BASTARNAE, the easternmost people of the Germanic race who were the first to come into contact with the ancient world and the Slays. Originally settled in Galicia and the Buko vina, they appeared on the lower Danube about 200 B.C., and were used by Philip V. of Macedon against his Thracian neigh bours. Defeated by these the Bastarnae returned north, leaving some of their number (hence called Peucini) settled on Peuce, an island in the Danube, and occupied the country between the eastern Carpathians and the Danube. As allies of Perseus and of Mithridates the Great, and lastly on their own account, they had hostile relations with the Romans who in the time of Augustus defeated them, and made a peace, which was disturbed by a series of incursions. In these, the Bastarnae after a time gave place to the Goths, with whom they seem to have amalga mated, and we last hear of them as transferred by the emperor Probus to the right bank of the Danube. Tacitus expressly declares their German origin, but says that the race was degraded by intermarriage with Sarmatians. No doubt they were an outpost of the Germans, and so had absorbed into themselves strong Getic, Celtic, and Sarmatian elements.