Baltia

Baltia is a legendary island in Roman mythology, said to be in northern Europe. It is mentioned by Xenophon according to "Natural History" by Pliny the Elder. The Baltic Sea may be named after it. Different researchers placed the legendary island in Zealand or another island in the Baltic Sea- Estonian islands, at amber rich shores of present day Lithuania, in the southernmost part of Scandinavia (today belonging to Norway and Sweden) or even on Helgoland Island in the North Sea. However, the last two locations are unlikely as places "upon the shores of which, amber is thrown up by the waves in spring, it being an excretion of the sea in a concrete form; as, also, that the inhabitants use this amber by way of fuel" as Pliny the Elder describes the island in Natural History (using for the island alternatively the names of Baltia, Basilia and Abalus) because amber is not found there in large amount.^[1]

See also