The Danube Delta in ancient writings
(hypothesis concerning a southern branch of the Danube, no longer in existence today)
The article first lists the statements of the main ancient writers on the shape of the Danube Delta, its components and on the number and names of its mouths. Then the author notices that according mainly to Pliny the Elder"s Historia Naturalis, the Ister must have had another more southern arm which flew directly into the Razelm (Halmyris) lake, named Hieron stoma (the Holy mouth) or Peuke (from gr. peuke=pine). Ptolemy's map of this region seems to confirm the reality and the position of this arm, today disappeared, as well as that of the island Peuke, rising from its flows. Though the testimonies of ancient geographers are more than once contradictory on this particular item, the hypothesis of a disappeared arm is, according to its author, sustainable and he promises a future, more detailed, study dedicated to this subject.
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Fig. 1 Modern Delta |
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Fig. 2. The Delta of the Danube by Ptolemy |
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Fig. 3. Reconstruction of the Shape of the Danube Delta in Antiquity |
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Fig. 4. Comparison between Rhodos and Peuke (Scymnos) |
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Fig. 5. Comparison between antic and modern Delta |
