Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1136

 1112 TAUEICA CHERSONESUS. taut enough to take a part in political affairs as an independent city, at least as late as about the middle of the 2nd century b. c, when, like its mother city, Heracleia, it was a party to the alliance against Pharnaces I., king of Pontus, and Mitbri- dates, satrap of Armenia. (Polyb. Frg. lib. ssvi. c. 6, vol. iv. p. 345, sqq., ed. Sweigli.) Soon after- wards, however, we find it struggling with the Taurians and their allies the Sarmatians for existence (Polyaen. Slrat. viii. c. 56), and it was ultimately compelled to place itself mider the protection of IMithridates the Great. Subsequently, however, it regained its independence, through the Romans, and under the name of Cherson or Chorson flourished till a late period of the middle ages, and even over- turned the Bosporan kingdom. (Const. Porphyr. de A dm. Imp. c. 53.) Leaving the Heracleotic Chersonese, we will now proceed to describe the remainder of the coast of the Tauric peninsula, which may be soon despatched, as an account of its different cities is given in separate articles. From the haven of Symbolon (Balaclava) to Theodosia (Coffa) the coast is correctly described by Strabo as craggy, mountainous, and stormy, and marked with many headlands (p. 309). The dis- tance, however, which he assigns to this tract of 1000 stadia, or 125 miles, is rather too small. In both the Periplus of the Euxine the distance given is 1320 stadia, but this must include all the indentures of the coast. The most remarkable promontory in this part was the Criu-metopon, or Ram's Head, which has been variously identified. Some writers have taken it for the promontory of Laspi, which is in reality the most southern point of the peninsula. Some again have identified it with Ai Petri, and a still greater number with the Aju-dagh. But the account given by Arrian and the Anonymous agrees better with Cape Aithodor. These writers say that the Criu-metopon lay 220 stadia to the W. of Lam- pas. (Arrian, Peripil. p. 20; Anon. Peripl. p. 6.) Kow Lampas is undoubtedly the present Bijuk Lampat, the distance between which and Cape Ai- thodor agrees very accurately with the preceding measurement. Scymnus indeed (ii. 320, Gail) states the distance at only 120 stadia; but this is evidently an error, as it is too short by half even for Aju-dagh. Cape Aithodor is not much N. of Lapsi, and from its position might easily have been taken by the Greeks for the southernmost point of the peninsula. (See Neumann, 451, sq.) From the traces of Greek names, ruins, remains of marble columns, &c., it may be inferred that the whole of this tract was once in the hands of the Greeks. But these relics probably belong to the Byzantine times, since the older geographers mention only four places on this part of the coast, namely, Charax, Lagyra, Lampas. and Athenaeon. To the E. of Theodosia the coast of the Euxine trends into a large bay, which, approaching the Palus Maeotis on the N., forms an isthmus about 12 miles broad, to the E. of which, as far as the Cimiuerian Bosporus, extends the Bosporan peninsula, or that of Kcrtsch, which swells out to double the breadth of the isthmus. The western half of this peninsula is flat; but the eastern portion rises into hills, which surround the bay in which Panticapaeum was situated. It possessed several flourishing maritime towns, as Cazeka and Cimmericum on the S. coast ; Nympbaeon Panticapaeum, the Bosporan capital, on the Cim- merian Bosporus; with some others of less note, as Mjnnecium, Porthmiun, and Ilermisium. There TAURINI. were also probably towns in the interior; but we know the name of only one, namely, Ilur.atum. (Ptol. iii. 6. § 6.) Beyond the Bosporan straits we have little to guide us but the accounts of Ptolemy. From thobc straits, the N. coast of the peninsula, which is high and chalky, proceeded in a westerly direction to the modern Arahat. Somewhere on this tract lay the Greek colony of Heracleion. On the E. side of the Tauric peninsula, the Tongm of Arahat, a narrow slip of land scarcely raised above the level of the sea, 52 miles long and about half a mile broad, runs along the whole coast, dividing the JIaeotis from the 'Zairpa xIjxvt], or Putrid Sea. But though Strabo knew that the latter formed the western portion of the Maeotis (p. 208), he nowhere mentions the Tongue of Arahat. The Putrid Sea seems to be the Lacus Buges of Pliny (iv. 12. s. 26); but his description is not very intelligible. Accord- ing to the accounts of recent travellers the Putrid Sta, now called the Shivdshe. does not appear to de- serve its name, as it has neither an unpleasant smell nor are its shores unhealthy (Seymour, p. 33); yet in the times of Clarke and PaUas it seems to have possessed both these offensive qualities. (Clarke, Trav. vol. ii. p. 314, note.) The chief feature in the histoiy of the Cher- sonesus Taurica, is that of the kingdom of the Bos- porus, a .sketch of which has been already given. [Bosporus Cimjiekius, Vol. I. p. 421, seq.] After the extinction of that dynasty, towards the end of the 4th century of our era, the peninsula fell into the hands of the Huns, of which race remnants still existed between Panticapaeum and Cherson in the 6th century. (Procop. Goth. iv. 5.) It was sub- sequently overrun by the Goths and other nations who followed the great stream of emigration. Jus- tinian reunited the kingdom of the Bosporus to the Greek Empire; and the Byzantine emperors, till the fall of Constantinople, always regarded the Tauric peninsula as part of their dominions. But the Ta- tars had made themselves the actual masters of it before the middle of the 1 3th century. Under these possessors, the Genoese, who settled on the coasts towards the end of the same century, played the same part as the Greeks did when the country was possessed bytheTauri,and planted several flourishing colonies. (Neumann, Z^/ei/eZfcwere im Skythenlande ; Georgii, Alte Geographic, vol. ii ; Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. ; Danby Seymour, Russia on the Black Sea; Forbiser, Eandh. der alt. Geogr. vol. iii.) [T. H. D.] TAURTCI MONTES. [Taurica Cherso- NESUS.] TATJRI'NI (Tavpa'Oi), a Lignrian tribe, who oc- cupied the country on the E. slope of the Alps, down to the left bank of the Padus, in the upper part of its course. They were the most northerly of the Ligurian tribes, and from their geographical position would more naturally have been regarded as belong- ing to Cisalpine Gaul than to Liguria ; but both Strabo and Pliny distinctly say they were a Ligurian tribe, and the same thing may be inferred from the omission of their name by Polybius where he is re- lating the successive settlements of the Gaulish tribes in the N. of Italy (Pol. ii. 17; Strab. iv. p. 204 ; Plin. iii. 17. s. 21). Their territory adjoined that of the Vagienni on the S., and that of the Insubres on the NE.; though the Laevi and Lebecii, tribes of which we know very little, must also have bordered on their NE. frontier (Pol. /. c). The first mention of the Taurini in history is at the time of Hannibal's passage of the Alps (u. c. 218), when that general,