The relative antiquity of the routes from Olbia and Hatria is ascertained with tolerable precision. Herodotus, 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, however, 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 merchants. 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 probably hastened by the disturbance of the old one from the Hadriatic by the Gauls, who not only conquered Lombardy at the beginning of the fourth century before Christ, but also ravaged 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
- ↑ Von Sadowski, Die Handelsstrassen der Griechen und Römer aus dem Polnischen, von Albin Kohn, Jena, 1877, p. 72, pl. iii. figs. 1-6. Coins of Olbia and Ægina, with the "Quadratum incusum" of Athens and of Cyzicus, found together at Schubin, ranging in date from B.C. 460 to 431.
- ↑ 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.
