32 GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOMERIC IMCRtOD. [CHAP.
North Germany furnish large quantities; in Courlnnd also, towards
the Gulf of Riga, it is dug up as a fossil. The question therefore
arises, by what line of traffic it reached the Mediterranean. In
Roman times we have clear evidence that it was
through Pan- brought across Germany by way of Pannonia to the
nonia> head of the Adriatic, for Pliny tells us that in
Nero's reign a Roman knight, who was despatched for that
purpose, brought a large supply by that route to Rome1. It is
highly probable that the northern traffic had followed the same
direction from a very early time. The testimony which is borne
to this by archoeological discoveries is very strong3; and it is only
thus that we can explain the legends that existed among the
Greeks concerning offerings that were sent at a primitive period
on several occasions by the Hyperboreans in the far north to
Delos by the way of the Adriatic and Dodona, sometimes under
the escort of maiden envoys of that race*. This supposition also
furnishes the easiest explanation of the numerous intimations which
connect the amber trade with the mouth of the Po; for, though it
has been attempted to explain these by supposing the existence
of another route from the German Ocean to the head of the
Adriatic by the way of North Italy, yet this view has little more
than conjecture to support it. At the same time it may well have
happened that amber found its way to the Mediterranean in
another direction] and this was undoubtedly the case subsequently
to the expedition of Pythcas to Northern Europe in
ttaughGaui. tlie fr>urtn century B.C., when both the tin and
amber trades were opened out to the merchants of
Massilia by means of the overland route across Gaul and down
the valley of the Rhone. Indeed, there is evidence to show that
even before that date these articles followed that line of traffic, as
x Pliny, H. N.t 37. 45; Sexcentis millibus passuum fere a Carnunlo
Pannonlae abesse litus id Germaniae ex quo invchitur pcrcognilum uupcrj
vivitque eques Romanus ad id comparandum missus ab Juliano curante gladia-
torum munus Neronis principis, qui et conmercia ea ct litora peragravlt, tanta
copia invecta ut retia coercendis feris podium prolegeutm sucinis nodarcntur,
anna vero et libitina totusque unius diei apparatus esset e suctno,
a See Mr A. J. Evans's remarks in Freeman's History tf Sicify vol. 4,
P. 220.
8 Herod. 4. 33—5.