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The remainder of Europe consists of the country which is between the Ister and the encircling sea, beginning at the recess of the Adriatic and extending as far as the Sacred Mouth1 of the Ister. In this country are Greece and the tribes of the Macedonians and of the Epeirotes, and all those tribes above them whose countries reach to the Ister and to the seas on either side, both the Adriatic and the Pontic—to the Adriatic, the Illyrian tribes, and to the other sea as far as the Propontis and the Hellespont, the Thracian tribes and whatever Scythian or Celtic tribes are intermingled2 with them. But I must make my beginning at the Ister, speaking of the parts that come next in order after the regions which I have already encompassed in my description. These are the parts that border on Italy, on the Alps, and on the counties of the Germans, Dacians, and Getans. This country also3 might be divided into two parts, for, in a way, the Illyrian, Paeonian, and Thracian mountains are parallel to the Ister, thus completing what is almost a straight line that reaches from the Adrias as far as the Pontus; and to the north of this line are the parts that are between the Ister and the mountains, whereas to the south are Greece and the barbarian country which borders thereon and extends as far as the mountainous country. Now the mountain called Haemus4 is near the Pontus; it is the largest and highest of all mountains in that part of the world, and cleaves Thrace almost in the center. Polybius says that both seas are visible from the mountain, but this is untrue, for the distance to the Adrias is great and the things that obscure the view are many. On the other hand, almost the whole of Ardia5 is near the Adrias. But Paeonia is in the middle, and the whole of it too is high country. Paeonia is bounded on either side, first, towards the Thracian parts, by Rhodope,6 a mountain next in height to the Haemus, and secondly, on the other side, towards the north, by the Illyrian parts, both the country of the Autariatae and that of the Dardanians.7 So then, let me speak first of the Illyrian parts, which join the Ister and that part of the Alps which lies between Italy and Germany and begins at the lake8 which is near the country of the Vindelici, Rhaeti, and Toenii.9
1 See 7. 3. 15.
2 See 7. 3. 2, 11.
3 Cp. 7. 1. 1.
4 Balkan.
5 The southern part of Dalmatia, bounded by the River Naro (now Narenta); but Strabo is thinking also of the Adrian Mountain (now the Dinara; see 7. 5. 5), which runs through the center of Dalmatia as far as the Naro.
6 Now Despoto-Dagh.
7 Cp. 7. 5. 6.
8 Lake Constance (the Bodensee), see 7. 1. 5.
9 Meineke emends “Toenii” (otherwise unknown) to “Helvetii,” the word one would expect here (cp. 7. 1. 5); but (on textual grounds) “Toygeni” (cp. 7. 2. 2) is almost certainly the correct reading.
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
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