeks, as they had for mixing among the Egyptians, by their
intercourse of exporting and importing their several goods; as they also mixed with the
Phoenicians, who lived by the sea-side, by means of their love of lucre in trade and
merchandise. Nor did our forefathers betake themselves, as did some others, to robbery;
nor did they, in order to gain more wealth, fall into foreign wars, although our country
contained many ten thousands of men of courage sufficient for that purpose. For this
reason it was that the Phoenicians themselves came soon by trading and navigation to be
known to the Grecians, and by their means the Egyptians became known to the Grecians
also, as did all those people whence the Phoenicians in long voyages over the seas carried
wares to the Grecians. The Medes also and the Persians, when they were lords of Asia,
became well known to them; and this was especially true of the Persians, who led their
armies as far as the other continent [Europe]. The Thracians were also known to them by
the nearness of their countries, and the Scythians by the means of those that sailed to
Pontus; for it was so in general that all maritime nations, and those that inhabited near the
eastern or western seas, became most known to those that were desirous to be writers; but
such as had their habitations further from the sea were for the most part unknown to them
which things appear to have happened as to Europe also, where the city of Rome, that
hath this long time been possessed of so much power, and hath performed such great
actions in war, is yet never mentioned by Herodotus, nor by Thucydides, nor by any one
of their contemporaries; and it was very late, and with great difficulty, that the Romans
became known to the Greeks. Nay, those that were reckoned the most exact historians
(and Ephorus for one) were so very ignorant of the Gauls and the Spaniards, that he
supposed the Spaniards, who inhabit so great a part of the western regions of the earth, to

be no more than one city. Those historians also have ventured to describe such customs
as were made use of by them, which they never had either done or said; and the reason
why these writers did not know the truth of their affairs was this, that they had not any
commerce together; but the reason why they wrote such falsities was this, that they had a
mind to appear to know things which others had not known. How can it then be any
wonder, if our nation was no more known to many of the Greeks, nor had given them any
occasion to mention them in their writings, while they were so remote from the sea, and
had a conduct of life so peculiar to themselves?
13. Let us now put the case, therefore, that we made use of this argument concerning the
Grecians, in order to prove that their nation was not ancient, because nothing is said of
them in our records: would not they laugh at us all, and probably give the same reasons
for our silence that I have now alleged, and would produce their neighbor nations as
witnesses to their own antiquity? Now the very same thing will I endeavor to do; for I
will bring the Egyptians and the Phoenicians as my principal witnesses, because nobody
can complain Of their testimony as false, on account that they are known to have borne
the greatest ill-will towards us; I mean this as to the Egyptians in general all of them,
while of the Phoenicians it is known the Tyrians have been most of all in the same ill
disposition towards us: yet do I confess that I cannot say the same of the Chaldeans, since
our first leaders and ancestors were derived from them; and they do make mention of us
Jews in their records, on account of the kindred there