[2871] These islands, or rather rocks, are now known as Fanari, and lie at the entrance of the Straits of Constantinople.
[2872] From σὺν and πληγὴ, “a striking together.” Tournefort has explained the ancient story of these islands running together, by remarking that each of them consists of one craggy island, but that when the sea is disturbed the water covers the lower parts, so as to make the different points of each resemble isolated rocks. They are united to the mainland by a kind of isthmus, and appear as islands only when it is inundated in stormy weather.
[2873] Upon which the city of Apollonia (now Sizeboli), mentioned in C. [18] of the present Book, was situate.
[2874] So called because it was dedicated by Lucullus in the Capitol. It was thirty cubits in height.
[2875] In C. [24] of the present Book.
[2876] Mentioned in the last Chapter as the “Island of Achilles.”
[2877] From the Greek μακαρῶν, “(The island) of the Blest.” It was also called the “Island of the Heroes.”
[2878] Meaning all the inland or Mediterranean seas.
[2879] As the whole of Pliny’s description of the northern shores of Europe is replete with difficulties and obscurities, we cannot do better than transcribe the learned remarks of M. Parisot, the Geographical Editor of Ajasson’s Edition, in reference to this subject. He says, “Before entering on the discussion of this portion of Pliny’s geography, let us here observe, once for all, that we shall not remark as worthy of our notice all those ridiculous hypotheses which could only take their rise in ignorance, precipitation, or a love of the marvellous. We shall decline then to recognize the Doffrefelds in the mountains of Sevo, the North Cape in the Promontory of Rubeas, and the Sea of Greenland in the Cronian Sea. The absurdity of these suppositions is proved by—I. The impossibility of the ancients ever making their way to these distant coasts without the aid of large vessels, the compass, and others of those appliances, aided by which European skill finds the greatest difficulty in navigating those distant seas. II. The immense lacunæ which would be found to exist in the descriptions of these distant seas and shores: for not a word do we find about those numerous archipelagos which are found scattered throughout the North Sea, not a word about Iceland, nor about the numberless seas and fiords on the coast of Norway. III. The absence of all remarks upon the local phænomena of these spots. The North Cape belongs to the second polar climate, the longest day there being two months and a half. Is it likely that navigators would have omitted to mention this remarkable phænomenon, well known to the Romans by virtue of their astronomical theories, but one with which practically they had never made themselves acquainted?—The only geographers who here merit our notice are those who are of opinion that in some of the coasts or islands here mentioned Pliny describes the Scandinavian Peninsula, and in others the Coast of Finland. The first question then is, to what point Pliny first carries us? It is evident that from the Black Sea he transports himself on a sudden to the shores of the Baltic, thus passing over at a single leap a considerable space filled with nations and unknown deserts. The question then is, what line has he followed? Supposing our author had had before his eyes a modern map, the imaginary line which he would have drawn in making this transition would have been from Odessa to the Kurisch-Haff. In this direction the breadth across Europe is contracted to a space, between the two seas, not more than 268 leagues in length. A very simple mode of reasoning will conclusively prove that Pliny has deviated little if anything from this route. If he fails to state in precise terms upon what point of the shores of the Baltic he alights after leaving the Riphæan mountains, his enumeration of the rivers which discharge themselves into that sea, and with which he concludes his account of Germany, will supply us with the requisite information, at all events in great part. In following his description of the coast, we find mention made of the following rivers, the Guttalus, the Vistula, the Elbe, the Weser, the Ems, the Rhine, and the Meuse. The five last mentioned follow in their natural order, from east to west, as was to be expected in a description starting from the east of Europe for its western extremity and the shores of Cadiz. We have a right to conclude then that the Guttalus was to the east of the Vistula. As we shall now endeavour to show, this river was no other than the Alle, a tributary of the Pregel, which the Romans probably, in advancing from west to east, considered as the principal stream, from the circumstance that they met with it, before coming to the larger river. The Pregel after being increased by the waters of the Alle or Guttalus falls into the Frisch-Haff, about one degree further west than the Kurisch-Haff. It may however be here remarked, Why not find a river more to the east, the Niemen, for instance, or the Duna, to be represented by the Guttalus? The Niemen in especial would suit in every respect equally well, because it discharges itself into the Kurisch-Haff. This conjecture however is incapable of support, when we reflect that the ancients were undoubtedly acquainted with some points of the coast to the east of the mouth of the Guttalus, but which, according to the system followed by our author, would form part of the Continent of Asia. These points are, 1st. The Cape Lytarmis (mentioned by Pliny, B. vi. c. 4). 2ndly. The mouth of the river Carambucis (similarly mentioned by him), and 3rdly, a little to the east of Cape Lytarmis, the mouth of the Tanais. The name of Cape Lytarmis suggests to us Lithuania, and probably represents Domess-Ness in Courland; the Carambucis can be no other than the Niemen; while the Tanais, upon which so many authors, ancient and modern, have exhausted their conjectures, from confounding it with the Southern Tanais which falls into the Sea of Azof, is evidently the same as the Dwina or Western Duna. This is established incontrovertibly both by its geographical position (the mouth of the Dwina being only fifty leagues to the east of Domess-Ness) and the identity evidently of the names Dwina and Tanais. Long since, Leibnitz was the first to remark the presence of the radical T. n, or D. n, either with or without a vowel, in the names of the great rivers of Eastern Europe; Danapris or Dnieper, Danaster or Dniester, Danube (in German Donau, in Hungarian Duna), Tanais or Don, for example; all which rivers however discharge themselves into the Black Sea. There can be little doubt then of the identity of the Duna with the Tanais, it being the only body of water in these vast countries which bears a name resembling the initial Tan, or Tn, and at the same time belongs to the basin of the Baltic. We are aware, it is true, that the White Sea receives a river Dwina, which is commonly called the Northern Dwina, but there can be no real necessity to be at the trouble of combating the opinion that this river is identical with the Northern Tanais. As the result then of our investigations, it is at the eastern extremity of the Frisch-Haff and near the mouth of the Pregel, that we would place the point at which Pliny sets out. As for the Riphæan mountains, they have never existed anywhere but in the head of the geographers from whom our author drew his materials. From the mountains of Ural and Poias, which Pliny could not possibly have in view, seeing that they lie in a meridian as eastern as the Caspian Sea, the traveller has to proceed 600 leagues to the south-west without meeting with any chains of mountains or indeed considerable elevations.”
[2880] It is pretty clear that he refers to the numerous islands scattered over the face of the Baltic Sea, such as Dago, Oesel, Gothland, and Aland.