444 exploration: Rome The Dream of Scipio, by Raphael; Scipio was the Roman conqueror of Carthage, the destruction of which initiated Roman exploration (© The Trustees of the British Museum) west corner He also inquired of the western Greek states such as Massilia (modern-day Marseille) what there might be of interest beyond the limits of Roman knowledge Although both Carthaginians and Greeks tried to divert the Romans from involvement in the west—the results of their own explorations were considered state secrets—the Romans did learn about the Atlantic coast, and it became part of their cultural understanding In northwestern Europe, Greeks had explored the British Isles, the Baltic region, and parts of the Arctic and Scandinavia Romans added little to this, though the North Sea coast, bypassed by the Greeks, was examined with great difficulty in the Julio-Claudian Dynasty (27–68 c.e.): Repeated maritime disasters led to a feeling that the Atlantic coasts were of no interest Nevertheless, this completed ancient Roman knowledge of the coast from the West African tropics to the interior Baltic area The amber trade from the Baltic acquainted the Romans with several routes across northern Europe, especially the connections between the northern affluents of the Danube River, such as the Morava River, and the systems of the Oder and Vistula rivers, explored by a Roman merchant in the 50s c.e Romans remained only vaguely aware of the farther side of the Baltic and Scandinavia Interior Africa had first been penetrated from the Mediterranean in early Greek times, and the routes up the Nile River or across the Sahara had been known since at least the fift h century b.c.e The east coast was understood as far as Zanzibar In the first century c.e the Romans contributed significantly to the exploration of central Africa The question of the source of the Nile was part of this interest, having been a topic of curiosity since at least the sixth century b.c.e and not solved until modern times Greeks had long tangled with the issue, but attempts to follow the Nile upstream had gone barely beyond the lower cataracts Juba II, the Romanized king of Mauretania from 29 to 25 b.c.e., believed that the