Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 178

CHAP. 25.—DACIA, SARMATIA.

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On setting out from this spot, all the nations met with are Scythian in general, though various races have occupied the adjacent shores; at one spot the Getæ2797, by the Romans called Daci; at another the Sarmatæ, by the Greeks called Sauromatæ, and the Hamaxobii2798 or Aorsi, a branch of them; then again the base-born Scythians and descendants of slaves, or else the Troglodytæ2799; and then, after them, the Alani2800 and the Rhoxalani. The higher2801 parts again, between the Danube and the Hercynian Forest2802, as far as the winter quarters of Pannonia at Carnuntum2803, and the borders of the Germans, are occupied by the Sarmatian Iazyges2804, who inhabit the level country and the plains, while the Daci, whom they have driven as far as the river Pathissus2805, inhabit the mountain and forest ranges. On leaving the river Marus2806, whether it is that or the Duria2807, that separates them from the Suevi and the kingdom of Vannius2808, the Basternæ, and, after them, other tribes of the Germans occupy the opposite sides2809. Agrippa considers the whole of this region, from the Ister to the ocean, to be 2100 miles in length, and 4400 miles in breadth to the river Vistula in the deserts2810 of Sarmatia. The name “Scythian” has extended, in every direction, even to the Sarmatæ and the Germans; but this ancient appellation is now only given to those who dwell beyond those nations, and live unknown to nearly all the rest of the world.

The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6)

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