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Vistula - History

Vistula - History: Encyclopedia II - Vistula - History

It is not known whether the name Vistula is Indo-European or pre-Indo-European. The name was first recorded by Pliny in AD 77 in his Natural History. He uses Vistula (4.52, 4.89) with an alternative spelling, Vistillus (3.06). The Vistula River ran into the Mare Suebicum, which we know as the Baltic Sea. From all the sources one can deduce that near the delta lived the tribes of the Suebi and Burgundians, and on both banks the Goths (see also Gothiscandza and Wielbark culture). The Goths, at least, spoke East Germanic. East of ...

Vistula: Encyclopedia II - Vistula - History

Vistula - History

It is not known whether the name Vistula is Indo-European or pre-Indo-European. The name was first recorded by Pliny in AD 77 in his Natural History. He uses Vistula (4.52, 4.89) with an alternative spelling, Vistillus (3.06). The Vistula River ran into the Mare Suebicum, which we know as the Baltic Sea. From all the sources one can deduce that near the delta lived the tribes of the Suebi and Burgundians, and on both banks the Goths (see also Gothiscandza and Wielbark culture). The Goths, at least, spoke East Germanic. East of them or possibly in their domain (as a subject population) were the Aestians, Galindians, Sudovians, Borusci, Veneti, and more. A people on the eastern part of the Mare Suebicum were the Fenni.

However, Tacitus' knowledge of the different peoples was second-hand at best; its accuracy is not certain. He also used the term "Germans" for describing people that probably did not speak Germanic, for example when describing Wenets (Veneds, Venets), Peucyns and Fenns he wrote, that he isn't sure if he should call them Germans, since they have settlements and they fight on foot, or rather Sarmats since they have some similar customs to them.

Ptolemy also records the tribes around the Vistula River, which he regards as the border between Germany and Sarmatia. He uses the Greek spelling, Ouistoula. Pomponius Mela refers to the Visula (Book 3) and Ammianus Marcellinus to the Bisula (Book 22), both of which names lack the -t-. The definitive reference is probably Jordanes (Getica 5 & 17), who uses Viscla. This word may be related to the ancestor of German Weichsel, which indicates that the Germanics must have retained a foothold at the mouth of the Vistula, in the Danzig/Elbing region.

The Vistula river used to be connected to the Dnieper River, and thence to the Black Sea. What later became the city of Kyiv in Ukraine was earlier known by its Gothic name of Danapirstadir "City on the Dnieper". The Baltic Sea-Vistula-Dnieper-Black Sea water route was one of the most ancient trade-routes, the Amber Road, on which amber and other items were traded from Northern Europe to Greece, Asia, Egypt, and elsewhere.