Baltia

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Baltia ( Balcia , Basilia , also Basileia , after Pytheas also Abalus ) is the name for the legendary amber island in antiquity and after Pliny the name of an island in Northern Europe. The name of the island is different in the tradition.

The island is said to have been three days' drive from the Scythian coast. Pliny identifies the island of Abalus, mentioned by Pytheas , with the island of Balcia . Diodor calls the island Basileia and indicates the area between the Scythian and Germanic settlement areas as its location . In ancient times the island was considered the most important place of origin for amber, which was mainly washed ashore on its coasts. As a further source, Pliny names the mention of the island by Metrodor, whose works have not come down to us.

The specialist believes that with all the different names only one island is called, where the view is partly that it is the island Oesel IN QUESTION. The difference between the traditional names can be explained by the fact that Pytheas probably mentioned two names of the island, the name of the island due to the autochthonous population and the Greek name of the island. In the further course of the tradition, the name of the island handed down by Pytheas was mutilated and misspelled, so that the different names for this island were created. In his book Die Deutschen, Johann Kaspar Zeuss takes the view that the name of the island comes from the language of the Aists and means "white".

It is also argued that it was near the island of Baltia to Zeeland IN QUESTION and the ancient name of the island our geographical designations " Baltic ", " Baltic Sea were derived" and so on.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia XXXVII 35f
  2. ^ Pliny, Naturalis historia IV 95
  3. ↑ Diodor V 23
  4. ^ Pliny, Naturalis historia XXXVII 61
  5. ↑ p. 270
  6. ↑ Presentation of the different research positions according to the article Maximilian Ihm : Basileia 2 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Col. 42 f.
  7. ↑ Article Baltia . In: Smith, William (Ed.): Greek And Roman Geography. Vol. I: Abacaenum - Hytanis . Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1865, p. 375; see also: Article Basilia , ibid, p. 380

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