Res Gestae

The complete voyage around its shores, as one would encircle an island, is a distance of 23,000[*](Polyb. iv. 39, 1, gives 20,000: Strabo, ii. 5, 22, 25,000; Pliny, N.H. iv. 77, says that Varro made it 21,000, and Nepos, 21,350.) stadia, as is asserted by Eratosthenes, Hecataeus, Ptolemy, and other very accurate investigators of such problems; and according to the testimony of all geographers it has the

And where the sun rises from the eastern ocean it comes to an end in the marshes of the Maeotis[*](The Palus Maeotis is on the northern side of the Euxine.) ; where it inclines towards the west it is bounded by Roman provinces; where it looks up to the Bears it breeds men of varying languages and habits; on the southern side it slopes downward[*](The directions are so uncertain that the meaning is not clear. ) in a gentle curve.

Over this vast space are scattered cities of the Greeks, all of which, with a few exceptions, were founded at varying periods by the Milesians, who were themselves colonists of the Athenians. The Milesians in much earlier times were established among other Ionians in Asia by Nileus, the son of that Codrus who (they say) sacrificed himself for his country in the Dorian war.[*](Cf. Hdt. v. 76; Val. Max. ii. 6, ext. 1.)

Now the tips of the bow on both sides are represented by the two Bospori lying opposite to each other, the Thracian[*](At Constantinople.) and the Cimmerian; and they are called Bospori, as the poets say, because the daughter of Inachus,[*](Io; cf. Ovid, Metam. i, 586 ff. A more probable reason is that they were so narrow that an ox could swim across them. Amm. is wrong about the second curve, which extends to the Colchi, while the Cimmerian Bosporus (between the Euxine and the Palus Maeotis) is in the middle of the curve; of. Mela, i. 112, 114; Procop. viii. 6, 14 f.) when she was changed into a heifer, once crossed through them to the Ionian sea.

The right-hand curve of the Thracian Bosporus begins with the shore of Bithynia, which the men

But these cliffs, ever since the Argo, first of all ships, hastening to Colchis to carry off the golden fleece, had passed between them unharmed, have stood motionless with their force assuaged and so united that no one of those who now look upon them would believe that they had ever been separated, were it not that all the songs of the poets of old agree about the story.[*](See Apollodorus, i. 9, p. 480, L.C.L. )

Beyond one part of Bithynia extend the provinces of Pontus and Paphlagonia, in which are the great cities of Heraclea, Sinope, Polemonion and Amisos, as well as Ties and Amastris, all owing their origin to the activity of the Greeks; also Cerasus,

Beyond these places is the Acherusian cave, which the natives call Mychopontion,[*](μυχοπόντιον = a nook of the sea. ) and the port of Acone,[*](From which aconite is said to get its name.) besides the rivers Acheron (also called the Arcadius), Iris, Thybris, and hard by, the Parthenius, all of which flow with swift course into the sea. The next river to these is the Thermodon, flowing from Mount Armonius and gliding through the Themiscyraean groves, to which the Amazons were forced to migrate in days of yore for the following reason.

The Amazons of old, after having by constant losses worn out their neighbours, and devastated them by bloody raids, had higher aspirations; and considering their strength and feeling that it was too great merely for frequent attacks upon their neighbours, being carried away besides by the headstrong heat of covetousness, they broke through many nations and made war upon the Athenians.[*](In the days of Theseus. The war of the Greeks and the Amazons is a frequent subject in works of Greek art.) But after a bitter contest they were scattered in all directions, and since the flanks of their cavalry were left unprotected, they all perished.

Upon the news of their destruction the remainder, who had been left at home as unfit for war, suffered extreme hardship; and in order to avoid the deadly attacks of their neighbours, who paid them like for like, they moved to a quieter abode on the Thermodon. Thereafter their descendants, who had greatly increased, returned, thanks to their numerous offspring, with a

Not far from there the hill called Carambis lifts itself with gentle slope, rising towards the Great Bear of the north, and opposite this, at a distance of 2500 stadia, is Criumetopon,[*](κριοῦ μέτωπον,The Ram’s head.) a promontory of Taurica. From this point the whole seacoast, beginning at the river Halys, as if drawn in a straight line, has the form of the string joined to the two tips of the bow.

Bordering on these regions are the Dahae, the fiercest of all warriors, and the Chalybes, by whom iron was first mined and worked. Beyond these are open plains, inhabited by the Byzares, Sapires, Tibareni, Mossynoeci, Macrones and Philyres, peoples not known to us through any intercourse.

A short distance from these are the tombs of famous men, in which are buried Sthenelus,[*](Val. Flacc. v. 89 f.) Idmon,[*](Id. v. 2 ff.) and Tiphys;[*](Id. v. 15 ff.) the first of these was a companion of Hercules, mortally wounded in the war with the Amazons, the second the augur of the Argonauts, the third the careful steersman of that same craft.

After passing the places mentioned, one comes to the grotto of Aulion and the river Callichorus,[*](Of beautiful dances.) which owes its name to the fact that Bacchus, when he had after three years vanquished the peoples of India, returned to those regions, and on the green and shady banks of that river renewed the former orgies and dances;[*](Val. Flacc. v. 75.) some think that this kind of festival was also called trieterica.[*](As celebrated every third year; cf. Virg., Aen. iv. 302.)

Beyond these

A short distance from these are the Achaei, who, after the end of an earlier war at Troy (not the one which was fought about Helen, as some writers have asserted), being carried out of their course by contrary winds to Pontus, and meeting enemies everywhere, were unable to find a place for a permanent home; and so they settled on the tops of mountains covered with perpetual snow, where, compelled by the rigorous climate, they became accustomed to make a dangerous living by robbery, and hence became later beyond all measure savage. About the Cercetae, who adjoin them, we have no information worth mentioning.

Behind these dwell the inhabitants of the Cimmercian Bosporus, where Milesian cities are, and Panticapaeum, the mother, so to speak, of all; this the river Hypanis washes, swollen with its own and tributary waters.

Next, at a considerable distance, are the Amazons, who extend to the Caspian Sea and live about the Tanaïs,[*](To-day the Don.) which rises among the crags of Caucasus, flows in a course

Near this is the river Ra,[*](Now the Volga.) on whose banks grows a plant of the same name, the root of which is used for many medicinal purposes.[*](Rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum, Linnaeus), the vegetable radix Pontica (Celsus, v. 23, 3); the drug is made from Chinese rhubarbs.)

Beyond the Tanais the Sauromatae have a territory of wide extent, through which flow the never - failing rivers Maraccus, Rombites, Theophanes and Totordanes. However, there is also another nation of the Sauromatae, an enormous distance away, extending along the shore which receives the river Corax and pours it far out into the Euxine Sea.