The name Vistula is Gothic and was recorded by Tacitus in 98 AD in his "Agricola and Germania". During that time the Vistula River ran into the Mare Suebicum, which was later called Baltic Sea. According to him, near the delta lived the East Germanic tribes of the Burgundians, on both banks the Goths and east of them the Aestii-Prussi, Galindi, Sudauer, Borusci, Veneti, Fenni-Finns, and more. However, Tacitus' record is considered doubtful by most modern scholars.
The Vistula river is only a short portage from the [Dnieper River]?, and thence Black Sea. Boats could be rolled from one river to the next there. What later became the city of Kiev? in the Ukraine was earlier known by its Gothic name of Danapirstadir (Dnepr-Stadt or "Dnieper City"). The Baltic Sea-Vistula-Dneipir-Black Sea water route was one of the most ancient trade-routes, the Amber road, on which amber and other items were traded from Northern Europe to Greece, Asia, Egypt, and elsewhere.