ds, and bring up their children till they reach the age of
puberty; nor, if asked, can any one of them tell you where he was born,
as he was conceived in one place, born in another at a great distance,
and brought up in another still more remote.

11. In truces they are treacherous and inconstant, being liable to
change their minds at every breeze of every fresh hope which presents
itself, giving themselves up wholly to the impulse and inclination of
the moment; and, like brute beasts, they are utterly ignorant of the
distinction between right and wrong. They express themselves with great
ambiguity and obscurity; have no respect for any religion or
superstition whatever; are immoderately covetous of gold; and are so
fickle and irascible, that they very often on the same day that they
quarrel with their companions without any provocation, again become
reconciled to them without any mediator.

12. This active and indomitable race, being excited by an unrestrainable
desire of plundering the possessions of others, went on ravaging and
slaughtering all the nations in their neighbourhood till they reached
the Alani, who were formerly called the Massagetae; and from what country
these Alani come, or what territories they inhabit (since my subject has
led me thus far), it is expedient now to explain: after showing the
confusion existing in the accounts of the geographers, who ... at last
have found out ... of truth.

13. The Danube, which is greatly increased by other rivers falling into
it, passes through the territory of the Sauromatae, which extends as far
as the river Don, the boundary between Asia and Europe. On the other
side of this river the Alani inhabit the enormous deserts of Scythia,
deriving their own name from the mountains around; and they, like the
Persians, having gradually subdued all the bordering nations by repeated
victories, have united them to themselves, and comprehended them under
their own name. Of these other tribes the Neuri inhabit the inland
districts, being near the highest mountain chains, which are both
precipitous and covered with the everlasting frost of the north. Next to
them are the Budini and the Geloni, a race of exceeding ferocity, who
flay the enemies they have slain in battle, and make of their skins
clothes for themselves and trappings for their horses. Next to the
Geloni are the Agathyrsi, who dye both their bodies and their hair of a
blue colour, the lower classes using spots few