Natural History (Rackham, Jones, & Eichholz)/Book 3

by Pliny the Elder

I. SO much as to the situation and the marvels of land and water and of the stars, and the plan and dimensions of the universe.

Now to describe its parts, although this also is considered an endless task, not lightly undertaken without some adverse criticism, though in no field does enquiry more fairly claim indulgence, only granting it to be by no means wonderful that one born a human being should not possess all human knowledge. For this reason I shall not follow any single authority, but such as I shall judge most reliable in their several departments, since I have found it a characteristic common to virtually all of them that each gave the most careful description of the particular region in which he personally was writing. Accordingly I shall neither blame nor criticise anyone. The bare names of places will be set down, and with the greatest brevity available, their celebrity and its reasons being deferred to their proper sections; for my topic now is the world as a whole. Therefore I should like it to be understood that I specify the bare names of the places without their record, as they were in the beginning before they had achieved any history, and that though their names are mentioned, it is only as forming a portion of the world and of the natural universe.

The whole circuit of the earth is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia and Africa. The starting point is in the west, at the Straits of Gibraltar, where the Atlantic Ocean bursts in and spreads out into the inland seas. On the right as you enter from the ocean is Africa and on the left Europe, with Asia between them; the boundaries are the river Don and the river Nile. The ocean straits mentioned are fifteen miles long and five miles broad, from the village of Mellaria^[1] in Spain to the White Cape^[2] in Africa, as given by Turranius Gracilis, a native of the neighbourhood, while Livy and Cornelius Nepos state the breadth at the narrowest point as seven miles and at the widest as ten miles: so narrow is the mouth through which pours so boundless an expanse of water. Nor is it of any great depth, so as to lessen the marvel, for recurring streaks of whitening shoal-water terrify passing keels, and consequently many have called this place the threshold of the Mediterranean. At the narrowest part of the Straits stand mountains on either side, enclosing the channel, Ximiera in Africa and Gibraltar in Europe; these were the limits of the labours of Hercules, and consequently the inhabitants call them the Pillars of that deity, and believe that he cut the channel through them and thereby let in the sea which had hitherto been shut out, so altering the face of nature.

To begin then with Europe, nurse of the race that has conquered all the nations, and by far the loveliest portion of the earth, which most authorities, not without reason, have reckoned to be not a third part but a half of the world, dividing the whole circle into two portions by a line drawn from the river Don to the Straits of Gibraltar. The ocean, pouring the Atlantic sea through the passage I have described, and in its eager progress overwhelming all the lands that shrank in awe before its coming, washes also those that offer resistance with a winding and broken coastline: Europe especially it hollows out with a succession of bays, but into four chief gulfs, of which the first bends in a vast curve from the Rock of Gibraltar, which, as I have said, is the extremity of Spain, right to Locri on Cape Spartivento.

The first land situated on this gulf is called Further Spain or Baetica,^[3] and then, from the frontier at Mujacar, Hither Spain or the Department of Tarragon, extending to the chain of the Pyrenees. Further Spain is divided lengthwise into two provinces, Lusitania^[4] extending along the north side of Baetica and separated from it by the river Anas.^[5] This rises in Hither Spain, in the territory of Laminium,^[6] and now spreading out into meres, now contracting into narrows, or burrowing entirely underground and gaily emerging again several times over, discharges itself into the Atlantic Ocean. The Department of Tarragon adjoins the Pyrenees, running down along the whole of one side of the chain and also extending across from the Iberian Sea to the Gallic Ocean,^[7] and is separated from Baetica and Lusitania by Mount Solorius^[8] and by the ranges of the Oretani and Carpentani and of the Astures.^[9]

Baetica, named after the river Baetis which divides it in two, stands first among the whole of the provinces in the richness of its cultivation and in a sort of peculiar fertility and brilliance of vegetation. It comprises four jurisdictions, those of Cadiz, Cordova, Ecija and Seville. Its towns number in all 175, of which 9 are colonies, 10 municipalities of Roman citizens, 27 towns granted early Latin rights, 6 free towns, 3 bound by treaty to Rome and 120 paying tribute. Worthy of mention in this district, or easily expressed in Latin, are: on the ocean coast beginning at the river Guadiana, the town Ossonoba, surnamed Aestuaria, at the confluence of the Luxia and the Urium^[10]; the Hareni Mountains; the river Guadalquivir; the winding bay of the Coast of Curum, opposite to which is Cadiz, to be described^[11] among the islands; the Promontory of Juno^[12]; Port Vaesippo; the town of Baelo; Mellaria, the strait entering from the Atlantic; Carteia, called by the Greeks Tartesos; Gibraltar. Next, on the coast inside the straits, are: the town of Barbesula with its river; ditto Salduba; the town of Suel; Malaga with its river, one of the treaty towns. Then comes Maenuba with its river; Firmum Julium surnamed Sexum; Sel; Abdara; Murgi, which is the boundary of Baetica. The whole of this coast was thought by Marcus Agrippa to be of Carthaginian origin; but beyond the Guadiana and facing the Atlantic Ocean is the territory of the Bastuli and Turduli. Marcus Varro records that the whole of Spain was penetrated by invasions of Hiberi, Persians, Phoenicians, Celts and Carthaginians; for he says that it was the sport (lusus) of Father Liber, or the frenzy (λύσσα) of those who revelled with him, that gave its name to Lusitania, and that Pan was the governor of the whole of it. The stories related of Hercules, Pyrene or Saturn I regard as absolutely mythical.

The Guadalquivir rises in the province of Tarragon, not at the town of Mentesa, as some authorities have said, but in the Tugiensian Forest bordered by the river Segura that waters the territory of Cartagena; at Lorea it avoids the Sepolero de Scipion and, turning westward, makes for the Atlantic Ocean, giving its name to the province; it is first of moderate size, but it receives many tributaries, from which it takes their glory as well as their waters. It first enters Baetica at Ossigetania, gliding gently in a picturesque channel past a series of towns situated on both its banks.

Between this river and the Ocean coast the most famous places inland are: Segida surnamed Augurina; Julia or Fidentia; Urgao or Alba; Ebura or Cerialis; Iliberri or Liberini; Ilipula or Laus; Artigi or Julienses; Vesci or Faventia; Singili, Ategua, Arialdunum, Agla Minor, Baebro, Castra Vinaria, Cisimbrium, New Hippo, Illurco, Osea, Oscua, Sucaelo, Unditanum, Old Tucci—all of which are places in that part of Bastetania which stretches towards the sea. In the jurisdiction of Cordova in the neighbourhood of the actual river are Ossigi surnamed Latonium, Iliturgi or Forum Julium, Ipra, Isturgi or Triumphale, Sucia, and 17 miles inland Obulco or Pontificense, then Ripa, Epora (a treaty town), Sacili Martialium, Onuba, and on the right bank the colony of Cordova surnamed Patricia. At this point the Guadalquivir first becomes navigable, and there are the towns of Carbula and Detunda, the river Xenil flowing into the Guadalquivir on the same side.

The towns of the jurisdiction of Hispalis are Celti, Axati, Arua, Canama, Evia, Ilipa surnamed Ilpa Italica; on the left bank is the colony Hispal surnamed Romulensis, while on the opposite side are the towns Osset surnamed Julia Constantia, Vergentum or Juli Genius, Orippo, Caura, Siarum, and the river Maenuba, a tributary of the Guadalquivir on its right. Between the estuaries of the Guadalquivir are the towns of Nabrissa, surnamed Veneria, and Colobana, with two colonies, Hasta, which is called Regia, and inland Asido, which is called Caesarina.

The river Xenil, joining the Guadalquivir at the place in the list already mentioned, washes the colony of Astigi, surnamed Augusta Firma, from which point it becomes navigable. The other colonies in this jurisdiction exempt from tribute are Tucci, surnamed Augusta Gemella, Iptuci or Virtus Julia, Ucubi or Claritas Julia, Urso or Genetiva Urbanorum; and among these once was Munda, which was taken with the younger Pompey.^[13] The free towns are Old Astigi and Ostippo, with the tributary towns of Callet, Callicula, Castra Gemina, Ilipula Minor, Marruca, Sacrana, Obulcula, Oningis, Sabora and Ventippo. At no great distance, on the Maenuba, another navigable river, are the settlements of Olontigi, Laelia and Lastigi.

The region stretching from the Guadalquivir to the river Guadiana beyond the places already mentioned is called Baeturia, and is divided into two parts and the same number of races, the Celtici bordering on Lusitania, of the jurisdiction of Seville, and the Turduli, who dwell on the borders of Lusitania and the Tarragon territory, but are in the jurisdiction of Cordova. That the Celtici came from the Celtiberi in Lusitania is proved by their religion, their language, and the names of their towns, which in Baetica are distinguished by surnames: Seria has the additional name of Fama Julia, Nertobriga that of Concordia Julia, Segida that of Restituta Julia, Ugultunia that of Contributa Julia (in which now is also included the town of Curiga), Lacimurga that of Constantia Julia, and Stereses the surname of Fortunales and Callenses that of Aeneanici. Besides these places there are in Celtica Acinipo, Arunda, Arunci, Turobriga, Lastigi, Salpesa, Saepone, Serippo. The other part of Baeturia, which we have said belongs to the Turduli and to the jurisdiction of Cordova, contains the not undistinguished towns of Arsa, Mellaria, Mirobriga Regina, Sosintigi and Sisapo. To the jurisdiction of Cadiz belong Regina, with Roman citizens, Laepia Regia with Latin citizens, Carisa surnamed Aurelia, Urgia surnamed Castrum Julium, and also Caesaris Salutariensis; the tributary towns of Besaro, Belippo, Barbesula, Blacippo, Baesippo, Callet, Cappacum, Oleastro, Iptuci, Ibrona, Lascuta, Saguntia, Saudo, Usaepo.

The total length of Baetica according to Marcus Agrippa is 475 miles, and its breadth 258 miles, but this was when its bounds extended as far as Cartagena: such extensions comparatively often give rise to great errors in the measurements of distances, as they sometimes cause alterations in the boundary of provinces and sometimes an increase or reduction of the mileage of roads. During so long a period of time the seas have been encroaching on the land or the shores have been moving forward, and rivers have formed curves or have straightened out their windings. Moreover different persons take different starting-points for their measurements and follow different lines; and the consequence is that no two authorities agree.

II. At present the length of Baetica from the frontier of the town of Cazlona to Cadiz is 250 miles, and from the sea-front of Murgi 25 miles more; its breadth from Carteia along the coast to the Guadiana is 234 miles. Agrippa was a very painstaking man, and also a very careful geographer; who therefore could believe that when intending to set before the eyes of Rome a survey of the world he made a mistake, and with him the late lamented Augustus? for it was Augustus who completed the portico^[14] containing a plan of the world that had been begun by his sister in accordance with the design and memoranda of Marcus Agrippa.

III. The old shape of Hither Spain has been considerably altered, as has been that of several provinces, in as much as Pompey the Great on his trophies which he set up in the Pyrenees testified that he had brought into subjection 876 towns between the Alps and the borders of Further Spain. Today the whole province is divided into seven jurisdictions, namely those of Cartagena, Tarragon, Saragossa, Clunia, Astorga, Lugo, Braga. In addition there are the islands which will be mentioned separately, but the province itself contains, besides 293 states dependent on others, 189 towns, of which 12 are colonies, 13 are towns of Roman citizens, 18 have the old Latin rights, one is a treaty town and 135 are tributary.

The first people, on the coast, are the Bastuli, and after them in the following order proceeding inland come the Mentesani, the Oretani, the Carpetani on the Tagus, and next to them the Vaccaei, the Vettones and the Celtiberian Arevaci. The towns nearest the coast are Urci and Barea that belongs to Baetica, then the district of Bastitania, next after which comes Contestania and the colony of New Carthage, from the promontory of which, called the Cape of Saturn, the crossing to Caesarea, a city of Mauretania, is 197 miles. There remain to be mentioned on the coast the river Tader and the tax-free colony of Ilici, from which the Ilicitan Gulf takes its name; to this colony the Icositani are subordinate. Next come Lucentum, with Latin rights, Dianium, a tributary town, the river Sucro and in former days a town of the same name, forming the boundary of Contestania. The district of Edetania comes next, with a lovely expanse of lake in front of it, and reaching back to Celtiberia. The colony of Valencia three miles from the sea, the river Turium, Saguntum, also three miles from the sea, a town with Roman citizenship, famous for its loyalty,^[15] and the river Udiva. The district of the Ilergaones, the river Ebro, rich in ship-borne trade, rising in the district of the Cantabri not far from the town of Juliobrica, with a course of 450 miles, for 260 of which from the town of Vareia it is navigable for ships, and because of it the Greeks have called the whole of Spain by the name of Iberia. Next the district of Cessetania, the river Subi, the colony Tarragon, which was founded by the Scipios, as Cartagena was by the Carthaginians. The district of the Ilergetes comes next, the town of Subur and the river Rubricatum, after which begin the Laeetani and the Indigetes. After them in the following order proceeding inland from the foot of the Pyrenees are the Ausetani, the Jacetani, the Cerretani along the Pyrenees, and then the Vascones. On the coast is the colony of Barcelona, surnamed Faventia, the Roman towns of Badalona and Iluro, the River Arnum, Blandae, the river Alba, Amporias, one part of which is inhabited by the original natives and the other by Greeks descended from the Phocaeans, and the river Ticer. From it Cabo de Cruz on the other side of the promontory is 40 miles distant.

We will now take the jurisdictions in order and give noteworthy facts about them in addition to those mentioned above. Forty-two peoples are subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Tarragona; of them the best known are—with the rights of Roman citizens, the people of Tortosa and the Bisgargitani; with Latin rights, the Ausetani, the Cerretani surnamed Juliani, and those surnamed Augustani, the Edetani, Gerundenses, Gessorienses, and Teari or Julienses; tributaries, the Aquicaldenses, Aesonenses and Baeculonenses.

Caesaraugusta, a colony that pays no taxes, is washed by the river Ebro; its site was once occupied by a town called Salduba, belonging to the district of Edetania. It is the centre for 55 peoples; of these with the rights of Roman citizens are the Bilbilitani, the Celsenses (once a colony), the Calagurritani (surnamed Nasici), the Ilerdenses belonging to the race of the Surdaones next to the river Sicoris, the Oscenses of the district of Suessetania, and the Turiassonenses; with the old Latin rights are the Cascantenses, Ergavicenses, Graceurritani, Leonicenses and Osicerdenses; bound by treaty are the Tarracenses; tributary are the Arcobrigenses, Andelonenses, Aracelitani, Bursaonenses, Calagurritani surnamed Fibularenses, Conplutenses, Carenses, Cincienses, Cortonenses, Damanitani, Ispallenses, Ilursenses, Iluberitani, Jacetani, Libienses, Pompelonenses and Segienses.

At Cartagena assemble sixty-five peoples, not including inhabitants of islands: from the colony of Accitana Gemellensis and from Libisosana named Foroaugustana, to both of which Italic rights have been given, from the colony of Salaria; townsmen with the rights of old Latium, the Castulonenses, also called Caesarii Juvenales, the Saetabitani or Augustani, and the Valerienses. Of the tributary peoples the best known are the Alabanenses, Bastitani, Consaburrenses, Dianenses, Egelestani, Ilorcitani, Laminitani, Mentesani or Oretani, Mentesani or Bastuli, the Oretani surnamed Germani, and the people of Segobriga, capital of Celtiberia, the people of Toletum on the Tagus, the capital of Carpetania, and then the Viatienses and the Virgilienses.

To the jurisdiction of Corunna the Varduli bring fourteen peoples, of whom we would mention only the Alabanenses, and the Turmogidi bring four, including the Segisamonenses and the Segisamajulienses. To the same jurisdiction go the Carietes and the Vennenses with five states, of whom the Velienses form one. Thither too go the Pelendones of the Celtiberians with four peoples, of whom the Numantines were once famous, as among the seventeen states of the Vaccaei were the Intercatienses, Palantini, Lacobrigenses and Caucenses. Then among the Cantabrici, seven peoples, one state only, Juliobriga, need be mentioned, and Tritium and Virovesea among the ten states of the Autrigones. The Arevaci got their name from the river Areva; to them belong six towns, Secontia and Uxama, common names in other regions, also Segovia and Nova Augusta, with Termes and Corunna itself, the end of Celtiberia. The rest of the country stretches towards the ocean, and here are the Varduli of those already mentioned and the Cantabri.

Adjoining these are twenty-two peoples of the Astures, divided into the Augustani and the Transmontani, with the splendid city of Asturica; these include the Gigurri, Pescii, Lancienses and Zoelae. The total number of the population amounts to 240,000 free persons.

The jurisdiction of Lucus contains 15 peoples, unimportant and bearing outlandish names, excepting the Celtici and Lemavi, but with a free population amounting to about 166,000.

In a similar way the twenty-four states of Braga contain 285,000 persons, of whom besides the Bracari themselves may be mentioned, without wearying the reader, the Biballi, Coelerni, Callaeci, Equaesi, Limici and Querquerni.

The length of Hither Spain from the Pyrenees to the frontier of Cazlona is 607 miles, and a little more along the coast; its breadth from Tarragon to the shore of Olarson is 307 miles, starting from the foot of the Pyrenees, where the country forms the shape of a wedge between the two seas; then gradually it widens out, and where it touches Further Spain it adds more than as much again to its breadth.

Nearly the whole of Spain is covered with mines of lead, iron, copper, silver and gold, Hither Spain with muscovite mines also; Baetica abounds in cinnabar as well. There are besides quarries of marble. His Majesty the Emperor Vespasian bestowed the rights of Latium on the whole of Spain when it had been storm-tossed by civil disorders. The frontier between the Spanish and the Gallic provinces is formed by the mountains of the Pyrenees, with headlands projecting into the two seas on either side.

IV. The part of the Gauls washed by the Mediterranean is entitled the province of Narbonne, having previously had the name of Bracata.^[16] It is divided from Italy by the river Var, and by the ranges of the Alps, a very secure protection for the Roman Empire, and from the rest of Gaul on the north by the Cevennes and Jura mountains. Its agriculture, the high repute of its men and manners and the vastness of its wealth make it the equal of any other province: it is, in a word, not so much a province as a part of Italy. On the coast there is the district of the Sordones, and more inland that of the Consuarani; the rivers are the Tech and the Verdouble, and the towns Elne, the mere shadow of what was once a mighty city, and Castel Roussillon, which has Latin rights. Then come the river Aude, which flows from the Pyrenees through the lake Rubrensis,^[17] Narbonne, a colony of the tenth legion twelve miles from the sea, and the rivers Hérault and Lez. Apart from those mentioned there are but few towns, owing to the marshes that fringe the coast. There is Agde, formerly belonging to Marseilles, the district of the Volcae Tectosages, and the former site of Rhoda, a colony of Rhodes, that has given its name to the Rhone, the most fertile river of the two Gauls, which rushes from the Alps though the Lake of Geneva, bringing along the sluggish Saône and the Isère and Durance which are as rapid as itself. Of its mouths the two smaller are called Libica, one the Spanish, the other the Metapinian; the third and largest is the Massaliotic. Some authorities state that at the mouth of the Rhone there was once a town called Heraclea. Beyond are the canals leading out of the Rhone, famous as the work of Gaius Marius whose distinguished name they bear, Lake Mastromela and the town of Maritima of the Avatici, and above are the Stony Plains, where tradition says that Hercules fought battles, the district of the Anatilii, and inland those of the Dexivates and Cavares. Returning to the sea we have the districts of the Tricores and inland those of the Tritolli, Vocontii and Segovellauni, and after them the Allobroges. On the coast is Marseilles, founded by the Greeks of Phocaea and now a confederate city, then the promontory of Zao, the harbour of Citharista, the district of the Camactulici, then the Suelteri and above them the Verucini. On the coast too are Athenopolis of the Massilians, Fréjus, a colony of the eighth legion, called Pacensis and Classica, a river named Argenteus, the district of the Oxubii and Ligauni, beyond whom come the Suebri, Quariates and Adunicates. On the coast is the town of Antibes with Latin rights, the district of the Deciates and the river Var, which rises in Mont Cenis in the Alps.

The colonies in the interior are: Arles, the station of the sixth legion, Béziers of the seventh, Orange of the second, Valence in the territory of the Cavares, and Vienne in that of the Allobroges. The towns with Latin rights are Aix in the territory of the Salluvii, Avignon of the Cavares, Apt of the Vulgientes, Riez of the Reii Apollinares, Alba of the Helvi, Augusta of the Tricastini, Anatilia, Aetea, the Bormani, the Comani, Cavaillon, Carcassonne of the Volcae Tectosages, Cessero, Carpentras of the Memini, the Caenicenses, the Cambolectri surnamed Atlantici, Forum Voconi, Glanum Libii, the Lutevani also called Foroneronienses, Nîmes of the Arecomici, Pézenas, the Ruteni, the Samnagenses, the Tolosani^[18] of the Tectosages on the border of Aquitania, the Tasgoduni, the Tarusconienses,^[19] the Umbranici,^[20] the two capitals of the confederate state of the Vocontii, Vasio and Lucus Augusti; and also unimportant towns to the number of 19, as well as 24 assigned to the people of Nîmes. The Emperor Galba added to the list two peoples dwelling in the Alps, the people of Avançon and the Bodiontici, whose town is Digne. According to Agrippa the length of the province of Narbonne is 370 miles and the breadth 248.

V. After this comes Italy, the first people of it being the Ligurians, after whom come Etruria, Umbria and Latium, where are the mouths of the Tiber and Rome, the capital of the world, sixteen miles from the sea. Afterwards come the coast of the Volsci and of Campania, then of Picenum and Lucania and the Bruttii, the southernmost point to which Italy juts out into the sea from the almost crescent-shaped chain of the Alps. After the Bruttii comes the coast of Magna Graecia, followed by the Sallentini, Paediculi,^[21] Apuli, Paeligni, Frentani, Marrucini, Vestini, Sabini, Picentes, Gauls, Umbrians, Tuscans, Venetians, Carni, Iapudes, Histri and Liburni. I am well aware that I may with justice be considered ungrateful and lazy if I describe in this casual and cursory manner a land which is at once the nursling and the mother of all other lands, chosen by the providence of the gods to make heaven itself wore glorious, to unite scattered empires, to make manners gentle, to draw together in converse by community of language the jarring and uncouth tongues of so many nations, to give mankind civilisation, and in a word to become throughout the world the single fatherland of all the races. But what am I to do? The great fame of all its places—who could touch upon them all?—and the great renown of the various things and peoples in it give me pause. In that list even the city of Rome alone, a … countenance and one worthy of so glorious a neck, what elaborate description it merits! In what terms to describe the coast of Campania taken by itself, with its blissful and heavenly loveliness, so as to manifest of that there is one region where nature has been at work in her joyous mood! And then again all that invigorating healthfulness all the year round, the climate so temperate, the plains so fertile, the hills so sunny, the glades so secure, the groves so shady! Such wealth of various forests, the breezes from so many mountains, the great fertility of its corn and vines and olives, the glorious fleeces of its sheep, the sturdy necks of its bulls, the many lakes, the rich supply of rivers and springs flowing over all its surface, its many seas and harbours and the bosom of its lands offering on all sides a welcome to commerce, the country itself eagerly running out into the seas as it were to aid mankind. I do not speak of the character and customs of its people, its men, the nations that its language and its might have conquered. The Greeks themselves, a people most prone to gushing self-praise, have pronounced sentence on the land by conferring on but a very small part of it the name of Great Greece! The truth is that in this part of my subject also I must do what I did when I spoke about the heavens—touch upon particular points and only a few of the stars. I merely ask my readers to remember that I am hastening on for the purpose of setting forth in detail all the contents of the entire world.

In shape, then, Italy much resembles an oak leaf, being far longer than it is broad, bending towards the left at its top and ending in the shape of an Amazon’s shield,^[22] the projection in the centre being called Cocynthos, while it sends out two horns along bays of crescent shape, Leucopetra on the right and Lacinium on the left.^[23] Its length extends for 1020 miles, beginning from Aosta at the foot of the Alps and passing through Rome and Capua in a winding course to the town of Reggio situated on its shoulder, where begins the curve, as it were, of the neck. The measure would be much greater if the line were carried on to Lacinium, but with that bend the line would seem to diverge to one side. The breadth varies, being four hundred and ten miles between the rivers Var and Arsa where they flow into the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, but about at the middle, in the neighbourhood of the city of Rome, from the mouth of the river Pescara, which flows into the Adriatic Sea, to the mouths of the Tiber, its breadth is 136 miles, and a little less from Castrum Novum on the Adriatic Sea to Palo on the Tuscan Sea, in no place exceeding a width of 200 miles. The circuit of the entire coast from the Var round to the Arsa is 2049 miles. Its distances from the countries that surround it are as follows: from Istria and Liburnia in certain places 100 miles, from Epirus and Illyricum, 50 miles, from Africa, according to Marcus Varro, less than 200, from Sardinia 120, from Sicily 1½, from Corcyra less than 80, from Issa^[24] 50. It stretches through the seas in a southerly direction, but a more careful and accurate calculation would place it between due south and sunrise^[25] at midwinter.

We will now give an account of a circuit of Italy, and of its cities. Herein it is necessary to premise that we intend to follow the authority of his late Majesty Augustus, and to adopt the division that he made of the whole of Italy into eleven regions, but to take them in the order that will be suggested by the coast-line, it being indeed impossible, at all events in a very cursory account, to keep the neighbouring cities together; and so in going on to deal with the inland districts we shall follow the Emperor’s alphabetical arrangement, adopting the enumeration of the colonies that he set out in that list. Nor is it easy to trace their sites and origins, the Ligurian Ingauni, for example—not to mention the other peoples—having received grants of land on thirty occasions.

Therefore starting from the river Var we have Nice, founded by the people of Marseilles, the river Paglione, the Alps and the Alpine tribes with many names, of which the chief is the Long-haired; Cimiez, the town of the state of the Vediantii, the port of Hercules of Monaco, and the Ligurian coast. Of the Ligurians beyond the Alps the most famous are the Sallui, Deciates and Oxubi; on this side, the Veneni, Turri, Soti, Vagienni, Statielli, Binbelli, Maielli, Cuburriates, Casmonates, Velleiates, and the tribes whose towns on the coast we shall mention next. The river Royas, the town of Ventimiglia, the river Merula, the town of Albenga, the port of Vaï or Savona, the river Bisagna, the town of Genoa, the river Fertor, Porto Fino, Tigulia inland, Sestri di Levante, and the river Magra, which is the boundary of Liguria. Behind all the above-mentioned lie the Apennines, the largest range of mountains in Italy, extending in an unbroken chain from the Alps to the Straits of Messina. On one side of the range, along the Po, the richest river of Italy, the whole country is studded with famous and flourishing towns: Libarna, the colony of Dertona, Iria, Vardacas, Industria, Pollenza, Correa surnamed Potentia, Forum Fulvi or Valenza, Augusta of the Bagienni, Alba Pompeia, Aste, Aequi. Under the partition of Augustus this is the ninth region. The coast of Liguria extends 211 miles between the rivers Var and Magra.

The adjoining region is the seventh, in which is Etruria, beginning at the river Magra, a district that has often changed its name. From it in ancient times the Umbri were driven out by the Pelasgi, and these by the Lydians, who after a king of theirs were styled Tyrrheni, but later in the Greek language Tusci,^[26] from their ritual of offering sacrifice. The first town in Etruria is Luni, famous for its harbour; then the colony of Lucca, some way from the sea and nearer to Pisa, between the rivers Auser^[27] and Arno, which owes its origin to the Pelopidae or to the Greek tribe of the Teutani; then come the Marshes of Volterra,^[28] the river Cecina and Piombino, once the only Etruscan town on the coast. After these is the river Prile, and then the navigable river Ombrone, at which begins the district of Umbria, the port of Telamone, Cosa of the Volcientes, founded by the Roman people, Graviscae, Castrum Novum, Pyrgi, the river^[29] and the town of Caere, seven miles inland, called Agylla by the Pelasgians who founded it, Alsium, Fregenae, and the river Tiber, 284 miles from the Magra. Inland are the colonies of Falisca, founded according to Cato by the Argives and surnamed Falisca of the Etruscans, Lucus Feroniae, Rusellana, Siena and Sutria. The remaining people are the Arretini^[30] Veteres, Arretini Fidentiores, Arretini Julienses, Amitinenses, Aquenses surnamed Taurini, Blerani, Cortonenses,^[31] Capenates, Clusini^[32] Novi, Clusini Veteres, the Florentini^[33] on the bank of the Arno that flows by, Faesulae,^[34] Ferentinum, Fescennia, Hortanum, Herbanum, Nepi, Nine Villages, the Claudian Prefecture of Foroclodium, Pistorium, Perugia, the Suanenses, the Saturnini formerly called the Aurini, the Subertani, Statonenses, Tarquinienses, Tuscanienses, Vetulonienses, Veientani, Vesentini, Volaterrani,^[35] the Volcentani surnamed Etrusci, and Volsinienses.^[36] In the same district the territories of Crustumium and Caletra still keep the names of the ancient towns.

The Tiber, the former name of which was Thybris, and before that Albula, rises in about the middle of the Apennine chain in the territory of Arezzo. At first it is a narrow stream, only navigable when its water is dammed by sluices and then discharged, in the same way as its tributaries, the Tinia and the Chiana, the waters of which must be so collected for nine days, unless augmented by showers of rain. But the Tiber, owing to its rugged and uneven channel, is even so not navigable for a long distance, except for rafts, or rather logs of wood; in a course of 150 miles it divides Etruria from the Umbrians and Sabines, passing not far from Tifernum, Perugia and Ocriculum, and then, less than 16 miles from Rome, separates the territory of Veii from that of Crustumium, and afterwards that of Fidenae and Latium from Vaticanum. But below the confluence of the Chiana from Arezzo it is augmented by forty-two tributaries, the chief being the Nera and the Severone (which latter is itself navigable, and encloses Latium in the rear), while it is equally increased by the aqueducts and the numerous springs carried through to the city; and consequently it is navigable for vessels of whatever size from the Mediterranean, and is a most tranquil trafficker in the produce of all the earth, with perhaps more villas on its banks and overlooking it than all the other rivers in the whole world. And no river is more circumscribed and shut in on either side; yet of itself it offers no resistance, though it is subject to frequent sudden floods, the inundations being nowhere greater than in the city itself. But in truth it is looked upon rather as a prophet of warning, its rise being always construed rather as a call to religion than as a threat of disaster.

Old Latium has preserved the original limits, extending from the Tiber to Cerceii, a distance of 50 miles; so exiguous at the beginning were the roots of the Empire. Its inhabitants have often changed: at various times it has been occupied by various peoples—the Aborigines, the Pelasgi, the Arcades, the Siculi, the Aurunci, the Rutuli, and beyond Circello the Volsci, Osci and Ausones, owing to which the name of Latium came to be extended as far as the river Garigliano. To begin with there is Ostia, a colony founded by a Roman king, the town of Laurentum, the grove of Jupiter Indiges, the river Numicius, and Ardea, founded by Danaë the mother of Perseus. Then comes the site of what was once Aphrodisium, the colony of Antium, the river and island called Astura, the river Ninfa, the Roman Bulwarks, Circello, once an island surrounded by a boundless sea,^[37] if we are to believe Homer, but now surrounded by a plain. The facts that we are able to publish for the information of the world on this matter are remarkable. Theophrastus, the first foreigner to write with special care about the Romans—for Theopompus, before whom nobody mentioned them, merely states that Rome was taken by the Gauls, and Clitarchus, the next after him, only that an embassy was sent to Alexander—Theophrastus, I say, relying on more than rumour, has actually given the measurement of the island of Circello as 80 furlongs in the volume that he wrote in the archonship of Nicodorus at Athens, which was the 440th year^[38] of our city. Whatever land therefore has been joined to the island beyond the circumference of 10 miles was added to Italy after that year. Another marvel not far from Circello is the Pomptine Marsh, a place which Mucianus, who was three times consul, has reported to be the site of 24 cities. Then comes the river Aufentum, above which is the town of Tarracina, called Anxur in the dialect of the Volsci, and the site of Amyclae, or Amynclae, the town destroyed by serpents, then the place called the Grottoes, Lake Fundanus, the port of Gaeta, the town of Formiae, called also Hormiae, the ancient abode, it has been thought, of the Laestrygones. Beyond this formerly stood the town of Pirae, and still exists the colony of Minturnae, through which runs the river Liris, once called Clanis; and Sinuessa, the last town in the Extension of Latium, and stated by some authorities to have been once styled Sinope.

Then comes the favoured country of Campania; in this valley begin those vine-clad hills with their glorious wine and wassail, famous all the world over, and (as old writers have said) the scene of the severest competition between Father Liber and Ceres. From this point stretch the territories of Sezza and Caecubum, with which march the Falernian and those of Calvi. Then rise up Monte Massico, Monte Barbaro and the hills of Sorrento. Here spread the plains of Leborium, where the wheat crop is sedulously tended to produce delicious frumity. These shores are watered by hot springs, and are noted beyond all others throughout the whole of the sea for their famous shell and other fish. Nowhere is there nobler olive oil—another competition to gratify man’s pleasure. Its occupants have been Oscans, Greeks, Umbrians, Tuscans and Campanians. On the coast are the river Saove, the town of Volturno with the river of the same name, Liternum, the Chalcidian colony of Cumae, Miseno, the port of Baiae, Bacolo, the Lucrine lake, Lake Averno near which formerly stood the town of Cimmerium, then Pozzuoli, formerly called the Colony of Dicaearchus; after which come the plains of Salpatara and the Lago di Fusaro near Comae. On the coast stands Naples, itself also a colony of the Chalcidians, named Parthenope from the tomb of one of the Sirens, Herculaneum, Pompei with Mount Vesuvius in view not far off and watered by the river Sarno, the Nucerian territory and nine miles from the sea Nocera itself, and Sorrento with the promontory of Minerva that once was the abode of the Sirens. From this place the distance by sea from Cerceii is 78 miles. This region, beginning from the Tiber, under the partition made by Augustus is regarded as the first region of Italy.

Inland are the following colonies: Capua, so named from its forty miles of plain (campus), Aquino, Suessa, Venafro, Sora, Teano surnamed Sidicinum, and Nola; and the towns of Abellinum, Aricia, Alba Longa, the Acerrani, the Allifani, the Atinates, the Aletrinates, the Anagnini, the Atellani, the Aefulani, the Arpinates, the Auximates, the Abellani, the Alfaterni (both those that take their surname from the Latin territory, and from the Hernican, and from the Labican), Bovillae, Caiatiae, Casinum, Calenum, Capitulum of the Hernici, the Cereatini who have the surname of Mariani, the Corani descended from the Trojan Dardanus, the Cubulterini, the Castrimoenienses, the Cingulani, the Fabienses on Mount Albanus, the Foropopulienses from the Falernian district, the Frusinates, the Ferentinates, the Freginates, the Old Fabraterni, the New Fabraterni, the Ficolenses, the Fregellani, Forum Appi, the Forentani, the Gabini, the Interamnates Sucasini, also called the Lirenates, the Ilionenses, the Lanivini, the Norbani, the Nomentani, the Praenestini with their city once called Stephane, the Privernates, the Setini, the Signini, the Suessulani, the Telesini, the Trebulani surnamed Ballienses, the Trebani, the Tusculani, the Verulani, the Veliterni, the Ulubrenses, the Urbanates; and besides all these Rome itself, whose other name it is held to be a sin to utter except at the ceremonies of the mysteries, and when Valerius Soranus divulged the secret religiously kept for the weal of the state, he soon paid the penalty. It seems pertinent to add at this point an instance of old religion established especially to inculcate this silence: the goddess Angerona, to whom sacrifice is offered on December 21, is represented in her statue with a sealed bandage over her mouth.

Romulus left Rome possessing three or, to accept the statement of the authorities putting the number highest, four gates. The area surrounded by its walls at the time of the principate and censorship of the Vespasians,^[39] in the 826th year^[40] of its foundation, measured 13 miles and 200 yards in circumference, embracing seven hills. It is itself divided into fourteen regions, with 265 crossways with their guardian Lares.^[41] If a straight line is drawn from the milestone standing at the head of the Roman Forum to each of the gates, which to-day number thirty-seven (provided that the Twelve Gates^[42] be counted only as one each and the seven of the old gates that exist no longer be omitted), the result is a total of 20 miles 765 yards in a straight line. But the total length of all the ways through the districts from the same milestone to the extreme edge of the buildings, taking in the Praetorians’ Camp, amounts to a little more than 60 miles. If one were further to take into account the height of the buildings, a very fair estimate would be formed, that would bring us to admit that there has been no city in the whole world that could be compared to Rome in magnitude. On the east it is bounded by the Dyke of Tarquinius Superbus, a work among the leading wonders of the world, for he made it as high as the walls where the approach was flat and the city lay most open to attack. In other directions it had the protection of lofty walls or else of precipitous hills, except for the fact that the increasing spread of buildings has added a number of cities to it.^[43]

The first region formerly included the following celebrated towns of Latium besides those mentioned: Satricum, Pometia, Scaptia, Politorium, Tellena, Tifata, Caenina, Ficana, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullum, Corniculum, Saturnia on the site of the present Rome, Antipolis, which to-day is Janiculum and a part of Rome, Antemnae, Camerium, Collatia, Amitinum, Norbe, Sulmo; and together with these the Alban peoples who were accustomed to ‘receive flesh’^[44] on the Alban Hill, namely the Albani, Aesolani, Accienses, Abolani, Bubetani, Bolani, Cusuetani, Coriolani, Fidenates, Foreti, Hortenses, Latinienses, Longulani, Manates, Macrales, Munienses, Numinienses, Olliculani, Octulani, Pedani, Polluscini, Querquetulani, Sicani, Sisolenses, Tolerienses, Tutienses, Vimitellari, Velienses, Venetulani, Vitellenses. Thus 53 peoples of Old Latium have perished without leaving a trace.

In the Campanian territory the town of Stabiae^[45] existed right down to April 29 in the consulship^[46] of Gnaeus Pompeius and Lucius Cato, when Lieutenant-General Lucius Sulla in the Allies’ War destroyed the place that has now been reduced to a farmhouse. Here also was Taurania, which has now perished; and the remains of Casilinum are in process of disappearance. Furthermore, Antias records that the Latin town of Apiolae was captured by King Lucius Tarquinius, who used the spoils of it to begin building the Capitol. The 30 miles of Picentine territory between the district of Sorrento and the river Silaro belonged to the Etruscans; it was famous for the temple of Argive Juno founded by Jason. Further inland was Picentia, a town of Salerno.

At the Silaro begins the third region, the Lucanian and Bruttian territory; in this too there have been frequent changes of population. It has been occupied by Pelasgi, Oenotri, Itali, Morgetes, Siculi, and mostly by peoples of Greece, and most recently by the Lucani, Samnite in origin, whose leader was Lucius. The town of Paestum (called Posidonia by the Greeks), the bay of Paestum, the town of Elea, now Velia, Cape Palinuro, from which across the bay that here stretches inland the distance to the Royal Pillar^[47] is 100 miles. Next is the river Melpes, the town of Buxentum (the Greek name of which is Pyxus) and the river Laus—there was once a town also of the same name. Here begins the coast of the Bruttii, with the town of Blanda, the river Baletum, the port of Parthenius, founded by the Phocians, the Bay of Vibo, the site of Clampetia, the town of Tempsa (the Greek name of which is Temese), and Terina, founded by the people of Croton, and the extensive Bay of Terina; and inland the town of Cosenza. On a peninsula is the river Acheron,^[48] which gives its name to the township of the Acherontians; Hippo, which we now call Vibo Valentia; the Port of Hercules, the river Metaurus, the town of Tauroentum, the Port of Orestes, and Medma; the town of Scyllaeum and the river Crataeis, known in legend as the Mother of Scylla; then the Royal Pillar, the Straits of Messina and the two opposing headlands, Caenus^[49] on the Italian and Pelorum^[50] on the Sicilian side, the distance between them being 1½ miles; Reggio is 11½ miles away. Next comes the Apennine forest of Sila, and the promontory of Leucopetra 15 miles from it, and Epizephyrian Locri (called after the promontory of Zephyrium) 51 miles; it is 303 miles from the river Silaro. And this rounds off the first gulf^[51] of Europe.

The names of the seas that it contains are as follows: that from which it makes its entrance is the Atlantic, or as others call it, the Great Sea; the strait by which it enters is called by the Greeks Porthmos and by us the Straits of Cadiz; after it has entered, as far as it washes the coast of the Spains it is called the Spanish Sea, or by others the Iberian or the Balearic Sea; then the Gallic Sea as far as the Province of Narbonne, and afterwards the Ligurian Sea; from that point to the Island of Sicily the Tuscan Sea, which some of the Greeks call the Southern Sea and others the Tyrrhenian, but most of our own people the Lower Sea. Beyond Sicily, as far as the south-eastern point of Italy Polybius calls it the Ausonian Sea, but Eratosthenes calls all the part between the ocean inlet and Sardinia the Sardoan Sea, from Sardinia to Sicily the Tyrrhenian, from Sicily to Crete the Sicilian, and beyond Crete the Cretan.

The first of all the islands scattered over these seas are called with the Greeks the Pityussae, from the pinetrees^[52] that grow on them; each of these islands is now named Ebusus^[53] and in treaty with Rome, the channel between them being narrow. Their area is 46 miles, and their distance from Denia 87½ miles, which is the distance by land from Denia to New Carthage, while at the same distance from the Pityussae out to sea are the two Balearic islands, and opposite the River Xucar lies Colubraria. The Balearic islands, formidable in warfare with the sling,^[54] have been designated by the Greeks the Gymnasiae. The larger island, Majorca, is 100 miles in length and 475 in circumference. It contains towns of Roman citizen colonists, Palma and Pollenza, towns with Latin rights, Sineu and Tucis; a treaty town of the Bocchi, no longer existing. The smaller island, Minorca, is 30 miles away from Majorca; its length is 40 miles and its circumference 150; it contains the states of Iamo, Sanisera and Port Mahon. Twelve miles out to sea from Majorca is Cabrera, treacherous for shipwrecks, and right off the city of Palma lie the Malgrates and Dragonera and the small island of El Torre.

The soil of Iviza drives away snakes, but that of Colubraria breeds snakes, and consequently that land is dangerous to all people except those who bring earth from Iviza; the Greeks called it Snake Island. Iviza does not breed rabbits either, which ravage the crops of the Balearics. The sea is full of shoals, and there are about twenty other small islands; off the coast of Gaul at the mouth of the Rhone is Metina, and then the island named Brescon, and the three^[55] which the neighbouring people of Marseilles call the Row of Islands because of their arrangement, their Greek names being First Island, Middle Island, also called Pomponiana, and the third Hypaea; next to these are Iturium, Phoenica, Lero,^[56] and opposite Antibes Lerina,^[57] on which according to local tradition there was once a town called Berconum.

VI. In the Ligurian Sea, but adjoining the Tuscan, is the island of Corsica, the Greek name of which is Cyrnos; it lies in a line from north to south, and is 150 miles long and at most points 50 miles broad: its circumference measures 325 miles; it is 62^[58] miles from the Shallows of Volterra.^[59] It contains 32 states, and the colonies of Mariana founded by Gaius Marius and Aleria founded by Sulla when Dictator. Nearer the mainland is Oglasa, and inside that, and 60 miles from Corsica, Pianosa, so named from its appearance, as it is level with the sea and consequently treacherous to vessels. Then La Gorgona, a larger island, and Capraia, the Greek name of which is Aegilion, and also Giglio and Gianuto, in Greek Artemisia, both opposite the coast at Cosa, and Barpana, Menaria, Columbaria, Venaria, Elba with its iron mines, an island 100 miles round and 10 miles from Populonium, called by the Greeks Aethalia; the distance between Elba and Pianosa is 28 miles. After these beyond the mouths of the Tiber and off the coast of Antium is Astura, then Palmarola, Senone, and opposite to Formiae Ponza. In the gulf of Pozzuoli are Pandateria,^[60] Prochyta (so called not after Aeneas’s nurse but because it was formed of soil deposited by the current from Aenaria), Aenaria (named from having given anchorage to the fleet of Aeneas but called Inarime in Homer^[61]) and Pithecusa (named not from its multitude of monkeys,^[62] as some people have supposed, but from its pottery^[63] factories). Between Posilippo and Naples is Megaris^[64]; then, 8 miles from Sorrento, Capri, celebrated for the Emperor Tiberius’s castle—the island is 11 miles round; Leucothea; and out of sight, being on the edge of the African Sea, Sardinia, which is less than 8 miles from the end of Corsica, and moreover the channel is narrowed by the small islands called the Rabbit Warrens, and also by the islands of Caprera, and Fossa,^[65] from which comes the Greek name of the Straits^[66] themselves, Taphros.

VII. The east coast of Sardinia is 188 miles long, the west coast 175, the south coast 77 and the north coast 125; its circumference is 565 miles; and at Cape Carbonara its distance from Africa is 200 miles and from Cadiz 1400. It also has two islands off Capo Falcone called the Islands of Hercules, one off La Punta dell’Alga called Santo Antiocho, and one off Cape Carbonara called Coltelalzo. Near it some authorities also place the islands of Berelis, Callodes and the one called the Baths of Hera. The best-known peoples in Sardinia are the Ilienses, Balari, Corsi (who occupy 18 towns), Sulcitani, Valentini, Neapolitani, Vitenses, Caralitani (who have the Roman citizenship), and the Norenses; and one colony called At Libiso’s Tower. Sardinia itself was called by Timaeus Sandaliotis, from the similarity of its shape to the sole of a shoe, and by Myrsilus Ichnusa, from its resemblance to a footprint. Opposite to the Bay of Paestum is La Licosa, called after the Siren buried there; and opposite Velia are Pontia and Isacia, both included under the one name of the Oenotrides, which is evidence that Italy was once in the possession of the Oenotri; and opposite to Vibo are the small islands called the Isles of Ithaca, from the watch-tower^[67] of Ulysses that stands there.

VIII. But before all the islands of the Mediterranean in renown stands Sicily, called by Thucydides Sicania and by a good many authors Trinacria or Trinacia from its triangular shape. The measurement of its circumference, according to Agrippa, is 528 miles. In former times it was attached to the southern part of Italy, but later it was separated from it by an overflow of the sea, forming a strait 15 miles long and 1½ miles wide at the Royal Pillar: this monument of the formation of the gap is the origin of the Greek name of the town situated on the Italian coast, Rhegium.^[68] In these Straits is the rock of Scylla and also the whirlpool of Charybdis, both notoriously treacherous. Sicily itself is triangular in shape, its points being the promontory mentioned before^[69] named Pelorum, pointing towards Italy, opposite Scylla, Pachynum^[70] towards Greece, the Morea being 440 miles away, and Lilybaeum towards Africa, at a distance of 180 miles from the Promontory of Mercury^[71] and 190 from Cape Carbonara in Sardinia. The following are the distances of these promontories from one another and the length of the coast lines: from Pelorum to Pachynum by land is 186 miles, from Pachynum to Lilybaeum 200 miles, and from Lilybaeum to Pelorum 142 miles.

Sicily contains five colonies and sixty-three cities and states. Starting from Pelorum, on the coast facing the Ionian Sea is the town of Messina, whose denizens called Mamertines have the Roman citizenship, the promontory of Trapani, the colony of Taormina, formerly Naxos, the river Alcantara, and Mount Etna with its wonderful displays of fire at night: the circuit of its crater measures 2½ miles; the hot ashes reach as far as Taormina and Catania. and the noise to Madonia and Monte di Mele. Then come the three Rocks of the Cyclopes, the Harbour of Ulysses, the colony of Catania, and the rivers Symaethum and Terias. Inland are the Laestrygonian Plains. Then there are the towns of Lentini, Megaris, the river Porcaro, the colony of Syracuse with the Spring of Arethusa (although the territory of Syracuse is also supplied with water by the springs of Temenitis, Archidemia, Magea, Cyane and Milichie), the harbour of Naustathmus, the river Elorum, the promontory of Pachynum. On this side of Sicily are the river Hyrminus, the town of Camarina, the river Gelas; the town of Acragas, called Agrigentum^[72] in our language; the colony of Thermae;^[73] the rivers Achates, Mazara, Hypsa and Selinus; the town of Lilybaeum and the promontory to which it gives its name; Trapani, Mount Eryx,^[74] the towns of Palermo, Solunto, Himera with its river, Cephaloedis, Aluntium, Agathyrnum; the colony of Tindari, the town of Melazzo, and the district of Pelorum from which we began.

In the interior the towns having Latin rights are those of the Centuripini, Netini and Segestani; tributaries are Asaro, Nicolosi, Argiro, the Acestaei, the Acrenses, the Bidini, the peoples of Cassaro, Trapani, Ergetium, Orchula, Eryx, Entella, Castro Giovanni, Gangi, Gela, Galata, Tisa, Hermae, Hybla, Nicosia, Pantalica, Herbitenses, Saleni, Aderno, Imacara, Ipana, Iato, Mistretta, Magella, Mandri, Modica, Mineo, Taormina,^[75] Noara, Petra, Colisano, Alicata, Semelita, Scheria, Selinunte, Symaethus, Talaria, Randazza, Troccoli, Tyracinum and Zancle, a Messenian settlement on the Straits of Sicily.

The islands on the side towards Africa are Gozo, Malta (which is 87 miles from Camerina and 113 from Lilybaeum), Pantellaria, Maretino, Limosa, Calata, Lampedosa, Aethusa (written by others Aegusa), Levanzo, Alicus (75 miles from Solunto), and Ustica opposite to Paropus. On the Italian side of Sicily facing the river Metaurus, at a distance of nearly 25 miles from Italy, are the seven islands called the Aeolian and also the Liparean: their Greek name is the Hephaestiades, and the Roman Vulcan’s Islands; they are called Aeolian from King Aeolus who reigned there in the Homeric period.

IX. Lipari, with a town possessing rights of Roman citizenship, takes its name from King Liparus, who succeeded Aeolus—it was previously called Milogonis or Meligunis; it is 25 miles from Italy, and its circumference measures a little less than 5 miles. Between it and Sicily is another island formerly called Therasia, and now Holy Island^[76] because it is sacred to Vulcan, on it being a hill that vomits out flames in the night. The third island is Stromboli, six miles to the east of Lipari; here Aeolus reigned. It differs from Lipari only in the fact that its flame is more liquid; the local population are reported to be able to foretell from its smoke three days ahead what winds are going to blow, and this is the source of the belief that the winds obeyed the orders of Aeolus. The fourth of the islands, Didyme, is smaller than Lipari. The fifth, Eriphusa, and the sixth, Phoenicusa, are left to provide pasture for the flocks of the neighbouring islands; the last and also the smallest is Euonymus. So far as to the first gulf of Europe.

X. At Locri begins the projection of Italy called Magna Graecia, retiring into the three bays of the Ausonian Sea, so called from its first inhabitants the Ausones. According to Varro its length is 86 miles, but most authorities have made it 75. On this coast are rivers beyond count; but the places worthy of mention, beginning at Locri, are the Sagriano and the ruins of the town of Caulon, Monasteraci, Camp Consilinum, Punta di Stilo (thought by some to be the longest promontory in Italy), then the gulf and city of Squillace, called by the Athenians when founding it Scylletium. This part of the country is made into a peninsula by the Gulf of Santa Eufemia which runs up to it, and on it is the harbour called Hannibal’s Camp. It is the narrowest part of Italy, which is here 20 miles across, and consequently the elder Dionysius wanted to cut a canal across the peninsula in this place, and annex it to Sicily. The navigable rivers in this district are the Corace, Alli, Simari, Crocchio and Tacina; it contains the inland town of Strongolo, the range of Monte Monacello, and the promontory of Lacinium,^[77] off the coast of which ten miles out lies the Island of the Sons of Zeus^[78] and another called Calypso’s Island, which is thought to be Homer’s island of Ogygia, and also Tyris, Eranusa and Meloessa. According to Agrippa the distance of the promontory of Lacinium from Caulon is 70 miles.

XI. At the promontory of Lacinium begins the second Gulf of Europe; it curves round in a large bay and ends in Acroceraunium,^[79] a promontory of Epirus; the distance from cape to cape is 75 miles.^[80] Here are the town of Crotona, the river Neto, and the town of Turi between the river Crati and the river Sibari, on which once stood the city of the same name.^[81] Likewise Heraclea, once called Siris, lies between the Siris and the Aciris. Then the rivers Salandra and Bassiento, and the town of Torre di Mare, at which the third region of Italy ends. The only inland community of the Bruttii are the Aprustani, but in the interior of Lucania are the Atinates, Bantini, Eburini, Grumentini, Potentini, Sontini, Sirini, Tergilani, Ursentini and Volcentani adjoining whom are the Numestrani. Moreover it is stated by Cato that the town of Thebes in Lucania has disappeared and Theopompus says that there was once a city of the Lucanians named Mardonia, in which Alexander of Epirus died.

Adjoining this district is the second region of Italy, embracing the Hirpini, Calabria, Apulia and the Sallentini with the 250-mile bay named after the Laconian town of Taranto (this is situated in the innermost recess of the bay and has had attached to it the sea-board colony that had settled there, and it is 136 miles distant from the promontory of Lacinium),—throwing out Calabria which is opposite to Lacinium to form a peninsula. The Greeks called it Messapia from their leader Messapus, and previously Peucetia from Peucetius the brother of Oenotrius, and it was in the Sallentine territory. The distance between the two headlands is 100 miles; and the breadth of the peninsula overland from Taranto to Brindisi is 35 miles, and considerably less if measured from the port of Sasine. The towns inland from Taranto are Uria, which has the surname of Messapia to distinguish it from Uria in Apulia, and Sarmadium; on the coast are Senum and Gallipoli, the present Anxa, 75 miles from Taranto. Next, 33 miles farther, the promontory called the Iapygian Point,^[82] where Italy projects farthest into the sea. Nineteen miles from this point are the towns of Vaste and Otranto, at the boundary between the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic, where is the shortest crossing to Greece, opposite to the town of Apollonia,^[83] separated by an arm of the sea^[84] not more than 50 miles wide. King Pyrrhus of Epirus first conceived the plan of carrying a causeway over this gap by throwing bridges across it, and after him Marcus Varro had the same idea when commanding the fleets of Pompey in the Pirate War; but both were prevented by other commitments. After Otranto comes the deserted site of Soletum, then Fratuertium, the harbour of Taranto, the roadstead of Miltope, Lecce, Baleso, Cavallo, and then Brindisi, 50 miles from Otranto, one of the most famous places in Italy for its harbour and as offering a more certain crossing albeit a longer one, ending at the city of Durazzo in Illyria, a passage of 225 miles.

Adjacent to Brindisi is the territory of the Paediculi,^[85] whose twelve tribes were the descendants of nine youths and nine maidens from the Illyrians. The towns of the Paediculi are Ruvo, Agnazzo and Bari; their rivers are the Iapyx, named from the son of Daedalus, the king who also gives his name to the Iapygian Point, the Pactius and the Aufidus, which runs down from the Hirpini mountains and past Canossa.

Here begins Apulia, called Apulia of the Daunii, who were named after their chief, the father-in-law of Diomede; in Apulia is the town of Salpi, famous as the scene of Hannibal’s amour with a courtezan, Sipontum, Uria, the river Cervaro marking the boundary of the Daunii, the harbour of Porto Greco, the promontory of Monte Gargano (the distance round Gargano from the promontory of Sallentinum or Iapygia being 234 miles), the port of Varano, the lake of Lesina, the river Frento which forms a harbour, Teanum of the Apuli and Larinum of the Apuli, Cliternia, and the river Biferno, at which begins the district of the Frentani. Thus the Apulians comprise three different races: the Teani, so called from their chief, of Graian descent; the Lucanians who were subdued by Calchas and who occupied the places that now belong to the Atinates; and the Daunians, including, beside the places mentioned above, the colonies of Lucera and Venosa and the towns of Canossa and Arpa, formerly called Argos Hippium when founded by Diomede, and afterwards Argyripa. Here Diomede destroyed the tribes of the Monadi and Dardi and two cities whose names have passed into a proverbial joke, Apina and Trica.^[86] Besides these there are in the interior of the second region one colony of the Hirpini formerly called Maleventum^[87] and now more auspiciously, by a change of name, Beneventum, the Ausculani, Aquiloni, Abellinates surnamed Protropi, Compsani, Caudini, Ligurians with the surnames of Corneliani and Baebiani, Vescellani, Aeclani, Aletrini, Abellinates surnamed Marsi, Atrani, Aecani, Alfellani, Atinates, Arpani, Borcani, Collatini, Corinenses, Cannae celebrated for the Roman defeat,^[88] Dirini, Forentani,^[89] Genusini,^[90] Herdonienses, Irini, Larinates surnamed Frentani, the Merinates from Monte Gargano, Mateolani, Neretini, Natini, Rubustini, Silvini, Strapellini, Turnantini, Vibinates, Venusini, Ulurtini. Inland Calabrian peoples are the Aegetini, Apamestini, Argentini, Butuntinenses, Deciani, Grumbestini, Norbanenses, Palionenses, Stulnini and Tutini; inland Sallentini are the Aletini, Basterbini, Neretini, Uzentini and Veretini.

XII. There follows the fourth region, which includes the very bravest races in Italy. On the coast, in the territory of the Frentani, after Tifernum are the river Trigno, affording a harbour, and the towns of Histonium, Buca and Hortona and the river Aternus.^[91] Inward are the Anxani surnamed Frentani, the Upper and Lower Caretini and the Lanuenses; and in the Marrucine territory Chieti; in the Paelignian, the people of Corfinium;^[92] Subequo and Sulmona; in the Marsian, those of Lanciano, Atina, Fucino, Lucca and Muria; in the Albensian region the town of Alba on Lake Fucino; in the Aequiculan, Cliternia and Carsoli; in the Vestinian, Sant’ Angelo, Pinna and Peltuina, adjoining witch is Ofena South of the Mountain; in the region of the Samnites, who once were called Sabelli and by the Greeks Saunitae, the colony of Old Bojano and the other Bojano that bears the name of the Eleventh Legion, Alfidena, Isernia, Fagifulani, Ficolea, Supino, and Terevento; in the Sabine, Amiternum, Correse, Market of Decius, New Market, Fidenae, Ferano, Norcia, La Mentana, Rieti, Trebula Mutuesca, Trebula Suffena, Tivoli, Tarano. In this district, of the tribes of the Aequicoli the Comini, Tadiates, Caedici and Alfaterni have disappeared. It is stated by Gellianus that a Marsian town of Archippe, founded by the Lydian commander Marsyas, has been submerged in Lake Fucino, and also Valerian says that the town of the Vidicini in Picenum was destroyed by the Romans. The Sabines (according to some opinions called Sebini from their religious beliefs and ritual^[93]) live on the lush dewy hills by the Lakes of Velino. Those lakes drain into the river Nera, which from these derives the river Tiber with its sulphurous waters, and they are replenished by the Avens which runs down from Monte Fiscello near the Groves of Vacuna and Rieti and loses itself in the lakes in question. In another direction the Teverone rising in Mount Trevi drains into the Tiber three lakes famous for their beauty, from which Subiaco takes its name. In the district of Rieti is the lake of Cutilia, which is said by Marcus Varro to be the central point of Italy, and to contain a floating island. Below the Sabine territory lies Latium, on one side of it Picenum, and behind it Umbria, while the ranges of the Apennines fence it in on either side.

XIII. The fifth region is that of Picenum, which formerly was very densely populated: 360,000 Picentines took the oath of allegiance to Rome.^[94] They derived their origin from the Sabines, who had made a vow to celebrate a Holy Spring.^[95] The territory that they took possession of began at the river Aterno, where are now the district and colony of Adria, 6 miles from the sea. Here is the river Vomanus, the territories of Praetutia and Palma, also the New Camp, the river Batinus, Tronto with its river, the only Liburnian settlement left in Italy, the river Albula, Tessuinum, and Helvinum where the region of the Praetutii ends and that of Picenum begins; the town of Cupra, Porto di Fermo, and above it the colony of Ascoli, the most famous in Picenum. Inland is Novana, and on the coast Cluana, Potentia, Numana founded by the Sicilians, and Ancona, a colony founded by the same people on the promontory of Cunerus just at the elbow of the coast where it bends round, 183 miles from Monte Gargano. Inland are Osimo, Beregra, Cingula, Cupra surnamed Montana, Falerona, Pausula, Plalina, Ricinum, Septempedum, Tollentinum, Treia, and the people from Pollentia settled at Urbisaglia.

XIV. Adjoining to this will come the sixth region, embracing Umbria and the Gallic territory this side Rimini. At Ancona begins the Gallic coast named Gallia Togata. The largest part of this district was occupied by Sicilians and Liburnians, especially the territories of Palma, Praetutia and Adria. They were expelled by the Umbrians, and these by Etruria, and Etruria by the Gauls. The Umbrians are believed to be the oldest race of Italy, being thought to be the people designated as Ombrii^[96] by the Greeks on the ground of their having survived the rains after the flood. We find that 300 of their towns were conquered by the Etruscans. On this coast at the present time are the river Esino, Sinigaglia, the river Meturo and the colonies of Fano and Pesaro with the river of the same name and inland those of Spello and Todi. Besides these there are the peoples of Amelia, Attiglio, Assisi, Arna, Iesi, Camerino, Casuentillum, Carsulae; the Dolates surnamed Sallentini; Foligno, Market of Flaminius, Market of Julius, surnamed Concupium, Market Brenta, Fossombrone, Gubbio, Terni on the Nera, Bevagna, Mevanio, Matilica, Narni (the town formerly called Nequinum); the people of Nocera surnamed Favonienses and those surnamed Camellani; Otricoli, Ostra; the Pitulani surnamed Pisuertes and others surnamed Mergentini; the Plestini; Sentinum, Sassina, Spoleto, Suasa, Sestino, Sigello, Tadina, Trevi, Tuficum, Tifernum on the Tiber, Tifernum on the Meturo; Vesinica, Urbino on the Meturo and Urbino of the Garden, Bettona, the Vindinates and the Visuentani. Peoples that have disappeared in this district are the Felignates and the inhabitants of Clusiolum above Interamna, and the Sarranates, together with the towns of Acerrae surnamed Vafriae and Turocaelum surnamed Vettiolum; also the Solinates, Suriates, Falinates and Sappinates. There have also disappeared the Arinates with the town of Crinivolum and the Usidicani and Plangenses, the Paesinates, the Caelestini. Ameria above-mentioned is stated by Cato to have been founded 963 years before the war^[97] with Perseus.

XV. The boundaries of the eighth region are marked by Rimini, the Po and the Apennines. On its coast are the river Conca, the colony of Rimini with the rivers Ariminum and Aprusa, and the river Rubicon,^[98] once the frontier of Italy. Then there are the Savio, the Bevano and the Roneone; the Sabine town of Ravenna with the river Montone, and the Umbrian town of Butrium 105 miles from Ancona and not far from the sea. Inland are the colonies of Bologna (which at the time when it was the chief place in Etruria was called Felsina), Brescello, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, and the towns of Cesena, Quaderna, Fornocchia, Forli, Forli Piccolo, Bertinoro, Cornelius Market, Incino, Faenza, Fidentia, Otesini, Castel Bondino, Reggio named from Lepidus, Città di Sole, Groves of Gallius surnamed Aquinates, Tenedo, Villac in old days surnamed Regias, Urbana. Peoples no longer existing in this region are the Boii,^[99] said by Cato to have comprised 112 tribes, and also the Senones who captured Rome.^[100]

XVI. The source of the Po, which well deserves a visit, is a spring in the heart of Monte Viso, an extremely lofty Alpine peak in the territory of the Ligurian Vagienni; the stream burrows underground and emerges again in the district of Vibius Market. It rivals all other rivers in celebrity; its Greek name was Eridanus, and it is famous as the scene of the punishment of Phaethon.^[101] The melting of the snows at the rising of the Dogstar causes it to swell in volume; but though its flooding does more damage to the fields adjacent than to vessels, nevertheless it claims no part of its plunder for itself, and where it deposits its spoil it bestows bounteous fertility. Its length from its source is 300 miles, to which it adds 88 by its windings, and it not only receives navigable rivers from the Apennines and the Alps, but also immense lakes that discharge themselves into it, and it carries down to the Adriatic Sea as many as 30 streams in all. Among these the best-known are: flowing from the Apennine range, the Jactum, the Tanaro, the Trebbia (on which is Piacenza), the Taro, the Enza, the Secchia, the Panaro and the Reno; flowing from the Alps, the Stura, Orco, two Doras, Sesia, Ticino, Lambra, Adda, Oglio and Mincio. Nor does any other river increase so much in volume in so short a distance; in fact, the vast body of water drives it on and scoops out its bed with disaster to the land, although it is diverted into streams and canals between Ravenna and Altino over a length of 120 miles; nevertheless where it discharges its water more widely it forms what are called the Seven Seas.

The Po is carried to Ravenna by the Canal of Augustus; this part of the river is called the Padusa, its name previously being Messanicus. The mouth nearest to Ravenna forms the large basin called the Harbour of the Santerno; it was here that Claudius Caesar sailed out into the Adriatic, in what was a vast palace rather than a ship, when celebrating his triumph over Britain. This mouth was formerly called the Eridanus, and by others the Spineticus from the city of Spina that formerly stood near it, and that was believed on the evidence of its treasures deposited at Delphi to have been a very powerful place; it was founded by Diomede. At this point the Po is augmented by the river Santerno from the territory of Cornelius Market.

The next mouth to this is the Caprasian mouth, then that of Sagis, and then Volane, formerly called Olane; all of these form the Flavian Canal, which was first made from the Sagis by the Tuscans, thus discharging the flow of the river across into the marshes of the Atriani called the Seven Seas, with the famous harbour of the Tuscan town of Atria which formerly gave the name of Atriatic to the sea now called the Adriatic. Next come the deep-water mouths of Carbonaria and the Fosses of Philistina, called by others Tartarus, all of which originate from the overflow of the Philistina Canal, with the addition of the Adige from the Trentino Alps and of the Bacchiglione from the district of Padua. A part of these streams also forms the neighbouring harbour of Brondolo, as likewise that of Chioggia is formed by the Brenta and Brentella and the Clodian Canal. With these streams the Po unites and flows through them into the sea, according to most authorities forming between the Alps and the sea-coast the figure of a triangle, like what is called the Delta formed by the Nile in Egypt; the triangle measures 250 miles in circumference. One is ashamed to borrow an account of Italy from the Greeks; nevertheless, Metrodorus of Scepsis says that the river has received the name of Padus because in the neighbourhood of its source there are a quantity of pine-trees of the kind called in the Gallic dialect padi, while in fact the Ligurian name for the actual river is Bodincus, a word that means ‘bottomless.’ This theory is supported by the fact that the neighbouring town of Industria,^[102] where the river begins to be particularly deep, had the old name of Bodincomagum.

XVII. The eleventh region receives from the river the name of Transpadana; it is situated entirely inland, but the river carries to it on its bounteous channel the products of all the seas. Its towns are Seluzzo and Susa, and the colony of Turin at the roots of the Alps (here the Po becomes navigable), sprung from an ancient Ligurian stock, and next that of Aosta Praetoria of the Salassi, near the twin gateways of the Alps, the Graian pass and the Pennine,^[103]—history says that the latter was the pass crossed by the Carthaginians and the former by Hercules—and the town of Ivrea, founded by the Roman nation by order of the Sibylline Books—the name comes from the Gallic word for a man good at breaking horses—,Vercelli, the town of the Libicii, founded from the Sallui, and Novara founded from Vertamacori, a place belonging to the Vocontii and now-a-days a village, not (as Cato thinks) belonging to the Ligurians; from whom the Laevi and Marici founded Ticinum^[104] not far from the Po, just as the Boians, coming from the tribes across the Alps, founded Lodi and the Insubrians Milan. According to Cato, Como, Bergamo, Incino and some surrounding peoples are of the Orumbivian stock, but he confesses that he does not know the origin of that race; whereas Cornelius Alexander states that it originated from Greece, arguing merely by the name, which he renders ‘those who pass their lives in mountains.’^[105] In this locality a town of the Orumbivii named Parra, said by Cato to be the original home of the people of Bergamo, has perished, its remains still showing its site to have been more lofty than advantageous. Other communities that have perished are the Caturiges, an exiled section of the Insubrians, and the above-mentioned Spina, and also the exceptionally wealthy town of Melpum, which is stated by Cornelius Nepos to have been destroyed by the Insubrians, Boii and Senones on the day^[106] on which Camillus took Veii.

XVIII. Next comes the tenth region of Italy, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. In it are Venetia,^[107] the river Silo that rises in the mountains of Treviso, the town of Altino, the river Liquenzo rising in the mountains of Oderzo, and the port of the same name, the colony of Concordia, the river and port of Rieti, the Greater and Lesser Tagliamento, the Stella, into which flows the Revonchi, the Alsa, the Natisone, with the Torre that flows past the colony of Aquileia situated 15 miles from the sea. This is the region of the Carni, and adjoining it is that of the Iapudes, the river Timavo, Castel Duino, famous for its wine, the Gulf of Trieste, and the colony of the same name, 33 miles from Aquileia. Six miles beyond Trieste is the river Formio,^[108] 189 miles from Ravenna, the old frontier^[109] of the enlarged Italy and now the boundary of Istria. It has been stated by many authors, even including Nepos, who lived on the banks of the Po, that Istria takes its name from the stream called Ister flowing out of the river Danube (which also has the name of Ister) into the Adriatic, opposite the mouths of the Po, and that their currents, colliding from contrary directions, turn the intervening sea into a pool of fresh water; but these statements are erroneous, for no river flows out of the Danube into the Adriatic. I believe that they have been misled by the fact that the ship Argo came down a river into the Adriatic not far from Trieste, but it has not hitherto been decided what river this was. More careful writers say that the Argo was portaged on men’s shoulders across the Alps, but that she had come up the Ister and then the Save and then the Nauportus,^[110] a stream rising between Emona and the Alps, that has got its name from this occurrence.

XIX. Istria projects in the form of a peninsula. Some authorities have given its breadth as 40 miles and its circuit as 125 miles, and the same dimensions for the adjoining territory of Liburnia and the Flanatic Gulf;^[111] others make it 225 miles, and others give the circuit of Liburnia as 180 miles. Some carry Iapudia, at the back of Istria, as far as the Flanatic Gulf, a distance of 130 miles, and then make the circuit of Liburnia 150 miles. Tuditanus,^[112] who conquered the Istrians, inscribed the following statement on his statue there: From Aquileia to the river Keriko 2000 furlongs.^[113] Towns in Istria with the Roman citizenship are Aegida,^[114] Parenzo and the colony of Pola, the present Pietas Julia, originally founded by the Colchians, and 105 miles from Trieste. Then comes the town of Nesactium,^[115] and the river Arsa, now the frontier of Italy. The distance across from Ancona to Pola is 120 miles.

In the interior of the tenth region are the colonies of Cremona and Brescia in the territory of the Cenomani, and Este in that of the Veneti, and the towns of Asolo, Padua, Oderzo, Belluno, Vicenza and Mantua, the only remaining Tuscan town across the Po. According to Cato, the Veneti are descended from a Trojan stock, and the Cenomani lived among the Volcae in the neighbourhood of Marseilles. There are also the Rhaetic towns of Feltre, Trent and Berua, Verona which belongs to the Rhaeti and Euganei jointly, and Zuglio which belongs to the Carni; then peoples that we need not be concerned to designate with more particularity, the Alutrenses, Asseriates, Flamonienses^[116] Vanienses and other Flamonienses surnamed Curici, the Forojulienses^[117] surnamed Transpadani, Foretani, Nedinates,^[118] Quarqueni,^[119] Tarvisani,^[120] Togienses, Varvari. In this district there have disappeared, on the coast-line, Irmene, Pellaon, Palsicium, Atina and Caelina belonging to the Veneti, Segesta and Ocra to the Carni, Noreia to the Taurisci. Also Lucius Piso states that a town 12 miles from Aquileia was destroyed by Marcus Claudius Marcellus, although against the wish of the Senate.

This region also contains eleven famous lakes and the rivers of which they are the source, or which, in the case of those that after entering the lakes leave them again, are augmented by them—for instance the Adda that flows through Lake Como, the Ticino through Maggiore, the Mincio through Garda, the Seo through the Lago di Seo, and the Lambro through Lago di Pusiano—all of these streams being tributaries of the Po.

The length of the Alps from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean is given by Caelius as 1000 miles; Timagenes puts it at 25 miles less. Their breadth is given by Cornelius Nepos as 100 miles, by Livy as 375 miles,^[121] but they take their measurements at different points; for occasionally the Alps exceed even 100 miles in breadth, where they divide Germany from Italy, while in the remaining part they are as it were providentially narrow and do not cover 70 miles. The breadth of Italy at the roots of the Alps, measured from the river Var through Vado, the port of Savo, Turin, Como, Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, Oderzo, Aquileia, Trieste and Pola, to the river Arsa, amounts to 745 miles.

XX. The Alps are inhabited by a great many nations, but the notable ones, between Pola and the district of Trieste, are the Fecusses, Subocrini, Catali and Menoncaleni, and next to the Carni the peoples formerly called Taurisci and now Norici; adjoining these are the Raeti and Vindelici. All are divided into a number of states. The Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls; their leader was named Raetus. Then, on the side of the Alps towards Italy, are the Euganean races having the Latin rights, whose towns listed by Cato number 34. Among these are the Triumpilini,^[122] a people that sold themselves^[123] together with their lands, and then the Camunni^[124] and a number of similar peoples, assigned to the jurisdiction of the neighbouring municipal towns. Cato before mentioned considers the Lepontii^[125] and Salassi^[126] to be of Tauriscan origin, but almost all other authors give a Greek interpretation to their name and believe that the Lepontii are descended from companions of Hercules ‘left behind’^[127] because their limbs had been frostbitten in crossing the Alps; and that the inhabitants of the Graian^[128] Alps were also Grai from the same band, and that the Euganei were of specially distinguished family, and took their name from that fact;^[129] and that the head of these are the Stoeni. The Raetian tribes Vennones and Sarunetes live near the sources of the river Rhine, and the Lepontian tribe called the Uberi at the source of the Rhone in the same district of the Alps. There are also other native tribes that have received Latin rights; for instance, the Octodurenses^[130] and their neighbours the Centrones,^[131] the Cottian states^[132] and the Turi of Ligurian descent, the Ligurian Vagienni and those called the Mountain Ligurians, and several tribes of Long-haired Ligurians on the borders of the Ligurian Sea.

It seems not out of place to append here the inscription from the triumphal arch^[133] erected in the Alps, which runs as follows:

To the Emperor Caesar, son^[134] of the late lamented Augustus, Supreme Pontiff, in his fourteenth year of office as Commander-in-chief and seventeenth year^[135] of Tribunitial Authority—erected by the Senate and People of Rome, to commemorate that under his leadership and auspices all the Alpine races stretching from the Adriatic Sea to the Mediterranean were brought under the dominion of the Roman people. Alpine races^[136] conquered—the Triumpilini, Camunni, Venostes, Vennonetes, Isarchi, Breuni, Genaunes, Focunates, four tribes of the Vindelici, the Cosuanetes, Rucinates, Licates, Catenates, Ambisontes, Rugusci, Suanetes, Calucones, Brixentes, Leponti, Uberi, Nantuates, Seduni, Varagri, Salassi, Acitavones, Medulli, Ucenni, Caturiges, Brigiani, Sobionti, Brodionti, Nemaloni, Edenates, Vesubiani, Veamini, Gallitae, Triullati, Ecdini, Vergunni, Eguituri, Nematuri, Oratelli, Nerusi, Velauni, Suetri.

This list does not include the 15 states of the Cottiani which had not shown hostility, nor those that were placed by the law of Pompeius under the jurisdiction of the municipal towns.

This then is Italy, a land sacred to the gods, and these are the races and towns of its peoples. Moreover this is that Italy which, in the consulship^[137] of Lucius Aemilius Papus and Gaius Atilius Regulus, on receipt of news of a rising in Gaul, single-handed and without any alien auxiliaries, and moreover at that date without aid from Gaul north of the Po, equipped an army of 80,000 horse and 700,000 foot. She is inferior to no country in abundance of mineral products of every kind; but mining is prohibited by an old resolution of the Senate forbidding the exploitation of Italy.

XXI. The race of the Liburni stretches from the Arsa to the river Tityus. Sections of it were the Mentores, Himani, Encheleae, Buni, and the people called by Callimachus the Peucetii, all of whom are now designated collectively by the one name of Illyrians. Few of the peoples are worthy of mention, nor are their names easy to pronounce. To the jurisdiction of Scardona resort the Iapudes and the 14 communities of the Liburni, of which it may not be tedious to name the Lacinienses, Stulpini, Burnistae and Olbonenses. In this jurisdiction states having Italic rights are the Alutae, the Flanates from whom the gulf^[138] takes its name, the Lopsi, the Varvarini, the Asseriates who are exempt from tribute, and of the islands Berwitch and Karek. Moreover along the coast starting from Nesactium are Albona, Fianona, Tersact, Segna, Lopsico, Ortoplinia, Viza, Argyruntum, Carin, Nona, the city of the Pasini and the river Zermagna, at which Iapudia terminates. The islands of the gulf with their towns are, besides the above specified, Absortium, Arba, Cherso, Gissa, Portunata. Again on the mainland is the colony of Zara, 160 miles from Pola, and 30 miles from it the island of Mortero, and 18 miles from it the mouth of the river Kerka.

XXII. At the city of Scardona on the Kerka, 12 miles from the sea, Liburnia ends and Dalmatia begins. Then comes the ancient region of the Tariotares and the fortress of Tariona, the Promontory of Diomede,^[139] or as others name it the Peninsula of Hyllis, measuring 100 miles round, Tragurium, a place possessing Roman citizenship and famous for its marble, Siculi where the late lamented Claudius sent a colony of ex-service men; and the colony of Spalato, 112 miles from Zara. Spalato is the centre for jurisdiction of the Delmataei whose forces are divided into 342 tithings, Deuri into 25 tithings, Ditiones into 239, Maezaei 269, Sardeates 52. In this district are Burnum, Andetrium and Tribulium, fortresses that are famous for battles. Island peoples also belonging to the same jurisdiction are the Issaeans, Colentini, Separi and Epetini. After these come the fortresses of Peguntium,^[140] Nareste^[141] and Onium, and the colony of Narenta, the seat of the third centre, 85 miles from Spalato, situated on the river also called Narenta 20 miles from the sea. According to Marcus Varro 89 states used to resort to it, but now nearly the only ones known are the Cerauni with 24 tithings, the Daursi with 17, Desitiates 103, Docleates 33, Deretini 14, Deraemestae 30, Dindari 33, Glinditiones 44, Melcumani 24, Naresi 102, Scirtari 72, Siculotae 24, and the Vardaei, once the ravagers of Italy, with not more than 20 tithings. Besides these this district was occupied by the Ozuaei, Partheni, Hemasini, Arthitae and Armistae. The colony of Epidaurum^[142] is 100 miles distant from the river Naron. After Epidaurum come the following towns with Roman citizenship—Risine, Cattaro, Budua, Dulcigno, formerly called Colchinium because it was founded by the Colchians; the river Drino, and upon it Scutari, a town with the Roman citizenship, 18 miles from the sea; and also a number of Greek towns and also powerful cities of which the memory is fading away, this district having contained the Labeatae, Endirudini, Sasaei and Grabaei; and the Taulanti and the Pyraei, both properly styled Illyrians. The promontory of Nymphaeum^[143] on the coast still retains its name. Lissum, a town having the Roman citizenship, is 100 miles from Epidaurum.

XXIII. At Lissum begins the Province of Macedonia. Its races are the Partheni and in their rear the Dassaretae. The mountains of Candavia are 78 miles from Durazzo, and on the coast is Denda, a town with Roman citizenship, the colony of Epidamnum which, on account of the ill-omened sound of that name, has been renamed Dyrrachium^[144] by the Romans, the river Aous,^[145] called by some Aeas, and the former Corinthian colony of Apollonia^[146] 4 miles distant from the sea, in the territory of which is the famous Shrine of the Nymphs, with the neighbouring native tribes of the Amantes and Buliones. Actually on the coast is the town of Ericho, founded by the Colchians. Here begins Epirus, with the Acroceraunian mountains, at which we fixed^[147] the boundary of this Gulf of Europe. The distance between Ericho and Cape Leuca^[148] in Italy is 80 miles.

XXIV. Behind the Carni and Iapudes, along the course of the mighty Danube, the Raetians are adjoined by the Norici; their towns are Wolk-Markt, Cilley, Lurnfelde, Innichen, Juvavum, Vienna, Clausen, Solfeld. Adjoining the Norici is Lake Peiso,^[149] and the Unoccupied Lands of the Boii, now however inhabited by the people of Sarvar, a colony of his late Majesty Claudius, and the town of Sopron Julia.

XXV. Then come the acorn-producing lands of the province of Pannonia, where the chain of the Alps gradually becomes less formidable, and slopes to the right and left hand with gentle contours as it traverses the middle of Illyria from north to south. The part looking towards the Adriatic is called Dalmatia and Illyria mentioned above, while the part stretching northward is Pannonia, terminating in that direction at the Danube. In it are the colonies of Aemona and Siscia. Famous navigable rivers flowing into the Danube are the Drave from Noricum, a rather violent stream, and the Save from the Carnian Alps which is more gentle, there being a space of 120 miles between them; the Drave flows through the Serretes, Sirapilli, Iasi and Andizetes; the Save through the Colapiani and Breuci. These are the principal peoples; and there are besides the Arviates, Azali, Amantini, Belgites, Catari, Cornacates, Eravisci, Hercuniates, Latovici, Oseriates and Varciani, and Mount Claudius, in front of which are the Scordisci and behind it the Taurisci. In the Save is the island of Zagrabia, the largest known island formed by a river. Other noteworthy rivers are the Culpa, which flows into the Save near Siscia, where its channel divides and forms the island called Segestica, and another river the Bossut, flowing into the Save at the town of Sirmich, the capital of the Sirmienses and Amantini. From Sirmich it is 45 miles to Tzeruinka, where the Save joins the Danube; tributaries flowing into the Danube higher up are the Walpo and the Verbas, themselves also not inconsiderable streams.

XXVI. Adjoining Pannonia is the province called Moesia, which runs with the course of the Danube right down to the Black Sea, beginning at the confluence of the Danube and the Save mentioned above. Moesia contains the Dardani, Celegeri, Triballi, Timachi, Moesi, Thracians and Scythians adjacent to the Black Sea. Its famous rivers are the Morava, Bek and Timoch rising in the territory of the Dardani, the Iscar in Mount Rhodope^[150] and the Vid, Osma and Jantra in Mount Haemus.^[151]

Illyria covers 325 miles in width at its widest point, and 530 miles in length from the river Arsa to the river Drin; its length from the Drin to the Promontory of Glossa is given by Agrippa as 175 miles, and the entire circuit of the Italian and Illyrian Gulf as 1700 miles. This gulf, delimited as we described it, contains two seas, in the first part the Ionian^[152] and more inland the Adriatic, called the Upper Sea.

There are no islands deserving mention in the Ausonian Sea^[153] besides those already specified, and only a few in the Ionian—those lying on the coast of Calabria off Brindisi and by their position forming a harbour, and Diomede’s Island^[154] off the coast of Apulia, marked by the monument of Diomede, and another island^[155] of the same name but by some called Teutria.

On the coast of Illyricum is a cluster of more than 1000 islands, the sea being of a shoaly nature and divided into a network of estuaries with narrow channels. The notable islands are those off the mouth of the Timavo, fed by hot springs^[156] that rise with the tide of the sea; Cissa near the territory of the Histri; and Pullaria and those called by the Greeks the Absyrtides, from Medea’s brother Absyrtus who was killed there. Islands near these the Greeks have designated the Electrides, because amber, the Greek for which is electrum, was said to be found there; this is a very clear proof of Greek unreliability, seeing that it has never been ascertained which of the islands they mean. Opposite to the Zara are Lissa and the islands already mentioned; opposite the Liburni are several called the Crateae, and an equal number called the Liburnicae and Celadussae; opposite Surium Bavo and Brattia, the latter celebrated for its goats, Issa with the rights of Roman citizenship and Pharia, on which there is a town. Twenty-five miles from Issa is the island called Corcyra Melaena,^[157] with a town founded from Cnidos, and between Corcyra Melaena and Illyricum is Meleda, from which according to Callimachus Maltese terriers get their name.^[158] Fifteen miles from Meleda are the seven Stag Islands,^[159] and in the Ionian Sea twelve^[160] miles from Oricum is Sasena, notorious as a harbour for pirates.

1. Probably Tarifa.
2. Probably Punto del Sarinas.
3. Nearly the present Andalusia; named from the river Baetis, the Guadalquivir.
4. Portugal, excluding the part between the Douro and the Minho.
5. The Guadianas (Arabic wadi, ‘river’).
6. Perhaps Alhambra.
7. i.e. from the Balearic Channel to the Bay of Biscay.
8. The Sierra Nevada.
9. The Sierra Morena, Mont de Toledo and Sierra de las Asturias.
10. Probably the Tinto.
11. IV. 119.
12. Cape Trafalgar.
13. Gnaeus the eldest son of Pompeius Magnus was defeated at Munda (possibly near Cordova) 45 B.C., and soon afterwards captured and killed; the town was destroyed.
14. The Porticus Octaviae, between the Circus Flaminius and the Theatre of Marcellus.
15. Rather than surrender to Hannibal, the Saguntines set fire to their town and perished in the flames, 219 B.C. The town was rebuilt eight years later.
16. From the linen breeches worn by the natives.
17. L’Étang de Sigéan.
18. Now Toulouse.
19. Now Tarascon.
20. Perhaps Vabres.
21. See § 102 n.
22. Shaped like a crescent but with two curves and a proportion between them on the inner side.
23. The three projections named are now Punta di Stilo, Capo delle Colonne and Capo dell’ Armi.
24. Now Lissa, an island in the Adriatic.
25. about S.E., so the line meant is S.S.E.
26. Θυοσκόοι, from θύειν (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. I 30).
27. Now the Serchio, a tributary of the Arno.
28. Now the village of Vadi.
29. Now the Vaccina.
30. Now Arezzo.
31. Cortona.
32. Chiusi.
33. Florence.
34. Fielose.
35. Volterra.
36. Bolsena.
37. This was inferred from the identification of the name with Homer’s Circe.
38. 314 B.C.
39. I.e. Vespasian and Titus, who was saluted Emperor after the siege of Jerusalem, and was associated with his father in the government, and shared the duties of the censorship.
40. A.D. 73.
41. Chapels of the Lares Compitales stood at places where two or more streets crossed.
42. These were double gates.
43. The reference is to Tibur, Aricia and other places absorbed in the spreading suburbs.
44. I.e. to share in sacrifices.
45. An old town between Pompei and Sorrento.
46. 89 B.C.
47. The modern Reggio, see § 86 note.
48. Now the Arconte.
49. Perhaps Punta del Pezzo.
50. Capo di Faro.
51. See § 5 fin.
52. Πίτυες
53. Iviza; the modern name of the smaller island is Formentera.
54. Their slingers served as mercenaries under the Carthaginians, and later for Rome.
55. The Iles d’Hyères.
56. Sainte Marguerite de Lérins.
57. Saint Honorat de Lérins.
58. The distance is really about 90 miles.
59. In Etruria, now Torre di Vada.
60. Now Ventotiene.
61. Il. II. 783, where however the more probable reading is εἰν Ἀρίμοις—Arima is said to be a volcanic region in Cilicia or elsewhere. Virgil like Pliny, read Εἰναρίμοις, as he calls the island Inarime, Aen. IX. 716; it is the modern Ischia.
62. πίθηκοι
63. πίθος, πιθάκνη, a jar.
64. Now Castel del Ovo.
65. Perhaps Isola Rossa.
66. The Straits of Bonifacio, Fretum Gallium.
67. One of the islands now has the name of Torricella.
68. Now Reggio; to the Greek ear it suggests ‘Breach’ as if from ῥήγνυμ.
69. § 73.
70. Now Capo di Passaro.
71. Now Cape Bon, really only 78 miles from the Capo di Boco Marsala in Sicily.
72. Now Girgenti.
73. ‘Hot Springs,’ now Termini.
74. Now San Juliano.
75. The identification is uncertain, but Tauromenium was sad to be a colony from Naxos.
76. Its modern name is Volcano.
77. Capo delle Colonne.
78. I.e. sacred to Castor and Pollux.
79. Now the Mountains of Khimarra, ending in Capo Linguetta.
80. This is less than half the actual distance across the Adriatic, and Pliny seems to include the Gulf of Tarentum with the Adriatic in the secundus Europae sinus.
81. Sybaris.
82. Capo di S. Maria di Lucca.
83. In Illyria.
84. Straits of Otranto.
85. A bastard formation from παῖς.
86. Apinae Tricaeque, ‘Châteux en Espagne.’ Martial 14.17; tricae ‘trifles’ or ‘tricks,’ is probably a word of different origin.
87. The accusative of the Greek Μαλόεις when Latinized suggested to the Roman ear ‘ill come.’
88. By Hannibal, 216 B.C.
89. Forenza.
90. Ginosa; and among the following are the modern Noja, Savigliano, Rapolla, Bovino and Bitonto; others are now Ostuni, Veste, San Verato.
91. Now the Pescara.
92. Now Pelino.
93. I.e. ‘Sabini’ from σέβας.
94. 299 B.C.
95. In time of danger the produce of the next spring was vowed to the gods; the children then born in early times perhaps were sacrificed, but later were allowed to grow up and then driven across the frontier to settle wherever Providence might lead them.
96. From ὄμβρος, a storm of rain.
97. 171–167 B.C..
98. Probably the Pisatello.
99. A Gallic tribe who settled South of the Alps, and were conquered by Scipio Nasica in 191 B.C. They migrated to Bohemia, which takes its name from them.
100. 390 B.C.: their city Agedincum is now Sens.
101. Phaethon when driving the chariot of his father the Sun lost control of the horses, and was struck down by Jupiter to prevent his setting the earth on fire; Ovid, Met. II. 47 ff. makes him fall into the Padus.
102. Now Monte di Po.
103. Now the Little and Great St. Bernard passes: the name of the former survives in the ‘Graian Alps.’
104. Now Pavia.
105. I.e. ‘Orumbivii’ is understood to come from ὄρος and βίος.
106. In 396 B.C.
107. The inhabitants in the 5th c. A.D., to escape from Attila and the Huns, fled to the adjoining islands, and founded Venice.
108. Perhaps the Risano.
109. In the time of Augustus, before Istria was added to Italy.
110. Ship’s Harbour (doubtless suggesting also the portage). Emona on its banks later became a Roman colony, Julia Augusta, and is the modern Laibach, which is also the name of the river.
111. Now the Golfo di Quarnaro.
112. C. Sempronius, consul 129 B.C.
113. I.e. 250 miles; the MSS. give 1000 stades, i.e. 125 Roman miles. The Roman mile was a little shorter than the English.
114. Perhaps Capo d’Istria.
115. Believed to be Castel Nuovo.
116. The town of Flagogna.
117. Friuli.
118. Nadin.
119. Quero.
120. Treviso.
121. The stade or furlong was ⅛ of a Roman mile. But it looks as if the text were wrong, as what follows seems to show that 100 miles should be the higher figure, and the estimate of 3000 stades attributed to Livy is improbably large.
122. The name survives in Val Trompia.
123. Presumably they accepted membership of the Roman empire for a pecuniary consideration.
124. Val Camonica.
125. Val Leventina.
126. Val d’Aosta.
127. ‘Lipontinus,’ from λείπω.
128. The Little St. Bernard, under Mont Blanc; see p. 90, note b.
129. From εὐγένειοι or εὐγενεῖς.
130. In Canton Valais and Vaud.
131. Centron in Savoy.
132. Near Mont Cenis.
133. An arch with a portion of this inscription remaining stood in fairly recent times near Nicaea in Albania.
134. Adopted son of his great-uncle Julius Caesar.
135. 17 B.C.
136. Some of these are identifiable in the modern place-names: Venostes, Val Venosco; Isarchi, Val de Sarcho; Breuni, Val Bregna; Genaunes, Val d’Agno; Focunates, Vogogna; Licates, Augsburg on the Lech; Brixentes, Brixen; Seduni, Sion; Medulli, Maurienne; Ucenni, Bourg d’Oysans; Caturiges, Chorges; Brigiani, Briançon; Nemaloni, Miolans; Eguituri, Guillaumes; Velauni, Bueil.
137. 225 B.C. Regulus fell in action.
138. Sinus Flanaticus, see § 129 note.
139. Capo di San Nicolo.
140. Now Almissa.
141. Now Mucarisca.
142. Now Ragusa Vecchia.
143. Capo Rodoni.
144. Now Durazzo.
145. The Voioussa
146. Now Pollina.
147. In § 97.
148. Promontorium Iapygium.
149. Perhaps the Neusiedler See near Vienna.
150. Despoto Dagh in the Balkan chain.
151. The Great Balkan.
152. I.e. the sea south of the Straits of Otranto, between the south of Italy and Greece.
153. South of the toe of Italy and east of Sicily.
154. Noww Tremiti.
155. Now Caprara.
156. Bagni di Monte Falcone.
157. Now Curzola or Karkas; the Greek name ‘Black Corcyra’ is due to its pine forests.
158. More usually derived from the better-known Melite, Malta.
159. So called from their combined outlines, Giupan forming the head, Ruda the neck, Mezzo the body, Calemotta the haunches and Grebini or Petini the tail.
160. The MSS. give ‘two.’