Editing Bastarnae (section)

== Location ==
[[File:Castris rubris tabula peutingeriana1.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Location of ''Blastarni'' and the ''Alpes Bastarnicae'' north of [[Roman Dacia]], as depicted on [[Tabula Peutingeriana]]]]
The earliest classical mentions of the Bastarnae locate them north of the Lower Danube, although they apparently made frequent crossings impacting upon the peoples living south of the Danube.

Strabo (about 20 AD) made several remarks about the location of the Bastarnae. In one place he described the lands beyond the Rhine and Danube as the home of the Galatian (Celtic) and the Germanic peoples, and beyond these (to the east) were the Bastarnae and their neighbours the Tyregetans "and the River Borysthenes" (Dnieper).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/7B*.html|title=LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book VII Chapter 2|website=penelope.uchicago.edu|language=en}}</ref> However, in another similar passage he says only that "most writers suspect" the Bastarnae to be next beyond the Germanic Peoples, but he indicates that it is also possible that "others lie in between, either the Iazyges, or the Roxolani, or certain other of the wagon-dwellers — it is not easy to say".<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/7A*.html|title=LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book VII Chapter 1|website=penelope.uchicago.edu|language=en}}</ref> In yet another similar passage he describes the Bastarnae as the most inland (northerly) of the peoples living between the Borysthenes (Dnieper) and the Ister (Lower Danube), and indicates that their neighbours the Tyregetans are closer to the Black Sea.<ref name=7,3>{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/7C*.html|title=LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book VII Chapter 3|website=penelope.uchicago.edu|language=en}}</ref>

Strabo also mentioned their interactions with other peoples near the Danube, specifying that in his time, "wagon-dwelling" Scythians and Sarmatians, "as well as the Bastarnian tribes, are mingled with the Thracians (more indeed with those outside the Ister [North of the Danube], but also with those inside). And mingled with them are also the Celtic tribes — the Boii, the Scordisci, and the Taurisci". He confirmed that historically "the Scythians and Bastarnians and Sauromatians on the far side of the river [the Lower Danube] often prevail to the extent that they actually cross over to attack those whom they have already driven out, and some of them remain there, either in the islands or in Thrace". In particular, Near the outlets of the Ister River [Lower Danube] is a great island called Peuce; and when the Bastarnians took possession of it they received the appellation of Peucini."<ref name=7,3/>

In one passage Pliny the Elder located the Bastarnae "and other Germanic peoples" in the lands beyond the Iazyges and Dacians (''aversa Basternae tenent aliique inde Germani'').<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'', English [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D25 IV.25], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/4*.html Latin IV.xii.81]</ref> In another he describes "the Peucini, the Basternae", as neighbours of the [[Dacians]].<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''New History'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/4*.html IV.xiv.100] (''Peucini, Basternae, supra dictis contermini Dacis'')</ref>

In the second century AD, the texts attached to Ptolemy's ''Geography'' say that "above Dacia are the Peucini and the Basternae"; "between the Peucini and the Basternae are the [[Carpiani]]"; "between the Basternae and the Rhoxolani" who he places on the Black Sea coast, "are the Chuni" (otherwise unknown); and "below the Basternae near Dacia are the Tigri and below these are the Tyrangitae" whose names are linked to the [[Tyras]] or Dniester river. Possibly relevant, he also mentioned a mountainous region called the "Peuca" mountains south of the [[Costoboci]] and [[Transmontani]].<ref>Ptolemy [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/3/5*.html III.5]</ref> The Sidones, named as one part of the Bastarnae by Strabo, are described by Ptolemy as one of the peoples east of the Vistula, although the location is not clear. It thus appears that the Bastarnae were settled in a vast arc stretching around the northern and eastern flanks of the Carpathians from western Ukraine to the Danube Delta.<ref>Barrington Plate 22</ref>

The [[Peutinger Map]] (produced ca. 400 AD, but including material from as early as the first century) shows the Bastarnae (mis-spelt ''Blastarni'') north of the Carpathian mountains and appears to name the Galician Carpathians as the ''Alpes Bastarnicae''.<ref name="Batty 2008 238"/>

Because of their apparent cultural and linguistic connections to the west, the Bastarnae are generally believed to have moved originally from that direction, but this remains uncertain. Babeş and Shchukin argue in favour of [[Pomeranian culture|an origin]] in eastern [[Pomerania]] on the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] coast of today's north-west Poland, on the grounds of correspondences in archaeological material, e.g. a Pomeranian-style [[fibula (brooch)|fibula]] found in a Poieneşti site in [[Moldavia]],<ref>Shchukin (1989) 65-6, 71–2</ref> although Batty considers the evidence insufficient.<ref>Batty (2008) 248</ref> Babeş identifies the Sidoni, a branch of the Bastarnae which [[Strabo]] mentioned<ref name="Strabo VII.3.17">Strabo VII.3.17</ref> with the ''Sidini'' located by Ptolemy in Pomerania.<ref>Babeş (1969) 195–218</ref>

Batty argues that Greco-Roman sources of the first century AD locate the Bastarnae homeland on the northern side of the [[Carpathians|Northern Carpathian]] mountain range, encompassing south-east Poland and south-west Ukraine (i.e. the region traditionally known as [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]]).<ref name="Batty 2008 238">Batty (2008) 238</ref>