ine upon which Dareios was preparing to
march has, apart from the Scythian race, the most ignorant nations
within it of all lands: for we can neither put forward any nation of
those who dwell within the region of Pontus as eminent in ability, nor
do we know of any man of learning 45 having arisen there, apart from the
Scythian nation and Anacharsis. By the Scythian race one thing which is
the most important of all human things has been found out more cleverly
than by any other men of whom we know; but in other respects I have no
great admiration for them: and that most important thing which they have
discovered is such that none can escape again who has come to attack
them, and if they do not desire to be found, it is not possible to catch
them: for they who have neither cities founded nor walls built, but all
carry their houses with them and are mounted archers, living not by the
plough but by cattle, and whose dwellings are upon cars, these assuredly
are invincible and impossible to approach.

47. This they have found out, seeing that their land is suitable to it
and at the same time the rivers are their allies: for first this land
is plain land and is grassy and well watered, and then there are rivers
flowing through it not much less in number than the channels in Egypt.
Of these as many as are noteworthy and also can be navigated from the
sea, I will name: there is Ister with five mouths, and after this Tyras,
Hypanis, Borysthenes, Panticapes, Kypakyris, Gerros and Tanais. These
flow as I shall now describe.

48. The Ister, which is the greatest of all the rivers which we know,
flows always with equal volume in summer and winter alike. It is the
first towards the West of all the Scythian rivers, and it has become the
greatest of all rivers because other rivers flow into it. And these
are they which make it great: 46--five in number are those 47 which flow
through the Scythian land, namely that which the Scythians call Porata
and the Hellenes Pyretos, and besides this, Tiarantos and Araros and
Naparis and Ordessos. The first-mentioned of these is a great river
lying towards the East, and there it joins waters with the Ister, the
second Tiarantos is more to the West and smaller, and the Araros and
Naparis and Ordessos flow into the Ister going between these two.

49. These are the native Scythian rivers which join to swell its stream,
while from the Agathyrsians flows the Maris and joins the Ister, and
from the summ