474 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. xin. 



The relative antiquity of the routes from Olbia and 

 Hatria is ascertained with tolerable precision. Herodo- 

 tus, in the course of his travels, visited Olbia, and from 

 his silence as to the existence of an amber trade, coupled 

 with the belief to which he alludes of its being obtained 

 from the mouth of the Po, it may be concluded that 

 Greek discovery at that time had not penetrated to the 

 amber coasts of the Baltic by way of Olbia. Coins, how- 

 ever, of that city, as well as other Greek coins, have been 

 discovered at Schubin, 1 near Bromberg, belonging to the 

 fifth century before Christ. These are likely to have 

 passed northwards from Hatria, which, in the days of 

 Herodotus, was a mart frequented by the Greek merch- 

 ants. It is not until after his time that the trade-routes 

 from Olbia are clearly defined by the Greek helmets, 

 armour, and coins found near the source of the Tasmina, 

 and by other Greek remains, 2 and by amber in various 

 places between the Baltic and the Black Sea. The 

 development of this route was proba*bly hastened by the 

 disturbance of the old one from the Hadriatic by the 

 Gauls, who not only conquered Lombardy at the begin- 

 ning of the fourth century before Christ, but also ra,vaged 

 Greece B.C. 279. These movements must have seriously 

 affected all the trade-routes passing across the line of 

 the Danube to the amber coasts. 



The Greek influence penetrated into the Valley of the 



1 Von Sadowski, Die Handelsstrassen der Griechen und Romer aus dem 

 Polnischen, von Albin Kohn, Jena, 1877, p. 72, pi. iii. figs. 1-6. Coins 

 of Olbia and ^Egina, with the " Quadratum incusum " of Athens and of 

 Cyzicus, found together at Schubin, ranging in date from B.C. 460 to 

 431. 



2 Silver coins of Demetrius Poliorketes (B.C. 294-287), found in a 

 tomb at Peterskapelle, close to the Gulf of Riga. For other cases see 

 Engelhardt, Congr. Int., Buda-Pest vol., p. 251 et seq. 



