XIII.] INFORMATION ABOUT NORTHERN EUROPE. 289

The acquaintance of the Romans with Germany derived from
personal observation decreased rather than otherwise after the
time of Augustus. The rule which \vas laid down

Germany

by that emperor to the effect that the Roman arms and scandi-
should not advance beyond the Elbe was strictly navia'
adhered to by his successors; indeed, so little did they attempt
to penetrate into the country at all, that Tacitus speaks of that river
as being known to his contemporaries only by hearsay1. At the
same time there arose a growing intercourse between the two
peoples, and from this was derived the enlarged knowledge of the
inhabitants of Germany which we find existing at a later period,
though we have no evidence whence it came. Much of this
was embodied in the Germania of Tacitus; but that treatise,
interesting as it is from an ethnographical point of view, furnishes
us with but little information about the physical features of the
country, and even as to the situation of the various tribes. It is
noticeable, as a proof of the ignorance which prevailed with regard
to the north-eastern part of the country, that the name of so im-
portant a river as the Viadrus (Oder) does not occur in any writer
before Ptolemy; and though the ^Vistula was known at an earlier
period, and was regarded as the boundary of Germany on its eastern
side towards Sarmatia, yet this was probably due to the trade-route
from the Baltic which passed through Pannonia, rather than to
any intelligence derived from Germany itself. About the regions
in the north of Europe, however, some intelligence, though of an
imperfect character, was obtained. In Mela the southern portion
of the Baltic is mentioned under the name of Codanus Sinus2, and
the knowledge of this may have been acquired at the time of the
naval expedition of Tiberius, which sailed up the Elbe. Mela also
is the first writer who mentions Scandinavia, but he regards it, not
as a peninsula, but as a large island3] this view is also found in

1 Tac. Germ., 41; in Hermunduris Albis oritur, flumen inclutum et notmn
olim; nunc tantuin auditur.
2 Mela, 3. 31 j super Albim Codanus ingens sinus magnis parvisque insulis
refertus est.
9 Ibid. § 54; In illo sinu quern Codanum diximus eximia Scadinavia, quam
adhuc Teutoni tenent, et ut fecunditate alias ita magnitudine antestat.
T. 19