Histories

Herodotus

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

For when men have no established cities or forts, but are all nomads and mounted archers, not living by tilling the soil but by raising cattle and carrying their dwellings on wagons, how can they not be invincible and unapproachable?

They have made this discovery in a land that suits their purpose and has rivers that are their allies; for their country is flat and grassy and well-watered, and rivers run through it not very many fewer in number than the canals of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt.

As many of them as are famous and can be entered from the sea, I shall name. There is the Ister, which has five mouths, and the +Dnestr (river), Europe Tyras, and Hypanis, and +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes, and Panticapes, and Hypacuris, and Gerrhus, and +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Tanaïs. Their courses are as I shall indicate.