Chap. 26.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 331 



from Pseudostomos, a mouth of the Ister, so called, 130 

 miles. We then come to the Axiac», who take their name 

 from the river Axiaces\ and beyond them, the Crobyzi, the 

 river Rhodes^, the Sagarian Gulf ^, and the port of Ordesos*. 

 At a distance of 120 miles from the Tyra is the river Bory- 

 sthenes*, with a lake and a people of similar name, as also 

 a town^ in the interior, at a distance of fifteen miles from the 

 sea, the ancient names of which were Olbiopolis and Mile- 

 topolis. Again, on the shore is the port of the Achaei, and 

 the island of Achilles^, famous for the tomb there of that 

 hero, and, at a distance of 125 miles from it, a peninsula 

 which stretches forth in the shape of a sword, in an oblique 

 direction, and is called, from having been his place of exercise, 

 Dromos Achilleos^ : the length of this, according to Agrippa, 

 is eighty miles.' The Taurian Scythians and the Siraci* 

 occupy all this tract of country. 

 At this spot begins a well- wooded district^®, which has 



^ Now called the Tchgul, east of the Tyra or Dniester. 



* Now called Sasik Beregen, according to Brotier. 



s The modem Gulf of Berezen, accorchng to Brotier. 



* Probably the modem Okzakow. 



* The modem Dnieper. It also retains its ancient name of Borysthenes. 



* We leam from Strabo that the name of this town was Olbia, and 

 that from being founded by the Milesians, it received the name of Mile- 

 topolis. According to Brotier, the modem Zapurouski occupies its site, 

 between the mouths of the river Buzulvik. 



7 This was adjacent to the strip of land called " Dromos AchiUeos," or 

 the * race-course of Achilles.' It is identified by geographers with the 

 little island of Zmievoi or Oulan Adassi, the ' Serpents Island.' It was 

 said that it was to this spot that Thetis transported the body of Achilles. 

 By some it was made the abode of the shades of the blest, where Achilles 

 and other heroes of fable were the judges of the dead. 



* A narrow strip of land N.W. of the Crimea and south of the mouth 

 of the Dnieper, running nearly due west and east. It is now divided 

 into two parts called Kosa Tendra and £osa Djarilgatch. Achilles was 

 said to have instituted games here. 



^ According to Hardouin, the Siraci occupied a portion of the present 

 PodoHa and Ukraine, and the Tauri the modem Bessarabia. 



^^ According to Herodotus, this region, called Hylsea, lay to the east of 

 the Borysthenes. It seems uncertain whether there are now any traces 

 of tliis ancient woodland ; some of the old maps however give the name 

 of the " Black Forest " to tliis district. From the statements of modem 

 travellers, the woody country does not commence till the river Don has 

 been reached. The district of Hylaea has been identified by geographers 

 with the great plain of Janboylouk in the steppe of the Nogai. 



