Periplus of the Euxine Sea

The Periplus of the Euxine Sea is a guidebook that describes the places one encounters when sailing along the coast of the Black Sea, known to the Greeks as the Euxine, or Hospitable, Sea. Arrian of Nicomedia wrote it around AD 130–131. It takes the form of a letter from Arrian to the Emperor Hadrian in Rome, who took a keen interest in geographical research and had personally travelled through much of his vast domains.

The work provides an accurate topographical survey of the shores of the Euxine, from Trapezus to Byzantium. It was probably composed while Arrian served as legate of Cappadocia, shortly before a war against the Alani broke out, and at the same time he drafted instructions for the march of a Roman army against the barbarian peoples. Its practical purpose was to inform the emperor about the lay of the land and supply useful facts, such as the distances between cities and the harbours where ships could shelter from a storm, should Hadrian need to mount a military campaign in the region.

The Periplus is valued for its detail on the southern and eastern shores, while its accounts of the northern coast give larger intervals and less precise measurements. Edward Gibbon summed up its scope by noting that it recorded what the governor had seen, heard and known of the whole region.