Geography

​As for the peninsula, except for the mountainous country along the sea as far as Theodosia, all the rest is flat and fertile, and extremely rich in grain, yielding a thirty-fold return when split by any chance digging-tool. And they paid a tribute of one hundred and eighty thousand medimni of grain to Mithridates, and two hundred talents of silver, together with the Asian places around Sindice. And in former times, the shipments of grain for the Greeks came from here, just as the shipments of cured fish came from the lake. And they say that Leucon sent from Theodosia to the Athenians two million one hundred thousand medimni. These same people were also specifically called “farmers,” because those situated above them were nomads, who subsisted on other meats as well as horse-flesh, and on horse-cheese, milk, and sour milk (and this is also a kind of side-dish prepared for them in some way); wherefore the poet has called all the people in this region “milk-drinkers.” Now the nomads are warriors rather than bandits, and they make war for the sake of tribute. For having permitted those who wish to farm to hold the land, in return for this they are content to receive the appointed moderate tributes, not for wealth but for the daily and necessary needs of life; and if people do not pay, they make war. Thus the poet has called these same men both “just” and “having no livelihood,” since if the tributes were paid regularly, they would not even enter into war. But those who trust in their own power do not pay regularly, so as either to easily repel invaders or to prevent their attack; just as Hypsicrates says Asander did, by walling off the isthmus of the peninsula facing the Maeotis, which was three hundred and sixty stadia in length, and placing towers on it, one for every stadium. On the other hand, the farmers here are considered to be at once more civilized and more political, but being profit-seekers and having contact with the sea, they do not abstain from piracy, nor from such injustices and greedy acts.

​In addition to the places enumerated in the peninsula, there were also the fortresses which Scilurus and his sons built, which they also used as bases of operations against the generals of Mithridates, namely, Palacium, Chabum, and Neapolis; and there was also a certain Eupatorium, founded by Diophantus, the general of Mithridates. There is a cape distant about fifteen stadia from the wall of the Chersonesites, forming a large gulf curving toward the city; and above this lies a lagoon containing salt-works; and here was also Ctenus. Therefore, in order to hold out, the royal forces, when besieged, established a garrison on the said cape, having walled the place off, and they dammed up the mouth of the gulf as far as the city, so that it could easily be crossed on foot and in a way became one city out of both; and as a result of this they more easily repelled the Scythians. And when they also attacked the cross-wall of the isthmus near Ctenus and filled up the trench with reeds, the royal forces set fire by night to the part that had been bridged by day, and held out until they prevailed. And now all is under the kings of the Bosporans, whomsoever the Romans may appoint.

​It is a peculiarity of the whole Scythian and Sarmatian race to castrate their horses for the sake of making them docile; for though they are small, they are very swift and hard to manage. There is hunting of stags and wild boars in the marshes, and of wild asses and gazelles in the plains. It is also a peculiar feature that no eagle is found in these parts. And among the quadrupeds is the so-called “colos,” in size between a stag and a ram, white, swifter in running than they are, which drinks through its nostrils into its head, and then stores up water from there for several days, so that it easily pastures in waterless places. Such is the whole region outside the Ister, between the Rhine and the river Tanais, as far as the Pontic Sea and the Maeotis.