Earliest Records of the Scandinavians 35 



of . Nero is said to have been the first Eoman who 

 actually gazed upon the Baltic Sea. It is Pliny the 

 Elder who tells us this ; and the words in which 

 Tacitus, writing about the end of the first century, 

 speaks of the Scandinavian countries are worth remem- 

 bering — the first recorded glimpse of any worth into 

 this remote world by the eye of a Roman. 



It is after he has finished describing the people of 

 Northern Germany, who lay along the southern shore 

 of the Baltic, that Tacitus goes on to speak of what lies 

 beyond. The Romans, as yet, knew only the southern 

 bulge of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and therefore did 

 not know but that this was an island in the midst of 

 the Northern Ocean. "Wherefore the Baltic is for them 

 but a portion of the great ocean which lies round the 

 north-western coasts of the European continent, round 

 Frisia, round Jutland (the Cimbric Chersonese), and 

 round the north of Germany. Tacitus, however, does 

 make a distinction between this Northern Sea south of 

 the Scandinavian ' island,' and the Arctic Sea on the 

 other side of it. He speaks first of the land of the 

 Suiones {i.e. the Swedes), which lies in the Northern 

 Sea opposite the coasts of Germany. We must take 

 this land to be the southern bulge of Sweden, part of 

 which is to-day called Skane, or Skonen, Scania, 

 Scandia, Scanzia, Scandinavia were the names by which 

 the country was known to the Romans. Of his hind 

 of the Suiones, all that Tacitus tells us is that it is rich 

 in arms and ships and men; and then he goes on to 

 say that 'beyond the land of the Suiones is another 

 sea {i.e. the Arctic Sea), sluggish or almost stagnant, 

 which, we may believe, girdles and encloses the whole 



