Histories

Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace runs farther out into the sea than Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia; and Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia begins where a bay is formed in its coast, and the mouth of the Ister, facing southeast, is in that country.

Now I am going to describe the coast of the true Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia from the Ister, and give its measurements. The ancient Scythian land begins at the Ister and faces south and the south wind, as far as the city called Carcinitis.

Beyond this place, the country fronting the same sea is hilly and projects into the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus; it is inhabited by the Tauric nation as far as what is called the Rough Peninsula; and this ends in the eastern sea.[*](Here = the Sea of +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Azov.)

For the sea to the south and the sea to the east are two of the four boundary lines of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia, just as seas are boundaries of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica; and the Tauri inhabit a part of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia like Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica, as though some other people, not Attic, were to inhabit the heights of Sunium from Thoricus to the town of Anaphlystus, if Sunium jutted farther out into the sea.

I mean, so to speak, to compare small things with great. Such a land is the Tauric country. But those who have not sailed along that part of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica may understand from this other analogy: it is as though in +Calabria [16.5,39] (region), Italy, Europe Calabria some other people, not Calabrian, were to live on the promontory within a line drawn from the harbor of +Brindisi [17.95,40.616] (inhabited place), Brindisi, Apulia, Italy, Europe Brundisium to +Taranto [17.216,40.466] (inhabited place), Taranto, Apulia, Italy, Europe Tarentum. I am speaking of these two countries, but there are many others of a similar kind that +Crimea (region (general)), Krym, Ukraine, Europe Tauris resembles.[*](All this is no more than to say that the Tauri live on a promontory (the Tauric Chersonese), which is like the south-eastern promontory of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica (Sunium) or the “heel” of Italy [12.833,42.833] (nation), Europe Italy, i.e. the country east of a line drawn between the modern +Brindisi [17.95,40.616] (inhabited place), Brindisi, Apulia, Italy, Europe Brindisi and +Taranto [17.216,40.466] (inhabited place), Taranto, Apulia, Italy, Europe Taranto. The only difference is, says Herodotus, that the Tauri inhabit a part of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia yet are not Scythians, while the inhabitants of the Attic and Italian promontories are of the same stock as their neighbors.)