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My notes on the map:No information has been added to Ptolemy's text as I have it: there is no topographic data and except for the Danube, the courses of the rivers remain unmapped, since at best, Ptolemy gives only the mouth and the source. To accommodate Ptolemy's own data, three adjustments had to be made to the coast. He does not list Phleum and Laciburgium in his plotting of the coast, so they must be at least slightly inland; conversely, he calls the asterisked point on the NW coast of Cimbria a promontory (as indeed it is) so I adjusted the coast after it, drawing a bay of arbitrary depth. Notice that while the orientation of the rest of the map is more or less accurate, Cimbria — modern Denmark — is tilted clockwise by about 60°. As in the even more striking case of Scotland in Ptolemy's map of Britannia, I attribute the rotation to the fact that Roman troops never reached the region: Ptolemy thus had no land measurements available and had to rely on pilots' accounts, influenced by winds and sea-currents. |
Orientale latus terminatur eo intervallo, quod est inter hanc inflexionem et Sarmaticos montes supra eam sitos, quorum | The eastern side is bounded by that interval, which is between this last bend and the abovementioned Sarmatian mountains, | ||
australis terminus | the southern boundary of which is in | 42*30 | 48°30 |
septentrionalis vero | and the northern boundary of which is in | 43*30 | 50°30 |
atque intervallo inter hos montes et Vistulae caput quod supra indicavimus; deinde mari tenus ipso flumine. | and the interval between these mountains and the head of the Vistulae is that which we indicated above; then to the sea by the river itself. |
Oram praeter Oceanum inhabitant supra Bructeros Frisii usque ad Amisiam fluvium; post hos Cauchi minores usque ad Visurgim fluvium; deinde Cauchi maiores usque ad Albim fluvium; inde per cervicem Cimbricae Chersonesi Saxones, ipsam autem Chersonesum supra Saxones ab occasu Sigulones, deinde Sabalingii, deinde Cobandi, supra quos Chali, et rursus supra hos ad occasum Fundusii, ad ortum Charudes, omnium vero maxime ad septentriones Cimbri; post Saxones a Chaluso fluvio ad Suevum fluvium Farodini, deinde Sidini usque ad Viaduam fluvium, et post eos Rugiclei usque ad Vistulam fluvium. |
Ex gentibus introrsum et in media terra habitantibus maximae sunt gentes Suevorum Angilorum, qui ad orientem sunt a Langobardis septentriones versus extenti usque ad mediam Albis fluvii partem, et Suevorum Semnonum, quorum fines ultra Albim ab ea quam diximus parte orientem versus pertingunt usque ad Suevum fluvium, et Burguntarum, qui inde usque ad Vistulam habitant. | Of the people of the interior and those wo live inland the most important are the Suevi Angili, who are to the east of the Langobardi extending towards the north and up to the central part of the Albis river, and the Suevi Semnones, whose boundaries beyond the Albis extend from the area we mentioned towards the east up to the Suevus river, and the Burguntae, who inhabit from there to the Vistula. |
Rursus infra Semnones sedes habent Silingae, et infra Burguntas Lugi Omani, infra quos Lugi Diduni usque ad Asciburgium montem; et infra Silingas Calucones ad utramque ripam Albis fluminis, infra quos Chaerusci et Camavi usque ad Melibocum montem, a quibus ad orientem circa Albim fluvium Baenochaemae, supra quos Batini, et supra hos infra Asciburgium montem Corconti et Lugi Buri usque ad Vistulae fluvii caput; infra hos autem primi Sidones, deinde Cotini, deinde Visburgii supra Orcynium Saltum. | Back below the Semnones the Silingae have their seat, and below the Burguntae the Lugi Omani, below whom the Lugi Diduni up to Mt. Asciburgius; and below the Silingae the Calucones and the Camavi up to Mt. Melibocus, from whom to the east near the Albis river and above them, below Mt. Asciburgius, the Corconti and the Lugi Buri up to the head of the Vistula river; and below them first the Sidones, then the Cotini, then the Visburgii above the Orcynius valley. |
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Page updated: 10 Sep 09