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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6)

Chapter 147: CHAP. 29. (26.)—MŒSIA.
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About This Book

The text assembles a systematic survey of the natural world, opening with cosmological and geographical discussions and proceeding through plants, animals, minerals, and human uses of natural substances. It synthesizes reports from earlier authors, travelers, and craftsmen, combining empirical observation, hearsay, and learned commentary to describe physical phenomena, medicinal remedies, technologies, and curiosities. Organized as an encyclopedic sequence of books and chapters, it catalogues facts and theories, cites authorities, and balances practical instruction with natural-philosophical reflection.

CHAP. 29. (26.)—MŒSIA.

Joining up to Pannonia is the province called Mœsia2026, which runs, with the course of the Danube, as far as the Euxine. It commences at the confluence2027 previously mentioned. In it are the Dardani, the Celegeri, the Triballi, the Timachi, the Mœsi, the Thracians, and the Scythians who border on the Euxine. The more famous among its rivers are the Margis2028, which rises in the territory of the Dardani, the Pingus, the Timachus, the Œscus which rises in Mount Rhodope, and, rising in Mount Hæmus, the Utus2029, the Asamus, and the Ieterus.

The breadth of Illyricum2030 at its widest part is 325 miles, and its length from the river Arsia to the river Drinius 530; from the Drinius to the Promontory of Acroceraunia Agrippa states to be 175 miles, and he says that the entire circuit of the Italian and Illyrian Gulf is 1700 miles. In this Gulf, according to the limits which we have drawn, are two seas, the Ionian2031 in the first part, and the Adriatic, which runs more inland and is called the Upper Sea.