Location information

Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "DANUBE River BALKANS".

Information about the place (3)

Commercial WebPages

Greek & Roman Geography (ed. William Smith)

Tanais

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

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.