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Аорсы в "Географии" Страбона (Strabo XI, 5, 8)
Aorses in Strabo’s Geography (11, 5, 8)
The paper examines Strabo’s report on Aorses, and particularly this sentence: Δοκοῦσι δ’ οι Ἄορσοι και οι Σιρακες φυγάδες ειναι τῶν ἀνωτέρω και προσάρκτιοι μαλλον Ἀορσων (11, 5, 8; in accordance with Casaubon’s edition). The editors either make conjectures signifcantly changing the meaning of the sentence or assume a lacuna here. We give a detailed analysis of all the available editions, including the palimpsest of the Geography, and come to the conclusion that Casaubon’s edition in this place does not require conjectures or assumptions about a lacuna. The following translation is proposed: “[These] Aorses and [these] Siraces seem to be fugitives of those in the interior [of the country] and [they live] more northwards of Aorses”. Tῶν ἀνωτέρω here means not “of those in the north” but “of those in the interior”. Thus, according to Strabo, the mutual position of the two branches of Aorses is as follows: one branch lived on the Tanais and together with Siraces were fugitives of those in the interior of the country (φυγάδες τῶν ἀνωτέρω). This branch was located to the north of the other Aorses (προσάρκτιοι μαλλον Ἀορσων), who possessed a greater territory and reigned over the larger part of the Caspian coast.