Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 179

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Leaving the Ister, we come to the towns of Cremniscos2811, Æpolium, the mountains of Macrocremnus, and the famous river Tyra2812, which gives name to a town on the spot where Ophiusa is said formerly to have stood. The Tyragetæ inhabit a large island2813 situate in this river, which is distant from Pseudostomos, a mouth of the Ister, so called, 130 miles. We then come to the Axiacæ, who take their name from the river Axiaces2814, and beyond them, the Crobyzi, the river Rhodes2815, the Sagarian Gulf2816, and the port of Ordesos2817. At a distance of 120 miles from the Tyra is the river Borysthenes2818, with a lake and a people of similar name, as also a town2819 in the interior, at a distance of fifteen miles from the sea, the ancient names of which were Olbiopolis and Miletopolis. Again, on the shore is the port of the Achæi, and the island of Achilles2820, famous for the tomb there of that hero, and, at a distance of 125 miles from it, a peninsula which stretches forth in the shape of a sword, in an oblique direction, and is called, from having been his place of exercise, Dromos Achilleos2821: the length of this, according to Agrippa, is eighty miles. The Taurian Scythians and the Siraci2822 occupy all this tract of country.

At this spot begins a well-wooded district2823, which has given to the sea that washes its banks the name of the Hylæan Sea; its inhabitants are called Enœchadlæ2824. Beyond them is the river Panticapes2825, which separates the Nomades2826 and the Georgi, and after it the Acesinus2827. Some authors say that the Panticapes flows into the Borysthenes below Olbia2828. Others, who are more correct, say that it is the Hypanis2829: so great is the mistake made by those who have placed it2830 in Asia.

The sea runs in here and forms a large gulf2831, until there is only an intervening space2832 of five miles between it and the Lake Mæotis, its margin forming the sea-line of extensive tracts of land, and numerous nations; it is known as the Gulf of Carcinites. Here we find the river Pacyris2833, the towns of Navarum and Carcine2834, and behind it Lake Buges2835, which discharges itself by a channel into the sea. This Buges is separated by a ridge of rocks2836 from Coretus, a gulf in the Lake Mæotis; it receives the rivers Buges2837, Gerrus2838, and Hypacaris2839, which approach it from regions that lie in various directions. For the Gerrus separates the Basilidæ from the Nomades, the Hypacaris flows through the Nomades and the Hylæi, by an artificial channel into Lake Buges, and by its natural one into the Gulf of Coretus: this region bears the name of Scythia Sindice.

At the river Carcinites, Scythia Taurica2840 begins, which was once covered by the sea, where we now see level plains extended on every side: beyond this the land rises into mountains of great elevation. The peoples here are thirty in number, of which twenty-three dwell in the interior, six of the cities being inhabited by the Orgocyni, the Characeni2841, the Lagyrani, the Tractari, the Arsilachitæ, and the Caliordi. The Scythotauri possess the range of mountains: on the west they are bounded by the Chersonesus, and on the east by the Scythian Satarchæ2842. On the shore, after we leave Carcinites, we find the following towns; Taphræ2843, situate on the very isthmus of the peninsula, and then Heraclea Chersonesus2844, to which its freedom has been granted2845 by the Romans. This place was formerly called Megarice, being the most polished city throughout all these regions, in consequence of its strict preservation of Grecian manners and customs. A wall, five miles in length, surrounds it. Next to this comes the Promontory of Parthenium2846, the city of the Tauri, Placia, the port of the Symboli2847, and the Promontory of Criumetopon2848, opposite to Carambis2849, a promontory of Asia, which runs out in the middle of the Euxine, leaving an intervening space between them of 170 miles, which circumstance it is in especial that gives to this sea the form of a Scythian bow. After leaving this headland we come to a great number of harbours and lakes of the Tauri2850. The town of Theodosia2851 is distant from Criumetopon 125 miles, and from Chersonesus 165. Beyond it there were, in former times, the towns of Cytæ, Zephyrium, Acræ, Nymphæum, and Dia. Panticapæum2852, a city of the Milesians, by far the strongest of them all, is still in existence; it lies at the entrance of the Bosporus, and is distant from Theodosia eighty-seven miles and a half, and from the town of Cimmerium, which lies on the other side of the Strait, as we have previously2853 stated, two miles and a half. Such is the width here of the channel which separates Asia from Europe, and which too, from being generally quite frozen over, allows of a passage on foot. The width of the Cimmerian Bosporus2854 is twelve miles and a half: it contains the towns of Hermisium2855, Myrmecium, and, in the interior2856 of it, the island of Alopece. From the spot called Taphræ2857, at the extremity of the isthmus, to the mouth of the Bosporus, along the line of the Lake Mæotis, is a distance of 260 miles.

Leaving Taphræ, and going along the mainland, we find in the interior the Auchetæ2858, in whose country the Hypanis has its rise, as also the Neurœ, in whose district the Borysthenes has its source, the Geloni2859, the Thyssagetæ, the Budini, the Basilidæ, and the Agathyrsi2860 with their azure-coloured hair. Above them are the Nomades, and then a nation of Anthropophagi or cannibals. On leaving Lake Buges, above the Lake Mæotis we come to the Sauromatæ and the Essedones2861. Along the coast, as far as the river Tanais2862, are the Mæotæ, from whom the lake derives its name, and the last of all, in the rear of them, the Arimaspi. We then come to the Riphæan2863 mountains, and the region known by the name of Pterophoros2864, because of the perpetual fall of snow there, the flakes of which resemble feathers; a part of the world which has been condemned by the decree of nature to lie immersed in thick darkness; suited for nothing but the generation of cold, and to be the asylum of the chilling blasts of the northern winds.

Behind these mountains, and beyond the region of the northern winds, there dwells, if we choose to believe it, a happy race, known as the Hyperborei2865, a race that lives to an extreme old age, and which has been the subject of many marvellous stories2866. At this spot are supposed to be the hinges upon which the world revolves, and the extreme limits of the revolutions of the stars. Here we find light for six months together, given by the sun in one continuous day, who does not, however, as some ignorant persons have asserted, conceal himself from the vernal equinox2867 to autumn. On the contrary, to these people there is but one rising of the sun for the year, and that at the summer solstice, and but one setting, at the winter solstice. This region, warmed by the rays of the sun, is of a most delightful temperature, and exempt from every noxious blast. The abodes of the natives are the woods and groves; the gods receive their worship singly and in groups, while all discord and every kind of sickness are things utterly unknown. Death comes upon them only when satiated with life; after a career of feasting, in an old age sated with every luxury, they leap from a certain rock there into the sea; and this they deem the most desirable mode of ending existence. Some writers have placed these people, not in Europe, but at the very verge of the shores of Asia, because we find there a people called the Attacori2868, who greatly resemble them and occupy a very similar locality. Other writers again have placed them midway between the two suns, at the spot where it sets to the Antipodes and rises to us; a thing however that cannot possibly be, in consequence of the vast tract of sea which there intervenes. Those writers who place them nowhere2869 but under a day which lasts for six months, state that in the morning they sow, at mid-day they reap, at sunset they gather in the fruits of the trees, and during the night conceal themselves in caves. Nor are we at liberty to entertain any doubts as to the existence of this race; so many authors2870 are there who assert that they were in the habit of sending their first-fruits to Delos to present them to Apollo, whom in especial they worship. Virgins used to carry them, who for many years were held in high veneration, and received the rites of hospitality from the nations that lay on the route; until at last, in consequence of repeated violations of good faith, the Hyperboreans came to the determination to deposit these offerings upon the frontiers of the people who adjoined them, and they in their turn were to convey them on to their neighbours, and so from one to the other, till they should have arrived at Delos. However, this custom, even, in time fell into disuse.

The length of Sarmatia, Scythia, and Taurica, and of the whole of the region which extends from the river Borysthenes, is, according to Agrippa, 980 miles, and its breadth 717. I am of opinion, however, that in this part of the earth all estimates of measurement are exceedingly doubtful.