Book chapter
Географ и правитель: «География» Страбона как дидактическое произведение
In book
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.
Textual Notes on Strabo and Thucydides
1. Strabo’s report on the Soanes (XI. 2. 19: Xρῶνται δ’ οἱ Σόανες φαρμάκοις πρὸς τὰς ἀκίδας θαυμαστῶς, καὶ τοὺς ἀφαρμάκτοις τετρωμένους βέλεσι λυπεῖ κατὰ τὴν ὀσμήν, in accordance with Casaubon’s edition) may be read without conjectures or assumptions about a lacuna if we regard the verb λυπεῖ as connected with φάρμακα and therefore used in the singular. The following translation is proposed: “The Soanes use poisons for their arrows in a remarkable manner: [the poisons] vex with their odour even those who are wounded by unpoisoned missiles”.
2. In Thucydides’ account of new poleis (Thuc. I. 7. 1) the verb κτίζομαι means ‘create’; a more exact translation of [πόλεις] τείχεσιν ἐκτίζοντο is thus “the cities … were created by walls’. The emphasis in this case is placed not on building and fortifying the cities but on their territorial formation.
The chapter describes the peculiarities of the creative method of Strabo and tells about the possibilities and perspectives of the use of his description of the Black Sea region as a source of historical knowledge.
The Problem of Sanctuaries of the Chora of Chersonesus Taurica
Angelina Zedgenidze
This article presents the first ever study of a network of ancient Greek sanctuaries situated on the coast of the Heracleian Peninsula (Crimea) and linked to the chora (i.e. the agricultural territory) of Chersonesus Taurica. The reconstruction of this system has never been a topic of archaeological and historiographic research. The source of information on these sanctuaries are the reports by Pallas and Dubois de Montpéreux. Pallas discovered two sanctuaries, one at Aya Burun Promontory (Russ. Мыс Айя Бурун) and the other at Lermontov Promontory (Russ. Мыс Лермонтова). Dubois de Montpéreux gave a description of the remains of other two sanctuaries and interpreted one of them (near Mramornaya Valley/Мраморная балка) as a sanctuary of the Tauri, the indigenous people of the Heracleian Peninsula, and the second, as an ancient Greek temple (near Streletskaya Bay/Стрелецкая бухта). To these sites we should add the temple of Parthenos on the Parthenion Promontory (the present-day Chersones Promontory/Мыс Херсонес) and the sanctuary of the same goddess in the city of Chersonesus; these two sanctuaries are mentioned in Strabo’s Geography. We have come to the conclusion that these sites made up a network of sanctuaries situated on promontories and, apart from their sacral function, were used as navigation signs. The formation of this system probably dates back to the period when Greeks were occupying the territory of the Heracleian Peninsula, i.e. from the end of the 5th and during the 4th century BC. The main problem associated with these sites is the absence of archaeological studies of those locations which were described by Pallas and Dubois de Montpéreux. Research would have clarified both the localisation and the purpose of the structures described by these authors. However, Pallas and Dubois de Montpéreux had studied the sites in question in the period when they were still intact, i.e. before the later destruction of the environs of Sevastopol. We should therefore pay attention to their reports as important sources for the study of the structure of the chora of Chersonesus.