[16] Can one find any fertility to compare with this near to the Dnieper, or that part of Keltica next the ocean,
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where the vine either does not grow at all, or attains no maturity.
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However, in the more southerly portions of these districts,
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close to the sea, and those next the Bosphorus,
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the vine brings its fruit to maturity, although the grapes are exceedingly small, and the vines are covered up all the winter. And in the parts near the mouth of the Palus Maeotis, the frost is so strong that a general of Mithridates defeated the barbarians here in a cavalry engagement during the winter, and on the very same spot in a naval fight in summer, when the ice was thawed. Eratosthenes furnishes us with the following inscription, which he found in the temple of Aesculapius at Panticapaeeon,
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on a brazen vase which had been broken by the frost:—