=54. MELANTHVS.= The modern Melet Irmak flows into the Black Sea about 25 kilometres west of Trabzon (Trapezus). It is mentioned in passing at Pliny _NH_ VI 11. =55-56. QVIQVE DVAS TERRAS, ASIAM CADMIQVE SOROREM, / SEPARAT ET CVRSVS INTER VTRAMQVE FACIT.= The Tanais (Don) is named as the border between Europe and Asia by Pliny (_NH_ IV 78) and Avienus (_Descr Orb_ 28 & 861). Compare as well Lucan III 272-76 'qua uertice lapsus / Riphaeo Tanais diuersi nomina mundi / imposuit ripis Asiaeque et terminus idem / Europae, mediae dirimens confinia terrae, / nunc hunc, nunc illum, qua flectitur, ampliat orbem'. Vibius Sequester (_Geog Lat min_ [Riese] p. 212) has an entry 'Hypanis Scythiae qui, ut ait Gallus "uno tellures diuidit amne duas": Asiam enim ab Europa separat'. The Hypanis cannot be the river Ovid is here referring to, for it has already been mentioned in 47; but, as Lenz saw, the line from Gallus could well have been in Ovid's mind as he wrote this passage. Professor R. J. Tarrant notes that the extraordinary _Cadmique sororem_ could well be a borrowing from the earlier poet. =57-58. INTER MAXIMVS OMNES / CEDERE DANVVIVS SE TIBI, NILE, NEGAT.= A similar conjunction at _Tr_ III x 27-28 'ipse, papyrifero qui non angustior amne, / miscetur uasto multa per ora freto'. Herodotus compares the courses of the Nile and the Danube, concluding '[Greek: houtô ton Neilon dokeô dia pasês tês Libyês diexionta exisousthai tôi Istrôi]' (II 34), referring to the length of the rivers, however, rather than their volume of discharge. At _NQ_ III 22 Seneca mentions the belief of some that because of their large size and the fact that their sources were both unknown the Nile and the Danube must both have been formed at the creation of the world, unlike other rivers. At IV 1 1-2 he argues against those who equated the two rivers, pointing out that the source of the Danube was known to be in Germany, and that the two rivers flood at different times of the year. =59. COPIA TOT LATICVM QVAS AVGET ADVLTERAT AQVAS.= The comparative freshness of the waters of the Black Sea was well known in antiquity. Besides the passages cited at 37-38, see Polybius IV 42 3 and Philostratus _Imag_ I 13 7. =61-62. QVIN ETIAM, STAGNO SIMILIS PIGRAEQVE PALVDI, / CAERVLEVS VIX EST DILVITVRQVE COLOR.= Ovid's drinking water was, on the other hand, rather brackish: 'est in aqua dulci non inuidiosa uoluptas: / aequoreo bibitur cum sale mixta palus' (_EP_ II vii 73-74). =63. INNATAT VNDA FRETO DVLCIS.= Similar wording at Macrobius _Sat_ VII 12 32 'superficies maris, cui dulces aquae _innatant_, congelascit'.