River
Fl. Herbas
Rıva deresi
Listen to the story
The river Herbas is drawn on the Tabula without any label of its own; its name is inferred from the road station beside it, Ad herbas, 'at the grasses', which is most likely a slip for Ad Rhebas. The real Rhebas, today the Rıva deresi in Turkey, carries a Thracian name meaning 'wild, impetuous', related to Latin rabies. The map shortens it drastically, letting it rise in an unnamed mountain and run northeast. In reality it flows into the Black Sea. A rather minor stream, it owed its fame to the Argonaut legend, where the poet Apollonius of Rhodes calls it swift-flowing.