Histories

As for the region which lies north of this country, none can tell with certainty what men dwell there, but what lies beyond the Ister is a desolate and infinitely large tract of land. I can learn of no men dwelling beyond the Ister save certain that are called Sigynnae and wear Median dress.

Their horses are said to be covered all over with shaggy hair[*](Strabo says much the same of the Sigynni, according to him a Caucasian tribe.) five fingers' breadth long, and to be small, blunt-nosed, and unable to bear men on their backs, but very swift when yoked to chariots. It is for this reason that driving chariots is the usage of the country. These men's borders, it is said, reach almost as far as the Eneti on the +Adriatic Sea [16,43] (sea), Europe Adriatic Sea.

They call themselves colonists from Media. How this has come about I myself cannot understand, but all is possible in the long passage of time. However that may be, we know that the Ligyes who dwell inland of +Marseilles [5.366,43.3] (inhabited place), Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France, Europe Massalia use the word “sigynnae” for hucksters, and the Cyprians use it for spears.