22 PLINX'S NATTJEAL HISTOET. [Book VI. 



of gates; tHey are just opposite to Harmastis, a town of the 

 Iberi. 



Beyond the Gates of Caucasus, in the Gordysean Moun- 

 tains, the Valli and the Suani, uncivilized tribes, are found ; 

 still, however, they work the mines of gold there. Beyond 

 these nations, andextending as far away as Pontus, are nu- 

 merous nations of the Henioohi, and, after them, of the Achsei. 

 Such is the present state of one of the most famous tracts upon 

 the face of the earth. 



Some writers have stated that the distance between the 

 Euxine and the Caspian Sea is not more than three hundred 

 and seventy-five miles; Cornelius Nepos meikesit only two 

 hundred and fifty. "Within such straits is Asia pent up in this 

 second instance" -by the agency of the sea ! Claudius Caesar 

 has informed us that from the Cimmerian Bosporus to the 

 Caspian Sea is a distance of only one hundred and fifty'* miles, 

 and that Nicator Seleueus'' contemplated cutting through this 

 isthmus just at the time when he was slain by Ptolemy 

 Ceraunus. It is a weU-lmown fact that the distance from 

 the Gates of Caucasus to the shores of the Euxine is two 

 hundred miles. 



CHAP. 13. (12.) THE ISLANDS OP THE ETJXINE. 



The islands of the Euxine are the Planctse or Cyanese,' 

 otherwise called Symplegades, and ApoUonia, sumamed Thy- 

 nias,'' to distinguish it from the island of that name' in 

 Europe; it is four miles in circumference, and one mile 

 distmt from the mainland. Opposite to Phamacea* is Chal- 

 ceritis, to which the Greeks have given the name of Aria," 



^ The first instance was that of the narrow isthmus to which the con- 

 tinent of Asia is reduced from Siuope across to the Gulf of Issus, as men- 

 tioned in c. 2. 



^ The shortest distance across, in a straight line, is in reality little less 

 than 600 miles. ' 



»' The ancestor of the Seleucidse, kings of Syria, treacherously slain by 

 Ptolemy Ceraunus, brother of Ptolemy Philadelphus. 



' Already mentioned in B. iv. c. 27. 



* Mentioned in c. 44 of the last Book. 



27^''* '"^^ ^'^^ '' *^ ""'"''' °^ ^^^ Danube, and mentioned in B. iv. 



* Mentioned in c. 4 of the present Book. See p 9 



<■ Or " Mars' Island," also caUed Aretias ; at tlus island, in the south of 



