MELPOMENE. 99
wagons. How can a people so circumstanced afford
the means of victory, or even of attack?
XLVII. Their particular mode of life may be im
puted partly to the situation of their country, and the
advantage they derive from their rivers; their lands
are well watered, and well adapted for pasturage.
The number of rivers is almost equal to the channels
of the Nile; the more celebrated of them, and those
which are navigable to the sea, I shall enumerate;
they are these: the Danube, having five mouths, the
Tyres, the Hypanis, the Borysthenes, Panticapes, Hy-
pacryis, Gerrhus, and the Tanai's.
XL VIII. No river of which we have any knowledge
is so vast as the Danube; it is always of the same
depth, experiencing no variation from summer or from
winter. It is the first river of Scythia to the east, and
it is the greatest of all, for it is swelled by the influx
of many others: there are five which particularly con
tribute to increase its size; one of these the Greeks
call Pyreton, the Scythians Porata; the other four
are the Tiarantus, Ararus, Naparis, and the Ordessus.
The first of these rivers is of immense size; flowing
towards the east, it mixes with the Danube: the
second, the Tiarantus, is smaller, having an inclina
tion to the west: betwixt these the Ararus, Naparis,
and Ordessus have their course, and empty themselves
into the Danube. These rivers have their rise in
Scythia, and swell the waters of the Danube.
XLIX. The Maris also, commencing among Jhe
Agathyrsi, is emptied into the Danube, which is like
wise the case with the three great rivers, Atlas, Auras,
and Tibisis; these flow from the summits of Mount
Haemus, and have the same termination. Into the
same river are received the waters of the Athres,
Noes, and Artanes, which flow through Thrace, and
the country of the Thracian Crobyzi. The Cius,
which, rising in Pconia, near Mount Rhodope, di
vides Mount Haemus, is also poured into the Danube.
The Angrus comos from Illyria, and with a north
ward course passes over the Tribalian plains, and
mixes with the Brongus; the Brongus meets the Dan
ube, which thus receives the waters of these two