Geography

​Then there is the Borysthenes River, navigable for six hundred stadia, and near it another river, the Hypanis, and an island in front of the mouth of the Borysthenes having a harbor. For one who has sailed up the Borysthenes two hundred stadia, there is a city homonymous with the river; and this same city is also called Olbia, a great emporium, a foundation of the Milesians. And the whole country lying above the said territory between the Borysthenes and the Ister is, first, the desert of the Getae, then the Tyregetae, after whom are the Sarmatian Iazyges and those called the Royal Sarmatians and the Urgi, for the most part nomads, though a few also pay attention to agriculture; people say that these also dwell along the Ister, often on both sides. In the interior, the Bastarnae border on the Tyregetae and the Germans, being themselves also almost of the Germanic race, divided into several tribes. For some are called Atmonoi and others Sidones, while those who occupied Peuce, the island in the Ister, are called Peucini, and the Roxolani are the most northerly, inhabiting the plains between the Tanais and the Borysthenes. For the entire northern country from Germany as far as the Caspian is a plain, so far as we know; but whether any people dwell beyond the Roxolani, we do not know. And the Roxolani used to fight even against the generals of Mithridates Eupator, having Tasios as their leader; they came to fight as allies with Palacus the son of Scilurus, and they were thought to be warlike, but indeed against a well-ordered and well-armed phalanx, every barbarian tribe and light-armed force is weak. At any rate, they, being about fifty thousand, did not hold out against the six thousand drawn up under Diophantus, the general of Mithridates, but most of them were destroyed. And they use helmets and breastplates of raw ox-hide, carrying wicker shields, and having as defensive weapons spears, a bow, and a sword; and most of the others are also like this. And the tents of the nomads are made of felt and fixed on their wagons, in which they live; and around the tents are their herds, from which they get sustenance of milk, cheese, and meat; and they follow the pastures, always moving to places that have grass, in winter in the marshes around the Maeotis, and in summer in the plains too.

​And the whole country is extremely cold in winter as far as the places on the sea between the Borysthenes and the mouth of the Maeotis; and of these coastal places, the most northerly are the mouth of the Maeotis and, even more than the mouth of the Borysthenes, the innermost part of the Gulf of Tamyraces, and that of Carcinites, where the isthmus of the great peninsula is. And the cold is manifest, although they live in plains; for they do not breed asses (for the animal is sensitive to cold), and of the oxen some are born hornless, while the horns of others have their horns filed off (for this part too is sensitive to cold), and the horses are small, but the sheep are large; and bronze water-jars burst, and their contents freeze solid. And the severity of the frost is most obvious from what happens around the mouth of the Maeotis. For the crossing to Phanagoria from Panticapaeum is made on wagons, so that it is both a voyage and a road; and they say that Neoptolemus, the general of Mithridates, overcame the barbarians in the same strait with a sea-fight in summer, and with a cavalry battle in winter. And fish are dug up, which have been caught in the ice, by means of the net called gangame, especially the antacaei, which are almost equal to dolphins in size. And they say that even the vine in the Bosporus is buried in winter, people heaping much earth upon it. And it is said that the heat also becomes severe, perhaps because their bodies are unaccustomed to it, or perhaps because the plains are windless at that time, or because the density of the air is heated more, just as parhelia do in the clouds. And Ateas seems to have ruled over most of the barbarians in this region, who fought against Philip the son of Amyntas.

​And after the island in front of the Borysthenes, sailing next towards the rising sun, one comes to the cape of the Course of Achilles, a place bare of trees but called a sacred grove, sacred to Achilles; then the Course of Achilles, a peninsula stretching into the sea; for it is a strip of land about one thousand stadia in length towards the east, and its greatest width is two stadia, and its least is four plethra, distant sixty stadia from the mainland on either side of the neck, sandy, and having water that can be dug up; and in the middle is the neck of the isthmus, about forty stadia; and it terminates at a cape which they call Tamyrace, having an anchorage looking towards the mainland; after which is the Gulf of Carcinites, of great size, reaching northwards about one thousand stadia, though some say even three times as far to its innermost part; and the inhabitants are called Taphrii. And they call the gulf also Tamyraces, homonymously with the cape.