Scandza

Scandza was described as a "great island" by the Roman historian Jordanes in his work Getica, written while in Constantinople around 551 AD. This island was located in the Arctic regions of the sea that surrounded the world. He described the area to set the stage for his treatment of the Goths' migration to Gothiscandza, the island in front of the Vistula river. Composed of information from several sources, his account contains several accurate descriptions of the mouth of the Vistula river. It is possible that Jordanes was describing Scandinavia. Prominent Swedish archaeologist, Göran Burenhult, regards Jordanes' account as a unique glimpse into the tribes of Scandinavia in the 6th century.

Jordanes was himself of Gothic descent. It is believed that Jordanes wrote Getica for the Romans to consider Goths not as barbarians who conquered them but as equals who also had a glorious ancient history, literature, philosophy and who became emperors by intermarrying the Roman royal families.

Early Greek and Roman geographers used the name Scandia for various uncharted islands in Northern Europe. The name originated in Greek sources, which used it for a long time for different islands in the Mediterranean region. In the Iliad the name denotes an ancient city in Kythira, Greece. The first attested written use of the name for a Northern European island appears in the work of Roman Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia of c. AD 77. Pliny described "Scandia" as an island located north of Britannia. This island does not appear to be the same as the island Pliny calls "Scatinavia", located near Cimbri. In Claudius Ptolemy's Geographia, written in the 2nd century AD, Scandia is described as the most easterly of the Scandiae islands, a group of islands located east of the Cimbrian peninsula. This is the region where Pliny had located "Scatinavia". The name "Scandia" was therefore after Ptolemy generally associated with the southern part of Scandinavian peninsula by the early Roman geographers, who thought of Scandinavia as an island.

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