Histories

Herodotus

Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).

But to the east of these farming Scythians, across the Panticapes river, you are in the land of nomadic Scythians, who plant nothing, nor plough; and all these lands except the Woodlands are bare of trees. These nomads inhabit a country to the east that stretches fourteen days' journey to the Gerrus river.[*](Not identified.)

Across the Gerrus are those lands called Royal, where the best and most numerous of the Scythians are, who consider all other Scythians their slaves; their territory stretches south to the Tauric land, and east to the trench that was dug by the sons of the blind men, and to the port called The Cliffs [*](Apparently on the west coast of the Sea of +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Azov; cp. Hdt. 4.110.) on the Maeetian lake; and part of it stretches to the +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Tanaïs river.

North of the Royal Scythians live the Blackcloaks, who are of another and not a Scythian stock; and beyond the Blackcloaks the land is all marshes and uninhabited by men, so far as we know.