Tanais
- The river Tanais, now the Don, Mel. 1, 1, 6; 1, 2, 1; 1, 2, 6 al.; Plin. 4, 12, 24, § 78; 6, 7, 7, § 19; Hor. C. 3, 10, 1; 3, 29, 28; 4, 15, 24 et saep.: Tanaimque nivalem, Verg. G. 4, 517; Liv. 38, 38.—Hence,
- 1 Tănăītae, ārum, m., the inhabitants of the country near the Don, Plin. 6, 7, 7, § 22; Amm.31, 3, 1.—
- 2 Tă-năītis, ĭdis, f., she that lives by the Don, i. e. an Amazon, Sen. Hippol. 399.—
- b A river in Numidia, Sall. J. 90, 2.—
- 3 Tă-năītĭcus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to the Don: potor Scythicae undae, Sid. Carm. 5, 479: crusta, id. ib. 11, 96.—
- II A proper name of a man, Verg. A. 12, 513; Hor. S. 1, 1, 105.
TA´NAIS(ΤάναϊςPtol. 3.5.14, 5.9. § § 1, 2, &c.), a famous river, which in the course of time was universally assumed as the boundary between Europe and Asia. (Strah. 7.310, 11.490; Mela, 1.3; Scyl. p. 30, &c.) The older writers of antiquity thought that it rose from a large lake (Hdt. 4.57; Ephor. ap. Anon. Per. P. Eux. p. 4), which is really the case, its source being in the lake Ivan Ozero, in the government of Toula;whilst later writers held that it had its sources either in the Caucasus (Strah. 11.493; Ammian. 22.8), or in the Rhipaean mountains. (Mela, 1.19; Lucan (Luc. 3.272; Procop. B. G. 4.6, &c.) The last of these hypotheses was most generally accepted; but there was likewise a fourth which made it a branch of the Ister (Strab. l. c.). Whilst Strabo, however, adduces these different opinions, he himself holds that its source was entirely unknown (2.107). It is represented as flowing in so rapid a stream that it never froze. (Mela, l. c.;cf. Nonnus, Dionys. 23.85.) It flows first in a SE. and then in a SW. direction; and after receiving the Hyrgis (or Syrgis) as a tributary, empties itself into the Palus Maeotis ( Sea of Azof) by two mouths. (Hdt. 4.100.) These mouths, which are at the most northern point of the Palus Maeotis, Strabo places at the distance of 60 stadia from one another (7.310), whilst Artemidorus (ap. Eustath. ad Dion.14) makes them only 7 stadia distant. At present, however, the Donhas 13 mouths. (Clarke, Trav. 1. p. 423.) The etymology of the name is discussed by Plutarch ( de Flum. 14) and Eustathius (l. c.); but its true derivation is from the Scythian word Donor Dan, signifying water,which occurs in the names of other rivers, as Danubius, Eridanus, &c. (Forbiger, Handb. des Alt. Geogr. p. 325, n. 16.) The Tanais is frequently alluded to by the Latin poets. (Hor. Od. 3.10. 1; Verg. G. 4.517; Ov. Ex. Pont. 4.10, 55, &c.) Clarke ( Travels, i. pp. 339, 448, note) would identify it with the Danaetz, from the similarity of the name, an hypothesis also accepted by Lindner ( Scythien, p. 66); but there can scarcely be a doubt that it should be identified with the Don.
[T.H.D]TA´NAIS(Τάναϊς, Ptol. 3.5.26, 8.18.5), a town of Asiatic Sarmatia, lying on the more southern mouth and between both mouths of the river of the same name. It may also be described as situated at the northernmost point of the Palus Maeotis, and not far from the sea. It was a flourishing colony of the Milesians, enjoying an extensive commerce, and being the principal market of the surrounding tribes, both of Europe and Asia, who here bartered slaves and skins for the wine, apparel, and other articles of more civilised nations. (Strab. 11. p. 493.) The inhabitants soon reduced a considerable part of the neighbouring coasts to subjection, but were in turn themselves subdued by the kings of the Bosporus (Id. 7. p. 310, 11. p. 495). An attempt to regain their independence only ended in the destruction of their city by Polemon I. (Id. p. 493), a little before the time when Strabo wrote. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 6.7. s. 7) speaks of Tanais as no longer existing in his time; but it appears to have been subsequently restored (Ptol. ll. cc.;Steph. B. p. 633), though it never recovered its former prosperity. Clarke (1. p. 415) could discover no trace of it, nor even a probable site; but its ruins are said to exist near the modern Nedrigoska(cf. Gräfe, Mém. de l'Ac. des Sc. à St. Petersb. vi. Ser. 6. p. 24; Stempowsky, Nouv. Jour. Asiat. 1. p. 55; Böckh. Inscr. 2. p. 1008).
[T.H.D](Τάναϊς). (1) Now the Don, i.e. “water”; a great river, which rises in the north of Sarmatia Europaea (about the centre of Russia), and flows to the southeast till it comes near the Volga, when it turns to the southwest, and falls into the northeast angle of the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azof). It was usually considered the boundary between Europe and Asia.
(2) A city of Sarmatia Asiatica, on the north side of the southern mouth of the Tanaïs, at a little distance from the sea.
An ancient city on the steep right bank of the Mertvyi Donets, a branch of the Don delta, near the village of Nedvigovka. Founded in the 3d c. B.C. (Strab. 11.2.3), it replaced Elizavetovskoe as the chief commercial center in the lower Don and the main intermediary between the Graeco-Roman world and the inhabitants N of the Sea of Azov. Its mixed population is proved by the indigenous names found in Greek inscriptions. The city was destroyed by the Bosporan king Polemon ca. 8 B.C., but it recovered and began to flourish in the late 1st c. A.D. Its destruction ca. 240, perhaps by Goths, put an end to the city as a major economic and cultural center but it revived in the late 4th c. and existed very modestly until it died out sometime before the mid 5th c.
Two walls encircled the city: the inner one of stone enclosed an area of ca. 5 ha; at a distance of 215 m from it was an earthen wall. Between these two rings of fortification were the huts of the poor. Within the walls traces of houses have been found, built of uncut stone bonded with mud and roofed with clay tile. There is no evidence of a street plan. There are potters' kilns and evidence of local glass production.
The necropolis outside the walls contained inhumation burials and a few cremations. Grave gifts include many Greek objects.
BIBLIOGRAPHYE. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (1913) 566-69; T. N. Knipovich, Tanais: Istoriko-arkheologicheskoe issledovanie (1949); D. B. Shelov, Nekropol' Tanaisa: Raskopki 1955-1958 gg. [Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR, No. 98] (1961); id., ed., Drevnosti Nizhnego Dona [Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR, No. 127] (1965); id., ed., Antichnye Drevnosti Podon'ia-Priazov'ia [Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR, No. 154] (1969); id., Tanais i Nizhnii Don v III-I vv. do n.e. (1970); id., Tanais i Nizhnii Don v pervye veka nashei ery (1972); A. L. Mongait, Archaeology in the USSR, tr. M. W. Thompson (1961) 202-3; E. Belin de Ballu, L'Histoire des Colonies grecques du Littoral nord de la Mer Noire (1965) 148-50; I. B. Brašinskij, “Recherches soviétiques sur les monuments antiques des régions de la Mer Noire,” Eirene 7 (1968) 102-3.
M. L. BERNHARD & Z. SZTETYŁŁO- between Scythians and Sauromatae (the Don): Hdt. 4.21
- its source and mouth: Hdt. 4.57, Hdt. 4.100
- crossed by Amazons and Sauromatae: Hdt. 4.116