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In his account of Hading, Saxo mentions "Daugava town" of the Hellespontians, which corresponds with the Semigallian hillfort Daugmale. According to the popular explanation, the name "Hellespontians" was applied to the inhabitants of the shores of the River Daugava because the Daugava was an important trade route to Greece, which connected the Baltic Sea with the real Hellespont (the Dardanel straits).21 The end of the trade route, however, was not Hellespont, but Constantinople, furthermore, it remains unclear why only the inhabitants of the beginning of this route were called Hellespontians. In Paul Johansen's view, Hellespont is a translation of the Livian name of Daugava – Väina – which mean "straits of the sea".22 But if this were so, Saxo should have been calling all the straits of the sea "hellesponts." Instead, he even called Daugava "Duna," not Hellespont.
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