Chap. 26.] ACCOITNT OP COrXTBIES, ETC. 335 



The widtli of the Cimmerian Bosporus^ is twelve miles and 

 a half: it contains the towns of Hermisium'^, Myrmecium, 

 and, in the interior^ of it, the island of Alopece. From the 

 spot called Taphra^"*, at the extremity of the isthmus, to the 

 mouth of the Bosporus, along the line of the Lake Mseotis, 

 is a distance of 260 miles. 



Leaving Taphrae, and going along the mainland, we find 

 in the interior the Auchetae^, in whose country the Hypanis 

 has its rise, as also the jN^euroe, in whose district the Bory- 

 sthenes has its source, theGreloni^,theThyssagetae,theBudini, 

 the Basilida?, and the Agathyrsi''^ with their azure-coloured 

 hair. Above them are the Nomades, and then a nation of 

 Anthropophagi or cannibals. On lea^ang Lake Buges, above 

 the Lake Mjcotis we come to the Sauromata? and the Esse- 

 dones'. Along the coast, as far as the river Tanais^, are 



^ He alludes here, not to the Strait so called, but to the Peninsula 

 bordering upon it, upon wliich the modern town of Kertscli is situate, 

 and which projects £i*om the larger Peninsula of the Crimea, as a sort of 

 excrescence on its eastern side. 



2 Probably Heniies or Mercury was its tutelar divinity : its site 

 appears to be unknown. 



3 Probably meaning the Straits or passage connecting the Lake Mseotis 

 with the Euxine. The fertile district of the Cimmerian Bosporus was 

 at one time the granary of Greece, especially Athens, wliich imported 

 thence annually 400,000 medimni of com. 



^ A town so called on the Isthmus of Perckop, from a Td<ppos or 

 trench, which was cut across the isthmus at this point. 



^ Lomonossov, in his History of Russia, says that these people were 

 the same as the Sclaroni : but that one meaning of the name 'Slavane' 

 being " a boaster," the Greeks gave them tlie corresponding appellation 

 of Auchetoe, fi-om the word avxt), wliich signifies "boasting." 



6 Of the Geloni, called by Virgil "picti," or "painted," nothing cer- 

 tain seems to be known : they are associated by Herodotus with the 

 Eudini, supposed to belong to the Slavic family by Scbafarik. In B. iv. 

 c. 108, 109, of his History, Herodotus gives a very particular account of 

 theBudini, who had a city built entirely of wood, the name of which was 

 Gelonus. The same autlior also assigns to the Geloni a Greek origin. 



' The Agathyrsi are placed by Herodotus near the upper course of the 

 river Maris, in the S.E. of Dacia or the modem IVansylvania. Phny 

 however seems here to assign them a dillerent locality. 



^ Also called "Assedones" and " Issedones." It has been suggested by 

 modem geogra]ihers that their locality must be assigned to the east of 

 Ichim, on tlie steppe of the central horde of the Kirghiz, and that of the 

 Arima>pi on the northern dccUvity of the chain of the Altai. 



^ Kow the Don. 



