Danube once appears as the mother of Vrtra, "a dragon blocking the course of the rivers." The Finnish word for Danube is Tonava, which is most likely derived from the word for the river in Swedish and German, "Donau". Its Sámi name "Deatnu" means "Great River". It is possible that "dānu" in Scythian as in Avestan was a generic word for "river": "Dnieper" and "Dniestr", from "Danapris" and "Danastius", are presumed to continue Scythian "*dānu apara" "far river" and "*dānu nazdya-" "near river", respectively. The river was known to the ancient Greeks as the "Istros" (Ἴστρος) a borrowing from a Daco-Thracian
Battle of the Danube had retreated, the Turks prepared to launch a new attack. Several months later 70,000 Turkish troops led by Ahmet Pasha crossed the Danube river to assault the Russians, encamping across from Ruse, around Slobozia. Well acquainted with his opponent at war, Kutuzov calculated that the Ottomans on the Lower Danube would direct their main force to cross the Middle Danube and to seize Bucharest. Therefore, destroying the fortresses of Silistria Nikopol, Kutuzov took off with his main forces to Ruse and Giurgiu. Zass in Little Wallachia and O'Rourke in Belgrade, covered his right wing, the left guarded by troops, located