EUXINE, the English form of the Latin Euxinus, the classical name of the Black Sea. The original designation of the sea was Axenus or Inhospitable, from the fierceness of the storms with which it was believed to be periodically visited, and also from the ferocity of the nations which dwelt around its shores. By the later Greeks its name was changed into Euxinus or Hospitable, as being a word of better omen.