Sea or bay

Sinus Eusinus

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The western end of the Black Sea, from the mouths of the Danube to the strait that divides Europe from Asia, carries the label Sinus Eusinus. The name has suffered badly. Most of its letters are damaged, and a gash in the parchment has cut away at least one near the end, so the second word is only a reconstruction. Older copies read Auxinus instead. Neither form turns up in ancient writers, who called the sea Euxinus or, like the Greek geographer Strabo and the Roman writer Pliny, Axenus, the inhospitable. Just beyond the strait the map starts over with Pontus Euxinus, almost a repetition.

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