The Dispersion and the Sons of Noah

To inhabit the plains, God commanded them to build settlements, so that they would not grow numerous and turn against one another. But they did not obey, cultivating a good land and having the greatest abundance of fruit. Again, therefore, by a harsh affliction, He brings them under pressure toward making the settlement. But they did not even thus show themselves to God according to His will; they took the land's prosperity not as God's favor, but as their own achievement.

And this opinion they had, after Nebroth, that giant, a bold and courageous man, who also, having turned them away from God, forced them to appropriate reverence for himself, and indeed permitted them to build a tower reaching to the height of heaven, threatening that God might contend against them if He should again bring a deluge upon the world (Genesis 11:4). For the multitude, working with him with much haste in madness, and building the tower more rapidly than speech, God immediately confounded their dialect, and through unlikeness of language they were scattered; and from this the place received the name of Babylon, the Hebrews calling the confusion Babylon.

Each then took the land they found, and they spread to all the coasts, the continents, and the islands; for they settled these places by sailing the seas in ships. Some nations still keep the names of their founders, and some changed them after the Greeks claimed them and gave them their own names, and they set laws suited to them to make the creation glorify them, as if leaving no doubt for those who follow.

Therefore, Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth; beginning from the Taurus and Ammon mountains, they dwelt and went forth upon Asia even to the river Tanais, and upon Europe even to the Gadira. And these are: Gamer, who constituted the Gamarii, the present Galatians; Agod, the Magodians, the present Scythians; Adai, the Madaians, the present Medes; Ouan, the Ionians and the Greeks; Obel, the Theobeli, the present Iberians; Osokh, the Meschenians, the present Cappadocians; Theras, the Theiras, the present Thracians.

And there were also three sons to Gomer: Schanax, from whom come the Schanaxians, who are now the Rhages; Riphath, from whom come the Riphathians, who are now the Paphlagonians; and Thugrammaïs, who became the Thugrammites, the present Phrygians. And three sons to Javan: Elisas, from whom come the Elisaeans, who are now the Aeolians; Tharsis, from whom come the Tharsians, who are now the Cilicians; for thus the ancient Cilicia was called; for even now Tharsis is called its metropolis. Chetheim, Chetheim the island, which is now called Cyprus; for from it every island and the coastal region the Hebrews call Eththō.

And the sons of Ham possessed the land from Syria, and Ammon, and the land of the mountains of Libanus, as far as the sea, having taken it on all four sides and having extended to the Ocean. And indeed for some the designations were entirely changed, while for others they were changed into something unrecognizable; but for a few the names are still preserved intact. And these are the sons of Ham: Cush, from whom come the Cushites, who are now the Ethiopians; Mestrem, from whom come the Mestreans, who are now the Egyptians; and Phut, the Phutites, who are now the Libyans, and even to this time the river beside the Blacks and its adjacent country are called Phutites. And the nation was called Libyans, and the country after the name of one of the sons of Mestrem, Libius, having ruled over them.

And to Cush there were seven sons: Sabat, from whom come the Sabakians, who even to this time preserve the name along with the country; Euilat, from whom come the Euilaites, who are now the Touli; Sabath, from whom come the Sabathines, who are now the Astabaroi; Regmara, from whom come the Allai, who even now have this name; Iudadan, from whom come the Iudadai, an Ethiopian nation homonymous even until now with the forefather; Sebekatha, from whom come the Sebekathines, who are also homonymous; and this Nebrod, having remained in Babylon, was the first to rule over them. Mestrem had eight sons, who possessed the land from Gaza even unto Egypt. And the country of the Philistim was held then until a certain time by the same name, but later it was called Palestine.

And there were also eleven children to Canaan: Sidon the firstborn, who founded a city in Phoenicia homonymous with himself, Sidon; Amathios, who built the Amathin, the present Epiphania, after one of the Macedonians had seized it gloriously and had placed upon it his own dwelling name; and Arukaios founded the land in Libanus; and this Arodios inhabited the island of Arados; Asenassos, from whom come the Asennae; and Samareios...