Listed 27 sub titles with search on: Various locations for wider area of: "RUSSIA Country CIS" .
Alazon (Plin. vi. 10. s. 11), or Alazonius (Alazonios, Strab. p. 500: Alasan,
Alacks), a river of the Caucasus, flowing SE. into the Cambyses a little above
its junction with the Cyrus, and forming the boundary of Albania and Iberia. Its
position seems to correspond with the Abas of Plutarch and Dion Cassius.
Ceraunii Montes (ta Keraunia ore), a range of mountains belonging to the system of Caucasus, at its E. extremity; but its precise relation to the main chain is variously stated. Strabo makes it the name of the E. portion of the Caucasus, which overhangs the Caspian and forms the N. boundary of Albania, and in which he places the Amazons (xi. pp. 501, 504). Mela seems to apply the name to the whole chain which other writers call Caucasus, confining the latter term to a part of it. His Ceraunii are a chain extending from the Cimmerian Bosporus till they meet the Rhipaean mountains; overhanging, on the one side, the Euxine, the Maeotis, and the Tanais, and on the other the Caspian; and containing the sources of the Rha (Volga); a statement which, however interpreted, involves the error of connecting the Caucasus and Ural chains. (Mela, i. 19. § 13, iii. 5. § 14.) Pliny gives precisely the same representation, with the additional error of making the Ceraunii (i. e. the Caucasus of others) part of the great Taurus chain. (Plin. v. 27, vi. 10. s. 11.) He seems to apply the name of Caucasus to the spurs which spread out both to the NE. and SE. from the main chain near its E. extremity, and which he regarded as a continuous range, bordering the W. shore of the Caspian (vi. 9. s. 10). Eustathius also seems to regard them as a chain running northwards from the Caucasus. (Comment. ad Dion. Perieg. 389.) Ptolemy uses the name for the E. part of the chain, calling the W. portion Caucasii M., and the part immediately above Iberia Caucasus in a narrower sense. (Ptol. v. 9. § § 14, 15, 20, 22.) On the whole, it would seem that the Greek name Ceraunius and the native Caucasus (Kawkas) were applied at first indifferently to the highest mountains in the centre of the Caucasian isthmus, and afterwards extended, in a somewhat confused manner, to the whole, or portions, of the chain; and that the more accurate writers, such as Strabo and Ptolemy, adopted a specific distinction of a somewhat arbitrary character. The Ceraunii M. of Strabo seem to be the great NE. branch which meets the Caspian at the pass of Derbend, or perhaps the whole system of NE. spurs of which that is only one. It may fairly be conjectured that Mela and Pliny were ignorant how soon these spurs meet the Caspian, and hence their error in extending to meet the Rhipaei M.
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Sarmaticae Portae (hai Sarmatikai pulai, Ptol. v. 9. § § 11, 15), a narrow pass of the Caucasus, whence it is also called Caucasiae Portae. (Plin. vi. 11. s. 12, 15. s. 15.) From its vicinity to the Caspian sea, it was also called by some of the ancients Portae Caspiae (Suet. Nero, 19), Claustra Caspiarum (Tac. H. i. 6), and Via Caspia (Id. Ann. vi. 33); but Pliny (l. c.) notes this as an error; and the proper Portae Caspiae were in the Taurus (Forbiger, Geogr. vol. ii. p. 47, note 92). The Sarmaticae Portae formed the only road between Sarmatia and Iberia. Ptolemy (l. c.) distinguishes from this pass another in the same mountain, which he calls hai Albaniai Pulai (Portae Albaniae), and places the latter in the same latitude as the former, namely the 47th degree, but makes its longitude 3 degrees more to the E. The Albaniae Portae are those on the Alazon, leading over the mountain from Derbend to Berdan. At both spots there are still traces of long walls 120 feet in height; and on this circumstance seems to have been founded a legend, prevalent in that neighbourhood, of the Black Sea and the Caspian having been at one time connected by such a wall. (Forbiger, Ibid. p. 55, note 13, b.; comp. Ritter, Erdkunde, ii. p. 837.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Moschici montes (ta Moschika ore, Strab. i. p. 61, xi. pp. 492, 497, 521, 527, xii. p. 548; Plut. Pomp. 34; Mela, i. 19. § 13; Ptol, v. 6. § 13; Moschicus M., Plin. v. 27), the name applied, with that of Paryadres, and others, to the mountain chain which connects the range of Anti-Taurus with the Caucasus. Although it is obviously impossible to fix the precise elevation to which the ancients assigned this name, it may be generally described as the chain of limestone mountains, with volcanic rocks, and some granite, which, branching from the Caucasus, skirts the E. side of Imiretia, and afterwards, under the name of the Perengah Tagh, runs nearly SW. along the deep valley of Ajirah in the district of Tchildir; from whence it turns towards the S., and again to the W. along the valley of the Acampsis, to the W. of which, bearing the name of the Kop Tagh, it enters Lesser Asia. (Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 816; Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. p. 285.)
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DAKIA (Ancient area) SARMATIA
Marisus (Marisos, Strab. vii. 304; Maris, Herod. iv. 49; Marisia, Jornand. de
Reb. Get. 5; Geogr. Rav.), a river of Dacia, which both Herodotus and Strabo describe
as falling into the Danube; it is the same as the Marosch, which falls into the
Theiss. (Heeren, Asiat. Nations, vol. ii. p. 10, trans.; Schafarik, Slav. Alt.
vol. i. p. 507.)
Sariphi Montes (ta Saripha ore), a chain of mountains, extending, according to
Ptolemy, between Margiana and Ariana, and the watershed of several small streams.
They are probably those now called the Hazaras. Manner (v. 2. p. 65), has supposed
them the same as the Sappheiroi, but this is contrary to all probability.
SARMATIA (Ancient country) RUSSIA
Abianus (Abianos), a river of Scythia (Sarmatia) falling into the Euxine, mentioned
only in the work of Alexander on the Euxine, as giving name to the ABII, who dwelt
on its banks. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Abioi.) Stephanus elsewhere quotes Alexander
as saying that the district of Hylea on the Euxine was called Abike, which he
interprets by Glaia, woody (Steph. Byz. s. v. Glea.).
Lycus (Lukos), a river of Sarmatia, which flows through the country of the Thyssagetae, and discharges itself into the Palus Maeotis. (Herod. iv. 124.) Herodotus was so much in error about the position of the Maeotis, that it is difficult to make out his geography here. The Lycus has been identified with the Lagous of Pliny (vi. 7), or the upper course of the Volga. (Comp. Schafarik, Slav. Alt. vol. i. p. 499.) Rennell (Geog. of Herod. vol. i. p. 119) supposes it may be the Medweditza. It must be distinguished from the Lycus of Ptolemy (iii. 5. § 13), which is the modern Kalmius. (Schafarik, l. c.)
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Marabius (Marabios, Maroubios, Ptol. v. 9. § 2), a river of Sarmatia, which Reichard
has identified with the Manyez, an affluent of the Don, on the left bank of that
river. Some have considered the Manyez to represent the Achardeus (Achardeos but
Strabo (xi. p. 506) expressly says that the latter discharges itself into the
Maeotis. (Schafarik, Slav. Alt. vol. i. pp. 60, 500.)
Oaeones (Mela, iii. 6. § 8; Solin. 19. § 6) or Oonae (Plin. iv. 13. s. 27), islands
in the Baltic off the coast of Sarmatia, the inhabitants of which were said to
live on the eggs of birds and wild oats.
Rhubon, Rhudon (Rhoubonos ekb., Ptol. iii. 5. § 2; Rhoudonos ekb., Marcian. Heracl. Peripl. § 39, ed. Muller), a river of European Sarmatia which took its source in the Alani Montes and discharged itself into the Venedicus Sinus. Schafarik (Slav. Alt. vol. i. p. 497) has identified it with the Duna, which, taking a direction generally W., falls into the Gulf of Riga below Fort Dunamunde, after a course of 655 miles. This same ethnologist connects the mythic Eridanus, and the trees that wept amber, with the Rhudon of Marcian (Rhubon appears to be a corrupted form), which Sabinus, a commentator upon Virgil, A.D. 1544, calls Rhodanus. The amber could be brought by land, or by water from the coasts where it was collected to the Duna, and thence by boats conveyed to the Borysthenes and the coasts of the Euxine. The name Eri-danus, closely connected with Rhodanus, is composed of the words Rha and Don, roots which, in several of the Indo-European languages, signify water, river, as for instance in Rha, the old name for the Volga, and Danubius, Tanais, Danapris, Danastris, and the like.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Rha (Rha potamos, Ptol. v. 9. §§ 12, 17, 19, 21, vi. 14. §§ 1, 4; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. § 28; Rhos, Agathem. ii. 10: Volga) a river of Asiatic Sarmatia, which according to Ptolemy (l. c.), the earliest geographer who had any accurate knowledge of this longest of European streams, had its twin sources in the E. and W. extremities of the Hyperborean mountains, and discharged itself into the Hyrcanian sea. The affluents which Ptolemy (vi. 14. § 4) describes as falling into it from the Rhymmici Montes, and which must not be confounded with the river Rhymmus, are the great accession made to the waters of the Volga by the Kama in the government of Kasan. Ammianus Marcellinus (l. c.) says that its banks were covered with the plant which bore the same name as the river--the rha or rheon of Dioscorides (rha, rheon, iii. 11) and rhacoma of Pliny (xxvii. 105), or officinal rhubarb. (Comp. Pereira, Mat. Med. vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 1343.) The old reading Rha in the text of Pomponius Mela (iii. 5. § 4) has been shown by Tzschucke (ad loc.) to be a mistake of the earlier editors, for which he substitutes Casius, a river of Albania. The Oarus (Oaros, Herod. iv. 123, 124), where, according to the story of the Scythian expedition, the erection of eight fortresses was supposed to mark the extreme point of the march of Dareius, has been identified by Klaproth, and Schafarik (Slav. Alt. vol. i. p. 499)-who mentions that in the language of some tribes the Volga is still called Rhau -with that river.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Zygopolis (Sugopolis, Strab. xii. p. 548), a town in Pontus, in the neighbourhood of Colchis. Stephanus B. (p. 290) conjectures that it was in the territory of the Zygi, which, however, does not agree with Strabo's description.
SKYTHIA (Ancient country) RUSSIA
Ascatancas (Askatankas), a mountain range of Asia, forming a part
of the E. boundary which divided the land of the Sacae from Scythia. Extending,
apparently, NW. and SE., it joined, at its SE. extremity, the branch of M. Imaus
which ran N. and S., according to Ptolemy, at a point which he defines as the
halting-place (hormeterion) of the caravans on their way to Sera, and which he
places in 140° Ion. and 43° lat. (vi. 13. § 1). Now, following Ptolemy's
latitude, which is seldom far wrong, and the direction of the roads, which are
pretty well defined by nature where great mountains have to be crossed, we can
hardly be far wrong in placing Ptolemy's caravanserai at the spot marked by the
rock-hewn monument called Takhti-Souleiman (i. e. Solomon's Throne), near Och,
in a lateral valley of the upper Jaxartes (Sihoun),- which is still an important
commercial station, from its position at the N. foot of the pass of Terek over
the great Moussour range, Ptolemy's N. branch of the Imaus. The Ascatancas might
then answer to the Alatau M. or the Khouhakhai M.; and the more northerly Anarei
M. of Ptolemy might be the Khaltai or Tschingis; both NW. branches of the Moussour
range: but it is, of course, impossible to make the identification with any certainty.
Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6) appears to refer to the same mountains by the
name of Ascanimia. (Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. i. p. 513; Heeren, Ideen, i. 2, p.
487; Forbiger, vol. ii. p. 469.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Baltia. Three days' sail from the coast of Scythia lay an island of
immense magnitude, called Baltia; this being the name which Pliny found in Xenophon
of Lampsacus. Pytheas, on the other hand, called it Basilia. (Plin. xxxvii. 7.
s. 11.)
Whatever may be the uncertainties as to the exact geographical position
of the ancient Baltia, the word itself is important as being the origin of our
term Baltic. Little less certain is its Slavonic or Lithuanian origin, since so
little is it German that, except in England, the usual name for the Baltic, amongst
the Gothic nations, is the East-Sea. This helps us in certain points of criticism.
In the first place, it suggests an explanation of the ambiguities of the early
writers, who took their names from two sources. If Baltia was Slavonic, the name
Ostiaioi (Eastmen), who dwelt on its coast, was German. Yet each is found in Pytheas.
Hence the likelihood of two names to the same locality, and the confusion arising
therefrom. Again, the fact of the name being strange to the present Germans makes
the assumption of an erroneous application of it all the more likely. Name for
name, nothing represents the ancient Baltia so closely as the Great and the Little
Belts between the Danish isles and Jutland. But these are the names of straits
of water, not of islands of land. Yet the present writer believes that the Baltia
of Pytheas was the island of Fyen or Sealand (one or both), and that the name
Baltia is retained in that of the waters that bound them. He would not, however,
believe this, if there had been no change in language. Had that been uniform from
the beginning, the confusion which he assumes would have been illegitimate.
Another speculation connects itself with the root Balt-. In the article
Avari, a principle which will bear a wide application has been suggested. It is
as follows: when the name of a non-historical individual coincides with that of
an historical population (or locality), the individual is to be considered as
an eponymus. Now, the legends of the country of the Getae connected them with
the Guttones of the Baltic; indeed, when the name Goth became prominent, the original
seat of the stock was laid on that sea, sometimes on the southern coast in the
amber-country, sometimes as far north as Scandinavia. More than this, the two
royal lines were those of the Balt-ungs (Baltidae), and the Amal-ungs (Amalidae).
For a Balt, or an Amal, as real personages, we look in vain. Populations, however,
to which they were Eponymi, we find in the two localities Baltia and Abalus-associated
localities in the accredited mother-country.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Oxii Montes (ta Oxeia ore, Ptol. vi. 12. § § 1, 4), a chain of mountains between the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, in a direction from SW. to NE., and which separated Scythia from Sogdiana. They are identified with the metalliferous group of Asferah and Aktagh-the Botom, Botm, or Botam ( Mont Blanc) of Edrisi (ed, Jaubert, vol. ii. pp. 198-200). The Oxi Rupes of Strabo (Oxou petra p. 517), which he also calls the hill-fort of Arimazes (Q. Curt. vii. 11), has been identified by Droysen, as quoted by Thirlwall (Hist. of Greece, vol. vi. p. 300), with the pass of Kolugha or Derbend, in the Kara-tagh, between Kish and Hissar; but as it is called the rock of the Oxus it must be looked for on that river, and is probably Kurghan-Tippa on the Amu. (Wilson, Ariana, p. 167; Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. vii. p. 734; Humboldt, Asie Centrale, vol. ii. pp. 18-20.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Tapuri montes a chain of mountains, in Scythia, to the N. of the Jaxartes, apparently
a portion of the Altai range, towards its western extremity (Ptol vi. 14. § 7).
It may, however, be doubted whether this view of Ptolemy is really correct. It
would seem more likely that they are connected with the Tapuri, a tribe who nearly
adjoined the Hyrcani [Tapuri]; and this a notice in Polybius would appear clearly
to imply (v. 44).
TANAIS (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
A Scythian river, between Scythians and Sauromatae (the Don), its source and mouth, crossed by Amazons and Sauromatae.
Perseus Project index. Total results on 16/7/2001: 38
TAVRIS (Peninsula) SKYTHIA
Symbolon Portus (Sumtholon limen, Ptol. iii. 6. § 2; Sumbulou limen,
Arrian, Per. Pont. Eux. p. 20), a harbour with a narrow entrance on the S. coast
of the Chersonesus Taurica, between the town of Chersonesus and the port of Cienus.
In ancient times it was the chief station for the pirates of the Tauric peninsula.
(Strab. vii. p. 309; Plin. iv. 12. s. 26; Anon. Per. Pont. Eux. p. 6.) Now the
port of Balaklava. (Comp. Clarke's Travels, ii. p. 398; Pallas, ii. p. 128.)
Taphrae or Taphros (Taphrai, Steph. B. p. 642; cf. Mela, ii. 1; Plin.
iv. 12. s. 26; Taphros, Ptol. iii. 6. § 5), that part of the neck of the Chersonesus
Taurica which was cut through by a dyke and fortified (Herod. iv. 3). Pliny and
Ptolemy (ll. cc.) mention a town called Taphrae; and Strabo (vii. 308) also notices
at this spot a people called Taphrioi. (Cf. D'Anville, Mem de l'Ac. d. Inscr.
xxxvii. p. 581; Rennell, Geogr. of Herod. p. 96; Mannert, iv. p. 291.) Perecop,
or Prezecop, the modern name of the isthmus, also signifies in Russian a ditch
or entrenchment. (Clarke, Trav. ii. p. 316.)
Lampas, a harbour on the E. coast of the Tauric Chersonese, 800 stadia from Theodosia, and 220 stadia from Criu-Metopon. (Arrian, Peripl. p. 20; Anon. Peripl. p. 6.) Arrian uses the two names Lampas and Halmitis as if they belonged to the same place, but the Anonymous Coast-describer speaks of Lampas alone. Halmitis probably took its name from being a place for salting fish. The name is preserved in the places now called Biouk-Lambat and Koutchouk-Lambat, Tartar villages at the end of a bay defended by the promontory of Plaka, near which ancient ruins have been found. (Dubois de Montpereux, Voyage actour du Caucase, vol. v. p. 713, vol. vi. p. 460; Rennell, Compar. Geog. vol. ii. p. 340.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TYRAS (Ancient city) DAKIA
A Scythian river, the Dniester, Cimmerian graves by it, its source, mark of Herakles' foot on its bank.
Tyras (o Turas, Strab. ii. p. 107), one of the principal rivers of European Sarmatia. According to Herodotus (iv. 51) it rose in a large lake, whilst Ptolemy (iii. 5. § 17, 8. § 1, &c.) places its sources in Mount Carpates, and Strabo (l. c.) says that they are unknown. The account of Herodotus, however, is correct, as it rises in a lake in Gallicia. (Georgii, Alte-Geogr. p. 269.) It ran in an easterly direction parallel with the Ister, and formed part of the boundary between Dacia and Sarmatia. It fell into the Pontus Euxinus to the NE. of the mouth of the Ister; the distance between them being, according to Strabo, 900 stadia (Strab. vii. p. 305, seq.), and, according to Pliny (iv. 12. s. 26), 130 miles (from the Pseudostoma). Scymnus (Fr. 51) describes it as of easy navigation, and abounding in fish. Ovid (ex Pont. iv. 10. 50) speaks of its rapid course. At a later period it obtained the name of Danastris or Danastus (Amm. Marc. xxxi. 3. § 3; Jornand. Get. 5; Const. Porphyr. de Adm. Imp. 8), whence its modern name of Dniester (Neister), though the Turks still call it Tural. (Cf. Herod. iv. 11, 47, 82; Scylax, p. 29; Strab. i. p. 14; Mela, ii. 1, &c.; also Schaffarik, Slav. Alterth. i. p. 505.) The form Turis is sometimes found. (Steph. B. p. 671; Suid. s. v. Skuphai and Poseidonios.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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