Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/365

 Chap. 26.] ACCOUNT OF COXTNTEIES, ETC. 331 from Pseudostomos, a mouth of the Ister, so called, 130 miles. We then come to the Axiacae, who take their name from the river Axiaces and heyond them, the Crobyzi, the river Ehodes", the Sagariau Guli'^, and the port of Ordesos^. At a distance of 120 miles from the Tyra is the river Bory- sthenes^ Avith a lake and a people of similar name, as also a towii*^ 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 Acha)i, 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 ISiraci* occupy all this tract of country. At this spot begins a well-wooded district^", which has ^ Now called the Tehgul, east of the Tyra or Dniester. 3 The modern Gulf of Berezen, according to Brotier. •* Probably the modern Okzakow. , 5 The modern Dnieper. It also retains its ancient name of Borrsthcnes. " We learn from Strabo that the name of this town was Olbia, and that from being founded by the Milesians, it received the name of Mile- topoHs. According to Brotier, the modern Zapurooski occupies its site, between the mouths of the river Buzuluk. 7 This was adjacent to the strip of land called " Dromos AchUleos," or the 'race-course of Achilles.' It is identified by geographers with the httle 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. of the Dnieper, running nearly due west and east. It is now divided into two parts called Kosa Tendra and Kosa Djarilgatch. Aeliilles was said to have instituted games here. ^ According to Ilardouin, the Siraci occupied a portion of the present Podoha and Ukraine, and the Tauri the modern Bessarabia. ^•^ According to Herodotus, tliis region, called Ilylffa, lay to the east of the Borysthenes. It seems uncertain whether there are now any traces of this ancient woodland ; some of the old maps however give the name of the " Black Forest " to this district. From the statements of modem travellers, the woody country dues not commence till the river Don has been reaclied. The district of llyla-a has been identified by geographers ■with the great pkin of Juiiboylouk in the steppe of the iSogai.
 * Now called Sasik Beregen, according to Brotier.
 * A narrow strip of land X.W. of the Crimea and south of the mouth