BOOK IV. XII. 85-58 



the east by the Satauci Scythians. The toA^-ns on the 

 coast after Carcine are Taphrae at the actual neck 

 of the pcninsula, and then tlie Heraclean Peninsula, 

 a place on which Rome has recently bestowed 

 freedom ; it was formerly called Megarice, and is 

 the most highly cultured community in all this 

 region owing to its having preserved the manners of 

 Greece ; it is encircled by a wall measuring five miles. 

 Then come the Virgin's Cape, Placia a citv of the 

 Tauri, the port of Balaklava, Ram's Head Cape," 

 jutting out into the middle of the Black Sea opposite 

 to Cape Kerempi in Asia with a space bctween them 

 of 170 miles, which is chiefly the reason that produees 

 the shape of a Scythian bow.* After this come a 

 number of harbours and lakes belonging to the 

 Tauri. The town of Theodosia is 125 miles from 

 Ram's Head and 1G5 from the Peninsula. Beyond it 

 there were in former times the towns of Cytae, 

 Zephyrium, Acrae, Nymphaeum and Dia; while by 

 far the strongest of them all, the Milesian city of 

 Kertsch, at the actual mouth of the Straits, still 

 stands ; it is 87^ miles from Theodosia and 2| miles, 

 as we have said, from the town of Cimmerium situated 

 across the Straits — this is the width that here separ- 

 ates Asia from Europe, and even this can usually be 

 crossed on foot when the Gulf is frozen over. On 

 the Straits of Kertsch, the length of which is 12^ 

 miles, are the towns of Hermisium and Myrmecium, 

 and inside the Straits is the island of Alopece. 

 The coast of the Sea of Azov, from the place called 

 Taphrae at the end of the isthmus to the mouth of 

 the Straits of Kertsch measures altogether 260 miles. 

 After Taphrae, the interior of the mainland is 

 occupied by the Auchetai and the Neuroi, in whose 



185 



