Volume 1
The geography of Strabo / Literally translated, with notes. The first six books by H. C .Hamilton, esq., the remainder by W. Falconer.
- Strabo
- Date:
- 1854-1857
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The geography of Strabo / Literally translated, with notes. The first six books by H. C .Hamilton, esq., the remainder by W. Falconer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
492/542 page 478
![Asiatic side is not without inhabitants. The whole circum- ference of the lake is 9000 stadia. The Great Chersonesus resembles Peloponnesus lx»th in figure and size. The kings of the Bosporus possess it, but the whole country has been devastated by continual wars. They formerly posse.ssed a small tract only at the mouth of the [Palus] Masotis near Panticap®ura, e.vtending as far as Theodosia. The largest part of the territory, as far as the isthmus and the Gulf Carcinites, was in possession of the Tauri, a Scythian nation. The whole of this country, com- prehending also a portion on the other side of the isthmus as far as the Dnieper, was called Little Scythia. In conse- quence of the number of people tvho passed from thence across the Dniester and the Danube, and settled there, no small part of tliat country also bore the name of Little Scythia. The Thracians surrendered a part of it to superior force, and a part wms abandoned on account of the bad quality of the ground, a large portion of which is marshy. G. Except the mountainous tract of the Chersonesus on the sea-coast, extending as far as Theodosia, all the rest consist of plains, the soil of which is rich, and remarkably fertile in corn. It yields thirty-fold, when turned up by the most ordinary implements of husbandly. The tribute paid to Mithridates by the inhabitants, including that from the neighbourhood of Sindace in Asia, amounted to 180,000 medimni of corn, and 200 talents of silver. The Greeks in former times imported from this country corn, and the cured fish of Palus ^I*otis. Leucon is said to have sent to the Athenians 2,100,tXK) me- dimni of corn from Theodosia.' * The amount is enormous, if it refers to the quantity of corn shipped in a single year. Neitlicr manuscripts nor translations aflford any various reading. The abbreviator, however, instead of ‘2,ltXl,(XX1. (^ivpid^ac diaKoaiag Kai S(Ka^) gives l30,0lX) [iitcifiroiig MV1’1.XAA)l IE). But instead of correcting .Strabo by his abbreviator. it is more probable tliat the text of the latter should be changed to ‘2,ltX),0tH.I, or even to 2,150,000 (MVPI.VAAE EIE). Brequigny, by an oversight, or because he thought jiroper to change the MVVIAAAE of the text to \l.\I.4A.4E, translates 210,000 medimni. However it may be, we know from l>e- mosthenes, that this same jirince of the Bosporus mentioned by Strabo, sent annually to Athens 400,000 medimni of coni, a quantity far below that mentioned in the text. To reconcile these authors, Mr. Wolf sup- poses that we ought to underst.aiid by 2,100,000 medimni of com, the shipment made in the year of the great famine, which occurred in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24872556_0001_0492.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
