Chap. U.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 23 



and consecrated it to Mars ; here, they say, there were birds 

 that used to attack strangers with blows of their wings. 



CHAP. 14. (13.) NATIONS IN THE VICINITY OF THE SCYTHIAN 



OCEAN. 



Having now stated all that bears reference to the interior 

 of Asia, let us cross in imagination the Biphaean 6 Mountains, 

 and traverse the shores of the ocean to the right. On three 

 sides does this ocean wash the coasts of Asia, as the Scythian 

 Ocean on the north, the Eastern Ocean on the east, and the 

 Indian Ocean on the south ; and it is again divided into 

 various names, derived from the numerous gulfs which it 

 forms, and the nations which dwell upon its shores. A great 

 part of Asia, however, which lies exposed to the north, 

 through the noxious effects of those freezing climates, con- 

 sists of nothing but vast deserts. From the extreme north north - 

 east to the point 7 where the sun rises in the summer, it is 

 the country of the Scythians. Still further than them, and 

 beyond 8 the point where north north-east begins, some writers 

 have placed the Hyperborei, who are said, indeed, by the 

 majority to be a people of Europe. 9 After passing this point, 10 



the Euxine, the two queens of the Amazons, Otrere and Antiope, built a 

 temple in honour of Ares or Mars. It is thought to be the rocky islet 

 called by the Turks Kerasunt Ada, between three and four miles from 

 Kerasunt, the ancient Pharnacea. 



6 It is difficult to say what chain of mountains, if indeed any in particular, 

 he would designate by this name. Parisot remarks that these mountains 

 would seem to belong rather to the region of poetry and fable than of fact, 

 and states that it is pretty clear that the Balkan chain, the districts in 

 which the Danube takes its rise, the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Hercynian 

 mountains, and even the chain of Taurus and Caucasus, have at different 

 times been described or mentioned under the name of Riphrean Mountains. 

 It was evidently Pliny's belief that the great Northern or Scythian Ocean 

 skirted the northern shores of Asia, a little above the latitude perhaps 

 of the northern extremity of the Caspian. In B. iv. c. 26, we find him 

 crossing these, perhaps imaginary, mountains, and then proceeding to the 

 left, along, as he supposes, the extreme northern shores of Europe ; here 

 he seems to start from the same point, but turns to the right, and proceeds 

 along the northern, eastern, and southern shores of Asia. 



7 North-east. 



8 I, e. more to the west. 



9 See B. iv. c. 26. 



10 The extremity of the supposed shores of the HyperboreL 



