Chapter XXVIII: Appendix: Of Corrections (10)

[2775] The modern Caraboa, according to Brotier, stands on its site. Priapus was the tutelary divinity of Lampsacus in this vicinity.

[2776] Or “entrance of Pontus”; now the Sea of Marmora.

[2777] “Ox Ford,” or “passage of the cow,” Io being said to have crossed it in that form: now called the “Straits of Constantinople.”

[2778] Said to have been called ἄξενος or “inhospitable,” from its frequent storms and the savage state of the people living on its shores. In later times, on the principle of Euphemism, or abstaining from words of ill omen, its name was changed to εὔξεινος, “hospitable.”

[2779] This was a favourite comparison of the ancients; the north coast, between the Thracian Bosporus and the Phasis, formed the bow, and the southern shores the string. The Scythian bow somewhat resembled in form the figure Σ, the capital Sigma of the Greeks.

[2780] Now the Straits of Kaffa or Enikale.

[2781] This town lay about the middle of the Tauric Chersonesus or Crimea, and was situate on a small peninsula, called the Smaller Chersonesus, to distinguish it from the larger one, of which it formed a part. It was founded by the inhabitants of the Pontic Heraclea, or Heracleium, the site of which is unknown. See note [2844] to p. 333.

[2782] Now Kertsch, in the Crimea. It derived its name from the river Panticapes; and was founded by the Milesians about B.C. 541. It was the residence of the Greek kings of Bosporus, and hence it was sometimes so called.

[2783] “Thirty-six” properly.

[2784] The Tanais or Don does not rise in the Riphæan Mountains, or western branch of the Uralian chain, but on slightly elevated ground in the centre of European Russia.

[2785] Chap. 18 of the present Book. Istropolis is supposed to be the present Istere, though some would make it to have stood on the site of the present Kostendsje, and Brotier identifies it with Kara-Kerman.

[2786] Now called the Schwarzwald or Black Forest. The Danube or Ister rises on the eastern side at the spot called Donaueschingen.

[2787] So called from the Raurici, a powerful people of Gallia Belgica, who possessed several towns, of which the most important were Augusta, now Augst, and Basilia, now Bâle.

[2788] Only three of these are now considered of importance, as being the main branches of the river. It is looked upon as impossible by modern geographers to identify the accounts given by the ancients with the present channels, by name, as the Danube has undergone in lapse of time, very considerable changes at its mouth. Strabo mentions seven mouths, three being lesser ones.

[2789] So called, as stated by Pliny, from the island of Peuce, now Piczina. Peuce appears to have been the most southerly of the mouths.

[2790] Now called Kara-Sou, according to Brotier. Also called Rassefu in the maps.

[2791] Now called Hazrali Bogasi, according to Brotier. It is called by Ptolemy the Narakian Mouth.

[2792] Or the “Beautiful Mouth.” Now Susie Bogasi, according to Brotier.

[2793] Or the “False Mouth”: now the Sulina Bogasi, the principal mouth of the Danube, so maltreated by its Russian guardians.

[2794] Or the “Passage of the Gnats,” so called from being the resort of swarms of mosquitoes, which were said at a certain time of the year to migrate to the Palus Mæotis. According to Brotier the present name of this island is Ilan Adasi, or Serpent Island.

[2795] The “Northern Mouth”: near the town of Kilia.

[2796] Or the “Narrow Mouth.”

[2797] Though Strabo distinguishes the Getæ from the Daci, most of the ancient writers, with Pliny, speak of them as identical. It is not known, however, why the Getæ in later times assumed the name of Daci.

[2798] “Dwellers in waggons.” These were a Sarmatian tribe who wandered with their waggons along the banks of the Volga. The chief seats of the Aorsi, who seem in reality to have been a distinct people from the Hamaxobii, was in the country between the Tanais, the Euxine, the Caspian, and the Caucasus.

[2799] “Dwellers in Caves.” This name appears to have been given to various savage races in different parts of the world.

[2800] There were races of the Alani in Asia on the Caucasus, and in Europe on the Mæotis and the Euxine; but their precise geographical position is not clearly ascertained.

[2801] The present Transylvania and Hungary.

[2802] The name given in the age of Pliny to the range of mountains extending around Bohemia, and through Moravia into Hungary.

[2803] Its ruins are still to be seen on the south bank of the Danube near Haimburg, between Deutsch-Altenburg and Petronell. The Roman fleet of the Danube, with the 14th legion, was originally established there.

[2804] In Pliny’s time this migratory tribe seems to have removed to the plains between the Lower Theiss and the mountains of Transylvania, from which places they had expelled the Dacians.

[2805] The Lower Theiss.

[2806] Now the river Mark, Maros, or Morava.

[2807] The name of the two streams now known as the Dora Baltea and Dora Riparia, both of which fall into the Po. This passage appears to be in a mutilated state.

[2808] A chief of the Quadi; who, as we learn from Tacitus, was made king of the Suevi by Germanicus, A.D. 19. Being afterwards expelled by his nephews Vangio and Sido, he received from the emperor Claudius a settlement in Pannonia. Tacitus gives the name of Suevia to the whole of the east of Germany from the Danube to the Baltic.

[2809] According to Hardouin, Pliny here speaks of the other side of the mountainous district called Higher Hungary, facing the Danube and extending from the river Theiss to the Morava.

[2810] This, according to Sillig, is the real meaning of _a desertis_ here, the distance being measured from the Danube, and not between the Vistula and the wilds of Sarmatia. The reading “four thousand” is probably corrupt, but it seems more likely than that of 404 miles, adopted by Littré, in his French translation.

[2811] Placed by Forbiger near Lake Burmasaka, or near Islama.

[2812] The Dniester. The mountains of Macrocremnus, or the “Great Heights,” seem not to have been identified.

[2813] According to Hardouin, the modern name of this island is Tandra.

[2814] Now called the Teligul, east of the Tyra or Dniester.

[2815] Now called Sasik Beregen, according to Brotier.

[2816] The modern Gulf of Berezen, according to Brotier.

[2817] Probably the modern Okzakow.

[2818] The modern Dnieper. It also retains its ancient name of Borysthenes.

[2819] We learn from Strabo that the name of this town was Olbia, and that from being founded by the Milesians, it received the name of Miletopolis. According to Brotier, the modern Zapurouski occupies its site, between the mouths of the river Buzuluk.

[2820] This was adjacent to the strip of land called “Dromos Achilleos,” or the ‘race-course of Achilles.’ It is identified by geographers with the little island of Zmievoi or Oulan Adassi, the ‘Serpents Island.’ It was said that it was to this spot that Thetis transported the body of Achilles. By some it was made the abode of the shades of the blest, where Achilles and other heroes of fable were the judges of the dead.

[2821] A narrow strip of land N.W. of the Crimea and south of the mouth of the Dnieper, running nearly due west and east. It is now divided into two parts called Kosa Tendra and Kosa Djarilgatch. Achilles was said to have instituted games here.

[2822] According to Hardouin, the Siraci occupied a portion of the present Podolia and Ukraine, and the Tauri the modern Bessarabia.

[2823] According to Herodotus, this region, called Hylæa, lay to the east of the Borysthenes. It seems uncertain whether there are now any traces of this ancient woodland; some of the old maps however give the name of the “Black Forest” to this district. From the statements of modern travellers, the woody country does not commence till the river Don has been reached. The district of Hylæa has been identified by geographers with the great plain of Janboylouk in the steppe of the Nogai.

[2824] For Enœchadlæ, Hardouin suggests that we should read _Inde Hylæi_, “hence the inhabitants are called by the name of Hylæi.”

[2825] The Panticapes is usually identified with the modern Somara, but perhaps without sufficient grounds. It is more probably the Kouskawoda.

[2826] The Nomades or _wandering_, from the Georgi or _agricultural_ Scythians.

[2827] The Acesinus does not appear to have been identified by modern geographers.

[2828] Above called Olbiopolis or Miletopolis.

[2829] The Bog or Boug. Flowing parallel with the Borysthenes or Dnieper, it discharged itself into the Euxine at the town of Olbia, at no great distance from the mouth of the Borysthenes.

[2830] Probably meaning the mouth or point at which the river discharges itself into the sea.

[2831] The modern Gulf of Negropoli or Perekop, on the west side of the Chersonesus Taurica or Crimea.

[2832] Forming the present isthmus of Perekop, which divides the Sea of Perekop from the Sea of Azof.

[2833] Called by Herodotus Hypacyris, and by later writers Carcinites. It is generally supposed to be the same as the small stream now known as the Kalantchak.

[2834] Hardouin says that the city of Carcine has still retained its name, but changed its site. More modern geographers however are of opinion that nothing can be determined with certainty as to its site. Of the site also of Navarum nothing seems to be known.

[2835] Or Buces or Byce. This is really a gulf, _almost_ enclosed, at the end of the Sea of Azof. Strabo gives a more full description of it under the name of the _Sapra Limnè_, “the Putrid Lake,” by which name it is still called, in Russian, _Sibaché_ or Sivaché Moré. It is a vast lagoon, covered with water when an east wind blows the water of the Sea of Azof into it, but at other times a tract of slime and mud, sending forth pestilential vapours.

[2836] It is rather a ridge of sand, that _almost_ separates it from the waters of the gulf.

[2837] This river has not been identified by modern geographers.

[2838] According to Herodotus the Gerrhus or Gerrus fell into the Hypacaris; which must be understood to be, not the Kalantchak, but the Outlouk. It is probably now represented by the Moloschnijawoda, which forms a shallow lake or marsh at its mouth.

[2839] It is most probable that the Pacyris, mentioned above, the Hypacaris, and the Carcinites, were various names for the same river, generally supposed, as stated above, to be the small stream of Kalantchak.

[2840] Now the Crimea.

[2841] It does not appear that the site of any of these cities has been identified. Charax was a general name for a fortified town.

[2842] Mentioned again by Pliny in B. vi. c. 7. Solinus says that in order to repel avarice, the Satarchæ prohibited the use of gold and silver.

[2843] On the site of the modern Perekop, more commonly called Orkapi.

[2844] Or Chersonesus of the Heracleans. The town of Kosleve or Eupatoria is supposed to stand on its site.

[2845] After the conquest of Mithridates, when the whole of these regions fell into the hands of the Romans.

[2846] The modern Felenk-burun. So called from the Parthenos or Virgin Diana or Artemis, whose temple stood on its heights, in which human sacrifices were offered to the goddess.

[2847] Supposed to be the same as the now-famed port of Balaklava.

[2848] The modern Aia-burun, the great southern headland of the Crimea. According to Plutarch, it was called by the natives Brixaba, which, like the name Criumetopon, meant the “Ram’s Head.”

[2849] Now Kerempi, a promontory of Paphlagonia in Asia Minor. Strabo considers this promontory and that of Criumetopon as dividing the Euxine into two seas.

[2850] According to Strabo, the sea-line of the Tauric Chersonesus, after leaving the port of the Symboli, extended 125 miles, as far as Theodosia. Pliny would here seem to make it rather greater.

[2851] The modern Kaffa occupies its site. The sites of many of the places here mentioned appear not to be known at the present day.

[2852] The modern Kertsch, situate on a hill at the very mouth of the Cimmerian Bosporus, or Straits of Enikale or Kaffa, opposite the town of Phanagoria in Asia.

[2853] In C. 24 of the present Book. Clark identifies the town of Cimmerium with the modern Temruk, Forbiger with Eskikrimm. It is again mentioned in B. vi. c. 2.

[2854] He alludes here, not to the Strait so called, but to the Peninsula bordering upon it, upon which the modern town of Kertsch is situate, and which projects from the larger Peninsula of the Crimea, as a sort of excrescence on its eastern side.

[2855] Probably Hermes or Mercury was its tutelar divinity: its site appears to be unknown.

[2856] Probably meaning the Straits or passage connecting the Lake Mæotis with the Euxine. The fertile district of the Cimmerian Bosporus was at one time the granary of Greece, especially Athens, which imported thence annually 400,000 medimni of corn.

[2857] A town so called on the Isthmus of Perekop, from a τάφρος or trench, which was cut across the isthmus at this point.

[2858] Lomonossov, in his History of Russia, says that these people were the same as the Sclavoni: but that one meaning of the name ‘Slavane’ being “a boaster,” the Greeks gave them the corresponding appellation of Auchetæ, from the word αὐχὴ, which signifies “boasting.”

[2859] Of the Geloni, called by Virgil “picti,” or “painted,” nothing certain seems to be known: they are associated by Herodotus with the Budini, supposed to belong to the Slavic family by Schafarik. In B. iv. c. 108, 109, of his History, Herodotus gives a very particular account of the Budini, who had a city built entirely of wood, the name of which was Gelonus. The same author also assigns to the Geloni a Greek origin.

[2860] The Agathyrsi are placed by Herodotus near the upper course of the river Maris, in the S.E. of Dacia or the modern Transylvania. Pliny however seems here to assign them a different locality.

[2861] Also called “Assedones” and “Issedones.” It has been suggested by modern geographers that their locality must be assigned to the east of Ichim, on the steppe of the central horde of the Kirghiz, and that of the Arimaspi on the northern declivity of the chain of the Altaï.

[2862] Now the Don.

[2863] Most probably these mountains were a western branch of the Uralian chain.

[2864] From the Greek πτεροφορὸς, “wing-bearing” or “feather-bearing.”

[2865] This legendary race was said to dwell in the regions beyond Boreas, or the northern wind, which issued from the Riphæan mountains, the name of which was derived from ῥιπαὶ or “hurricanes” issuing from a cavern, and which these heights warded off from the Hyperboreans and sent to more southern nations. Hence they never felt the northern blasts, and enjoyed a life of supreme happiness and undisturbed repose. “Here,” says Humboldt, “are the first views of a natural science which explains the distribution of heat and the difference of climates by local causes—by the direction of the winds—the proximity of the sun, and the action of a moist or saline principle.”—_Asie Centrale_, vol. i.

[2866] Pindar says, in the “Pythia,” x. 56, “The Muse is no stranger to their manners. The dances of girls and the sweet melody of the lyre and pipe resound on every side, and wreathing their locks with the glistening bay, they feast joyously. For this sacred race there is no doom of sickness or of disease; but they live apart from toil and battles, undisturbed by the exacting Nemesis.”

[2867] Hardouin remarks that Pomponius Mela, who asserts that the sun rises here at the vernal and sets at the autumnal equinox, is right in his position, and that Pliny is incorrect in his assertion. The same commentator thinks that Pliny can have hardly intended to censure Mela, to whose learning he had been so much indebted for his geographical information, by applying to him the epithet “imperitus,” ‘ignorant’ or ‘unskilled’; he therefore suggests that the proper reading here is, “ut non imperiti dixere,” “as some by no means ignorant persons have asserted.”

[2868] The Attacori are also mentioned in B. vi. c. 20.

[2869] Sillig omits the word “non” here, in which case the reading would be, “Those writers who place them anywhere but, &c.;” it is difficult to see with what meaning.

[2870] Herodotus, B. iv., states to this effect, and after him, Pomponius Mela, B. iii. c. 5.

[2871] These islands, or rather rocks, are now known as Fanari, and lie at the entrance of the Straits of Constantinople.

[2872] From σὺν and πληγὴ, “a striking together.” Tournefort has explained the ancient story of these islands running together, by remarking that each of them consists of one craggy island, but that when the sea is disturbed the water covers the lower parts, so as to make the different points of each resemble isolated rocks. They are united to the mainland by a kind of isthmus, and appear as islands only when it is inundated in stormy weather.

[2873] Upon which the city of Apollonia (now Sizeboli), mentioned in C. 18 of the present Book, was situate.

[2874] So called because it was dedicated by Lucullus in the Capitol. It was thirty cubits in height.

[2875] In C. 24 of the present Book.

[2876] Mentioned in the last Chapter as the “Island of Achilles.”

[2877] From the Greek μακαρῶν, “(The island) of the Blest.” It was also called the “Island of the Heroes.”

[2878] Meaning all the inland or Mediterranean seas.

[2879] As the whole of Pliny’s description of the northern shores of Europe is replete with difficulties and obscurities, we cannot do better than transcribe the learned remarks of M. Parisot, the Geographical Editor of Ajasson’s Edition, in reference to this subject. He says, “Before entering on the discussion of this portion of Pliny’s geography, let us here observe, once for all, that we shall not remark as worthy of our notice all those ridiculous hypotheses which could only take their rise in ignorance, precipitation, or a love of the marvellous. We shall decline then to recognize the Doffrefelds in the mountains of Sevo, the North Cape in the Promontory of Rubeas, and the Sea of Greenland in the Cronian Sea. The absurdity of these suppositions is proved by—I. The impossibility of the ancients ever making their way to these distant coasts without the aid of large vessels, the compass, and others of those appliances, aided by which European skill finds the greatest difficulty in navigating those distant seas. II. The immense lacunæ which would be found to exist in the descriptions of these distant seas and shores: for not a word do we find about those numerous archipelagos which are found scattered throughout the North Sea, not a word about Iceland, nor about the numberless seas and fiords on the coast of Norway. III. The absence of all remarks upon the local phænomena of these spots. The North Cape belongs to the second polar climate, the longest day there being two months and a half. Is it likely that navigators would have omitted to mention this remarkable phænomenon, well known to the Romans by virtue of their astronomical theories, but one with which practically they had never made themselves acquainted?—The only geographers who here merit our notice are those who are of opinion that in some of the coasts or islands here mentioned Pliny describes the Scandinavian Peninsula, and in others the Coast of Finland. The first question then is, to what point Pliny first carries us? It is evident that from the Black Sea he transports himself on a sudden to the shores of the Baltic, thus passing over at a single leap a considerable space filled with nations and unknown deserts. The question then is, what line has he followed? Supposing our author had had before his eyes a modern map, the imaginary line which he would have drawn in making this transition would have been from Odessa to the Kurisch-Haff. In this direction the breadth across Europe is contracted to a space, between the two seas, not more than 268 leagues in length. A very simple mode of reasoning will conclusively prove that Pliny has deviated little if anything from this route. If he fails to state in precise terms upon what point of the shores of the Baltic he alights after leaving the Riphæan mountains, his enumeration of the rivers which discharge themselves into that sea, and with which he concludes his account of Germany, will supply us with the requisite information, at all events in great part. In following his description of the coast, we find mention made of the following rivers, the Guttalus, the Vistula, the Elbe, the Weser, the Ems, the Rhine, and the Meuse. The five last mentioned follow in their natural order, from east to west, as was to be expected in a description starting from the east of Europe for its western extremity and the shores of Cadiz. We have a right to conclude then that the Guttalus was to the east of the Vistula. As we shall now endeavour to show, this river was no other than the Alle, a tributary of the Pregel, which the Romans probably, in advancing from west to east, considered as the principal stream, from the circumstance that they met with it, before coming to the larger river. The Pregel after being increased by the waters of the Alle or Guttalus falls into the Frisch-Haff, about one degree further west than the Kurisch-Haff. It may however be here remarked, Why not find a river more to the east, the Niemen, for instance, or the Duna, to be represented by the Guttalus? The Niemen in especial would suit in every respect equally well, because it discharges itself into the Kurisch-Haff. This conjecture however is incapable of support, when we reflect that the ancients were undoubtedly acquainted with some points of the coast to the east of the mouth of the Guttalus, but which, according to the system followed by our author, would form part of the Continent of Asia. These points are, 1st. The Cape Lytarmis (mentioned by Pliny, B. vi. c. 4). 2ndly. The mouth of the river Carambucis (similarly mentioned by him), and 3rdly, a little to the east of Cape Lytarmis, the mouth of the Tanais. The name of Cape Lytarmis suggests to us Lithuania, and probably represents Domess-Ness in Courland; the Carambucis can be no other than the Niemen; while the Tanais, upon which so many authors, ancient and modern, have exhausted their conjectures, from confounding it with the Southern Tanais which falls into the Sea of Azof, is evidently the same as the Dwina or Western Duna. This is established incontrovertibly both by its geographical position (the mouth of the Dwina being only fifty leagues to the east of Domess-Ness) and the identity evidently of the names Dwina and Tanais. Long since, Leibnitz was the first to remark the presence of the radical _T. n_, or _D. n_, either with or without a vowel, in the names of the great rivers of Eastern Europe; Danapris or Dnieper, Danaster or Dniester, Danube (in German Donau, in Hungarian Duna), Tanais or Don, for example; all which rivers however discharge themselves into the Black Sea. There can be little doubt then of the identity of the Duna with the Tanais, it being the only body of water in these vast countries which bears a name resembling the initial _Tan_, or _Tn_, and at the same time belongs to the basin of the Baltic. We are aware, it is true, that the White Sea receives a river Dwina, which is commonly called the Northern Dwina, but there can be no real necessity to be at the trouble of combating the opinion that this river is identical with the Northern Tanais. As the result then of our investigations, it is at the eastern extremity of the Frisch-Haff and near the mouth of the Pregel, that we would place the point at which Pliny sets out. As for the Riphæan mountains, they have never existed anywhere but in the head of the geographers from whom our author drew his materials. From the mountains of Ural and Poias, which Pliny could not possibly have in view, seeing that they lie in a meridian as eastern as the Caspian Sea, the traveller has to proceed 600 leagues to the south-west without meeting with any chains of mountains or indeed considerable elevations.”

[2880] It is pretty clear that he refers to the numerous islands scattered over the face of the Baltic Sea, such as Dago, Oesel, Gothland, and Aland.

[2881] The old reading here was Bannomanna, which Dupinet would translate by the modern Bornholm. Parisot considers that the modern Runa, a calcareous rock covered with vegetable earth, in the vicinity of Domess-Ness, is the place indicated.

[2882] It has been suggested by Brotier that Pliny here refers to the Icy Sea, but it is more probable that he refers to the north-eastern part of the Baltic, which was looked upon by the ancients us forming part of the open sea.

[2883] With reference to these divisions of land and sea, a subject which is involved in the greatest obscurity, Parisot states it as his opinion that the Amalchian or Icy Sea is that portion of the Baltic which extends from Cape Rutt to Cape Grinea, while on the other hand the Cronian Sea comprehends all the gulfs which lie to the east of Cape Rutt, such as the Haff, the gulfs of Stettin and Danzic, the Frisch-Haff, and the Kurisch-Haff. He also thinks that the name of ‘Cronian’ originally belonged only to that portion of the Baltic which washes the coast of Courland, but that travellers gradually applied the term to the whole of the sea. He is also of opinion that the word “Cronium” owes its origin to the Teutonic and Danish adjective _groen_ or “green.” The extreme verdure which characterizes the islands of the Danish archipelago has given to the piece of water which separates the islands of Falster and Moen the name of Groensund, and it is far from improbable that the same epithet was given to the Pomeranian and Prussian Seas, which the Romans would be not unlikely to call ‘Gronium’ or ‘Cronium fretum,’ or ‘Cronium mare.’ In the name ‘Parapanisus’ he also discovers a resemblance to that of modern Pomerania.

[2884] Upon this Parisot remarks that on leaving Cape Rutt, at a distance of about twenty-five leagues in a straight line, we come to the island of Funen or Fyen, commonly called Fionia, the most considerable of the Danish archipelago next to Zealand, and which lying between the two Belts, the Greater and the Smaller, may very probably from that circumstance have obtained the name of Baltia. Brotier takes Baltia to be no other than Nova Zembla—so conflicting are the opinions of commentators!

[2885] Parisot suggests that under this name may possibly lie concealed that of the modern island of Zealand or Seeland, and that it may have borne on the side of it next to the Belt the name of Baltseeland, easily corrupted by the Greeks into Basilia.

[2886] Brotier takes these to be the islands of Aloo, and Bieloi or Ostrow, at the mouth of the river Paropanisus, which he considers to be the same as the Obi. Parisot on the other hand is of opinion that islands of the Baltic are here referred to; that from the resemblance of the name Oönæ to the Greek ὠὸν, “an egg,” the story that the natives subsisted on the eggs of birds was formed; that not improbably the group of the Hippopodes resembled the shape of a horse-shoe, from which the story mentioned by Pliny took its rise; and that the Fanesii (or, as the reading here has it, the Panotii, “all-ears”) wore their hair very short, from which circumstance their ears appeared to be of a larger size than usual.

[2887] Tacitus speaks of three great groups of the German tribes, the Ingævones forming the first thereof, and consisting of those which dwelt on the margin of the ocean, the Hermiones in the interior, and the Istævones in the east and south of Germany. We shall presently find that Pliny adds two groups, the Vandili as the fourth, and the Peucini and Basternæ as the fifth. This classification however is thought to originate in a mistake, for Zeuss has satisfactorily shown that the Vandili belonged to the Hermiones, and that Peucini and Basternæ are only names of individual tribes and not of groups of tribes.

[2888] Brotier and other geographers are of opinion that by this name the chain of the Doffrefeld mountains is meant; but this cannot be the case if we suppose with Parisot that Pliny here returns south from the Scandinavian islands and takes his departure from Cape Rutt in the territory of the Ingævones. Still, it is quite impossible to say what mountains he would designate under the name of Sevo. Parisot suggests that it is a form of the compound word “seevohner,” “inhabitants of the sea,” and that it is a general name for the elevated lands along the margin of the sea-shore.

[2889] Parisot supposes that under this name the isle of Funen is meant, but it is more generally thought that Norway and Sweden are thus designated, as that peninsula was generally looked upon as an island by the ancients. The Codanian Gulf was the sea to the east of the Cimbrian Chersonesus or Jutland, filled with the islands which belong to the modern kingdom of Denmark. It was therefore the southern part of the Baltic.

[2890] By Eningia Hardouin thinks that the country of modern Finland is meant. Poinsinet thinks that under the name are included Ingria, Livonia, and Courland; while Parisot seems inclined to be of opinion that under this name the island of Zealand is meant, a village of which, about three-fourths of a league from the western coast, according to him, still bears the name of Heinïnge.

[2891] Parisot is of opinion that the Venedi, also called Vinidæ and Vindili, were of Sclavish origin, and situate on the shores of the Baltic. He remarks that this people, in the fifth century, founded in Pomerania, when quitted by the Goths, a kingdom, the chiefs of which styled themselves the Konjucs of Vinland. Their name is also to be found in Venden, a Russian town in the government of Riga, in Windenburg in Courland, and in Wenden in the circle of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Schwerin.

[2892] Parisot remarks that these two peoples were probably only tribes of the Venedi.

[2893] Parisot feels convinced that Pliny is speaking here of the Gulf of Travemunde, the island of Femeren, and then of the gulf which extends from that island to Kiel, where the Eider separates Holstein from Jutland. On the other hand, Hardouin thinks that by the Gulf of Cylipenus the Gulf of Riga is meant, and that Latris is the modern island of Oësel. But, as Parisot justly remarks, to put this construction on Pliny’s language is to invert the order in which he has hitherto proceeded, evidently from east to west.

[2894] The modern Cape of Skagen on the north of Jutland.

[2895] When Drusus held the command in Germany, as we learn from Strabo, B. vii.

[2896] It is generally agreed that this is the modern island of Borkhum, at the mouth of the river Amaiius or Ems.

[2897] To a bean, from which (_faba_) the island had its name of Fabaria. In confirmation of this Hardouin states, that in his time there was a tower still standing there which was called by the natives _Het boon huys_, “the bean house.”

[2898] From the word _gles_ or _glas_, which primarily means ‘glass,’ and then figuratively “amber.” Probably Œland and Gothland. They will be found again mentioned in the Thirtieth Chapter of the present Book. See p. 351.

[2899] Now the Scheldt.

[2900] In a straight line, of course. Parisot is of opinion that in forming this estimate Agrippa began at the angle formed by the river Piave in lat. 46° 4′, measuring thence to Cape Rubeas (now Rutt) in lat. 54° 25′. This would give 8° 21′, to which, if we add some twenty leagues for obliquity or difference of longitude, the total would make exactly the distance here mentioned.

[2901] As Parisot remarks, it is totally impossible to conceive the source of such an erroneous conclusion as this. Some readings make the amount 248, others 268.

[2902] As already mentioned, Zeuss has satisfactorily shown that the Vandili or Vindili properly belonged to the Hermiones. Tacitus mentions but three groups of the German nations; the Ingævones on the ocean, the Hermiones in the interior, and the Istævones in the east and south of Germany. The Vandili, a Gothic race, dwelt originally on the northern coast of Germany, but afterwards settled north of the Marcomanni on the Riesengebirge. They subsequently appeared in Dacia and Pannonia, and in the beginning of the fifth century invaded Spain. Under Genseric they passed over into Africa, and finally took and plundered Rome in A.D. 455. Their kingdom was finally destroyed by Belisarius.

[2903] It is supposed that the Burgundiones were a Gothic people dwelling in the country between the rivers Viadus and Vistula, though Ammianus Marcellinus declares them to have been of pure Roman origin. How they came into the country of the Upper Maine in the south-west of Germany in A.D. 289, historians have found themselves at a loss to inform us. It is not improbable that the two peoples were not identical, and that the similarity of their name arose only from the circumstance that they both resided in “burgi” or burghs. See Gibbon, iii. 99. _Bohn’s Ed._

[2904] The Varini dwelt on the right bank of the Albis or Elbe, north of the Langobardi. Ptolemy however, who seems to mention them as the Avarini, speaks of them as dwelling near the sources of the Vistula, on the site of the present Cracow. See Gibbon, iv. 225. _Bohn’s Ed._

[2905] Nothing whatever is known of the locality of this people.

[2906] They are also called in history Gothi, Gothones, Gotones and Gutæ. According to Pytheas of Marseilles (as mentioned by Pliny, B. xxxvii. c. 2), they dwelt on the coasts of the Baltic, in the vicinity of what is now called the Fritsch-Haff. Tacitus also refers to the same district, though he does not speak of them as inhabiting the coast. Ptolemy again speaks of them as dwelling on the east of the Vistula, and to the south of the Venedi. The later form of their name, _Gothi_, does not occur till the time of Caracalla. Their native name was Gutthinda. They are first spoken of as a powerful nation at the beginning of the third century, when we find them mentioned as ‘Getæ,’ from the circumstance of their having occupied the countries formerly inhabited by the Sarmatian Getæ. The formidable attacks made by this people, divided into the nations of the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, upon the Roman power during its decline, are too well known to every reader of Gibbon to require further notice.

[2907] The inhabitants of Chersonesus Cimbrica, the modern peninsula of Jutland. It seems doubtful whether these Cimbri were a Germanic nation or a Celtic tribe, as also whether they were the same race whose numerous hordes successively defeated six Roman armies, and were finally conquered by C. Marius, B.C. 101, in the Campi Raudii. The more general impression, however, entertained by historians, is that they were a Celtic or Gallic and not a Germanic nation. The name is said to have signified “robbers.” See Gibbon, i. 273, iii. 365. _Bohn’s Ed._

[2908] The Teutoni or Teutones dwelt on the coasts of the Baltic, adjacent to the territory of the Cimbri. Their name, though belonging originally to a single nation or tribe, came to be afterwards applied collectively to the whole people of Germany. See Gibbon, iii. 139. _Bohn’s Ed._

[2909] Also called Cauchi, Cauci, and Cayci, a German tribe to the east of the Frisians, between the rivers Ems and Elbe. The modern Oldenburg and Hanover are supposed to pretty nearly represent the country of the Chauci. In B. xvi. c. 1. 2, will be found a further account of them by Pliny, who had visited their country, at least that part of it which lay on the sea-coast. They are mentioned for the last time in the third century, when they had extended so far south and west that they are spoken of as living on the banks of the Rhine.

[2910] Mentioned by Tacitus as dwelling in the east and south of Germany.

[2911] It has been suggested by Titzius that the words “quorum Cimbri,” “to whom the Cimbri belong,” are an interpolation; which is not improbable, or at least that the word “Cimbri” has been substituted for some other name.

[2912] This appears to be properly the collective name of a great number of the German tribes, who were of a migratory mode of life, and spoken of in opposition to the more settled tribes, who went under the general name of Ingævones. Cæsar speaks of them as dwelling east of the Ubii and Sygambri, and west of the Cherusci. Strabo makes them extend in an easterly direction beyond the Albis or Elbe, and southerly as far as the sources of the Danube. Tacitus gives the name of Suevia to the whole of the east of Germany, from the Danube to the Baltic. The name of the modern Suabia is derived from a body of adventurers from various German tribes, who assumed the name of Suevi in consequence of their not possessing any other appellation.

[2913] A large and powerful tribe of Germany, which occupied the extensive tract of country between the mountains in the north-west of Bohemia and the Roman Wall in the south-west, which formed the boundary of the Agri Decumates. On the east they bordered on the Narisci, on the north-east on the Cherusci, and on the north-west on the Chatti. There is little doubt that they originally formed part of the Suevi. At a later period they spread in a north-easterly direction, taking possession of the north-western part of Bohemia and the country about the sources of the Maine and Saale, that is, the part of Franconia as far as Kissingen and the south-western part of the kingdom of Saxony. The name Hermunduri is thought by some to signify highlanders, and to be a compound of _Her_ or _Ar_, “high,” and _Mund_, “man.”

[2914] One of the great tribes of Germany, which rose to importance after the decay of the power of the Cherusci. It is thought by ethnographers that their name is still preserved in the word “Hessen.” They formed the chief tribe of the Hermiones here mentioned, and are described by Cæsar as belonging to the Suevi, though Tacitus distinguishes them, and no German tribe in fact occupied more permanently its original locality than the Chatti. Their original abode seems to have extended from the Westerwald in the west to the Saale in Franconia, and from the river Maine in the south as far as the sources of the Elison and the Weser, so that they occupied exactly the modern country of Hessen, including perhaps a portion of the north-west of Bavaria. See Gibbon, vol. iii. 99. _Bohn’s Ed._

[2915] The Cherusci were the most celebrated of all the German tribes, and are mentioned by Cæsar as of the same importance as the Suevi, from whom they were separated by the Silva Bacensis. There is some difficulty in stating their exact locality, but it is generally supposed that their country extended from the Visurgis or Weser in the west to the Albis or Elbe in the east, and from Melibocus in the north to the neighbourhood of the Sudeti in the south, so that the Chamavi and Langobardi were their northern neighbours, the Chatti the western, the Hermunduri the southern, and the Silingi and Semnones their eastern neighbours. This tribe, under their chief Arminius or Hermann, forming a confederation with many smaller tribes in A.D. 9, completely defeated the Romans in the famous battle of the Teutoburg Forest. In later times they were conquered by the Chatti, so that Ptolemy speaks of them only as a small tribe on the south of the Hartz mountain. Their name afterwards appears, in the beginning of the fourth century, in the confederation of the Franks.

[2916] The Peucini are mentioned here, as also by Tacitus, as identical with the Basternæ. As already mentioned, supposing them to be names for distinct nations, they must be taken as only names of individual tribes, and not of groups of tribes. It is generally supposed that their first settlements in Sarmatia were in the highlands between the Theiss and the March, whence they passed onward to the lower Danube, as far as its mouth, where a portion of them, settling in the island of Peuce, obtained the name of Peucini. In the later geographers we find them settled between the Tyrus or Dniester, and the Borysthenes or Dnieper, the Peucini remaining at the mouth of the Danube.

[2917] According to Parisot, the Guttalus is the same as the Alle, a tributary of the Pregel. Cluver thinks that it is the same as the Oder. Other writers again consider it the same as the Pregel.

[2918] Or Elbe.

[2919] Now the Weser.

[2920] The modern Ems.

[2921] The Meuse.

[2922] The ‘Hercynia Silva,’ Hercynian Forest or Range, is very differently described by the writers of various ages. The earliest mention of it is by Aristotle. Judging from the accounts given by Cæsar, Pomponius Mela, and Strabo, the ‘Hercynia Silva’ appears to have been a general name for almost all the mountains of Southern and Central Germany, that is, from the sources of the Danube to Transylvania, comprising the Schwarzwald, Odenwald, Spessart, Rhön, Thuringer Wald, the Hartz mountain (which seems in a great measure to have retained the ancient name), Raube Alp, Steigerwald, Fichtelgebirge, Erzgebirge, and Riesengebirge. At a later period when the mountains of Germany had become better known, the name was applied to the more limited range extending around Bohemia, and through Moravia into Hungary.

[2923] This island appears to have been formed by the bifurcation of the Rhine, the northern branch of which enters the sea at Katwyck, a few miles north of Leyden, by the Waal and the course of the Maas, after it has received the Waal, and by the sea. The Waal or Vahalis seems to have undergone considerable changes, and the place of its junction with the Maas may have varied. Pliny makes the island nearly 100 miles in length, which is about the distance from the fort of Schenkenschanz, where the first separation of the Rhine takes place, to the mouth of the Maas. The name of Batavia was no doubt the genuine name, which is still preserved in Betuwe, the name of a district at the bifurcation of the Rhine and the Waal. The Canninefates, a people of the same race as the Batavi, also occupied the island, and as the Batavi seem to have been in the eastern part, it is supposed that the Canninefates occupied the western. They were subdued by Tiberius in the reign of Augustus.

[2924] The Frisii or Frisones were one of the great tribes of north-western Germany, properly belonging to the group of the Ingævones. They inhabited the country about Lake Flevo and other lakes, between the Rhine and the Ems, so as to be bounded on the south by the Bructeri, and on the east by the Chauci. Tacitus distinguishes between the Frisii Majores and Minores, and it is supposed that the latter dwelt on the east of the canal of Drusus in the north of Holland, and the former between the rivers Flevus and Amisia, that is, in the country which still bears the name of Friesland. The Chauci have been previously mentioned.

[2925] The Frisiabones or Frisævones are again mentioned in C. 31 of the present Book as a people of Gaul. In what locality they dwelt has not been ascertained by historians.

[2926] The Sturii are supposed to have inhabited the modern South Holland, while the Marsacii probably inhabited the island which the Meuse forms at its junction with the Rhine, at the modern Dortrecht in Zealand.

[2927] Supposed to be the site of the modern fortress of Briel, situate at the mouth of the Meuse.

[2928] Probably the same as the modern Vlieland (thus partly retaining its ancient name), an island north of the Texel. The more ancient writers speak of two main arms, into which the Rhine was divided on entering the territory of the Batavi, of which the one on the east continued to bear the name of Rhenus, while that on the west into which the Masa, Maas or Meuse, flowed, was called Vahalis or Waal. After Drusus, B.C. 12, had connected the Flevo Lacus or Zuyder-Zee with the Rhine by means of a canal, in forming which he probably made use of the bed of the Yssel, we find mention made of three mouths of the Rhine. Of these the names, as given by Pliny, are, on the west, Helium (the Vahalis of other writers), in the centre Rhenus, and at the north Flevum; but at a later period we again find mention made of only two mouths.

[2929] Britain was spoken of by some of the Greek writers as superior to all other islands in the world. Dionysius, in his Periegesis, says, “that no other islands whatsoever can claim equality with those of Britain.”

[2930] Said to have been so called from the whiteness of its cliffs opposite the coast of Gaul.

[2931] Afterwards called Bononia, the modern Boulogne. As D’Anville remarks, the distance here given by Pliny is far too great, whether we measure to Dover or to Hythe; our author’s measurement however is probably made to Rutupiæ (the modern Richborough), near Sandwich, where the Romans had a fortified post, which was their landing-place when crossing over from Gaul. This would make the distance given by Pliny nearer the truth, though still too much.

[2932] Probably the Grampian range is here referred to.

[2933] The people of South Wales.

[2934] The Orkney islands were included under this name. Pomponius Mela and Ptolemy make them but thirty in number, while Solinus fixes their number at three only.

[2935] Also called Æmodæ or Hæmodæ, most probably the islands now known as the Shetlands. Camden however and the older antiquarians refer the Hæmodæ to the Baltic sea, considering them different from the Acmodæ here mentioned, while Salmasius on the other hand considers the Acmodæ or Hæmodæ and the Hebrides as identical. Parisot remarks that off the West Cape of the Isle of Skye and the Isle of North Uist, the nearest of the Hebrides to the Shetland islands, there is a vast gulf filled with islands, which still bears the name of Mamaddy or Maddy, from which the Greeks may have easily derived the words Αἱ Μαδδαὶ, whence the Latin Hæmodæ.

[2936] The Isle of Anglesea.

[2937] Most probably the Isle of Man.

[2938] Camden and Gosselin (_Rech. sur la Géogr. des Anciens_) consider that under this name is meant the island of Racklin, situate near the north-eastern extremity of Ireland. A Ricina is spoken of by Ptolemy, but that island is one of the Hebrides.

[2939] This Vectis is considered by Gosselin to be the same as the small island of White-Horn, situate at the entrance of the Bay of Wigtown in Scotland. It must not be confounded with the more southern Vectis, or Isle of Wight.

[2940] According to Gosselin this is the island of Dalkey, at the entrance of Dublin Bay.

[2941] Camden thinks that this is the same as Bardsey Island, at the south of the island of Anglesea, while Mannert and Gosselin think that it is the island of Lambay.

[2942] According to Brotier these islands belong to the coast of Britanny, being the modern isles of Sian and Ushant.

[2943] As already mentioned, he probably speaks of the islands of Œland and Gothland, and Ameland, called Austeravia or Actania, in which _glæsum_ or amber was found by the Roman soldiers. See p. 344.

[2944] The opinions as to the identity of ancient Thule have been numerous in the extreme. We may here mention six:—1. The common, and apparently the best founded opinion, that Thule is the island of Iceland. 2. That it is either the Ferroe group, or one of those islands. 3. The notion of Ortelius, Farnaby, and Schœnning, that it is identical with Thylemark in Norway. 4. The opinion of Malte Brun, that the continental portion of Denmark is meant thereby, a part of which is to the present day called Thy or Thyland. 5. The opinion of Rudbeck and of Calstron, borrowed originally from Procopius, that this is a general name for the whole of Scandinavia. 6. That of Gosselin, who thinks that under this name Mainland, the principal of the Shetland Islands, is meant. It is by no means impossible that under the name of Thule two or more of these localities may have been meant, by different authors writing at distant periods and under different states of geographical knowledge. It is also pretty generally acknowledged, as Parisot remarks, that the Thule mentioned by Ptolemy is identical with Thylemark in Norway.

[2945] B. ii. c. 77.

[2946] Brotier thinks that under this name a part of Cornwall is meant, and that it was erroneously supposed to be an island. Parisot is of opinion that the copyists, or more probably Pliny himself, has made an error in transcribing Mictis for Vectis, the name of the Isle of Wight. It is not improbable however that the island of Mictis had only an imaginary existence.

[2947] “White lead”: not, however, the metallic substance which we understand by that name, but tin.

[2948] Commonly known as “coracles,” and used by the Welch in modern times. See B. vii. c. 57 of this work, and the Note.

[2949] Brotier, with many other writers, takes these names to refer to various parts of the coast of Norway. Scandia he considers to be the same as Scania, Bergos the modern Bergen, and Nerigos the northern part of Norway. On the other hand, Gosselin is of opinion that under the name of Bergos the Scottish island of Barra is meant, and under that of Nerigos, the island of Lewis, the northern promontory of which is in the old maps designated by the name of Nary or Nery. Ptolemy makes mention of an island called Doumna in the vicinity of the Orcades.

[2950] Transalpine Gaul, with the exception of that part of it called Narbonensis, was called Gallia Comata, from the custom of the people allowing their hair to grow to a great length.

[2951] From the Scheldt to the Seine.

[2952] From the Seine to the Garonne.

[2953] Lyonese Gaul, from Lugdunum, the ancient name of the city of Lyons.

[2954] Said by Camden to be derived from the Celtic words _Ar - mor_, “by the Sea.”

[2955] The provinces of Antwerp and North Brabant.

[2956] Inhabiting Western Flanders.

[2957] So called, it is supposed, from the Celtic word _Mor_, which means “the sea.” Térouane and Boulogne are supposed to occupy the site of their towns, situate in the modern Pas de Calais.

[2958] D’Anville places them between Calais and Gravellines, in the Pas de Calais, and on the spot now known as the Terre de Marck or Merk.

[2959] Boulogne, previously mentioned.

[2960] Cluver thinks that “Brianni” would be the correct reading here; but D’Anville places the Britanni on the southern bank of the stream called La Canche in the Pas de Calais.

[2961] According to Parisot and Ansart they occupied the department of the Somme, with places on the site of Amiens (derived from their name) and Abbeville for their chief towns.

[2962] They dwelt in the modern department of the Oise, with Beauvais (which still retains their name) for their chief town.

[2963] D’Anville is of opinion that the place called Haiz or Hez in the diocese of Beauvais, received its name from this people, of whom nothing else is known. The name is omitted in several of the editions.

[2964] D’Anville is of opinion that their chief town was situate at the modern Chaours, at the passage of the river Serre, not far from Vervins in the department of the Aisne.

[2965] According to Ptolemy their chief town would be on the site of the modern Orchies in the department du Nord, but Cæsar makes it to be Nemetacum, the modern Arras, the capital of the department of the Pas de Calais.

[2966] According to Ansart their chief town was Bavai, in the department du Nord. They are called “Liberi,” or free, because they were left at liberty to enjoy their own laws and institutions.

[2967] Their capital was Augusta Veromanduorum, and it has been suggested that the place called Vermand, in the department de l’Aisne, denotes its site; but according to Bellay and D’Anville the city of St. Quentin, which was formerly called Aouste, marks the spot.

[2968] Nothing whatever is known of them, and it is suggested by the commentators that this is a corrupted form of the name of the Suessiones, which follows.