river which flows down from the Rhipaeian mountains
and rushes with so swift a current that when the neighboring
streams or Lake Maeotis and the Bosphorus are
frozen fast, it is the only river that is kept warm by the
rugged mountains and is never solidified by the Scythian
cold. It is also famous as the boundary of Asia and
Europe. For the other Tanais is the one which rises in
the mountains of the Chrinni and flows into the Caspian
Sea. The Danaper begins in a great marsh and issues 46
from it as from its mother. It is sweet and fit to drink
as far as half-way down its course. It also produces fish
of a fine flavor and without bones, having only cartilage
as the frame-work of their bodies. But as it approaches
the Pontus it receives a little spring called Exampaeus,
so very bitter that although the river is navigable for the
length of a forty days' voyage, it is so altered by the
water of this scanty stream as to become tainted and
unlike itself, and flows thus tainted into the sea between
the Greek towns of Callipidae and Hypanis. At its mouth
there is an island named Achilles. Between these two
rivers is a vast land filled with forests and treacherous
swamps.

[Sidenote: DEFEAT OF VESOSIS (SESOSTRIS)]

VI This was the region where the Goths dwelt when 47
Vesosis, king of the Egyptians, made war upon them.
Their king at that time was Tanausis. In a battle at the
river Phasis (whence come the birds called pheasants,
which are found in abundance at the banquets of the great