Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/489

ii. vii. c. iv. 3. THE CRIMEA 475 refuge in the ports. This, together with another harbour, called Ctenus, 1 forms an isthmus of 40 stadia in extent. This isthmus locks in the Smaller Chersonesus, which we said was a part of the Great Chersonesus, having on it a city of the same name. 3. It was formerly governed by its own laws, but after it was ravaged by barbarous nations, the inhabitants were obliged to elect as their protector, Mithridates Eupator, who was anxious to direct his forces against the barbarians who lived above the isthmus, and occupied the country as far as the Dnieper and the Adriatic, and thus to prepare himself against war with the Romans. Mithridates, with these views, readily despatched an expedition into the Chersonesus, and carried on war at the same time against the Scythians, Scilu- rus, and the sons of Scilurus, namely, Palacus and his brothers, whom Posidonius reckons to have been fifty, and Apollonides eighty, in number. By the subjugation of these enemies he became at once master of the Bosporus, which Pairisades, who held the command of it, voluntarily surrendered. From that time to the present the city of the Chersonitse has been sub- ject to the princes of the Bosporus. Ctenus is equally distant from the city of the Chersonitae, and from Symbolon Limen. From Symbolon Limen the Tauric coast extends 1000 stadia to the city Theodpsia. 2 The coast is rugged and mountainous, and during the prevalence of the north winds, tempestuous. From this coast a pro- montory projects far into the sea, and stretches out south- wards towards Paphlagonia, and the city Amastris. It is called Criu-metopon, or Ram's Head. Opposite to it is Ca- 1 The Heracleotic Chersonese was comprehended in the triangle formed by Ctenus, (Inkerman,) Parthenium, (Cape Cherson,) and Symbolon Limen (Baluklava). The Gulf of Ctenus is now the Gulf of Sebastopol, a name substituted for that of Akhtiar in the time of Catherine II. of Russia. On the first small bay to the west of the town of Sebastopol, was situated the New city Chersonesus, flourishing in the time of Strabo ; the Old Chersonesus, described as in ruins, was situated on the small peninsula, the extreme western point of which is Cape Cherson. Both here and in various parts of the Crimea were very interesting remains of antiquity, but Dr. Clarke complains of their wanton destruction. Ctenus is probably derived from Krevwcrjc, " like a comb," descriptive of the in- dented nature of the gulf. Both Gossellin and D'Anville have mistaken the true position of the Heracleotic Chersonese. 2 So named after the wife or sister of Leucon. C. Now Kaffa.