surrender. Here they ruled for some time and even
founded cities and camps bearing their name. At Ephesus
also they built a very costly and beautiful temple for
Diana, because of her delight in archery and the chase--arts
to which they were themselves devoted. Then these 52
Scythian-born women, who had by such a chance gained
control over the kingdoms of Asia, held them for almost
a hundred years, and at last came back to their own kinsfolk
in the Marpesian rocks I have mentioned above,
namely the Caucasus mountains.

[Sidenote: THE CAUCASUS]

Inasmuch as I have twice mentioned this mountain-range,
I think it not out of place to describe its extent and
situation, for, as is well known, it encompasses a great
part of the earth with its continuous chain. Beginning 53
at the Indian Ocean, where it faces the south it is warm,
giving off vapor in the sun; where it lies open to the
north it is exposed to chill winds and frost. Then bending
back into Syria with a curving turn, it not only sends
forth many other streams, but pours from its plenteous
breasts into the Vasianensian region the Euphrates and
the Tigris, navigable rivers famed for their unfailing
springs. These rivers surround the land of the Syrians
and cause it to be called Mesopotamia, as it truly is. Their
waters empty into the bosom of the Red Sea. Then turning 54
back to the north, the range I have spoken of passes
with great bends through the Scythian lands. There it
sends forth very famous rivers into the Caspian Sea--the