Res Gestae

Behind these dwell the inhabitants of the Cimmercian Bosporus, where Milesian cities are, and Panticapaeum, the mother, so to speak, of all; this the river Hypanis washes, swollen with its own and tributary waters.

Next, at a considerable distance, are the Amazons, who extend to the Caspian Sea and live about the Tanaïs,[*](To-day the Don.) which rises among the crags of Caucasus, flows in a course

Near this is the river Ra,[*](Now the Volga.) on whose banks grows a plant of the same name, the root of which is used for many medicinal purposes.[*](Rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum, Linnaeus), the vegetable radix Pontica (Celsus, v. 23, 3); the drug is made from Chinese rhubarbs.)

Beyond the Tanais the Sauromatae have a territory of wide extent, through which flow the never - failing rivers Maraccus, Rombites, Theophanes and Totordanes. However, there is also another nation of the Sauromatae, an enormous distance away, extending along the shore which receives the river Corax and pours it far out into the Euxine Sea.

Nearby is the Maeotic Gulf[*](The Sea of Azov.) of wide circuit, from whose abundant springs a great body of water bursts through the narrows of Panticapes into the Pontus. On its right side are the islands Phanagorus and Hermonassa, founded by the industry of the Greeks.

Around these farthest and most distant marshes live numerous nations, differing in the variety of their languages and customs: the Ixomatae, Maeotae, Iazyges, Roxolani, Halani, Melanchlaenae, and with the Geloni, the Agathyrsi, in whose country an abundance of the stone called adamant[*](adamas,untamable,unbreakable is variously applied to a kind of steel, and to diamonds and like stones.) is found; and farther beyond are other peoples, who are wholly unknown, since they are the remotest of all men.

But near the left side of the Maeotis is the Cherronesus,[*](The Crimea. The colonies were from Miletus.) full of Greek colonies. Hence the inhabitants are quiet and

At no great distance from these are the Tauri, divided into various kingdoms, among whom the Arichi, the Sinchi, and the Napaei are terrible for their ruthless cruelty, and since long continued license has increased their savageness, they have given the sea the name of Inhospitable; but in irony[*](The principle is probably irony in some cases, but in the case of the Furies it appears to be euphemism. Sometimes we have neither; cf. Plutarch, De Curios. 12, who says that some of the Greeks call night εὐφρόνη (kindly), because it brings good and salutary resolves; others, because it invites gaiety or refreshes the body.) it is called by the contrary name of Pontus εὔξεινος,[*](Hospitable. Cf. Ovid, Tristia, iv. 4, 55 f., frigida me cohibent Euxini litora Ponti, dictus ab antiquis Axenus (inhospitable) ille fuit. ) just as we Greeks call a fool εὐήθης, and night εὐφρόνη, and the Furies εὐμενίδες.[*](εὐήθης,Good-natured,εὐφρόνη,the well-wisher, and εὐμενίδες, kindly goddesses. There seem to be varying motives here; see note 1.)