This mention of lands and seas in the North is of great interest. But in attempting to identify any of them in Pliny’s description we must always remember that to him and his Greek authorities, and to all writers even in much later times, all land north of the coasts of Scythia, Sarmatia and Germania was nothing but islands in the northern ocean. Further, it must be remembered that the ancient Greeks did not know the name Germania, which was not introduced until about 80 B.C. To them Scythia and Celtica (Gaul) were conterminous, and their Scythian coast might therefore lie either on the Baltic or the North Sea.
It has not been possible to decide where the name “Rusbeas” (called by Solinus “Rubeas”) comes from;[101] but it is best understood if we take it to be southern Norway or Lindesnes. As the description begins at the east on the Scythian coast, it follows that “Amalcium” is the Baltic as far as the Danish islands and the land of the Cimbri. “Morimarusa,”[102] which extends from Amalcium to Lindesnes, will be the Cattegat (in part, at any rate) and the Skagerak. Cronium will be the North Sea and the Northern Ocean beyond Lindesnes.[103] We must believe that Philemon has obtained his information about the Cimbri (at the Skaw), about Morimarusa, and about Rusbeas either from Pytheas—whose mention thereof we must then suppose to have been accidentally omitted by other authors—or else from later Greek merchants. In the same way Xenophon must have got his Balcia, which is here named for the first time in literature. As these two Greek authors (probably of about 100 B.C.) are expressly mentioned as authorities, the statements cannot be derived from the circumnavigation of the Skaw in the time of Augustus, nor from any other Roman expedition. It is clear enough that Pliny himself did not know where Rusbeas and Balcia were, but simply repeated uncritically what he had read. On the other hand, he knew from another source that the sea he calls Cronium lay far north of Britain, and must therefore be sought for to the north-west of the Scythian coast.
Balcia must be looked for most probably in the Baltic. As already mentioned ([p. 72]) it may be Jutland; but as it is described as an island of immense size and three days’ sail from the Scythian coast, it suits southern Sweden better, although Pliny has also the name Scadinavia for this from another source.
After these doubtful statements about the north coast of Scythia, taken from Greek sources and interwoven with fables, Pliny reaches firmer ground in Germania, when he continues [iv. 13, 96]:
“We have more certain information concerning the Ingævones people who are the first [that is, the most north-eastern] in Germania. There is the immense mountain Sævo, not less than the Riphæan range, and it forms a vast bay which goes to the Cimbrian Promontory [i.e., Jutland], which bay is called Codanus and is full of islands, amongst which the most celebrated is Scatinavia, of unknown size; a part of it is inhabited, as far as is known by the Hilleviones, in 500 cantons (‘pagis’), who call it [i.e., the island] the second earth. Æningia is supposed to be not less in size. Some say that these regions extend as far as the Vistula and are inhabited by Sarmatians [i.e., probably Slavs], Venedi [Wends], Scirri, and Hirri; the bay is called Cylipenus, and at its mouth lies the island Latris. Not far from thence is another bay, Lagnus, which borders on the Cimbri. The Cimbrian Promontory runs far out into the sea and forms a peninsula called Tastris.” Then follows a list of twenty-three islands which are clearly off the North Sea coast of Sleswick and Germany. Among them is one called by the soldiers “Glæsaria” on account of the amber (“glesum”),[104] but by the barbarians “Austeravia” [i.e., the eastern island], or “Actania.”
Here are a number of new names and pieces of information. The form of some of the names shows that here too Pliny has borrowed to some extent from Greek authors; but his information must also partly be derived from Roman sources, and from Germany itself. His “Codanus” must be the same as that of Mela, and is the sea adjacent to the country of the Cimbri, which is here for the first time clearly referred to as a promontory (promunturium). It is the Cattegat, and, in part at any rate, the Skagerak. The enormous mountain “Sævo” will then be most probably the mountains of Scandinavia, especially southern Norway, which forms the bay of Codanus in such a way that the latter is bounded on the other side by the Cimbrian Promontory.[105] It will then be in the same mountainous country that we should look for the promontory of Rusbeas (see above).
Scandinavia
The name “Scatinavia” or “Scadinavia” (both spellings occur in the MSS. of Pliny) is found here certainly for the first time; but, curiously enough, we also find the name “Scandia” in Pliny; it is used of an island which is mentioned as near Britain (see below, [p. 106]). “Scandia” has often been taken for a shortened form of “Scadinavia”; but if we consider the occurrence of both names in Pliny in conjunction with the fact that Mela has not yet heard either, but has, on the other hand, a large island, “Codanovia,” in the bay of Codanus, then it may seem possible that originally there were two entirely different names: “Codanovia,” for Sealand (and perhaps for south Sweden), and “*Skânovia” (“Skáney,” latinised into “Scandia”) for Skåne. By a confusion of these two the form “Scadinavia” for south Sweden may have resulted in Pliny, instead of Mela’s “Codanovia,” while at the same time he got the name “Scandia” from another source. The latter is the only one used by Ptolemy both for south Sweden and the Danish islands; he has four “Scandiæ,” three smaller ones and one very large one farther east, “Scandia” proper (see below, [p. 119]). By further confusion of the two names, “Scadinavia” has become “Scandinavia” in later copyists and authors.[106]
In conflict with this is the hitherto accepted opinion among philologists that the name “Skåne” must be derived from “Scadinavia,” which would regularly become by contraction “*Skadney,” and this by losing the “d” would become “Skáney.” But this similarity may after all be accidental, and it is difficult to reconcile the hypothesis with the fact that the form “Scandia” (and not “*Skadnia”) already appears in Pliny and later in Ptolemy. To this must be added that the form “*Skadney,” or a similar one, is not known; the first time we find the word Skåne in literature is in the story of Wulfstan the Dane to King Alfred (about 890, see later), where it takes the form “Scôn eg,” which is the same as “Skáney.” “Skania,” which is a latinised form of “Skáney,” is found in a Papal letter of 950, and a Swedish runic inscription of about 1020 reads “ą Skąnu,” which also is the same as “Skáney.” It therefore appears probable that this is the original form, the same as the Norwegian name “Skáney,” and that it has not resulted from a contraction of “Skadinavia.” Professor Torp agrees that a form “*Skânovia” might possibly be the original.
What may be the meaning of the name “Hilleviones” in Scadinavia is difficult to make out; it does not occur in any other writer, but is in all likelihood a common term for all Scandinavians. One is reminded of the “Hermiones” who occur in Mela in the same connection, but a little later Pliny mentions these also. “Æningia,” which is said to be no smaller than Scadinavia, is a riddle. Could it be a corruption of a Halsingia or Alsingia (the land of the Helsingers), a name for northern Sweden, which thus lay farther off and was less known than Scadinavia?[107] When we read that these regions were supposed to extend as far as the Vistula, this might indicate a vague idea that Scadinavia and Æningia were connected with the mainland, whereby a bay of the sea was formed, called “Cylipenus,”[108] which will thus be yet another name for the Baltic, taken from a new source; but the whole may be nothing more than an obscure statement.