Book 7
4.2
As one sails out of the gulf, one comes, on the left, to a small city and another harborCorais, from a conjecture of Casaubon, emends “another harbor” to Fair Harbor.” But since Ptolemaeus 3.5.2 refers to a Kalos Limen on the opposite coast, the present translator conjectures that Strabo wrote “another Fair Harbor.” It is known that there were two settlements of the Chersonesites north of the great bay on which the city of Chersonesus was situated and that their names were “Cercinitis” and “Kalos Limen.” See Latyschew, and the inscription is S. Ber. Akad. Berl. 1892, 479; and Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. “Bosporus,” p. 772 and s.v. “Chersonesos,” p. 2265. belonging to the Chersonesites. For next in order as one sails along the coast is a great cape which projects towards the south and is a part of the Chersonesus as a whole;Also called the “Great Chersonesus” (the Crimea), as distinguished from the “Little Chersonesus.” Strabo means that the cape in question and the Little Chersonesus are identical. The cape (or peninsula) was bounded on the north by the isthmus (later mentioned), and this isthmus was marked by a wall and trench (see 7. 4. 7) which connected Ctenus Harbor (now the Harbor of Sebastopol) with Symbolon Limen (now the Harbor of Balaklava). and on this cape is situated a city of the Heracleotae, a colony of the Heracleotae who live on the Pontus,In the Paphlagonian city called Heracleia Pontica (now Erekli). and this place itselfThe “city” just mentioned. is called Chersonesus,“New Chersonesus,” which is now in ruins near Sebastopol. “Old Chersonesus” (in ruins in Strabo’s time) was near the isthmus of the little peninsula which terminates in Cape Fanary. being distant as one sails along the coastThat is, including the entire circuit around the coast of Karkinit Bay. four thousand four hundred stadia from the Tyras. In this city is the temple of the Parthenos, a certain deity;“Parthenos” (“Virgin”) usually means Athene; but in this case it means either the Tauric Artemis (see 5. 3. 12 and Diod. Sic. 4.44), or (what is more likely) Iphigenia (see Herodotus, 4. 103). In saying “deity,” and not “goddess,” Strabo seems purposely non-committal as between the two. and the capeNow Cape Fanary. which is in front of the city, at a distance of one hundred stadia, is also named after this deity, for it is called the Parthenium, and it has a shrine and xoanonSee 4. 1. 4, and footnote. of her. Between the city and the cape are three harbors. Then comes the Old Chersonesus, which has been razed to the ground; and after it comes a narrow-mouthed harbor, where, generally speaking, the Tauri, a Scythian tribe, used to assemble their bands of pirates in order to attack all who fled thither for refuge. It is called Symbolon Limen.“Signal Harbor”; now the Harbor of Balaklava. This harbor forms with another harbor called Ctenus Limen“Comb Harbor” (now the Harbor of Sebastopol); probably so called from the sharp indentations in the coast. an isthmus forty stadia in width; and this is the isthmus that encloses the Little Chersonesus, which, as I was saying, is a part of the Great Chersonesus and has on it the city of Chersonesus, which bears the same name as the peninsula.
