Voyage to Samland, circa 60 A.D.
The emperor Nero’s (54-68 A.D.) love of show led, according to Pliny [Nat. Hist., xxxvii. 45], to the amber coast of the Baltic becoming “first known through a Roman knight, whom Julianus sent to purchase amber, when he was to arrange a gladiatorial combat for the emperor Nero. This knight visited the markets and the coasts and brought thence such a quantity that the nets which were hung up to keep the wild beasts away from the imperial tribune had a piece of amber in every mesh; indeed the weapons, the biers, and the whole apparatus of a day’s festival were heavy with amber. The largest piece weighed thirteen pounds.” This journey must have followed an undoubtedly ancient trade-route from the Adriatic to Carnuntum (in Pannonia), the modern Petronell on the Danube, where the latter is joined by the March, and from whence Pliny expressly says that the distance was 600,000 paces to the amber coast, which agrees almost exactly with the distance in a straight line to Samland. From Carnuntum the route lay along the river March, thence overland to the upper Vistula, and so down this river to Samland. It may easily be understood that much fresh knowledge reached Rome as a result of this journey.
Pliny 23-79 A.D.
The elder Pliny’s (23-79 A.D.) statements about the North, in his great work “Naturalis Historia” (in thirty-seven books), are somewhat obscure and confused, and so far are no advance upon Mela; but we remark nevertheless that fresh knowledge has been acquired, and it is as though we get a clearer vision of the new countries and seas through the northern mists. He himself says, moreover, that he “has received information of immense islands which have recently been discovered from Germania.” His work is in great part the fruit of an unusually extensive acquaintance with older writers, mostly Greek, but also Latin. He repeats a good deal of what Mela says, or draws from the same sources, probably Greek.
His information about the North must have been obtained, so far as I can see, mainly in three different ways: (1) Directly through the Romans’ connection with Germania and through their expeditions to its northern coasts (under Augustus and Nero, for example). Pliny himself lived in Germania for several years (45-52 A.D.) as a Roman cavalry commander, and may then have collected much information. (2) He has drawn extensively from Greek sources, whose statements about the North may have come partly by sea, chiefly through Pytheas (perhaps also through later trading voyages); partly also by land, especially through commercial intercourse between the Black Sea and the Baltic.[97] (3) Finally he received information from Britain about the regions to the north. This may be derived partly from Greek sources, partly also from later Roman connection with Britain. Mela expressly says of this country that new facts will soon be known about it, “for the greatest prince [the Emperor Claudius] is now opening up this country, which has so long been closed ... he has striven by war to obtain personal knowledge of these things, and will spread this knowledge at his triumph.” The information obtained by Pliny through these different channels is often used by him uncritically, without remarking that different statements apply to the same countries and seas.
His theory of the universe was the usual one, that the universe was a hollow sphere which revolved in twenty-four hours with indescribable rapidity. “Whether by the continual revolution of such a great mass there is produced an immense noise, exceeding all powers of hearing, I am no more able to assert than that the sound produced by the stars circulating about one another and revolving in their orbits, is a lovely and incredibly graceful harmony.” The earth stood in the centre of the universe and had the form of a sphere. The land was everywhere surrounded by sea, which covers the greater part of the globe.
In his description of the North [iv. 12, 88 f.] Pliny begins at the east, and relies here entirely on Greek authorities.
Far north in Scythia, beyond the Arimaspians, “we come to the ‘Ripæan’ Mountains and to the district which on account of the ever-falling snow, resembling feathers, is called Pterophorus. This part of the world is accursed by nature and shrouded in thick darkness; it produces nothing else but frost and is the chilly hiding-place of the north wind. By these mountains and beyond the north wind dwells, if we are willing to believe it, a happy people, the Hyperboreans, who have long life and are famous for many marvels which border on the fabulous. There, it is said, are the pivots of the world, and the uttermost revolution of the constellations.” The sun shines there for six months; but strangely enough it rises at the summer solstice and sets at the winter solstice, which shows Pliny’s ignorance of astronomy. The climate is magnificent and without cold winds. As the sun shines for half the year, “the Hyperboreans sow in the morning, harvest at midday, gather the fruit from the trees at evening, and spend the night in caves. The existence of this people is not to be doubted, since so many authors tell us about them.”
Having then mentioned several districts bordering on the Black Sea, Pliny continues [iv. 13, 94 f.]:
“We will now acquaint ourselves with the outer parts of Europe, and turn, after having gone over the Ripæan Mountains, towards the left to the coast of the northern ocean, until we arrive again at Gades. Along this line many nameless islands are recorded. Timæus mentions that among them there is one off Scythia called Baunonia, a day’s sail distant, upon which the waves cast up amber in the spring. The remaining coasts are only known from doubtful rumours. Here is the northern ocean. Hecatæus calls it Amalcium, from the river Parapanisus[98] onwards and as far as it washes the coast of Scythia, which name [i.e., Amalcium] in the language of the natives means frozen.[99] Philemon[100] says that it was called by the Cimbri Morimarusa, that is, the dead sea; from thence and as far as the promontory Rusbeas, farther out, it is called Cronium. Xenophon of Lampsacus says that three days’ sail from the Scythian coast is an island, Balcia, of enormous size; Pytheas calls it Basilia.” He goes on to mention the Œonæ, Hippopods, and Long-eared men in almost the same terms as Mela.