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 makes it only two hundred and fifty. Within such straits is Asia pent up in this second instance[195] by the agency of the sea! Claudius Cæsar has informed us that from the Cimmerian Bosporus to the Caspian Sea is a distance of only one hundred and fifty[196] miles, and that Nicator Seleucus[197] contemplated cutting through this isthmus just at the time when he was slain by Ptolemy Ceraunus. It is a well-known fact that the distance from the Gates of Caucasus to the shores of the Euxine is two hundred miles.
CHAP. 13. (12.)—THE ISLANDS OF THE EUXINE.
The islands of the Euxine are the Planctæ or Cyaneæ,[198] otherwise called Symplegades, and Apollonia, surnamed Thynias,[199] to distinguish it from the island of that name[200] in Europe; it is four miles in circumference, and one mile distant from the mainland. Opposite to Pharnacea[201] is Chalceritis, to which the Greeks have given the name of Aria,[202] and consecrated it to Mars; here, they say, there were birds that used to attack strangers with blows of their wings.
CHAP. 14. (13.)—NATIONS IN THE VICINITY OF THE SCYTHIAN OCEAN.
Having now stated all that bears reference to the interior of Asia, let us cross in imagination the Riphæan[203] Mountains, and traverse the shores of the ocean to the right. On three sides does this ocean wash the coasts of Asia, as the Scythian Ocean on the north, the Eastern Ocean on the east, and the Indian Ocean on the south; and it is again divided into various names, derived from the numerous gulfs which it forms, and the nations which dwell upon its shores. A great part of Asia, however, which lies exposed to the north, through the noxious effects of those freezing climates, consists of nothing but vast deserts. From the extreme north north-east to the point[204] where the sun rises in the summer, it is the country of the Scythians. Still further than them, and beyond[205] the point where north north-east begins, some writers have placed the Hyperborei, who are said, indeed, by the majority to be a people of Europe.[206] After passing this point,[207] the first place that is known is Lytarmis,[208] a promontory of Celtica, and next to it the river Carambucis,[209] where the chain of the Riphæan Mountains terminates, and with it the extreme rigour of the climate; here, too, we have heard of a certain people being situate, called the Arimphæi,[210] a race not much unlike the Hyperborei.[211] Their habitations are the groves, and the berries their diet; long hair is held to be disgraceful by the women as well as the men, and they are mild in their manners. Hence it is that they are reported to be a sacred[212] race, and are never molested even by the savage tribes which border upon them, and not only they, but such other persons as well as may have fled to them for refuge. Beyond these we come straight to the Scythians, the Cimmerii, the Cisianthi, the Georgi, and a nation of Amazons.[213] These last extend to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea.[214]
CHAP. 15.—THE CASPIAN AND HYRCANIAN SEA.
Bursting through, this sea makes a passage from the Scythian Ocean into the back of Asia,[215] receiving various names from the nations which dwell upon its banks, the two most famous of which are the Caspian and the Hyrcanian races. Clitarchus is of opinion that the Caspian Sea is not less in area than the Euxine. Eratosthenes gives the measure of it on the south-east, along the coast of Cadusia[216] and Albania, as five thousand four hundred stadia; thence, through the territories of the Anariaci, the Amardi, and the Hyrcani, to the mouth of the river Zonus he makes four thousand eight hundred stadia, and thence to the mouth of the Jaxartes[217] two thousand four hundred; which makes in all a distance of one thousand five hundred and seventy-five miles. Artemidorus, however, makes this sum smaller by twenty-five miles. Agrippa bounds the Caspian Sea and the nations around it, including Armenia, on the east by the Ocean of the Seres,[218] on the west by the chain of the Caucasus, on the south by that of Taurus, and on the north by the Scythian Ocean; and he states it, so far as its extent is known, to be four hundred and eighty miles in length, and two hundred and ninety in breadth. There are not wanting, however, some authors who state that its whole circumference, from the Straits,[219] is two thousand five hundred miles.
Its waters make their way into this sea by a very narrow mouth,[220] but of considerable length; and where it begins to enlarge, it curves obliquely with horns in the form of a crescent, just as though it would make a descent from its mouth into Lake Mæotis, resembling a sickle in shape, as M. Varro says. The first[221] of its gulfs is called the Scythian Gulf; it is inhabited on both sides, by the Scythians, who hold communication with each other across the Straits,[222] the Nomades being on one side, together with the Sauromatæ, divided into tribes with numerous names, and on the other, the Abzoæ, who are also divided into an equal number. At the entrance, on the right hand side,[223] dwell the Udini, a Scythian tribe, at the very angle of the mouth. Then along[224] the coast there are the Albani, the descendants of Jason, it is said; that part of the sea which lies in front of them, bears the name of ‘Albanian.’ This nation, which lies along the Caucasian chain, comes down, as we have previously stated,[225] as far as the river Cyrus, which forms the boundary of Armenia and Iberia. Above the maritime coast of Albania and the nation of the Udini, the Sarmatæ, the Utidorsi, and the Aroteres stretch along its shores, and in their rear the Sauromatian Amazons, already spoken of.[226]
The rivers which run through Albania in their course to the sea are the Casius[227] and the Albanus,[228] and then the Cambyses,[229] which rises in the Caucasian mountains, and next to it the Cyrus, rising in those of the Coraxici, as already mentioned.[230] Agrippa states that the whole of this coast, inaccessible from rocks of an immense height, is four hundred and twenty-five miles in length, beginning from the river Casius. After we pass the mouth of the Cyrus, it begins to be called the ‘Caspian Sea;’ the Caspii being a people who dwell upon its shores.
In this place it may be as well to correct an error into which many persons have fallen, and even those who lately took part with Corbulo in the Armenian war. The Gates of Iberia, which we have mentioned[231] as the Caucasian, they have spoken of as being called the ‘Caspian,’ and the coloured plans which have been sent from those parts to Rome have that name written upon them. The menaced expedition, too, that was contemplated by the Emperor Nero, was said to be designed to extend as far as the Caspian Gates, whereas it was really intended for those which lead through Iberia into the territory of the Sarmatæ; there being hardly any possibility of approach to the Caspian Sea, by reason of the close juxtaposition of the mountains there. There are, however, other Caspian Gates, which join up to the Caspian tribes; but these can only be distinguished from a perusal of the narrative of those who took part in the expedition of Alexander the Great.