Res gestae 23.6.13

23.6.13

Utque geographici stili formarunt, hac specie distinguitur omnis circuitus ante dictus. Ab arctoo cardine usque ad Caspias portas, Cadusiis conterminat et Scytharum gentibus multis et Arimaspis hominibus luscis et feris. Ab occidua plaga contingit Armenios et Niphaten et in Asia sitos Albanos, Mare Rubrum et Scenitas Arabas quos Saracenos posteritas appellavit: Mesopotamiam sub axe meridiali despectat: orienti a fronte contrarius ad Gangen extenditur flumen, quod Indorum intersecans terras, in pelagus eiectatur australe.

And as the pens of geographers have drawn it, the whole circuit just described has this form. In the northern direction, to the Caspian Gates it borders on the Cadusii, on many tribes of the Scythians, and on the Arimaspse, wild, one-eyed men. On the west it touches Armenia, Niphates, the Asiatic Albani, the Red Sea, and the Scenitic Arabs, whom men of later times called the Saracens. Under the southern heaven it looks down on Mesopotamia. Opposite the eastern front it extends to the Ganges river, which cuts through India and empties into the southern ocean.