Brill’s New Pauly

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River
(230 words)

[German version]

Terrestrial relief and climate determine the size and direction of river courses; and for their part, the major river valleys of the inhabited world determined the trade and commerce of those societies through whose regions they passed, offering them both infrastructural and economic advantages. They seldom represented insurmountable obstacles to traffic. Rather, in varying degree they directed traffic flow over particular routes (fords, bridges). The economic usefulness of river …

Cite this page
Olshausen, Eckart (Stuttgart), “River”, in: Brill’s New Pauly, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and , Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e413330>
First published online: 2006
First print edition: 9789004122598, 20110510



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