north toward the Pontic Sea, furnishing
a boundary to the Scythian tribes by its ridge, and
even touches the waters of the Ister with its clustered
hills. Being cut by this river, it divides, and in Scythia
is named Taurus also. Such then is the great range, 55
almost the mightiest of mountain chains, rearing aloft its
summits and by its natural conformation supplying men
with impregnable strongholds. Here and there it divides
where the ridge breaks apart and leaves a deep gap, thus
forming now the Caspian Gates, and again the Armenian
or the Cilician, or of whatever name the place may be.
Yet they are barely passable for a wagon, for both sides
are sharp and steep as well as very high. The range has
different names among various peoples. The Indian calls
it Imaus and in another part Paropamisus. The Parthian
calls it first Choatras and afterward Niphates; the Syrian
and Armenian call it Taurus; the Scythian names it Caucasus
and Rhipaeus, and at its end calls it Taurus. Many
other tribes have given names to the range. Now that we
have devoted a few words to describing its extent, let us
return to the subject of the Amazons.

[Sidenote: THE AMAZONS]

VIII Fearing their race would fail, they sought marriage 56
with neighboring tribes. They appointed a day for
meeting once in every year, so that when they should
return to the same place on that day in the following year
each mother might give over to the father whatever male
child she had borne, but should herself keep and train for
warfare whatever children of the female sex were born.
Or else, as some maintain, they exposed the males, destroying
the life of the ill-fated child with a hate like
that of a stepmother. Among them childbearing was
detested, though everywhere else it is desired. The terror 57
of their cruelty was increased by common rumor; for
what hope, pray, would there be for a captive, when it
was considered wrong to spare even a son? Hercules,
they say, fought against them and overcame Menalippe,
yet more by guile than by valor. Theseus, moreover, took
Hippolyte captive, and of her he begat Hippolytus. And
in later times the Amazons had a queen named Penthesilea,
famed in the tales of the Trojan war. These women
are said to have kept their power even to the time of
Aleander the Great.

[Sidenote: REIGN OF TELEFUS AND EURYPYLUS]

IX But say not "Why does a story which deals with 58
the men of the Goths have so much to say of t