VISURGIS
VISURGIS (
Οὐίσουργις,
Βίσουργις,
Οὐίσουργος, or
Οὐισσούγριος:
Weser), one of the principal rivers in north-western Germany, which was tolerably well known to the Romans, since during their
[p. 2.1313]wars in Germany they often advanced as far as its banks, and at one time even crossed it; but they seem to have been unacquainted with its southern course, and with its real origin; for it is formed by the confluence of the
Werra and the
Fulda, while Ptolemy (
2.11.1) imagined that it had its sources in Mons Melibocus. Marcianus (p. 51) states that its length amounted to from 1600 to 1780 stadia. The Visurgis flowed into the German Ocean in the country of the Chauci. (Comp. Pomp. Mela, 3.4;
Plin. Nat. 4.27;
Tac. Ann. 1.70,
2.9;
Vell. 2.105; Sidon. Apoll.
Carm. 23.243;
Strab. vii. p.291;
D. C. 44.33,
4.1,
2,
8,
56.18.)
[
L.S]
