Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "DANUBE River BALKANS" .
DANUBE (River) BALKANS
Tanais (Tanais Ptol. iii. 5. § 14, v. 9. § § 1, 2, &c.), a famous
river, which in the course of time was universally assumed as the boundary between
Europe and Asia. (Strah. vii. 310, xi. 490; Mela, i. 3; Scyl. p. 30, &c.) The
older writers of antiquity thought that it rose from a large lake (Herod. iv.
57; Ephor. ap. Anon. Per. P. Eux. p. 4), which is really the case, its source
being in the lake Ivan Ozero, in the government of Toula; whilst later writers
held that it had its sources either in the Caucasus (Strah. xi. 493; Ammian. xxii.
8), or in the Rhipaean mountains. (Mela, i. 19; Lucan iii.272; Procop. B. G. iv.
6, &c.) The last of these hypotheses was most generally accepted; but there was
likewise a fourth which made it a branch of the Ister (Strab. l. c.). Whilst Strabo,
however, adduces these different opinions, he himself holds that its source was
entirely unknown (ii. 107). It is represented as flowing in so rapid a stream
that it never froze. (Mela, l. c.; cf. Nonnus, Dionys. xxiii. 85.) It flows first
in a SE. and then in a SW. direction; and after receiving the Hyrgis (or Syrgis)
as a tributary, empties itself into the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azof) by two mouths.
(Herod. iv. 100.) These mouths, which are at the most northern point of the Palus
Maeotis, Strabo places at the distance of 60 stadia from one another (vii. 310),
whilst Artemidorus (ap. Eustath. ad Dion. 14) makes them only 7 stadia distant.
At present, however, the Don has 13 mouths. (Clarke, Trav. i. p. 423.) The etymology
of the name is discussed by Plutarch (de Flum. 14) and Eustathius (l. c.); but
its true derivation is from the Scythian word Don or Dan, signifying water, which
occurs in the names of other rivers, as Danubius, Eridanus, &c. (Forbiger, Handb.
des Alt. Geogr. p. 325, n. 16.) The Tanais is frequently alluded to by the Latin
poets. (Hor. Od. iii. 10. 1; Virg. G. iv. 517; Ov. Ex. Pont. iv. 10, 55, &c.)
Clarke (Travels, i. pp. 339, 448, note) would identify it with the Danaetz, from
the similarity of the name, an hypothesis also accepted by Lindner (Scythien,
p. 66); but there can scarcely be a doubt that it should be identified with the
Don.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Danubius (Danoubios: the Danube), on coins and inscriptions frequently
called Danuvius, the greatest river in south-eastern Europe. Its sources are at
Donaueschingen, on the Mons Abnoba, and, after a long course through Vindelicia,
Noricum, Pannonia, and Dacia, it divides itself near Noviodunum into three main
branches, so as to form a delta, and empties its waters into the Euxine. The Danube
at first forms the southern frontier of Germania Magna; further east it is the
boundary between Pannonia and Dacia, and between Dacia and Moesia. Among its many
tributaries, we may mention the Dravus, Savus, Pathissus, and Margus, as the principal
ones. This river was known even to the earliest Greeks, under the name of Ister
(Istros), though they knew only the part near its mouth, and entertained very
erroneous notions respecting its course (Hesiod, Theog. 338; Pind. Ol. iii. 25;
Aeschyl. ap. Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iv. 284), which did not become fully known
until the time of the Roman empire. The Romans, and especially their poets, sometimes
adopted the Greek name Istrus or Hister (Tibull. iv. 1. 146), until in later times
the two names Ister and Danubius were used indiscriminately; though it was still
very common to apply the former to the lower part of the river, and the latter
to the upper part, from its sources to Vindobona or Sirmium. Stephanus B., who
himself calls the river Danubis or Danusis, states that its ancient name was Matoas.
It is said, moreover, that Danubius was its Thracian, and Ister its Celtic name
(Lydus, De Mag. iii. 32; Jornand. De Reb. Get. 12); but there can be no doubt
that Dan is the same word which is found in Rhodanus, Eridanus, Tanais, Don, and
others, and signifies water. According to Adelung, Dan-ubius means the upper water,
and (Dan)-ister the lower water. The earlier writers entertained very vague and
contradictory notions about the sources of this mighty river; thus Pindar makes
it flow from the country of the Hyperboreans, Aeschylus from the Rhipaean mountains,
Herodotus (ii. 33) from the country of the Celts in the extreme west (somewhere
about the Pyrenees), and Scymnus of Chios (Fragm. 31) likewise from the country
of the Celts. Afterwards a notion arose that one branch of the Danube flowed into
the Adriatic. But these and similar ideas, which were combated by some of the
ancients themselves, were rectified during the conquests of the Romans in the
north and east of Europe. We have already stated that there are three main branches
by which the Danube empties itself into the sea; though Strabo appears to assume
four, for out of the seven he mentions, he calls three the lesser ones. Other
writers, however, mention only six, five, four, three, or even two mouths. The
names of these mouths, so far as they are known to us, are:
(1) the southernmost, called Peuce or the sacrum ostium (to hieron stoma, Strab.
vii. p. 305; Ptol. iii. 10. § 2);
(2) Naracustoma (Narakion or to Narakon, Ptol. iii. 10. § 5; Arrian, Peripl. p.
23);
(3) Calonstoma (to kalon stoma);
(4) Pseudostoma (Pseudostomon, Ptol. iii. 10. § 6);
(5) Boreonstoma (Boreion stoma, Ptol. l. c.);
(6) Thiagola (Thiagola, Ptol. iii. 10. § 4, or to psilon stoma).
Respecting these mouths, three of which were navigable in antiquity (P. Mela,
ii. 1, 8), see Kruse, De Istri Ostiis, Vratislav. 1820. At present it is impossible
accurately to identify the statements of the ancients about them, as the Danube
has undergone very great changes at its mouth. See Katancsich, De Istro, Budae,
1798, 4to.; Rennell, Comparative Geogr. of West. Asia, vol. ii. p. 374.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!