Geography

​Immediately, then, from Corocondame the voyage is towards the east. At a distance of one hundred and eighty stadia is the Sindic harbor and city, then at four hundred stadia is the place called Bata, a village and a harbor, at which Sinope seems to lie most directly opposite to the south on this coast, just as Carambis has been said to do in relation to the forehead of the Ram. From Bata, Artemidorus says that the coast of the Cercetae, which has anchorages and villages, extends for about eight hundred and fifty stadia, then that of the Achaeans for five hundred stadia, then that of the Heniochi for one thousand, and then the Great Pityus for three hundred and sixty, as far as Dioscurias. But those who wrote the histories of the Mithridatic wars, to whom we should pay more attention, say that the Achaeans come first, then the Zygi, then the Heniochi, then the Cercetae, Moschi, and Colchians, and above them the Phtheirophagi, the Soanes, and other small tribes around the Caucasus. In the beginning, therefore, the coast, as I said, stretches towards the east and faces the south; but from Bata it takes a turn by degrees, then comes to face the west, and ends at Pityus and Dioscurias, for these places of Colchis join the aforementioned coast. After Dioscurias, the remaining coast of Colchis and the contiguous Trapezus, having made a remarkable bend, then stretches out in an approximately straight line, forming the right side of the Pontus, which faces the north. All the coast of the Achaeans and the others as far as Dioscurias, and the places in the interior directly to the south, lie at the foot of the Caucasus.

​This is a mountain lying above both the Pontic and the Caspian seas, walling off the isthmus that separates them. It borders Albania and Iberia on the south, and the plains of the Sarmatians on the north; it is well wooded with all kinds of timber, especially that useful for shipbuilding. Eratosthenes says that the Caucasus is called Caspius by the natives, perhaps being named after the Caspians. Certain branches of it project towards the south, which enclose the middle of Iberia and connect with the mountains of the Armenians and those called the Moschian, and further with Scydises and Paryadres; all of these are parts of the Taurus which forms the southern side of Armenia, being rent off from it in a way towards the north and reaching as far as the Caucasus and the coast of the Euxine which extends to Themiscyra from Colchis.

​At all events, Dioscurias, situated in such a gulf and occupying the easternmost point of the entire sea, is called the recess of the Euxine and the furthest voyage; and what is proverbially said must be understood in this way: “To Phasis, where for ships is the furthest run,” not as though the author of the iambic verse was speaking of the river, nor indeed of the city of the same name situated on the river, but of Colchis by synecdoche, since from the river and the city there remains a voyage of not less than six hundred stadia in a straight line to the recess. This same Dioscurias is also the beginning of the isthmus between the Caspian and the Pontus, and a common emporium for the tribes lying above it and nearby; at any rate, seventy tribes assemble there, and according to some, even three hundred, who care nothing for current affairs, and all speak different languages because they live in a scattered and unmixed way through pride and wildness; most of them are Sarmatians, and all are Caucasian. Such, then, are the matters concerning Dioscurias.