Geography

​After the mountainous country just mentioned lies the city of Theodosia, having a fertile plain and a harbor suitable even for a hundred ships; and this was formerly the boundary between the land of the Bosporans and that of the Tauri. And the territory next to it is fertile as far as Panticapaeum, the metropolis of the Bosporans, situated at the mouth of the Maeotis. The distance between Theodosia and Panticapaeum is about five hundred and thirty stadia, the whole country being grain-producing, having villages and a city with a good harbor called Nymphaeum. Panticapaeum is a hill inhabited all around in a circle of twenty stadia; on the east it has a harbor and docks for about thirty ships, and it also has an acropolis; it is a foundation of the Milesians. It was ruled as a monarchy for a long time by the dynasts around Leucon, Satyrus, and Pairisades, both this city itself and all the neighboring settlements around the mouth of the Maeotis on both sides, until Pairisades who surrendered the sovereignty to Mithridates. They were called tyrants, although most of them proved to be mild rulers, beginning with Pairisades and Leucon. And Pairisades was even deemed a god; and the last ruler, homonymous with him, being unable to hold out against the barbarians who demanded a greater tribute than before, surrendered the sovereignty to Mithridates Eupator; and from that time the kingdom has been subject to the Romans. Now the greater part of it is in Europe, but a certain part is also in Asia.

​The mouth of the Maeotis is called the Cimmerian Bosporus, and it begins with a greater width of about seventy stadia, at which point people cross over from the places around Panticapaeum to Phanagoria, the nearest city of Asia; and it ends in a much narrower strait. This narrow passage and the river Tanais, which flows directly from the north into both the lake and its mouth, divide Asia from Europe; and the river has two outlets into the lake, which are distant from each other about sixty stadia. There is also a city homonymous with the river, the greatest emporium of the barbarians after Panticapaeum. On the left as one sails into the Cimmerian Bosporus is the small town of Myrmecium, at a distance of twenty stadia from Panticapaeum. At twice this distance from Myrmecium lies the village of Parthenium, where the entrance is narrowest, about twenty stadia, having opposite to it in Asia a village called Achilleum. From here, for one sailing in a straight course to the Tanais and the island at its outlets, the distance is two thousand two hundred stadia, but it slightly exceeds this number for one sailing along the coast of Asia; and it is more than threefold for one sailing on the left as far as the Tanais, along which coasting-voyage the isthmus is also situated. Now this coasting-voyage along Europe is entirely desert, but that on the right is not desert; and the whole circuit of the lake is said to be nine thousand stadia. The great peninsula is like the Peloponnese both in shape and in size. And the rulers of the Bosporus hold it, entirely devastated by the continuous wars. Formerly, the tyrants of the Bosporans held only a small part near the mouth of the Maeotis and Panticapaeum as far as Theodosia, but the Tauri, a Scythian tribe, held most of it as far as the isthmus and the Gulf of Carcinites; and all this country, and almost also that outside the isthmus as far as the Borysthenes, was called Little Scythia; and because of the multitude of those who crossed over from there across both the Tyras and the Ister and colonized the land, not a small part of this also was called Little Scythia, the Thracians yielding partly to force and partly because of the bad quality of the country, for most of it is marshy.