Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/483

 n. vii. c. in. $ 15, 16. MOUTHS OF DANUBE. DNIESTER. 469 for want of water ; this lie found out before it was too late, and returned. At a subsequent period, when Lysimachus was waging war against the Geta3 and their king Dromi- ehnetes, he not only incurred the risk, 1 but he fell into the hands of the enemy ; but his life was spared by the courtesy of the barbarian, as I have before related. 15. Near the mouths of the Danube is the large island called Peuce. 2 This the Bastarnre possessed, and were hence called Peucini. There are also other islands much smaller, some above this, and others nearer the sea. The Danube has seven mouths, the largest is called the Sacred Mouth, 3 the passage by which to Peuce is 120 stadia. 4 At the lower part of this island Darius made his bridge. It might likewise have been constructed at th,e upper part. This is tlie first mouth on the left-hand side as you sail into the Black Sea ; the rest are passed while sailing along towards the Dniester ; the seventh mouth is distant from this first mouth about 300 stadia. These mouths form several islands. The first three mouths next after the Sacred Mouth are but small, the re- mainder are much less than it, but greater than any of the three. Ephorus states that the Danube has five mouths. From hence to the Dniester, 5 which is a navigable river, there are 900 stadia. 6 In the district intervening there are two great lakes ; one is open to the sea, and is used as a harbour, 7 the other has no outlet. 16. At the mouth of the Dniester there is a tower called the Tower of Neoptolemus, and a village called Hermonax. 8 As you sail up the river 140 stadia, there are cities on both sides ; the one is Niconia, 9 and that on the left Ophiussa. 10 Those who dwell on the spot say that the city is but 120 1 Peter the Great, at the beginning of the last century, incurred the risk of falling into the hands of the Turks almost on the same spot where Darius and Lysimachus had been in distress. 2 Now Piczina. 3 Ammianus Marcellinus, book xxii. chap. 8, gives the names of these mouths. He calls the Sacred Mouth by the name of the island Peuce. 4 There has been much geographical change in this locality since Strabo wrote. 5 The Tyras. 6 Gossellin supports this distance. ' The Lake Ovidovo. 8 Now Akkerman. 9 Gossellin could not identify Niconia with any modern town. Gros- kurd marks it as destroyed. 10 Groskurd identifies this with Palanka.