Geography

​From the Tanais and the Maeotis, there are the continuous parts inside the Taurus, and next after these, the parts outside. For, as Asia is divided into two parts by the Taurus mountain range, which stretches from the extremities of Pamphylia to the Eastern Sea near the Indians and the Scythians of that region, the Greeks call the part of the continent inclining toward the north ‘inside the Taurus’ and the part toward the south ‘outside.’ The parts continuous with the Maeotis and the Tanais, then, are those inside the Taurus. Of these, the first parts are those between the Caspian Sea and the Euxine Pontus, terminating on one side at the Tanais and the ocean—both the outer ocean and that of the Hyrcanian Sea—and on the other side at the isthmus, where it is shortest from the innermost recess of the Pontus to the Caspian. Then, inside the Taurus, are the parts beyond Hyrcania as far as the country near the Indians and the Scythians who live near the same sea and the Imaus mountain. These territories are occupied partly by the Maeotae and those between Hyrcania and the Pontus as far as the Caucasus, the Iberians, and the Albanians—namely the Sauromatae, Scythians, Achaeans, Zygi, and Heniochi—and partly, beyond the Hyrcanian Sea, by the Scythians, Hyrcanians, Parthians, Bactrians, Sogdians, and the other parts lying above the Indians to the north. To the south of the Hyrcanian Sea in part, and of the whole isthmus between this sea and the Pontus, lies most of Armenia, Colchis, the whole of Cappadocia as far as the Euxine Pontus and the Tibaranic nations, and further the so-called country inside the Halys, which contains, along the Pontus and Propontis, the Paphlagonians, Bithynians, Mysians, and the so-called Phrygia on the Hellespont, of which the Troad also is a part, and along the Aegean and the adjacent sea, Aeolis, Ionia, Caria, and Lycia, and in the interior, Phrygia, of which the so-called Galatia of the Gallograecians and Phrygia Epictetus are parts, as well as the Lycaonians and Lydians.

​Next to those inside the Taurus are the Paropamisadae who occupy the mountains, and the nations of the Parthians, Medes, Armenians, and Cilicians, as well as the Cataonians and Pisidians. After these mountaineers are the parts outside the Taurus. The first of these is India, the greatest and most prosperous of all nations, terminating at both the Eastern Sea and the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. In this southern sea, Taprobane lies in front of India, an island not smaller than Britain. After India, to those who turn toward the west and have the mountains on the right, there is a vast country, poorly inhabited because of its barrenness by people who are utterly barbarian and not of the same race; and they call them Ariani, stretching from the mountains as far as Gedrosia and Carmania. Next, along the sea, are the Persians, Susians, and Babylonians, reaching down to the Persian Sea, and the small nations dwelling around them; and near the mountains or in the mountains themselves, the Parthians, Medes, Armenians, the neighboring nations to these, and Mesopotamia. After Mesopotamia are the parts inside the Euphrates. And these are the whole of Arabia Felix, bounded by both the entire Arabian Gulf and the Persian Gulf, and all the land occupied by the Tent-dwellers and the Phylarchs, who reach down to the Euphrates and Syria; then those beyond the Arabian Gulf as far as the Nile, both Ethiopians and Arabs, and after them the Egyptians, Syrians, and Cilicians—both the others and those called Cilicians of the Rugged Country—and last of all, the Pamphylians.