Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/484

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470
STRABO.
CASAUB. 306.

stadia up the river. The island of Leuce[1] is distant from the river’s mouth a course of 500 stadia; it is quite in the sea, and is sacred to Achilles.

17. Next is the Dnieper,[p 1] a river navigable to the distance of 600[2] stadia, and near to it another river, the Bog,[3] and an island[4] lying before the mouth of the Dnieper, which possesses a haven. After sailing up the Borysthenes[p 2] 200 stadia, you come to the city of like name Avith the river, which is likewise called Olbia;[5] it is a great emporium and a foundation of the Milesians. Of the region lying inland from the coast we have described between the Dnieper and the Danube, the first portion is the Desert of the Getæ, then comes the Tyregetæ, after them the Jazyges Sarmatas, and the Basilii, who are also called Urgi.[6] Most of these people are nomades. However, a few of them pay attention to agriculture. These are said to inhabit the banks of the Danube, frequently even on both sides of the river. In the inland the Bastarnæ dwell, and confine with the Tyregetæ and the Germans; indeed, they may almost be said to be of the German stock. They are divided into many tribes, as some are called Atmoni, some Sidones, those who inhabit the island Peuce[p 3] in the Danube, Peucini, and the most northern, Roxolani.[7] These latter depasture the plains lying between the Don[p 4] and the Dnieper.

  1. ↑ Groskurd calls this Ilan-Adassi, or Schlangeninsel. Gossellin likewise translates Ilan-Adassi as “Isle of Serpents.”
  2. ↑ Gossellin considers that Strabo wrote 1600 stadia, for at that distance from the sea there are cataracts which stop the ships that come from the sea.
  3. ↑ Strabo’s word is Ὕπανις. Gossellin observes that we should look for the Ὕπανις to the east of the Dnieper, while the Bog lies to the west of that river.
  4. ↑ Gossellin identifies this island with the modern Berezan.
  5. ↑ Olbia, or Olbiopolis, would, according to this measure, be about the junction of the Bog and Dnieper.
  6. ↑ Mannert has attempted to read Γεωργοί, because Herodotus, book iv. chap. 18, has so termed those Scythians who cultivated their fields. Is it not possible that the Latin Regii was the word Strabo had in his mind?
  7. ↑ Some MSS. read this name Ῥωξανοί, others Ῥοξανοι, and others Ῥωξοανοί, but whether there is any distinction to be drawn between these and the Ῥωξαλανοί of book ii. chap. v. § 7, is not to be ascertained.
  1. ↑ The ancient Borysthenes.
  2. ↑ Now the Dnieper.
  3. ↑ Piczina.
  4. ↑ The Tanais.
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