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τριήκοντα. The distance (about 300 miles) is a little more than that across Asia Minor (about 250 miles), to which H. assigns only five days (72. 3 n.), while here he allows thirty days, a far more probable estimate. H.'s distances are not actual measurements, but are only estimates based on the usual time taken for the journeys. Here, on the Black Sea coast, a great detour would be necessary.

For the Saspeires north-west of Media and south of the modern Georgia, cf. iii. 94 n. H.'s words here and in iv. 37 seem to point to the fact that one of the great roads of the Persian Empire ran from Ecbatana, past Lake Urmiah, into the upper valley of the Araxes, where the Saspeires lived, and thence over the mountains, to the Phasis valley and the Black Sea.

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