Above the Saginae are settled numerous Hunnic tribes. And from there onward the country has received the name of Eulysia, and barbarian peoples hold both the coast and the interior of this land, as far as the so called Maeotic Lake and the Tanais River which empties into the lake. And this lake has its outlet at the coast of the Euxine Sea. Now the people who are settled there were named in ancient times Cimmerians, but now they are called Utigurs. And above them to the north the countless tribes of the Antae are settled. But beside the exact point where the outlet of the lake commences dwell the Goths who are called Tetraxitae, a people who are not very numerous, but they reverence and observe the rites of the Christians as carefully as any people do. (The inhabitants indeed give the name Tanais also to this outlet which starts from the Maeotic Lake and extends to the Euxine Sea, a distance, they say, of twenty days’ journey. And they also call the wind which blows from there the Tanaitis.”) Now as to whether these Goths were once of the Arian belief, as the other Gothic nations are, or whether the faith as practised by them has shewn some other peculiarity, I am unable to say, for they themselves are entirely ignorant on this subject, but at the present time they honour the faith in a spirit of complete simplicity and with no vain questionings.
This people a short time ago (when, namely, the Emperor Justinian was in the twenty-first year of his reign) sent four envoys to Byzantium, begging him to give them a bishop; for the one who had been their priest had died not long before and they had learned that the emperor had actually sent a priest to the Abasgi; and the Emperor Justinian very willingly complied with their request before dismissing them. Now these envoys were moved by fear of the Utigur Huns in making the public declaration of the object of their coming — for there were many who heard their speeches — and so they made no statement whatever to the emperor openly except regarding the matter of the priest, but meeting him with the greatest possible secrecy, they declared everything, shewing how it would benefit the Roman empire if the barbarians who were their neighbours should be always on hostile terms with one another. Now as to the manner in which the Tetraxitae settled there and whence they migrated, I shall now proceed to tell.
V
In ancient times a vast throng of the Huns who were then called Cimmerians ranged over this region which I have just mentioned, and one king had authority over them all. And at one time the power was secured by a certain man to whom two sons were born, one of whom was named Utigur and the other Cutrigur. These two sons, when their father came to the end of his life, divided the power between them, and each gave his own name to his subjects; for the one group has been called Utigurs and the other Cutrigurs even to my time. All these now continued to live in this region, associating freely in all the business of life, but not mingling with the people who were settled on the other side of the lake and its outlet; for they never crossed these waters at any time nor did they suspect that they could be crossed, being fearful of that which was really easy, simply because they had never even attempted to cross them, and they remained utterly ignorant of the possibility.
Now beyond the Maeotic Lake and the outlet flowing from it the first people were the Goths called Tetraxitae, whom I have just mentioned, who in ancient times lived close along the shore of this strait; but the Goths and the Visigoths and Vandals were located far away from them as were other Gothic nations. These Tetraxitae were called also Scythians in ancient times, because all the nations who held these regions are called in general Scythians, while a few of them had an additional designation such as Sauromatae or Melanchlaenae or something else.
But as time went on, they say (if, indeed, the story is sound), some youths of the Cimmerians were engaged in hunting, and a single doe which was fleeing before them leaped into these waters. And the youths, either moved by a thirst for glory or in some sort of competition, or perhaps it was really some deity which constrained them, followed after this doe and refused absolutely to let her go, until they came with her to the opposite shore. And then the quarry, whatever it was, immediately disappeared from sight; for in my opinion it appeared there for no other purpose than that evil might befall the barbarians who lived in that region. Thus, while the youths did fail in their hunt, they found an incentive to battle and plunder. For they returned as fast as they could to their own land, and thus made it clear to all the Cimmerians that these waters could be crossed by them. Accordingly they immediately took up arms as a nation, and making the crossing with no delay got on the opposite mainland; this was at a time when the Vandals had already migrated from there and established themselves in Libya; while the Visigoths had taken up their abode in Spain. So they suddenly fell upon the Goths who inhabited these plains and slew many of them and turned the rest to flight. And as many as succeeded in escaping them migrated thence with their children and wives, leaving their ancestral abodes, and by ferrying across the Ister River they came into the land of the Romans.
And at first they committed many outrages against the inhabitants of that region, but later, with the emperor’s permission, they settled in Thrace; and during part of this time they were fighting on the side of the Romans, receiving pay from the emperor every year just as the other soldiers did and being called “foederati”; for so the Romans at that time called them in the Latin tongue, meaning to shew, I suppose, that the Goths had not been defeated by them in war, but had come into peaceful relations with them on the basis of some treaty; for the Latins call treaties in war “foedera,” as I have explained in the previous narrative; but during the rest of the time they were actually waging war against the Romans for no good reason, until they went off to Italy under the leadership of Theoderic. Thus then did the Goths fare.
But the Huns, after killing some of them and driving out the others, as stated, took possession of the land. And the Cutrigurs, on the one hand, summoned their children and wives and settled there in the very place where they have dwelt even to my time. And although they receive from the emperor many gifts every year, they still cross the Ister River continually and overrun the emperor’s land, being both at peace and at war with the Romans. The Utigurs, however, departed homeward with their leader, being destined to live alone in that land thereafter. Now when these Huns came near the Maeotic Lake, they chanced upon the Goths there who are called Tetraxitae. And at first the Goths formed a barrier with their shields and made a stand against their assailants in their own defence, trusting both in their own strength and the advantage of their position; for they are the most stalwart of all the barbarians of that region. Now the head of the outlet of the Maeotic Lake, where the Tetraxitae Goths were then settled, forms a crescent-shaped bay by which they were almost completely surrounded, so that only one approach, and that not a very wide one, was open to those who attacked them. But afterwards, seeing that the Huns were unwilling to waste any time there and the Goths were quite hopeless of holding out for a long time against the throng of their enemy, they came to an understanding with each other, agreeing that they should join forces and make the crossing in common, and that the Goths should settle on the opposite mainland, principally along the bank of the outlet (where they are actually settled at the present time), and that they should continue to be thereafter friends and allies of the Utigurs and live for ever on terms of complete equality with them. Thus it was that these Goths settled here, and the Cutrigurs, as I have said, being left behind in the land on the other side of the lake, the Utigurs alone possessed the land, making no trouble at all for the Romans, because they do not even dwell near them, but, being separated by many nations which lie between, they are forced, by no will of their own, not to meddle with them.
West of the Maeotic Lake, then, and the Tanais River the Cutrigur Huns established their homes over the greater part of the plains of that region, as I have said; and beyond them Scythians and Taurians hold the entire country, a certain part of which is even now called Taurica; and this is the place where they say the Temple of Artemis was, over which Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigeneia once pres
ided. The Armenians, however, claim that this temple was in the part of their land called Celesene, and that at that period all the peoples of this region were called Scythians, citing as evidence the story of Orestes and the city of Comana related by me in that part of my narrative. But as regards these matters, let each one speak according to his wish; for many things which happened elsewhere, or which, perhaps, never really happened at all, men are wont to appropriate to their own country, being indignant if all do not follow their opinion.
Beyond these nations there is an inhabited city on the coast, Bosporus by name, which became subject to the Romans not long ago. From the city of Bosporus to the city of Cherson, which is situated on the coast and has likewise been subject to the Romans from of old, all between is held by barbarians, Hunnic nations. And two other towns near Cherson, named Cepi and Phanaguris, have been subject to the Romans from ancient times and even to my day. But these not long ago were captured by some of the neighbouring barbarians and razed to the ground. From the city of Cherson to the mouth of the Ister River, which is also called the Danube, is a journey of ten days, and barbarians hold that whole region. Now the Ister River rises in the Celtic mountains, skirts the boundaries of Italy, flows into the lands of Dacia, Illyricum, and Thrace, and finally empties into the Euxine Sea. From that point all the territory as far as Byzantium is under the sway of the Roman emperor.
Such is the circuit of the Euxine Sea from Calchedon to Byzantium. As to the length of this circuit, however, I am unable to speak accurately regarding all portions of it, since such vast numbers of barbarians, as stated above, dwell along its shores, and the Romans have no intercourse at all with any of them except for an occasional interchange of embassies; indeed those who have attempted heretofore to ascertain these measurements have not been able to make any definite statement. This, however, is clear, that the right side of the Euxine Sea, from Calchedon, namely, to the Phasis River, is a journey of fifty-two days for an unencumbered traveller. From this fact one could not unreasonably draw the conclusion that the length of the other side of the Pontus likewise is not far from this.
VI
Since we have now reached an appropriate point in the narrative, it has seemed to me not out of place to mention the opinions concerning the boundaries of Asia and Europe which are debated among those who are experts in these matters. For, on the one hand, some of them say that these two continents are separated by the Tanais River, stoutly maintaining first of all that the division must be a natural one, and further supporting their claim by the fact that, while the sea extends from the west toward the east, the Tanais River flows from the north toward the south between the two continents; similarly, they say, the Egyptian Nile proceeds in the opposite direction from the south to the north and flows between Asia and Libya. On the other hand, others taking issue directly with them maintain that their reasoning is not sound. For they say that these two continents are divided originally by the strait at Gadira, which issues from the ocean, and by the sea which extends from that point, and that the land on the right of the strait and the sea received the names of Libya and Asia, while everything on the left was called Europe approximately as far as the end of the so-called Euxine Sea.
But on this hypothesis the Tanais River rises within the limits of Europe and empties into the Maeotic Lake, which in turn discharges its waters into the Euxine Sea neither at its end nor even at its middle, but actually beyond it. Yet the land on the left of this same sea is counted as a portion of Asia. But apart from this the river Tanais rises in the so-called Rhipaean mountains, which are in the land of Europe, as, in fact, those who have written of these matters from ancient times agree. Now the Ocean is very far removed from these Rhipaean mountains; consequently all the land beyond them and the Tanais River in both directions must necessarily be European. Just at what point, then, the Tanais River begins to divide the two continents it is not easy to say. But if any river must be said to divide the two continents, that river would surely be the Phasis. For it flows in a direction opposite to that of the strait of Gadira, and so passes between the two continents; for while the strait, coming out of the ocean and forming this sea, has these two continents, one on either side, the Phasis River flows almost at the end of the Euxine Sea and empties into the middle of the crescent, obviously continuing the division of the land heretofore made by the sea. These then are the arguments which the two sides put forth as they wrangle over the question.
But not only the former argument, but also that which I have just stated, can boast, as I shall shew, of high antiquity and the support of some men of very ancient times, for I am aware that as a general thing all men, if they first discover an ancient argument, are no longer willing to devote themselves to the labour involved in the search for truth nor to learn instead some later theory about the matter in hand, but the more ancient view always seems to them sound and worthy of honour, while contemporary opinions are considered negligible and are classed as absurd. Furthermore, in the present case the investigation is not concerned with any matter to be grasped only by the mind or the intellect, or that is in any other way obscure, but with rivers and lands: these are things which time has not been able either to change or to conceal in any way. For the test is near at hand and vision can provide most satisfactory evidence, and I think no obstacle will be placed in the way of those eager to discover the truth. To proceed, then, Herodotus of Halicarnassus in the Fourth Book of his History says that the entire earth is one, but is considered to be divided into three parts, having three separate titles, Libya, Asia, and Europe. And between two of them, on the one hand, Libya and Asia namely, flows the Egyptian Nile, while Asia and Europe, on the other hand, are divided by the Colchian Phasis. But knowing as he did that some thought that the Tanais River performed this function, he mentioned this view also afterwards. And it has seemed to me not inappropriate to insert in my narrative the actual language of Herodotus, which is as follows. “Nor am I able to conjecture for what reason it is that, though the earth is one, three names are applied to it which are women’s names. And its lines of division have been established as the Egyptian Nile and the Colchian Phasis. But others name the Tanais River, which empties into the Maeotic Lake and the Cimmerian Strait.” Also the tragic poet Aeschylus in the Prometheus Unbound, at the very beginning of the tragedy, calls the Phasis River the limit of the land of both Asia and Europe.
At this point I shall also mention the fact that some of those who are versed in such matters think that the Maeotic Lake forms the Euxine Sea, and that it spreads out from this lake partly to the right and partly to the left, this being the reason why the lake is called the mother of the Pontus. And they make this statement on the basis of the observation that from the place called Hieron the outlet of this sea flows down toward Byzantium just as if it were a river, and consequently they consider this to be the limit of the Pontus. But those who oppose this view explain that the entire sea is, of course, one, coming from the ocean, and, without any other ending, extends to the land of the Lazi, unless, indeed, they say, anyone considers the mere change of name to constitute a real difference, seeing that the sea is called Pontus beyond a certain point.
But if the current does flow down from the place called Hieron to Byzantium, this has nothing to do with the matter. For the phenomena which are exhibited in all straits appear to be susceptible of no explanation, nor has anyone ever shewn himself able to account for them. Indeed it was this question which led Aristotle of Stagira, a man prominent among all others as a philosopher, to go to Chalcis on Euboea, where he observed the strait which they call Euripus in an effort to discover by careful investigation the physical reason why it is and in what manner it comes about that sometimes the current of the strait flows from the west, but at other times from the east, and the sailing of all boats there is governed by this fact; whenever, for example, the current is running from the east and the mariners have begun to sail their boats from that direction following the inflow of the water, as they are a
ccustomed to do, if then the current turns upon itself, a thing which is wont to happen there many a time, it immediately turns these boats back in the direction from which they have started, while the other boats sail from the west to the opposite end, even though no wind has blown upon them in the least but deep calm prevails there with all winds absent; all this the Stagirite observed and pondered for a long time, until he worried himself to death with anxious thought and so reached the term of his life. But this is not an isolated case, for in the strait also which separates Italy from Sicily nature plays many strange tricks. For it appears that the current runs into this strait from the sea called the Adriatic, and this in spite of the fact that the forward movement of the sea takes place from the ocean and Gadira. But there are also numerous whirlpools which appear there suddenly from no cause apparent to us and destroy the ships. It is on account of this that the poets say that the boats are gulped down by Charybdis, when any chance to be in this strait at such a time. But the advocates of the second view think that all these exceedingly strange phenomena which present themselves in all straits come about in consequence of the two sides coming very close to each other; for the water, they say, being constrained by the limited space, is subject to some strange and unaccountable compulsion.
Delphi Complete Works of Procopius Page 80