XII.] DESCRIPTION OF EUROPE. 255
scene afforded by the races and other sports to which it was
devoted, the works of art in its neighbourhood, and the handsome
structures which were beginning to encroach upon it1. They
enable us forcibly to realise the impression made on an intelligent
stranger by Rome in the Augustan age.
From Italy, before proceeding to Greece, Strabo retraces his
steps northward, and in his seventh book_gives an Northern
account, as far as his scanty information allows, of and Eastern
the northern and eastern districts of Europe— urope'
Germany and the lands between it and the Euxine, the countries
to the north of that sea and about the Palus Maeotis, and the
region to the south of the Danube, comprising Illyricum, Epirus,
Macedonia, and Thrace. In treating of the northern part of this
area he availed himself of the intelligence which had been recently
obtained through the campaigns of Drusus and Germanicus, and
he remarks in an interesting manner on the nearness of the upper
waters of the Danube and the Rhine9: but, as we have already
seen, his knowledge of the north of Europe was unnecessarily
limited, owing to his mistrust of Pytheas and Herodotus. All the
more striking in consequence of this is the accurate account which
he has given of the Tauric Chersonese3 (Crimea); his acquaint-
ance with this was due in great measure to the narratives which
existed of the expeditions of Mithridates in those parts, and of his
ultimate occupation of the country. In the latter part of this
book there is a sketch of the topography of Actium, Nicopolis,
and the entrance of the strait, which was the scene of the famous
battle4; and also of that of the Thracian Bosporus and the Golden
Horn, together with a graphic account of the tunny-fishing which
took place there4. The concluding chapters, which dealt with
Macedonia and Thrace, are unfortunately lost, and our knowledge
of their contents is derived from epitomes; this, however, is the
only portion of the entire treatise which is wanting.
Strabo's next three books are devoted to Greece; the eighth^
to the Peloponnese, the ninth to northern Greece. " '
the tenth to the islands, both those to the west, and
those to the east of the continent. There is a want of thoroughness
1 5- 3- 8- z 7- 1- 5- * 7- 4-
4 7, 7. 6. 5 7.6. i, *.