Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 278

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The river Iris brings down to the sea the waters of the Lycus. In the interior is the city of Ziela,66 famous for the defeat of Triarius67 and the victory of C. Cæsar.68 Upon the coast there is the river Thermodon, which rises at the fortified place called Phanarœa,69 and flows past the foot of Mount Amazonius.70 There was formerly a town of the same name as the river, and five others in all, Amazonium, Themiscyra, Sotira, Amasia, and Comana,71 now only a Manteium. (4.) We find here the nations of the Genetæ,72 the Chalybes,73 the town of Cotyorum,74 the nations of the Tibareni and the Mossyni, who make marks upon their bodies,75 the people called Macrocephali,76 the town of Cerasus,77 the port of Chordule, the nations called the Bechires78 and the Buzeri, the river Melas,79 the people called the Macrones, and Sidene with its river Sidenus,80 by which the town of Polemonium81 is washed, at a distance from Amisus of one hundred and twenty miles. We next come to the rivers Iasonius82 and Melanthius,83 and, at a distance of eighty miles from Amisus, the town of Pharnacea,84 the fortress and river of Tripolis;85 the fortress and river of Philocalia, the fortress of Liviopolis, but not upon a river, and, at a distance of one hundred miles from Pharnacea, the free city of Trapezus,86 shut in by a mountain of vast size. Beyond this town is the nation of the Armenochalybes87 and the Greater Armenia, at a distance of thirty miles. On the coast, before Trapezus, flows the river Pyxites, and beyond it is the nation of the Sanni88 Heniochi. Next comes the river Absarus,89 with a fortress of the same name at its mouth, distant from Trapezus one hundred and forty miles.

At the back of the mountains of this district is Iberia, while on the coast are the Heniochi, the Ampreutæ,90 the Lazi, the rivers Acampsis,91 Isis,92 Mogrus, and Bathys,93 the nations of the Colchi, the town of Matium,94 the river Heracleum and the promontory of the same name,95 and the Phasis,96 the most celebrated river of Pontus. This river rises among the Moschi, and is navigable for the largest vessels a distance of thirty-eight miles and a half, and for small ones very much higher up; it is crossed by one hundred and twenty bridges. It formerly had many cities of note on its banks, the more famous of which were Tyndaris, Circæum, Cygnus, and Phasis97 at its mouth. But the most celebrated of them all was Æa, fifteen miles98 distant from the sea, where the Hippos and the Cyaneos,99 rivers of vast size, flow into it from opposite directions. At the present day its only place of note is Surium, which derives its name from the river which flows at that spot into the Phasis, and up to which place the Phasis is navigable for large vessels, as we have already100 mentioned. It receives also some other rivers, wonderful for their number and magnitude, and among them the Glaucus.101 At the mouth of the Phasis, at a distance of seventy miles from Absarus, are some islands, which, however, have no name. After passing this, we come to another river, the Charieis,102 and the nation of the Salæ, by the ancients called Phthirophagi,103 as also Suani.104 The river Chobus105 flows from the Caucasus through the country of the Suani. The river Rhoas comes next, then the region of Ecrectice, the rivers Singames,106 Tarsuras,107 Astelephus,108 Chrysorrhoas, the nation of the Absilæ, the castle of Sebastopolis,109 one hundred miles distant from Phasis, the nation of the Sannigæ, the town of Cygnus,110 and the river and town of Penius.111 We then come to the tribes of the Heniochi,112 who are distinguished by numerous names.