[3]
On the river and the lake is an inhabited city bearing the same name, Tanaïs; it was founded by the Greeks who held the Bosporus. Recently, however, it was sacked by King Polemon1 because it would not obey him. It was a common emporium, partly of the Asiatic and the European nomads, and partly of those who navigated the lake from the Bosporus, the former bringing slaves, hides, and such other things as nomads possess, and the latter giving in exchange clothing, wine, and the other things that belong to civilized life. At a distance of one hundred stadia off the emporium lies an island called Alopecia, a settlement of promiscuous people. There are also other small islands near by in the lake. The Tanaïs2 is two thousand two hundred stadia distant from the mouth of Lake Maeotis by a direct voyage towards the north; but it is not much farther by a voyage along the coast.
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
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