V Now Scythia borders on the land of Germany as 30
far as the source of the river Ister and the expanse of the
Morsian Swamp. It reaches even to the rivers Tyra,
Danaster and Vagosola, and the great Danaper, extending
to the Taurus range--not the mountains in Asia but
our own, that is, the Scythian Taurus--all the way to
Lake Maeotis. Beyond Lake Maeotis it spreads on the
other side of the straits of Bosphorus to the Caucasus
Mountains and the river Araxes. Then it bends back to
the left behind the Caspian Sea, which comes from the
north-eastern ocean in the most distant parts of Asia, and
so is formed like a mushroom, at first narrow and then
broad and round in shape. It extends as far as the Huns,
Albani and Seres. This land, I say,--namely, Scythia, 31
stretching far and spreading wide,--has on the east the
Seres, a race that dwelt at the very beginning of their
history on the shore of the Caspian Sea. On the west are
the Germans and the river Vistula; on the arctic side,
namely the north, it is surrounded by Ocean; on the south
by Persis, Albania, Hiberia, Pontus and the farthest
channel of the Ister, which is called the Danube all the
way from mouth to source. But in that region where 32
Scythia touches the Pontic coast it is dotted with towns
of no mean fame:--Borysthenis, Olbia, Callipolis, Cherson,
Theodosia, Careon, Myrmicion and Trapezus. These
towns the wild Scythian tribes allowed the Greeks to build
to afford them means of trade. In the midst of Scythia is
the place that separates Asia and Europe, I mean the
Rhipaeian mountains, from which the mighty Tanais
flows. This river enters Maeotis, a marsh having a circuit