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Σκυθικῆς γῆς. H. means that the coast of Scythia does not continue (in a straight line that of Thrace), but that ‘as there is a sweep made’ (κόλπου) the Thracian coast line ‘projects’ (πρόκειται), just as Egypt projects (ii. 12. 1) beyond the line of North Africa. ἐκδιδοῖ, ‘runs out’ into it; i. e. has its mouth in it (cf. 49. 3 n.). The lower course of the Ister is one of the most difficult points in Herodotean geography. As Niebuhr pointed out (K. S. pp. 156, 356, and map), H. conceives it as running due south (cf. Macan, vol. ii, Map, and p. 18). Niebuhr's arguments are: (1) The supposed correspondence of Ister and Nile (ii. 33. 2 n.). (2) In v. 9 the land to the north of the Ister is not Scythia or that of the Agathyrsi but ‘desert’, and (v. 10, by implication) ὑπὸ τὴν ἄρκτον. (3) Only in this way can be explained the great extent of the Thracians (v. 3). (4) The western boundary of Scythia (i. e. admittedly the Danube) runs at a right angle to the coast (101. 3). The last point seems decisive. Rawlinson says rightly that this view, viz. that the lower Danube runs south, is inconsistent with other parts of H., e. g. (1) the Danube receives from Scythia five tributaries, each west of the other (c. 49); the boundary therefore runs east and west, and not north and south; (2) the tributaries from the Haemus flow in from the south (c. 50), so the Danube must run east and west; (3) it runs into the sea ‘with its mouth facing south-east’ (εὖρον). But (1) and (2) only prove either that H. did not know these facts when he wrote c. 101, or, more probably, that he forgot them from a love of symmetry; and if the emphasis be laid on στόμα (§ 1), is rather for the south course than against it. Why mention the ‘mouth’, if the whole course were south-east? Macan well suggests that H.'s mistake is helped by his confusing the Danube and the Pruth, which latter river flows mainly north and south.
τὸ . . . ἀπὸ Ἴστρου: adverbial (not with τὸ πρὸς θάλασσαν); translate ‘starting from the Ister’. So too τὸ δὲ ἀπὸ ταύτης below (§ 3) is adverbial. αὐτῆς: excluding the Tauric land. ἀρχαίη. Stein translates ‘Scythia proper’; but if so, what was ‘new Scythia’? Probably Western Scythia, which was agricultural (c. 17), is meant (Macan); this would have been the part which the Greeks knew first. μέχρι . . . Καρκινίτιδος. Carcinitis is the city on the north-west edge of the Tauric peninsula. The gulf on which it stands really runs east and west; but H. thought it ran north and south (as Strabo 308 also implies). H. was quite ignorant of the real shape of the Crimea, which he conceives of as resembling Attica, i. e. as a triangular projection of Scythia, running south-east (§ 4). Strabo (308) was the first to call it Χερρόνησος.
τὴν αὐτήν: i. e. the Pontus. ὀρεινήν. Only the south coast of the Crimea is really mountainous. χερσονήσου: that of Kertsch, which H. rightly says runs east.
ἔστι γὰρ τῆς Σκυθικῆς. This does not mean that Scythia is washed on one side by the Black Sea, on the other by the Palus Maeotis (as is often held, e. g. by Macan, ii. 17); but that its projection, the Tauric peninsula, has sea both on south and east. This is rendered probable by the words κατά περ τῆς Ἀττικῆς, and proved by the fact that H. always calls the P. Maeotis λίμνη (100. 1 n.), not θάλασσα. γουνόν, ‘high ground’; H. (§ 4) recognizes that the Crimea is much larger than Attica (μᾶλλον ἀνέχοντα). ἀπὸ Θορικοῦ. Thoricus and Anaphlystus were the fortresses that protected the Laurian mines.
ὡς εἶναι κτλ. Cf. ii. 10. 1 n. for the construction. ἄλλως. This passage not only illustrates H.'s geographical inaccuracy, but also the way in which his work was written; the comparison of Iapygia looks like an afterthought, and must have been added after H.'s visit to the west (cf. Introd. p. 8, and for Kirchhoff's use of this passage ib. p. 10). ἀποταμοίατο. The distance from Brundisium to Tarentum is one day's journey. (Strabo 282.) παρόμοια κτλ. The construction is παρόμοια ἄλλα (ἄλλοισι by attraction) τοῖσι οἶκε ἡ Ταυρική.
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