Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/503

B. vii. c. vi. $ 1. COAST OF THE BLACK SEA. marshes l of the Lesser Scythia on this side the Dam nation, and the Crobyzi, and the nation called Tr live above the districts in which are situated Callatisi ^ ^, and Ister. 2 Next are the people about the Mount Haamus, and those who live at its foot, extending as far as the Pontus, Coralli, and Bessi, and some tribes of Maedi and of Danthe- letre. All these nations are very much addicted to robbery. The Bessi possess far the greatest part T)f*Mount rfaemus, and are called Robbers from their mode of life as free-booters. Some of them live"m huts and lead a life of hardship. They extend close to Rhodope, the Paeones, and to fn*e Illyrian na- tions ; to the Autariatae also, and the Dardanians. Between these and the Ardiaei are the Dasaretii, Hybrianes, and other obscure nations, whose numbers the Scordisci were continually reducing, until they had made the country a desert, full of impassable forests, which extended several days' journey. CHAPTER VI. 1. OF the country situated between the Danube and the mountains on each side of Paeonia, there remains to be de- scribed the Pontic coast, which reaches from the Sacred mouth of the Danube to the mountainous district about Has- mus, and to the mouth of the Pontus at Byzantium. As in describing the Illyrian coast we had proceeded as far as the Ceraunian mountains, which, although they stretch beyond the mountainous district of Illyria, yet constitute a sort of proper boundary, we determined by means of these mountains the limits of the nations in the inland parts, considering, that such separating lines would be better marks both for our pre- sent and future use ; so here also the coast, although it may fall beyond the mountainous line, will still end at a proper kind of limit, the mouth of the Pontus, which will be useful both for our present and our future descriptions. If we set out from the Sacred mouth of the Danube, having on the right hand the continuous line of coast, we find at the 1 The Dobrudscha. 8 Mangalia, Tomesvar, the place of Ovid's exile, Kara-Herman.