Abnoba, sometimes spelt Arnoba or Arbona, has been used to refer to a mountain range comprising the
Odenwald,
Spessart, and
Baar mountains. This composite range extends from the
Rhine to the
Neckar, and is referred to by one of the various names listed depending on the region it is passing through. According to
Tacitus's
Germania, Abnoba was the name of a mountain, from a grassy slope of which flows the source of the River
Danube.
Pliny the Elder also gives us some statements about Abnoba (
Natural History, 4.79). He says that it arises opposite the town of Rauricum in Gaul and flows from there beyond the Alps, implying that the river begins in the Alps, which it does not. If Rauricum is to be identified with the Roman settlement, Augusta Raurica, modern
Augst in
Basel-Landschaft canton of
Switzerland, Pliny must be confusing the
Rhine and its tributaries with the Danube. The Danube begins with two small rivers draining the
Black Forest: the
Breg and the
Brigach, both Celtic names. The longest is the most favorable candidate: the Breg. The Abnobaei montes would therefore be the
Baar foothills of the
Swabian Alb near
Furtwangen im Schwarzwald.
Ptolemy's
Geography (2.10) also mentions the mountain range, but incorrectly implies a position north of the
Agri Decumates and
Main river. It has been suggested that this error comes about through the use of differing and imperfect sources to make this section of the Geography. In effect Ptolemy has apparently confused the Abnoba with the Roman border, and therefore with what are today called the
Taunus mountains. ==Bibliography==