Baltia

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Island described by ancient sources

title: "Baltia" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["classical-geography", "history-of-the-baltic-sea", "mythological-islands"] description: "Island described by ancient sources" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltia" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Island described by ancient sources ::

Baltia, Basilia or Abalus is a mythic island in northern Europe mentioned in Greco-Roman geography in the connection of amber.

It presumably corresponds to a territory near either the Baltic Sea or the North Sea, perhaps the coast of Prussia, the island of Gotland, Sweden, or of the Jutland Peninsula.

Pliny the Elder (HN. 4.95; 37.35-36)

William Smith in his [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography]] (1854) wrote Baltia was "probably a portion of the Prussian coast upon the Baltic"."'''ABALUS''' was said by Pytheas to be an island in the northern ocean, upon which amber was washed by the waves, distant a day's sail from the aestuary called Mentonomon, on which the Gothones dwelt. This island was called Basilia by Timaeus, and Baltia by Xenophon of Lampsacus. It was probably a portion of the Prussian coast upon the Baltic." - ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'', William Smith, LLD. London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1854.
[[Alexander von Humboldt]] placed Baltia west of the [[Jutland Peninsula]] in the [[North Sea]]. ''[[Cosmos: A Sketch Of A Physical Description Of The Universe]]'', Alexander Von Humboldt, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, p. 493.
[[Pliny the Elder]], ''Natural History'', [http://attalus.org/translate/pliny_hn4b.html#95 iv.(13).95], [http://attalus.org/translate/pliny_hn37a.html#35 xxxvii.(11).35].
[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5B*.html The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus — Book V; Chapters 19‑40]

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