Baltia

For the butterfly genus, see Baltia (butterfly). For the airline, see USGlobal Airways.

Baltia, Basilia or Abalus is a mythic island in northern Europe mentioned in Greco-Roman geography in the connection of amber.

It presumably corresponds to a territory near either the Baltic Sea or the North Sea, perhaps the coast of Prussia, the island of Gotland, Sweden,[1] or of the Jutland Peninsula.[2]

  1. ^ William Smith in his Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) wrote Baltia was "probably a portion of the Prussian coast upon the Baltic"."ABALUS was said by Pytheas to be an island in the northern ocean, upon which amber was washed by the waves, distant a day's sail from the aestuary called Mentonomon, on which the Gothones dwelt. This island was called Basilia by Timaeus, and Baltia by Xenophon of Lampsacus. It was probably a portion of the Prussian coast upon the Baltic." - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith, LLD. London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1854.
  2. ^ Alexander von Humboldt placed Baltia west of the Jutland Peninsula in the North Sea. Cosmos: A Sketch Of A Physical Description Of The Universe, Alexander Von Humboldt, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, p. 493.