Geography

​Of the Maeotae themselves are the Sindi, Dandarii, Toretae, Agri, and Arrechi, and furthermore the Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and several others; among these are also the Aspurgiani, who live between Phanagoria and Gorgipia within a distance of five hundred stadia. King Polemon, having attacked them under the pretense of friendship, was not unnoticed, but was outgeneraled and taken alive, and died. Of all the Asiatic Maeotae, some were subject to those who held the emporium at Tanais, and others to the Bosporans; but at different times different tribes would revolt. And often the rulers of the Bosporans held the regions as far as Tanais, especially the latest ones, Pharnaces, Asander, and Polemon. Pharnaces is also said to have once brought the Hypanis river upon the Dandarii, having cleared out a certain ancient canal, and flooded their country.

​After the Sindic region and Gorgipia, along the sea, is the coastline of the Achaeans, Zygi, and Heniochi, which for the most part is harborless and mountainous, being a part of the Caucasus. They live by sea robberies, having boats that are slender, narrow, and light, capable of holding about twenty-five men, and rarely able to receive thirty in all; the Greeks call them camarai. They say that from the expedition of Jason, the Phthiotic Achaeans founded the Achaea here, and the Laconians Heniochia, of whom Crecas and Amphistratus, the charioteers of the Dioscuri, were the leaders; and it is reasonable that the Heniochi were named after them. At any rate, equipping fleets of camarai and sailing out, they hold sway over the sea, sometimes attacking merchant vessels, sometimes a certain country or even a city. Sometimes those who hold the Bosporus also assist them, supplying them with anchorages, a market, and the disposal of their plunder. When they return to their own places, having no harbor for their boats, they put the camarai on their shoulders and carry them up to the forests in which they live, cultivating a poor soil; and they bring them down again when it is the season for sailing. They do the same also in foreign territory where they have well-known wooded places, in which they hide their camarai, while they themselves wander on foot by night and day for the sake of kidnapping people. What they capture they easily make subject to ransom, notifying the losers after they have sailed away. Now in the places ruled by chieftains, there is some assistance from the rulers for those who are wronged; for they often attack in turn and bring back the camarai together with their crews; but the territory under the Romans is more helpless because of the negligence of those who are sent.

​Such is the life of these people; and they too are ruled by those called Sceptuchi; and these very men are under tyrants or kings. The Heniochi, at least, had four kings when Mithridates Eupator, fleeing from his ancestral country to the Bosporus, passed through their territory; and this country was passable for him, but despairing of the country of the Zygi because of its difficulty and wildness, he went along the coast with difficulty, for the most part stepping into the sea, until he came to that of the Achaeans; and with their assistance he completed the journey from Phasis, which fell not far short of four thousand stadia.