ИСТИНА

Alexander the Great during his campaign in Central Asia in 330 BC, having crossed the Oxus (modern Amu Darya), came to Iaxartes (modern Syrdarya), mistaking him for Tanais (modern Don), behind which the Scythians live. Alexander puts the Scythians to flight, receives from them the royal daughter as a wife, accept embassies from them (see Strabo XI, 7, 4; Plin. NH VI, 49; Curt. Ruf. VII, 6, 11-13; 8, 30; Arrian. Alex. IV, 1, 1-2; 15, 1-5; Plutarch. Alex. 44-46). Moreover, Curtius Rufus reports that they were European Scythians living on the banks of the Cimmerian Bosporus, i.e. in the Crimea, and border on Thrace. Strabo, following Eratosthenes, sees in the reports about Alexander on Tanais a forgery and mystification of his historians, who want to please Alexander's vanity and show that he also conquered European Scythia. However, there are facts showing that long before Alexander, the Central Asian and North Pontic realities were identified and contaminated in a very bizarre combination, thanks to which Tanais could be identified with Iaxartes or be his continuation. From a modern point of view, it is impossible to imagine the connection of Syrdarya with Don. And the theory of the Caspian Sea as a gulf of the Northern Ocean, which prevailed in antiquity, should have prevented any water communication between the rivers flowing on both sides of the Caspian. Nevertheless, the perception of Tanais as a continuation of Iaxartes is an echo of an ancient tradition that began with Hecateus of Miletus and Herodotus and manifested itself in the writings of Aristotle, the teacher of Alexander. This report is devoted to investigation of this tradition.