Part 33 (2/2)

11. Over this extended s.p.a.ce are dispersed many Greek cities, which have for the most part been founded by the people of Miletus, an Athenian colony, long since established in Asia among the other Ionians by Nileus, the son of the famous Codrus, who is said to have devoted himself to his country in the Doric war.

12. The thin extremities of the bow at each end are commanded by the two Bospori, the Thracian and Cimmerian, placed opposite to one another; and they are called Bospori because through them the daughter of Inachus,[124] who was changed (as the poets relate) into a cow, pa.s.sed into the Ionian sea.

13. The right curve of the Thracian Bosphorus is covered by a side of Bithynia, formerly called Mygdonia, of which province Thynia and Mariandena are districts; as also is Bebrycia, the inhabitants of which were delivered from the cruelty of Amycus by the valour of Pollux; and also the remote spot in which the soothsayer Phineus was terrified by the threatening flight of the Harpies.

14. The sh.o.r.es are curved into several long bays, into which fall the rivers Sangarius, and Phyllis, and Bizes, and Rebas; and opposite to them at the lower end are the Symplegades, two rocks which rise into abrupt peaks, and which in former times were accustomed to dash against one another with a fearful crash, and then rebounding with a sharp spring, to recoil once more against the object already struck. Even a bird could by no speed of its wings pa.s.s between these rocks as they pa.s.s and meet again without being crushed to death.

15. These rocks, when the Argo, the first of all s.h.i.+ps, hastening to Colchis to carry off the golden fleece, had pa.s.sed unhurt by them, stood immovable for the future, the power of the whirlwind which used to agitate them being broken; and are now so firmly united that no one who saw them now would believe that they had ever been separated; if all the poems of the ancients did not agree on the point.

16. After this portion of Bithynia, the next provinces are Pontus and Paphlagonia, in which are the n.o.ble cities of Heraclea, and Sinope, and Polemonium, and Amisus, and Tios, and Amastris, all originally founded by the energy of the Greeks; and Cerasus, from which Lucullus brought the cherry, and two lofty islands which contain the famous cities of Trapezus and Pityus.

17. Beyond these places is the Acherusian cave, which the natives call ????p??t???; and the harbour of Acone, and several rivers, the Acheron, the Arcadius, the Iris, the Tibris, and near to that the Parthenius, all of which proceed with a rapid stream into the sea. Close to them is the Thermodon, which rises in Mount Armonius, and flows through the forest of Themiscyra, to which necessity formerly compelled the Amazons to migrate.

18. The Amazons, as may be here explained, after having ravaged their neighbours by b.l.o.o.d.y inroads, and overpowered them by repeated defeats, began to entertain greater projects; and perceiving their own strength to be superior to their neighbours', and being continually covetous of their possessions, they forced their way through many nations, and attacked the Athenians. But they were routed in a fierce battle, and their flanks being uncovered by cavalry, they all perished.

19. When their destruction became known, the rest, who had been left at home as unwarlike, were reduced to the last extremities; and fearing the attacks of their neighbours, who would now retaliate on them, they removed to the more quiet district of the Thermodon. And after a long time, their posterity again becoming numerous, returned in great force to their native regions, and became in later ages formidable to the people of many nations.

20. Not far from hence is the gentle hill Carambis, on the north, opposite to which, at a distance of 2,500 furlongs, is the Criu-Metopon, a promontory of Taurica. From this spot the whole of the sea-coast, beginning at the river Halys, is like the chord of an arc fastened at both ends.

21. On the frontiers of this district are the Dahae,[125] the fiercest of all warriors; and the Chalybes, the first people who dug up iron, and wrought it to the use of man. Next to them lies a large plain occupied by the Byzares, the Saqires, the Tibareni, the Mosynaeci, the Macrones and the Philyres, tribes with which we have no intercourse.

22. And at a small distance from them are some monuments of heroes, where Sthenelus, Idmon, and Tiphys are buried, the first being that one of Hercules's comrades who was mortally wounded in the war with the Amazons; the second the soothsayer of the Argonauts; the third the skilful pilot of the crew.

23. After pa.s.sing by the aforesaid districts, we come to the cave Aulon, and the river of Callichorus, which derives its name from the fact that when Bacchus, having subdued the nations of India in a three years' war, came into those countries, he chose the green and shady banks of this river for the re-establishment of his ancient orgies and dances; and some think that such festivals as these were those called Trieterica.[126]

24. Next to these frontiers come the famous cantons of the Camaritae, and the Phasis, which with its roaring streams reaches the Colchi, a race descended from the Egyptians; among whom, besides other cities, is one called Phasis from the name of the river; and Dioscurias,[127] still famous, which is said to have been founded by the Spartans Amphitus and Cercius, the charioteers of Castor and Pollux; from whom the nation of Heniochi[128] derives its origin.

25. At a little distance from these are the Achaei, who after some earlier Trojan war, and not that which began about Helen, as some authors have affirmed, were driven into Pontus by foul winds, and, as all around was hostile, so that they could nowhere find a settled abode, they always stationed themselves on the tops of snowy mountains; and, under the pressure of an unfavourable climate they contracted a habit of living on plunder in contempt of all danger; and thus became the most ferocious of all nations. Of the Cercetae, who lie next to them, nothing is known worth speaking of.

26. Behind them lie the inhabitants of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, living in cities founded by the Milesiani, the chief of which is Panticapaeum, which is on the Bog a river of great size, both from its natural waters and the streams which fall into it.

27. Then for a great distance the Amazons stretch as far as the Caspian sea; occupying the banks of the Don, which rises in Mount Caucasus, and proceeds in a winding course, separating Asia from Europe, and falls into the swampy sea of Azov.

28. Near to this is the Rha, on the banks of which grows a vegetable of the same name, which is useful as a remedy for many diseases.

29. Beyond the Don, taking the plain in its width, lie the Sauromatae, whose land is watered by the never-failing rivers Maraecus, Rhombites, Theophanes, and Totordanes. And there is at a vast distance another nation also known as Sauromatae, touching the sh.o.r.e at the point where the river Corax falls into the sea.

30. Near to this is the sea of Azov, of great extent, from the abundant sources of which a great body of water pours through the straits of Patares, near the Black Sea; on the right are the islands Phanagorus and Hermona.s.sa, which have been settled by the industry of the Greeks.

31. Round the furthest extremity of this gulf dwell many tribes differing from one another in language and habits; the Jaxamatae, the Maeotae, the Jazyges, the Roxolani, the Alani, the Melanchlaenae, the Geloni, and the Agathyrsi, whose land abounds in adamant.

32. And there are others beyond, who are the most remote people of the whole world. On the left side of this gulf lies the Crimea, full of Greek colonies; the people of which are quiet and steady: they practise agriculture, and live on the produce of the land.

33. From them the Tauri, though at no great distance, are separated by several kingdoms, among which are the Arinchi, a most savage tribe, the Sinchi, and the Napaei, whose cruelty, being aggravated by continual licence, is the reason why the sea is called the Inhospitable,[129]

from which by the rule of contrary it gets the name of the Euxine, just as the Greeks call a fool e?????, and night e??????, and the furies, the ??e??de?.

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