Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/369

Chap. 26.] ACCOITNT OP COrXTBIES, ETC. 335 The widtli of the Cimmerian Bosporus^ is twelve miles and a half: it contains the towns of Hermisium'^, Myrmecium, and, in the interior^ of it, the island of Alopece. From the spot called Taphra^"*, at the extremity of the isthmus, to the mouth of the Bosporus, along the line of the Lake Mseotis, is a distance of 260 miles. Leaving Taphrae, and going along the mainland, we find in the interior the Auchetae^, in whose country the Hypanis has its rise, as also the jN^euroe, in whose district the Bory- sthenes has its source, theGreloni^,theThyssagetae,theBudini, the Basilida?, and the Agathyrsi^ with their azure-coloured hair. Above them are the Nomades, and then a nation of Anthropophagi or cannibals. On lea^ang Lake Buges, above the Lake Mjcotis we come to the Sauromata? and the Esse- dones'. Along the coast, as far as the river Tanais^, are ^ He alludes here, not to the Strait so called, but to the Peninsula bordering upon it, upon which the modern town of Kertscli is situate, and which projects £i*om the larger Peninsula of the Crimea, as a sort of excrescence on its eastern side. 2 Probably Heniies or Mercury was its tutelar divinity : its site appears to be unknown. 3 Probably meaning the Straits or passage connecting the Lake Mseotis with the Euxine. The fertile district of the Cimmerian Bosporus was at one time the granary of Greece, especially Athens, which imported thence annually 400,000 medimni of com. ^ A town so called on the Isthmus of Perckop, from a Td<ppos or trench, which was cut across the isthmus at this point. ^ Lomonossov, in his History of Russia, says that these people were the same as the Sclaroni : but that one meaning of the name 'Slavane' being " a boaster," the Greeks gave them the corresponding appellation of Auchetoe, fi-om the word avxt), which signifies "boasting." 6 Of the Geloni, called by Virgil "picti," or "painted," nothing cer- tain seems to be known : they are associated by Herodotus with the Eudini, supposed to belong to the Slavic family by Scbafarik. In B. iv. c. 108, 109, of his History, Herodotus gives a very particular account of theBudini, who had a city built entirely of wood, the name of which was Gelonus. The same autlior also assigns to the Geloni a Greek origin. ' The Agathyrsi are placed by Herodotus near the upper course of the river Maris, in the S.E. of Dacia or the modem IVansylvania. Phny however seems here to assign them a dillerent locality. ^ Also called "Assedones" and " Issedones." It has been suggested by modem geogra]ihers that their locality must be assigned to the east of Ichim, on the steppe of the central horde of the Kirghiz, and that of the Arima>pi on the northern dccUvity of the chain of the Altai. ^ Kow the Don.