[5] Cimmericum was formerly a city built upon a peninsula, the isthmus of which it enclosed with a ditch and mound. The Cimmerii once possessed great power in the Bosporus, whence it was called the Cimmerian Bosporus. These are the people who overran the territory of the inhabitants of the inland parts, on the right of the Euxine, as far as Ionia. They were dislodged from these places by Scythians, and the Scythians by Greeks, who founded Panticapæum,1 and the other cities on the Bosporus. 6. Next to the village Achilleium,2 where is the temple of Achilles, are 20 stadia. Here is the narrowest passage, 20 stadia or more, across the mouth of the Mæotis; on the opposite continent is Myrmecium, a village. Near are Heracleium and Parthenium.
1 Kertch.
2 According to La Motraye, Achilleum corresponds to Adasbournout, but Du Theil quotes also the following passage from Peyssonel. According to Strabo, Achilleum must have been situated opposite Casau-dip, the ancient Parthenium on the point Tchochekha-Bournou (the pig's head). But perhaps the ancients placed Achilleum near the entrance of the Euxine into the Palus Mæotis. Is not the fort of Achou, which is 8 leagues more to the east on the Palus Mæotis, the true Achilleum, the name being corrupted and abridged by the Tartars?
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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