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though sent for that very purpose; but dreading the length of the voyage and the desolation, returned home and did not accomplish the task which his mother imposed upon him: for he had violated a virgin, daughter of Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus; whereupon, when he was about to be impaled for this offence by king Xerxes, the mother of Sataspes, who was sister to Darius, begged him off, promising that she would inflict a greater punishment upon him than he would, for, she would constrain him to sail round Libya, until, sailing round, he should reach the Arabian Gulf. Xerxes having agreed on these terms, Sataspes went into Egypt, and having taken a ship and men from thence, sailed through the pillars of Hercules; and having sailed through, and doubled the cape of Libya, whose name is Solois, he steered to the southward: but after traversing a vast extent of sea in many months, when he found that he had still more to pass, he turned back and sailed away for Egypt. From thence going to king Xerxes, he told him, that in the most distant part he sailed past a nation of little men, who wore garments made of palm leaves, who, whenever they drew to shore, left their cities and flew to the mountains; that his men, when they entered their country, did them no injury, but only took some cattle from them. Of his not sailing completely round Libya, this he said was the cause; that his ship could not proceed any farther, but was stopped. Xerxes, however, being persuaded that he did not speak the truth, as he had not accomplished the task imposed upon him, impaled him, inflicting the original sentence. A eunuch of this Sataspes, as soon as he heard of his master's death, ran away to Samos with great wealth, which a Samian detained though I know his name, I purposely conceal it.

44. A great part of Asia was explored under the direction of Darius. He being desirous to know in what part the Indus, which is the second river that produces crocodiles, discharges itself into the sea, sent in ships both others on whom he could rely to make a true report, and also Scylax of Caryanda. They accordingly, setting out from the city of Caspatyrus and the country of Pactyice, sailed down the river towards the east and sunrise to the sea; then sailing on the sea westward, they arrived in the thirtieth month at that place where the king of Egypt despatched the Phoenicians, whom I before mentioned, to sail round Libya. After these persons had sailed round, Darius

subdued the Indians, and frequented this sea. Thus the other parts of Asia, except towards the rising sun, are found to exhibit things similar to Libya.

45. Whether Europe is surrounded by water either towards the east or towards the north, has not been fully discovered by any man; but in length it is known to extend beyond both the other continents. Nor can I conjecture for what reason three different names have been given to the earth, which is but one, and those derived from the names of women; nor why the Egyptian river Nile and the Colchian Phasis have been assigned as boundaries to it; (some say, the Mæotian river Tanais, and the Cimmerian Porthmeia ;) nor can I learn the names of those who made this division, nor from whence they derived the appellations. Libya is said by most of the Greeks to take its name from a native woman of the name of Libya ; and Asia, from the wife of Prometheus. But the Lydians claim this name, saying that Asia was so called after Asius, son of Cotys, son of Manes, and not after Asia the wife of Prometheus; from whom also a tribe in Sardis is called the Asian tribe. Whether Europe, then, is surrounded by water is known by no man; nor is it clear whence it received this name, nor who gave it, unless we will say that the region received the name from the Tyrian Europa, but was before without a name, like the others: yet she evidently belonged to Asia, and never came into that country which is now called Europe by the Grecians; but only passed from Phoenicia to Crete, and from Crete to Lycia. Thus much may suffice for this subject, for we shall adopt the names in common use.

46. The Euxine Sea, to which Darius led an army of all countries, except the Scythians, exhibits the most ignorant nations for we are unable to mention any one nation of those on this side the Pontus that has any pretensions to intelligence; nor have we ever heard of any learned man among them, except the Scythian nation and Anacharsis. By the Scythian nation one the most important of human devices has been contrived more wisely than by any others whom we know; their other customs however I do not admire. This most important device has been so contrived, that no one who attacks them can escape; and that, if they do not choose to be found, no one is able to overtake them. For they, who have neither cities nor fortifications, but carry their houses with them, who are

all equesterian archers, living not from the cultivation of the earth, but from cattle, and whose dwellings are waggons,how must not such a people be invincible, and difficult to engage with? 47. This device has been contrived by them, as the country is fit for it, and the rivers aid them for the country, being level, abounds in herbage and is well watered; and rivers flow through it almost as numerous as the canals in Egypt. Such of them as are celebrated and navigable from the sea I will mention: the Ister, that has five mouths; then the Tyres, the Hypanis, the Borysthenes, the Panticapes, the Hypacyris, the Gerrhus, and the Tanais. These flow as follows.

48. The Ister, which is the greatest of all the rivers we know, flows always with an equal stream both in summer and winter. Flowing the first of those in Scythia from the west, it is on this account the greatest, because other rivers discharge themselves into it. The following are those that make it great: there are five that flow through Scythia; one which the Scythians call Porata, but the Grecians Pyretos; another the Tiarantus, then the Aratus, the Naparis, and the Ordessus. The first mentioned of these rivers is large, and flowing towards the east, communicates its water with the Ister; that mentioned second, the Tiarantus, is more to the west and less ; the Aratus, the Naparis, and Ordessus, passing between these, fall likewise into the Ister. These indigenous Scythian. rivers assist in filling it. 49. The river Maris, flowing from the Agathyrsi, mingles with the Ister. From the summits of Mount Hamus three other large rivers, flowing towards the north, empty themselves into it, the Atlas, the Auras, and the Tibisis: the Athres, the Noes, and the Atarnes, flowing through Thrace and the Thracian Crobyzi, discharge themselves into the Ister; and from the Pæonians and Mount Rhodope, the river Scios, dividing the Hamus in the middle, discharges itself into it. And the river Angrus, flowing from the Illyrians towards the north, empties itself into the Triballic plain and into the river Brongus, and the Brongus into the Ister; thus the Ister receives both these, which are considerable. From the country above the Umbrici, the river Carpis and another river, Alpis, flowing towards the north, also discharge themselves into it. For the Ister flows through all Europe, beginning from the Celts, who, next to the Cynetæ,&

8 See B. II. chap. 33.

8

inhabit the remotest parts of Europe towards the west; and flowing through all Europe, enters the borders of Scythia. 50. By these, then, that have been mentioned, and many other rivers that contribute their waters, the Ister becomes the greatest of all rivers. For if we compare one stream with another, the Nile surpasses in quantity; for into this no river or fountain discharging itself contributes to its increase. But the Ister always flows equal in summer and in winter, for the following reason, as I think: during the winter it is about as large as it usually is, and perhaps a little larger; for this country is very little moistened by rain during the winter, but is entirely covered with snow in the summer, the snow that fell in the winter in vast quantities, dissolving on all sides, flows into the Ister; and this snow flowing into it assists in filling it, and frequent and violent rains besides; for it rains much in summer. By how much therefore the sun draws up to himself more water in summer than in winter, by so much the waters mingled with the Ister are greater in summer than in winter; and these things therefore being opposed, an equilibrium results, so that it is always found to be equal.

51. One of the rivers, then, of the Scythians is the Ister after this is the Tyres, which proceeds from the north, and begins flowing from a vast lake, which separates Scythia and Neuris. At its mouth are settled Grecians, who are called Tyritæ. 52. The third river, the Hypanis, proceeds from Scythia and flows from a vast lake, around which wild white horses graze. This lake is rightly called the mother of the Hypanis. The river Hypanis, then, rising from this, is small and still sweet for a five days' voyage, but from thence, for a four days' voyage to the sea, it is exceedingly bitter; for a bitter fountain discharges itself into it, which is so very bitter, though small in size, that it taints the Hypanis, which is a considerable river amongst small ones. This fountain is on the borders of the territory of the Scythian husbandmen and the Alazones; the name of the fountain, and of the district whence it flows, is, in the Scythian language, Exampæus, but in the language of the Greeks, "The sacred ways.” The Tyres and Hypanis contract their boundaries in the country of the Alazones; but after that, each turning away, flows on widening the intermediate space.

53. The fourth is the river Borysthenes, which is the

largest of these after the Ister, and, in my opinion, the most productive, not only of the Scythian rivers, but of all others, except the Egyptian Nile; for to this it is impossible to compare any other river, but of the rest the Borysthenes is the most productive. It affords the most excellent and valuable pasture for cattle, and fish of the highest excellence and in great quantities; it is most sweet to drink; it flows pure in the midst of turbid rivers; the sown land near it is of the best quality; and the herbage, where the land is not sown, is very tall; at its mouth abundance of salt is crystallized spontaneously; and it produces large whales, without any spinal bones, which they call Antacæi, fit for salting, and many other things that deserve admiration. As far as the country of Gerrhus, a voyage of forty days, this river is known to flow from the north; but above that, through what people it flows no one is able to tell: but it evidently flows through a desert to the country of the agricultural Scythians; for these Scythians dwell near it for the space of a ten days' voyage. Of this river only, and of the Nile, I am unable to describe the sources; and I think that no Greek can do so. The Borysthenes continues flowing near the sea, and the Hypanis mingles with it, discharging itself into the same morass. The space between these rivers, which is a projecting piece of land, is called the promontory of Hippoleon, and in it a temple of Ceres is built; beyond the temple on the Hypanis the Borysthenitæ are settled. Thus much concerning these rivers.

54. After these is the fifth river, the name of which is the Panticapes; this also flows from the north, and out of a lake; and between this and the Borysthenes dwell the agricultural Scythians; it discharges itself into Hylæa, and having passed through that region, mingles with the Borysthenes. 55. The Hypacyris is the sixth river, which proceeds from a lake, and flowing through the middle of the Scythian nomades, discharges itself near the city Carcinitis, skirting Hylæa on the right, and that which is called the Course of Achilles. The seventh river, the Gerrhus, is separated from the Borysthenes near the place at which the Borysthenes is first known. It is separated then from this very spot, and has the same name as the country, Gerrhus; and flowing towards the sea, it divides the territory of the Nomadic and the Royal Scy

56.

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