Latin Texts & Translations

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 Getæ ^[Note], by the Romans called Daci; at another the Sarmatæ, by the Greeks called Sauromatæ, and the Hamaxobii ^[Note] or Aorsi, a branch of them; then again the base-born Scythians and descendants of slaves, or else the Troglodytæ ^[Note]; and then, after them, the Alani ^[Note] and the Rhoxalani. The higher ^[Note] parts again, between the Danube and the Hercynian Forest ^[Note], as far as the winter quarters of Pannonia at Carnuntum ^[Note], and the borders of the Germans, are occupied by the Sarmatian lazyges ^[Note], who inhabit the level country and the plains,

while the Daci, whom they have driven as far as the river Pathissus ^[Note], inhabit the mountain and forest ranges. On leaving the river Marus ^[Note], whether it is that or the Duria ^[Note], that separates them from the Suevi and the kingdom of Vannius ^[Note], the Basternæ, and, after them, other tribes of the Germans occupy the opposite sides ^[Note]. 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 deserts ^[Note] 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.