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A part of this country was laid waste by the Dacians when they subdued the Boii and Taurisci, Celtic tribes under the rule of Critasirus.1 They alleged that the country was theirs, although it was separated from theirs by the River Parisus,2 which flows from the mountains to the Ister near the country of the Scordisci who are called Galatae,3 for these too4 lived intermingled with the Illyrian and the Thracian tribes. But though the Dacians destroyed the Boii and Taurisci, they often used the Scordisci as allies. The remainder of the country in question is held by the Pannonii as far as Segestica5 and the Ister, on the north and east, although their territory extends still farther in the other directions. The city Segestica, belonging to the Pannonians, is at the confluence of several rivers,6 all of them navigable, and is naturally fitted to be a base of operations for making war against the Dacians; for it lies beneath that part of the Alps which extends as far as the country of the Iapodes, a tribe which is at the same time both Celtic and Illyrian. And thence, too, flow rivers which bring down into Segestica much merchandise both from other countries and from Italy. For if one passes over Mount Ocra7 from Aquileia to Nauportus,8 a settlement of the Taurisci, whither the wagons are brought, the distance is three hundred and fifty stadia, though some say five hundred. Now the Ocra is the lowest part of that portion of the Alps which extends from the country of the Rhaeti to that of the Iapodes. Then the mountains rise again, in the country of the Iapodes, and are called “Albian.”9 In like manner, also, there is a pass which leads over Ocra from Tergeste,10 a Carnic village, to a marsh called Lugeum.11 Near Nauportus there is a river, the Corcoras,12 which receives the cargoes. Now this river empties into the Saus, and the Saus into the Dravus, and the Dravus into the Noarus13 near Segestica. Immediately below Nauportus the Noarus is further increased in volume by the Colapis,14 which flows from the Albian Mountain through the country of the Iapodes and meets the Danuvius near the country of the Scordisci. The voyage on these rivers is, for the most part, towards the north. The road from Tergeste to the Danuvius is about one thousand two hundred stadia. Near Segestica, and on the road to Italy, are situated both Siscia,15 a fort, and Sirmium.16
1 Cp. 7. 3. 11.
2 The “Parisus” (otherwise unknown) should probably be emended to “Pathissus” (now the Lower Theiss), the river mentioned by Pliny (4. 25) in connection with the Daci.
3 i.e. Gauls.
4 Cp. 7. 5. 1 and footnote.
5 Now Sissek.
6 Cp. 4. 6. 10.
7 The Julian Alps.
8 Now Ober-Laibach.
9 Cp. 4. 6.1.
10 Now Trieste.
11 Now Lake Zirknitz.
12 Now the Gurk.
13 Something is wrong here. In 4. 6. 10 Strabo rightly makes the Saüs (Save) flow past Segestica (Sissek) and empty into the Danube, not the Drave. The Drave, too, empties into the Danube, not into some Noarus River. Moreover, the Noarus is otherwise unknown, except that it is again mentioned in 7. 5. 12 as “flowing past Segestica.”
14 Now the Kulpa.
15 The usual name for Segestica itself was Siscia.
16 Now Mitrovitza.
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
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