Editing Pytheas (section)

== Voyage to the Don ==
Pytheas claimed to have explored the entire north; however, he turned back at the mouth of the Vistula, the border with [[Scythia]]. If he had gone on he would have discovered the ancestral [[Balts]]. They occupied the lands to the east of the Vistula. In the west they began with the people living around [[Frisches Haff]], Lithuanian Aismarės, "sea of the [[Aesti|Aistians]]", who in that vicinity became the Baltic Prussians.<ref>{{harvnb|Gimbutas|1967|p=22}}.</ref> On the east [[Herodotus]] called them the ''Neuri'', a name related to Old Prussian ''narus'', "the deep", in the sense of water country. Later Lithuanians would be "the people of the shore". The Vistula was the traditional limit of Greater Germany. Place names featuring *''ner''- or *''nar''- are wide-ranging over the vast [[Proto-Baltic language#Proto-Baltic area|Proto-Baltic homeland]], occupying western Russia before the Slavs.<ref>{{harvnb|Gimbutas|1967|p=101}}.</ref>

Herodotus said that the Neuri had Scythian customs, but they were at first not considered Scythian.<ref>Herodotus IV.105.</ref> During the war between the Scythians and the Persian Empire, the Scythians came to dominate the Neuri. Strabo denied that any knowledge of the shores of the eastern Baltic existed. He had heard of the Sauromatai, but had no idea where to place them.<ref>7.2.4.</ref>

Herodotus had mentioned these Sauromatai as a distinct people living near the Neuri. [[Pliny the Elder]], however, was much better informed. The island of Baunonia ([[Bornholm]]), he said lies a days' sail off Scythia, where amber is collected.<ref name=P4.27.13 /> To him the limit of Germany was the Vistula. In contrast to Strabo, he knew that the Goths live around the Vistula, but these were definitely Germans.

By the time of Tacitus, the [[Aestii]] had emerged.<ref>''Germania'', 45.</ref> The former Scythia was now entirely Sarmatia. Evidently the Sarmatians conquered westward to the Vistula. The Goths moved to the south. That the Balts lived east of the Vistula from remote prehistoric times is unquestioned. The Baltic languages, however, are only known from the 2nd millennium AD. They are known to have developed in tribal contexts, as they were originally tribal. The first mention of any tribes is in Ptolemy's description of European Sarmatia, where the main Prussian tribes are mentioned for the first time.<ref>III.5.</ref>

In Tacitus, only the language of the Aestii is mentioned. Strabo distinguished the [[Vistula Venedi|Venedi]], who were likely [[Slavs]]. From these few references, which are the only surviving evidence apart from glottochronology<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/33282694/Glottochronology-and-It-s-Application-to-the-Balto-Slavic-Languages-Part-1 |title=Glottochronology and Its Application to the Balto-Slavic Languages |last=Novotná |first=Petra |access-date=18 February 2017}}</ref> and place name analysis, it would seem that the Balts of Pytheas' time were well past the Common [[Balto-Slavic]] stage, and likely spoke a number of related dialects. By turning back at what he thought was the limit of Germany, he not only missed the Balts, but did not discover that more Germans, the Goths, had moved into the Baltic area.

[[Polybius]] related: "... on his return thence (from the north), he traversed the whole of the coast of Europe from [[Cádiz|Gades]] to the [[Don (river)|Tanais]]."<ref>Polybius XXXIV.5.</ref> Some authors consider this leg a second voyage, as it does not seem likely he would pass by Marseille without refitting and refreshing the crew. It is striking that he encountered the border of Scythia, turned around, and went around Europe counter-clockwise until he came to the southern side of Scythia on the [[Black Sea]]. It is possible to speculate that he may have hoped to circumnavigate Europe, but the sources do not say. In other, even more speculative interpretations, Pytheas returned north and the Tanais is not the Don but is a northern river, such as the [[Elbe]].<ref name=smithpyth>{{harvnb|Smith|1880|loc=Pytheas}}.</ref>