herodotus

99. Now in front of Scythia in the direction towards the sea[97] liesThrace; and where a bay is formed in this land, there begins Scythia,into which the Ister flows out, the mouth of the river being turnedtowards the South-East Wind. Beginning at the Ister then I am about todescribe the coast land of the true Scythia, with regard tomeasurement. At once from the Ister begins this original land ofScythia, and it lies towards the midday and the South Wind, extendingas far as the city called Carkinitis. After this the part which lieson the coast of the same sea still, a country which is mountainous andruns out in the direction of the Pontus, is occupied by the Tauricrace, as far as the peninsula which is called the "Rugged Chersonese";and this extends to the sea which lies towards the East Wind: for twosides of the Scythian boundaries lie along by the sea, one by the seaon the South, and the other by that on the East, just as it is withAttica: and in truth the Tauroi occupy a part of Scythia which hasmuch resemblance to Attica; it is as if in Attica another race and notthe Athenians occupied the hill region[98] of Sunion, supposing it toproject more at the point into the sea, that region namely which iscut off by a line from Thoricos to Anaphlystos. Such I say, if we maybe allowed to compare small things such as this with great, is theform of the Tauric land.[99] For him however who has not sailed alongthis part of the coast of Attica I will make it clear by anothercomparison:--it is as if in Iapygia another race and not the Iapygianshad cut off for themselves and were holding that extremity of the landwhich is bounded by a line beginning at the harbour of Brentesion andrunning to Taras. And in mentioning these two similar cases I amsuggesting many other things also to which the Tauric land hasresemblance. 100. After the Tauric land immediately come Scythiansagain, occupying the parts above the Tauroi and the coasts of theEastern sea, that is to say the parts to the West of the KimmerianBosphorus and of the Maiotian lake, as far as the river Tanaïs, whichruns into the corner of this lake. In the upper parts which tendinland Scythia is bounded (as we know)[100] by the Agathyrsians first,beginning from the Ister, and then by the Neuroi, afterwards by theAndrophagoi, and lastly by the Melanchlainoi. 101. Scythia then beinglooked upon as a four-sided figure with two of its sides bordered bythe sea, has its border lines equal to one another in each direction,that which tends inland and that which runs along by the sea: for fromIster to the Borysthenes is ten days' journey, and from theBorysthenes to the Maiotian lake ten days' more; and the distanceinland to the Melanchlainoi, who are settled above the Scythians, is ajourney of twenty days. Now I have reckoned the day's journey at twohundred furlongs:[101] and by this reckoning the cross lines ofScythia[102] would be four thousand furlongs in length, and theperpendiculars which tend inland would be the same number of furlongs.