Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/491

 B. vii. c. iv. 5.] THE CRIMEA. 477 name of tyrants, although most of them were moderate and just in their government, from the time of Pairisades and Leucon. Pairisades was accounted even a god. The last sovereign, whose name was also Pairisades, being unable to resist the barbarians, by whom great and unusual tributes were exacted, surrendered the kingdom into the hands of Mithridates. After him it became subject to the Romans. The greater portion of it is situated in Europe, but a part of it is also situated in Asia. 5. The mouth of the [Palus] Masotis is called the Kim- merian Bosporus. The entrance, which at the broadest part is about 70 stadia across, where there is a passage from the neighbourhood 1 of Panticapaeum to Phanagoria, the nearest city in Asia. The [Palus] Masotis closes in an arm of the sea which is much narrower. This arm of the sea and the Don 2 separate Europe from Asia. Then the Don flows from the north opposite into the lake, and into the Kimmerian Bosporus. It discharges itself into the lake by two mouths, 3 which are distant from each other about 60 stadia. There is also a city of the same name as the river ; and next to Panticapaeum it is the largest mart belonging to the bar- barians. On sailing into the Kimmerian Bosporus, 4 on the left hand is Myrmecium, 5 a small city, 20 stadia from Panticapaeum, and 40 stadia from Parthenium ; 6 it is a village where is the narrowest entrance into the lake, about 20 stadia in breadth ; opposite to it is a village situated in Asia, called Achilleum. Thence to the Don, and to the island at its mouths, is a voyage in a direct line of 2200 stadia. The distance is somewhat greater if the voyage is performed along the coast of Asia, but taking the left-hand side, (in which direction the isthmus of the Chersonese is fallen in with,) the distance is more than tripled. This latter course is along the desert shore of Europe, but the 1 i. e. from Kertch to Taman, or from Yenikaleh near Kertch to Ta- mau. Prince Gleb, son of Vladimir, A. r>. 1065, measured this latter distance on the ice, and found it to be 30.057 Russian fathoms, or nearly 12 miles. Here the battle was fought on the ice. See chap. iii. 18. 2 The Tanais. 3 According to modern maps, the Don separates into two branches, and there again into several others, which form the mouths of the river. The extreme branches are at a considerable distance from each other. 4 Azof. 5 Yeuikaleh. c Kazandib