Book 22
8.10
The complete voyage around its shores, as one would encircle an island, is a distance of 23,000Polyb. iv. 39, 1, gives 20,000: Strabo, ii. 5, 22, 25,000; Pliny, N.H. iv. 77, says that Varro made it 21,000, and Nepos, 21,350. stadia, as is asserted by Eratosthenes, Hecataeus, Ptolemy, and other very accurate investigators of such problems; and according to the testimony of all geographers it has the form of a drawn Scythian bow.The descriptions of the Scythian bow in the handbooks on antiquities vary, and are sometimes misleading, in particular the comparison with different forms of the Greek sigma. As represented in vases and other works of art, it has, as a general rule, the form of the following cut: Figure from Smith’s Dict. of Ant. 1 p. 126. It is well defined in the note on Strabo, ii. 5, 22, in L.C.L. i. 479, n. 4. When it was drawn, which is commonly taken to be the meaning of nervo coagmentati, the arms were bent down and the handle remained immovable; see also note on § 37, below.
8.11
And where the sun rises from the eastern ocean it comes to an end in the marshes of the MaeotisThe Palus Maeotis is on the northern side of the Euxine. ; where it inclines towards the west it is bounded by Roman provinces; where it looks up to the Bears it breeds men of varying languages and habits; on the southern side it slopes downwardThe directions are so uncertain that the meaning is not clear. in a gentle curve.
