Region
Sors Desertus
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Sors Desertus names a stretch of empty, waterless steppe beyond the lower Danube, land roamed by peoples such as the Sarmatians and the Roxolani. The phrase is found in no ancient text, but it probably echoes the Greek geographer Strabo's 'desert of the Getae' between the Danube and the Dniester. Sors means fate or lot, and it seems to recall what was decided here: the Persian king Darius the First failed against the Scythians and had to retreat, and the Thracian king Lysimachus lost a battle to the rebellious Getae and became their prisoner. Unusually for a region, the name is written in black.