PLINY: NATURAL IIISTORY 



Arconesus, Diethusa, Ascapos, Capheris, Mesate, 

 Aeantion, Patcronnesos, Patcria, Calathe, Neriphus, 

 Pclcndos. 



75 Quartus e magnis Europae sinus ab Hellesponto 

 incipiens Maeotis ostio finitur. sed totius Ponti 

 forma breviter conplectcnda est, ut faciUus partcs 

 noscantur. vastum mare praeiacens Asiae et ab 

 Euro])a porrecto Cherronesi Htore expulsum an- 

 gusto mcatu inrumpit in terras, vii stadiorum, ut 

 dictum est, inter\allo Europam auferens Asiae. 

 primas angustias Hellespontum vocant ; hac Xcrxes 

 Persarum rcx constrato in naxdbus ponte duxit exer- 

 citum. porrigitur deinde tenuis euripus lxxxvi 

 spatio ad Priapum urbem Asiac, qua Magnus 



70 Alexander transcendit. inde exspatiatur aequor 

 rursusque in artum coit. laxitas Propontis appellatur, 

 angustiae Thracius Bosporus, latitudine quingen- 

 torum passuum qua Darius pater Xcrxis copias ponte 

 transvexit ; tota ab Hellesponto longitudo ccxxxix. 



Dein vastum mare Pontus iMixinus, qui quondam 

 Axenus, longe refugientes occupat terras magnoque 

 litorum flexu retro curvatus in cornua ab his utrim- 

 que porrigitur, ut sit plane arcus Scythici forma. 

 medio flcxu iungitur ostio Macotii lacus ; Ciinnierius 

 Bosporus id os vocatur, u quingentos passus hititu- 



77 dine. at inter duos Bosporos Thracium et Cim- 



" Tbe Inhospitable Sea (c/. VI. I), so describcd aa being 

 stomiy, cold and witliout the shcltcr of islands on which Greek 

 navigators wcrc accustonicd to rcly ; but the oniinous name 

 was euphemisticaUy altered into Euxine, ' Hospitaljle.' 



* Shaped in two curves mecting in an angle at the middle. 

 This describes the north coast of the Black Sea, tho central 

 projcction being the Thracian Chcrsonese, the Crimea. The 

 more or less straight south coast ia the bowstring. 



174 



