River
Hostia Fluminis Danubii
Donau, Duna, Dunărea, Dunav, Дунав
Listen to the story
Where the Danube fans out into its delta on the Black Sea, the map marks Hostia Fluminis Danubii, the mouths of the great river, with a road station nearby called Ad Stoma, Greek for 'at the mouth'. The Roman historian Ammianus counted seven mouths and sixty navigable tributaries, with the island of Peuce lying among the branches. Tacitus and Pliny placed the river's source on Mount Abnoba, in the Black Forest. The map, however, lets the Danube rise from a mountain range that, judging by the drawing, can only be the Swabian Alb.