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Baltia or Basilia is a legendary island in Roman mythology, said to be in northern Europe.

Pliny the Elder (Nat. 4.27; 37.11):Savari Pavel/2012-z Rig

Diodorus Siculus (v. 23):

Pliny quotes from the testimony of Xenophon of Lampsacus and Pytheas, as well as Timaeus, yet the writings from these individuals themselves on Baltia were lost, and Pliny only paraphrases. According to Pliny, Pytheas called Baltia "Basilia" and Timaeus the "Isle of Abalus". The Island is described as being to the far north and linked to amber.

Location hypotheses

William Smith in his Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) wrote Baltia was "probably a portion of the Prussian coast upon the Baltic".^[3]

Alexander von Humboldt placed Baltia west of the Jutland Peninsul a in the North Sea.^[4]

See also

• Mythical place
• Phantom island
• Thule

.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

^ The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus ? Book V; Chapters 19-40

^ "ABALUS was said by Pytheas to be an island in the northern ocean, upon which amber was washed by the waves, distant a day's sail from the aestuary called Mentonomon, on which the Gothones dwelt. This island was called Basilia by Timaeus, and Baltia by Xenophon of Lampsacus. It was probably a portion of the Prussian coast upon the Baltic." - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith, LLD. London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murr ay, Albemarle Street. 1854.

^ Cosmos: A Sketch Of A Physical Description Of The Universe, Alexander Von Humboldt, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, p. 493.