<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>We introduce a novel method for map registration and apply it to transformation of the river Ister from <italic>Strabo’s map of the World</italic> to the current map in the World Geodetic System. This transformation leads to the surprising but convincing result that Strabo’s river Ister best coincides with the nowadays Tauernbach-Isel-Drava-Danube course and not with the Danube river what is commonly assumed. Such a result is supported by carefully designed mathematical measurements and it resolves all related controversies otherwise appearing in understanding and translation of Strabo’s original text. Based on this result, we also show that <italic>Strabo’s Suevi in the Hercynian Forest</italic> corresponds to the Slavic people in the Carpathian-Alpine basin and thus that the compact Slavic settlement was there already at the beginning of the first millennium AD.</p>
</abstract>

We introduce a novel method for map registration and apply it to transformation of the river Ister from Strabo’s map of the World to the current map in the World Geodetic System. This transformation leads to the surprising but convincing result that Strabo’s river Ister best coincides with the nowadays Tauernbach-Isel-Drava-Danube course and not with the Danube river what is commonly assumed. Such a result is supported by carefully designed mathematical measurements and it resolves all related controversies otherwise appearing in understanding and translation of Strabo’s original text. Based on this result, we also show that Strabo’s Suevi in the Hercynian Forest corresponds to the Slavic people in the Carpathian-Alpine basin and thus that the compact Slavic settlement was there already at the beginning of the first millennium AD.

What was the River Ister in the Time of Strabo? A Mathematical Approach

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology

Tatra Mountains Mathematical Publications

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"What was the River Ister in the Time of Strabo? A Mathematical Approach"}

We introduce a novel method for map registration and apply it to transformation of the river Ister from Strabo’s map of the World to the current map in the...

What was the River Ister in the Time of Strabo? A Mathematical Approach

Published Online: Jan 01, 2022

Page range: 71 - 118

Received: Jan 31, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/tmmp-2021-0032

Keywords
Strabo, Geographica, historical map registration, affine transformation, Laplace equation, finite difference method, Slavic ethnogenesis, history of Central Europe

© 2021 Mathematical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

What was the River Ister in the Time of Strabo? A Mathematical Approach

Published Online: Jan 01, 2022

Page range: 71 - 118

Received: Jan 31, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/tmmp-2021-0032

KeywordsStrabo, Geographica, historical map registration, affine transformation, Laplace equation, finite difference method, Slavic ethnogenesis, history of Central Europe

© 2021 Mathematical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Strabo, Geographica, historical map registration, affine transformation, Laplace equation, finite difference method, Slavic ethnogenesis, history of Central Europe