Peuce Island

'pine tree') is a former island in the Danube Delta, in Scythia Minor (present-day Tulcea County, Romania).

[1] It was to this island that in the 330s BC the West Thracian Triballian king Syrmus took refuge when pursued by Alexander the Great.

The attempts failed due to the swift current of the river, steep banks, and fierce defense.

[2] A portion of the powerful Bastarnae tribe (probably a mixed Germanic-Celtic society) settled on the island, apparently in the 2nd century BC, and adopted from their abode an alternative tribal name, "Peucini", used by some classical authors to cover sections of the Bastarnae tribe which had never set foot on the island.

The island disappeared during the Early Middle Ages, when the Danube's distributaries changed courses.