§11.1.5τοῖς δὲ μεταβαίνουσιν ἀπὸ τῆς Εὐρώπης ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν ἐν τῇ γεωγραφίᾳ τὰ πρὸς βορρᾶν ἐστι πρῶτα τῆς εἰς δύο διαιρέσεως, ὥστε ἀπὸ τούτων ἀρκτέον.
For those who pass from Europe to Asia in geographical description, the northern parts are the first of the two divisions, so that one must begin with these.
αὐτῶν δὲ τούτων πρῶτά ἐστι τὰ περὶ τὸν Τάναϊν, ὅνπερ τῆς Εὐρώπης καὶ τῆς Ἀσίας ὅριον ὑπεθέμεθα.
And of these very parts, the first are those around the Tanais, which we assumed to be the boundary between Europe and Asia.
ἔστι δὲ ταῦτα τρόπον τινὰ χερρονησίζοντα· περιέχεται γὰρ ἐκ μὲν τῆς ἑσπέρας τῷ ποταμῷ τῷ Τανάιδι καὶ τῇ Μαιώτιδι μέχρι τοῦ Βοσπόρου καὶ τῆς τοῦ Εὐξείνου παραλίας τῆς τελευτώσης εἰς τὴν Κολχίδα· ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἄρκτων τῷ Ὠκεανῷ μέχρι τοῦ στόματος τῆς Κασπίας θαλάττης· ἕωθεν δὲ αὐτῇ ταύτῃ τῇ θαλάττῃ μέχρι τῶν μεθορίων τῆς τε Ἀλβανίας καὶ τῆς Ἀρμενίας, καθʼ ἃ ὁ Κῦρος καὶ ὁ Ἀράξης ἐκδιδοῦσι ποταμοί, ῥέοντες ὁ μὲν διὰ τῆς Ἀρμενίας Κῦρος δὲ διὰ τῆς Ἰβηρίας καὶ τῆς Ἀλβανίας· ἐκ νότου δὲ τῇ ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκβολῆς τοῦ Κύρου μέχρι τῆς Κολχίδος, ὅσον τρισχιλίων οὔσῃ σταδίων ἀπὸ θαλάττης ἐπὶ θάλατταν, διʼ Ἀλβανῶν καὶ Ἰβήρων, ὥστε ἰσθμοῦ λόγον ἔχειν.
And these areas are in a way peninsular; for on the west they are bounded by the river Tanais and Lake Maeotis as far as the Bosporus and that coast of the Euxine Sea which terminates at Colchis; on the north by the Ocean as far as the mouth of the Caspian Sea; on the east by this very sea as far as the frontiers of Albania and Armenia, where the rivers Cyrus and Araxes empty, the latter flowing through Armenia and the Cyrus through Iberia and Albania; and on the south by the line from the outlet of the Cyrus to Colchis, which is about three thousand stadia from sea to sea, running through the territory of the Albanians and the Iberians, so that it has the character of an isthmus.
οἱ δʼ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον συναγαγόντες τὸν ἰσθμὸν ἐφʼ ὅσον Κλείταρχος, ἐπίκλυστον φήσας ἐξ ἑκατέρου τοῦ πελάγους, οὐδʼ ἂν λόγου ἀξιοῖντο.
But those who contract the isthmus as much as Cleitarchus, who says that it is flooded from each of the two seas, would not even be deemed worthy of mention.
Ποσειδώνιος δὲ χιλίων καὶ πεντακοσίων εἴρηκε τὸν ἰσθμόν, ὅσον καὶ τὸν ἀπὸ Πηλουσίου ἰσθμὸν εἰς τὴν Ἐρυθράν.
Poseidonius, however, says that the isthmus is fifteen hundred stadia, as long as the isthmus from Pelusium to the Red Sea.
δοκῶ δέ
φησί
μὴ πολὺ διαφέρειν μηδὲ τὸν ἀπὸ τῆς Μαιώτιδος εἰς τὸν Ὠκεανόν. §11.1.6οὐκ οἶδα δὲ πῶς ἄν τις περὶ τῶν ἀδήλων αὐτῷ πιστεύσειε μηδὲν εἰκὸς ἔχοντι εἰπεῖν περὶ αὐτῶν, ὅταν περὶ τῶν φανερῶν οὕτω παραλόγως λέγῃ, καὶ ταῦτα φίλος Πομπηίῳ γεγονὼς τῷ στρατεύσαντι ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἴβηρας καὶ τοὺς Ἀλβανοὺς μέχρι τῆς ἐφʼ ἑκάτερα θαλάττης τῆς τε Κασπίας καὶ τῆς Κολχικῆς.
"And I think," he says, "that the one from Lake Maeotis to the Ocean does not differ much from it." But I do not know how anyone could believe him about things that are unknown, when he has nothing plausible to say about them, when he speaks so unreasonably about things that are clear, and that too when he had been a friend of Pompey, who campaigned against the Iberians and the Albanians as far as both seas, both the Caspian and the Colchian.
φασὶ γοῦν ἐν Ῥόδῳ γενόμενον τὸν Πομπήιον, ἡνίκα ἐπὶ τὸν λῃστρικὸν πόλεμον ἐξῆλθεν (εὐθὺς δʼ ἔμελλε καὶ ἐπὶ Μιθριδάτην ὁρμήσειν καὶ τὰ μέχρι τῆς Κασπίας ἔθνη), παρατυχεῖν διαλεγομένῳ τῷ Ποσειδωνίῳ, ἀπιόντα δʼ ἐρέσθαι εἴ τι προστάττει, τὸν δʼ εἰπεῖν
"
αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων. "
προστίθει δὲ τούτοις ὅτι καὶ τὴν ἱστορίαν συνέγραψε τὴν περὶ αὐτόν.
At any rate, they say that when Pompey was in Rhodes, when he went out for the pirate war (and he was immediately about to set out also against Mithridates and the nations as far as the Caspian), he happened to attend a lecture of Poseidonius, and when he was departing, he asked if he had any command, and the latter said: "Always to excel and to be superior to others." And add to this that he also wrote the history about him.
διὰ δὴ ταῦτα ἐχρῆν φροντίσαι τἀληθοῦς πλέον τι.
For these reasons, therefore, he ought to have cared more for the truth.
§11.1.7δεύτερον δʼ ἂν εἴη μέρος τὸ ὑπὲρ τῆς Ὑρκανίας θαλάττης, ἣν Κασπίαν καλοῦμεν, μέχρι τῶν κατʼ Ἰνδοὺς Σκυθῶν.
The second part would be the region above the Hyrcanian Sea, which we call Caspian, as far as the Scythians near India.
τρίτον δὲ μέρος τὸ συνεχὲς τῷ λεχθέντι ἰσθμῷ καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς τούτῳ καὶ ταῖς Κασπίαις πύλαις, τῶν ἐντὸς τοῦ Ταύρου καὶ τῆς Εὐρώπης ἐγγυτάτω· ταῦτα δʼ ἐστὶ Μηδία καὶ Ἀρμενία καὶ Καππαδοκία καὶ τὰ μεταξύ.
And the third part is the region continuous with the aforesaid isthmus and the parts following this and the Caspian Gates, being the closest to Europe of the parts inside the Taurus; and these are Media, Armenia, Cappadocia, and the regions in between.
τέταρτον δʼ ἡ ἐντὸς Ἅλυος γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ Ταύρῳ καὶ ἐκτὸς ὅσα εἰς τὴν χερρόνησον ἐμπίπτει, ἣν ποιεῖ ὁ διείργων ἰσθμὸς τήν τε Ποντικὴν καὶ τὴν Κιλικίαν θάλατταν.
And the fourth part is the land inside the Halys River, and all the parts within the Taurus itself and outside it which fall within the peninsula formed by the isthmus that separates the Pontic Sea and the Cilician Sea.
τῶν δὲ ἄλλων τῶν ἔξω τοῦ Ταύρου τήν τε Ἰνδικὴν τίθεμεν καὶ τὴν Ἀριανὴν μέχρι τῶν ἐθνῶν τῶν καθηκόντων πρός τε τὴν κατὰ Πέρσας θάλατταν καὶ τὸν Ἀράβιον κόλπον καὶ τὸν Νεῖλον καὶ πρὸς τὸ Αἰγύπτιον πέλαγος καὶ τὸ Ἰσσικόν.
Of the other parts outside the Taurus, we place both India and Ariane as far as the nations that extend to the Persian Sea, the Arabian Gulf, the Nile, the Egyptian Sea, and the Gulf of Issus.