The Danube was one of the most important rivers in ancient geography. Its upper and middle course divided the Romans from the tribes to the north, while its lower course separated the Greek world from the Scythians. In ancient thought it was not only a real natural barrier, but also the boundary of the oikumené, the meeting place between the civilized world and the mythical north. The study considers the phases of the process of discovering the Danube from its first mentions until Augustus, when its whole length was known as a result of Roman expansion. The whole process of exploration is evaluated on the basis of ancient sources, epigraphy and archaeological finds. Relevant events are mentioned, and the sources of various ideas and traditions are analysed.

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Although it is primarily through Tacitus' narration of the event that we are able to reconstruct the Pisonian conspiracy, the particular details of the plot can be partially completed from other sources of information. In that regard, relatively little time has been devoted to Plutarch's account-found in his essay De garrulitate-of the discovery of the Pisonian plot. The account to some extent poses a problem, as it does not explicitly specify which conspiracy it refers to. In addition, the account is in the form of a moral essay; most importantly, it proffers a version of the events of AD 65 (when the plot was disclosed) that is totally different from that of Tacitus. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is at least partially to incorporate Plutarch's report into the whole, rather foggy portrayal of the Pisonian conspiracy, and simultaneously to point to the fact that Plutarch's report may not be an alternative to Tacitus' one, but rather a complement of it. The author strives to evaluate the various literary and historical elements of the report, as well as its possible sources, and following the knowledge obtained, to assess its informative value within the broader context of the entire conspiracy.

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Thanks to Theopompus and the story of Argonauts, the idea of a double Danube estuary spread throughout Greece in the 4 th century BC. According to this idea, the river flowed into the Adriatic as well as the Black Seas. This paper adds several notes to this topic based on a contextual analysis of both Theopompus' report and one passage of a text by Pseudo-Aristotle. Based on these two texts, the paper highlights several factors that may have played a role in creating the idea of a Danube bifurcation.