At one point in the Histories, Herodotus describes what it is like to be at the mouth of the Bosphorus gazing out over the tumultuous expanse of the Black Sea. He stands at the top of the Clashing Rocks, the two large boulders that guard the entrance to the sea, known even long before his time for their role in nearly ending Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece. Looking out from the small altar to Apollo built on top of one of the rocks, Herodotus describes the great rivers that drain the lands to the north, the modern Danube, Dnepr, and Don. The view from here, he says, is “a sight indeed worth seeing. No sea is as marvelous as the Black Sea.”1