WE have described Spain and the Keltic nations, together with Italy and the islands adjacent, and must now speak of the remaining portions of Europe, dividing it in the best way we can. That which remains is, on the east, all the country beyond the Rhine, as far as the Don and the mouth of the Sea of Azof; and, on the south, that which the Danube bounds, lying between the Adriatic and the left shores of the Euxine, as far as Greece and the Sea of Marmora, for the Danube, which is the largest of the rivers of Europe, divides the whole territory of which we have spoken, into two portions. This river from its commencement flows southwards, then, making a sudden turn, continues its course from west to east, which [terminates] in the Euxine Sea. It takes its rise in the western confines of Germany, not far from the head of the Adriatic, being distant from it about 1000 stadia,1 and falls into the Euxine near the mouths of the Dniester2 and the Dnieper,3 inclining a little towards the north. Thus the countries beyond the Rhine and Keltica are situated to the north of the Danube, and are occupied by the Galatic and German tribes, as far as the territory of the Bastarnæ,4 the Tyregetæ,5 and the river Dnieper; so also is the country situated between the Dnieper, the Don, and the mouth of the Sea of Azof, which on one side stretches back as far as the [Northern] Ocean,6 and on another is washed by the Euxine. To the south of the Danube are situated the people of Illyria and Thrace, and mixed with them certain tribes of Kelts and other races, extending as far as Greece. We will first speak of those nations to the north of the Danube, for their history is less involved than that of the tribes situated on the other side of the river.
1 Strabo, in a subsequent passage, states that the distance from the Danube to the city Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic, is about 1200 stadia.
2 The ancient Tyras.
3 The Borysthenes.
4 The Bastarnæ were a people occupying portions of the modern Moldavia, Podolia, and the Ukraine.
5 The Tyregetæ, or the Getæ of the river Tyras, were a people dwelling on the Dniester, to the south of the Bastarnæ.
6 The ancient geographers supposed that the Northern Ocean extended to the 56° of north latitude. Their notions of the existence of the Baltic were vague. They therefore confounded it with the Northern Ocean, thus making the continent of Europe to extend only to the 56° of north latitude.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.