Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/457

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B. VII. C. I. § 2, 3.]
GERMANY.
443

Galatic and German tribes, as far as the territory of the Bastarnæ,[1] the Tyregetæ,[2] and the river Dnieper; so also is the country situated between the Dnieper, the Don, and the mouth of the Sea of Azof, which on one side stretches back as far as the [Northern] Ocean,[3] and on another is washed by the Euxine. To the south of the Danube are situated the people of Illyria and Thrace, and mixed with them certain tribes of Kelts and other races, extending as far as Greece.

We will first speak of those nations to the north of the Danube, for their history is less involved than that of the tribes situated on the other side of the river.

2. Next after the Keltic nations come the Germans who inhabit the country to the east beyond the Rhine; and these differ but little from the Keltic race, except in their being more fierce, of a larger stature, and more ruddy in countenance; but in every other respect, their figure, their customs and manners of life, are such as we have related of the Kelts.[4] The Romans therefore, I think, have very appositely applied to them the name “Germani,” as signifying genuine; for in the Latin language Germani signifies genuine.[5]

3. The first division of this country is the land extending along the Rhine from its source to its embouchure. Indeed, the valley of that river extends nearly as far as the whole breadth of Germany on the west. Of the people who occupied this country, some have been transplanted by the Romans into Keltica, the others have retired to the interior, as the Marsi;[6] there are but few remaining, and some portion of them

  1. ↑ The Bastarnæ were a people occupying portions of the modern Moldavia, Podolia, and the Ukraine.
  2. ↑ The Tyregetæ, or the Getæ of the river Tyras, were a people dwelling on the Dniester, to the south of the Bastarnæ.
  3. ↑ The ancient geographers supposed that the Northern Ocean extended to the 56° of north latitude. Their notions of the existence of the Baltic were vague. They therefore confounded it with the Northern Ocean, thus making the continent of Europe to extend only to the 56° of north latitude.
  4. ↑ See book iv. chap. iv. § 2, pp. 291, 292.
  5. ↑ Strabo’s words are, γνήσιοι γὰρ οἱ Γερμανοὶ κατὰ τὴν Ῥωμαίων διάλεκτον. It is possible he may be endeavouring to explain that the γερ in Germani is equivalent to the Latin verus, “true,” the wahr of modern German, and that Germani signifies the true men of the country, the undoubted autochthones of Galatia or Gaul.
  6. ↑ The Marsi were a people dwelling on the banks of the Ems, near Munster.
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