of all
antiquity. After describing the Hellespont, Moeotis, Dacia, Sarmatia,
ancient Scythia, and the isles in the Euxine Sea, and proceeding last from
Spain, he passes north to the Scythic Ocean, and returns west towards
Spain. The coast of part of the Baltic seems to have been partly known to
him; he particularly mentions an island called Baltia, where amber was
found; but he supposes that the Baltic Sea itself was connected with the
Caspian and Indian Oceans. Pliny is the first author who names Scandinavia,
which he represents as an island, the extent of which was not then known;
but by Scandinavia there is reason to believe the present Scandia is meant.
Denmark may probably be rcognised in the Dumnor of this author, and Norway
in Noligen. The mountain Soevo, which he describes as forming a vast bay
called Codanus, extending to the promontory of the Cimbri, is supposed by
some to be the mountains that run along the Vistula on the eastern
extremity of Germany, and by others to be that chain of mountains which
commence at Gottenburgh. The whole of his information respecting the north
seems to have been drawn from the expeditions of Drusus, Varus, and
Germanicus, to the Elbe and the Weser, and from the accounts of the
merchants who traded thither for amber.

Tacitus, who died about twenty years after Pliny, seems to have acquired a
knowledge of the north more accurate in some respects than the latter
possessed. In his admirable description of Germany, he mentions the
Suiones, and from the name, as well as other circumstances, there can be
little doubt that they inhabited the southern part of modern Sweden.

The northern promontory of Scotland was known to Diodorus Siculus under the
name of Orcas; but the insularity of Britain was certainly not ascertained
till the fleet sent out by Agricola sailed round it, about eighty-four
years after Christ. Tacitus, who mentions this circumstance, also informs
us, that Ireland, which was known by name to the Greeks, was much
frequented in his time by merchants, from whose information he adds, that
its harbours were better known than those of Britain: this statement,
however, there is much reason to question, as in the time of Caesar, all
that the Romans knew of Ireland was its relative position to Britain, and
that it was about half its size.

The emperor Trajan, who reigned between A.D. 98 and A.D. 117, was not only
a great conqueror, carrying the Roman armies beyond the Danube in