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κατὰ νομούς, ‘in every district, for each of the people of the governments.’ H. seems to mean the country is divided into ἀρχαί (probably subdivisions of the βασιληίαι of 7. 2, 120. 3), and these again into νομοί, each of which has its νομάρχης (66. 1). The organization thus hinted at is clearly military as well as religious. φάκελοι. These ‘bundles of firewood’ in a woodless country are, to say the least, exaggerated. We may note (1) H. gives the measurements from hearsay, not as his own; (2) his information came mainly from Olbia, which is close to the ‘woodland’ (Ὑλαίη); (3) we may conjecture the wood was used to keep together masses of earth inside (this is implied in ὑπονοστέει κτλ.). ἀπότομα. Reinach (A. R. M. p. 182) says that in Russia tumuli are still found with three sides steep and one sloping.
ἀκινάκης. A great iron sword was found in a tomb at Kertsch, but the weapons are usually bronze. For sword-worship among the Alani in fourth century A. D. cf. Ammianus, xxxi. 2. 23 ‘(gladiumque) ut Martem regionum praesulem verecundius colunt’; cf. Gibbon (c. 34, iii. 419-20) for Attila's use of the ‘sword of Mars’. τοισίδ̓: i. e. ‘with the victims to be described next’. Mars naturally had the most human sacrifices.
καταχέουσι. For parallels to pouring blood on a sacred object cf. Frazer, G. B. iii. 21; red paint sometimes took the place of blood.
δεξιοὺς ὤμους. The victim is robbed of his right arm to render his spirit after death helpless; cf. Tylor, P. C. i. 451 for parallels (e. g. among Australian natives). ἀπέρξαντες, ‘completing the sacrifice of the other victims’; cf. ii. 40. 4 for use of ἀπο-.
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