Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  Romulus left the city of Rome, if we are to believe those who state the very greatest number, having three gates and no more. When the Vespasians were emperors and censors, in the year from its building 826, the circumference of the walls which surrounded it was thirteen miles and two-fifths. Surrounding as it does the Seven Hills, the city is divided into fourteen districts, with 265 cross-roads under the guardianship of the Lares. If a straight line is drawn from the mile-column placed at the entrance of the Forum, to each of the gates, which are at present thirty-seven in number (taking care to count only once the twelve double gates, and to omit the seven old ones, which no longer exist), the result will be [taking them altogether], a straight line of twenty miles and 765 paces. But if we draw a straight line from the same mile-column to the very last of the houses, including therein the Prætorian encampment, and follow throughout the line of all the streets, the result will then be something more than seventy miles. Add to these calculations the height of the houses, and then a person may form a fair idea of this city, and will certainly be obliged to admit that there is not a place throughout the whole world that for size can be compared to it. On the eastern side it is bounded by the agger of Tarquinius Superbus, a work of surpassing grandeur; for he raised it so high as to be on a level with the walls on the side on which the city lay most exposed to attack from the neighbouring plains. On all the other sides it has been fortified either with lofty walls or steep and precipitous hills, but so it is, that its buildings, increasing and extending beyond all bounds, have now united many other cities to it.

  Besides those previously mentioned, there were formerly in the first region the following famous towns of Latium: Satricum, Pometia, Scaptia, Politorium, Tellene, Tifata, Cænina, Ficana, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullum, Corniculum, Saturnia, on the site of the present city of Rome, Antipolis, now Janiculum, forming part of Rome, Antemnæ, Carnerium, Collatia, Amitinum, Norbe, Sulmo, and, with these, those Alban nations who used to take part in the sacrifices upon the Alban Mount, the Albani, the Æsulani, the Accienses, the Abolani, the Bube- tani, the Bolani, the Cusuetani, the Coriolani, the Fidenates, the Foretii, the Hortenses, the Latinienses, the Longulani, the Manates, the Macrales, the Mutucumenses, the Munienses, the Numinienses, the Olliculani, the Octulani, the Pedani, the Polluscini, the Querquetulani, the Sicani, the Sisolenses, the Tolerienses, the Tutienses, the Vimitellarii, the Velienses, the Venetulani, and the Vitellenses. Thus we see, fifty-three peoples of ancient Latium have passed away without leaving any traces of their existence.

  In the Campanian territory there was also the town of Stabiæ, until the consulship of Cneius Pompeius and L. Cato, when, on the day before the calends of May [30th of April], it was destroyed in the Social War by L. Sulla the legatus, and all that now stands on its site is a single farmhouse. Here also Taurania has ceased to exist, and the remains of Casilinum are fast going to ruin. Besides these, we learn from Antias that king L. Tarquinius took Apiolæ, a town of the Latins, and with its spoils laid the first foundations of the Capitol. From Surrentum to the river Silarus, the former territory of Picentia extends for a distance of thirty miles. This belonged to the Etruscans, and was remarkable for the temple of the Argive Juno, founded by Jason. In it was Picentia, a town of the territory of Salernum.

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  CHAP. 10.

  THE THIRD REGION OF ITALY.

  At the Silarus begins the third region of Italy, consisting of the territory of Lucania and Bruttium; here too there have been no few changes of the population. These districts have been possessed by the Pelasgi, the Œnotrii, the Itali, the Morgetes, the Siculi, and more especially by people who emigrated from Greece, and, last of all, by the Leucani, a people sprung from the Samnites, who took possession under the command of Lucius. We find here the town of Pæstum, which received from the Greeks the name of Posidonia, the Gulf of Pæstum, the town of Elea, now known as Velia, and the Promontory of Palinurum, a point at which the land falls inwards and forms a bay, the distance across which to the pillar of Rhegium is 100 miles. Next after Palinurum comes the river Melpes, then the town of Buxentum, called in [Magna] Græcia Pyxus, and the river Laus; there was formerly a town also of the same name.

  At this spot begins the coast of Bruttium, and we come to the town of Blanda, the river Batum, Parthenius, a port of the Phocians, the bay of Vibo, the place where Clampetia formerly stood, the town of Temsa, called Temese by the Greeks, and Terina founded by the people of Crotona, with the extensive Gulf of Terina; more inland, the town of Consentia. Situate upon a peninsula is the river Acheron, from which the people of Acherontia derive the name of their town; then Hippo, now called Vibo Valentia, the Port of Hercules, the river Metaurus, the town of Tauroentum, the Port of Orestes, and Medma. Next, the town of Scyllæum, the river Cratæis, the mother of Scylla it is said; then the Pillar of Rhegium, the Straits of Sicily, and the two promontories which face each other, Cænys on the Italian, and Pelorus on the Sicilian side, the distance between them being twelve stadia. At a distance thence of twelve miles and a half, we come to Rhegium, after which begins Sila, a forest of the Apennines, and then the pro- montory of Leucopetra, at a distance of fifteen miles; after which come the Locri, who take their surname from the promontory of Zephyrium, being distant from the river Silarus 303 miles.

  At this spot ends the first great Gulf of Europe; the seas in which bear the following names: — That from which it takes its rise is called the Atlantic, by some the Great Atlantic, the entrance of which is, by the Greeks, called Porthmos, by us the Straits of Gades. After its entrance, as far as it washes the coasts of Spain, it is called the Hispanian Sea, though some give it the name of the Iberian or Balearic Sea. Where it faces the province of Gallia Narbonensis it has the name of the Gallic, and after that, of the Ligurian, Sea. From Liguria to the island of Sicily, it is called the Tuscan Sea, the same which is called by some of the Greeks the Notian, by others the Tyrrhenian, while many of our people call it the Lower Sea. Beyond Sicily, as far as the country of the Salentini, it is styled by Polybius the Ausonian Sea. Eratosthenes however gives to the whole expanse that lies between the inlet of the ocean and the island of Sardinia, the name of the Sardoan Sea; thence to Sicily, the Tyrrhenian; thence to Crete, the Sicilian; and beyond that island, the Cretan Sea.

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  CHAP. 11.

  SIXTY-FOUR ISLANDS, AMONG WHICH ARE THE BALEARES.

  The first islands that we meet with in all these seas are the two to which the Greeks have given the name of Pityussæ, from the pine-tree, which they produce. These islands now bear the name of Ebusus, and form a federate state. They are separated by a narrow strait of the sea, and are forty-six miles in extent. They are distant from Dianium 700 stadia, Dianium being by land the same distance from New Carthage. At the same distance from the Pityussæ, lie, in the open sea, the two Baleares, and, over against the river Sucro, Colubraria. The Baleares, so formidable in war with their slingers, have received from the Greeks the name of Gymnasiæ.

  The larger island is 100 miles in length, and 475 in circumference. It has the following towns; Palma and Pollentia, enjoying the rights of Roman citizens, Cinium and Tucis, with Latin rights: Bocchorum, a federate town, is no longer in existence. At thirty miles’ distance is the smaller island, 40 miles in length, and 150 in circumference; it contains the states of Jamnon, Sanisera, and Magon.

  In the open sea, at twelve miles’ distance from the larger island, is Capraria with its treacherous coast, so notorious for its numerous shipwrecks; and, opposite to the city of Palma, are the islands known as the Mænariæ, Tiquadra, and Little Hannibalis.

  The earth of Ebusus has the effect of driving away serpents, while that of Colubraria produces them; hence the latter spot is dangerous to all persons who have not brought with them some of the earth of Ebusus. The Greeks have given it the name of Ophiusa. Ebusus too produces no rabbits to destroy the harvests of the Baleares. There are also about twenty other small islands
in this sea, which is full of shoals. Off the coast of Gaul, at the mouth of the Rhodanus, there is Metina, and near it the island which is known as Blascon, with the three Stœchades, so called by their neighbours the Massilians, on account of the regular order in which they are placed; their respective names are Prote, Mese, also called Pomponiana, and Hypæa. After these come Sturium, Phœnice, Phila, Lero, and, opposite to Antipolis, Lerina, where there is a remembrance of a town called Vergoanum having once existed.

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  CHAP. 12. (6.)

  CORSICA.

  In the Ligurian Sea, but close to the Tuscan, is Corsica, by the Greeks called Cyrnos, extending, from north to south 150 miles, and for the most part 50 miles in breadth, its circumference being 325. It is 62 miles distant from the Vada Volaterrana. It contains thirty-two states, and two colonies, that of Mariana, founded by C. Marius, and that of Aleria, founded by the Dictator Sylla. On this side of it is Oglasa, and, at a distance of less than sixty miles from Corsica, Planaria, so called from its appearance, being nearly level with the sea, and consequently treacherous to mariners.

  We next have Urgo, a larger island, and Capraria, which the Greeks have called Ægilion; then Igilium and Dianium, which they have also called Artemisia, both of them opposite the coast of Cosa; also Barpana, Mænaria, Co- lumbaria, and Venaria. We then come to Ilva with its iron mines, an island 100 miles in circumference, 10 miles distant from Populonium, and called Æthalia by the Greeks: from it the island of Planasia is distant 28 miles. After these, beyond the mouths of the Tiber, and off the coast of Antium, we come to Astura, then Palmaria and Sinonia, and, opposite to Formiæ, Pontiæ. In the Gulf of Puteoli are Pandateria, and Prochyta, so called, not from the nurse of Æneas, but because it has been poured forth or detached from Ænaria, an island which received its name from having been the anchorage of the fleet of Æneas, though called by Homer Inarime; it is also called Pithecusa, not, as many have fancied, on account of the multitudes of apes found there, but from its extensive manufactories of pottery. Between Pausilipum and Neapolis lies the island of Megaris, and then, at a distance of eight miles from Surrentum, Capreæ, famous for the castle of the emperor Tiberius: it is eleven miles in circumference.

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  CHAP. 13.

  SARDINIA.

  Leucothea comes next, and after it, but out of sight, as it lies upon the verge of the African Sea, Sardinia. It is situate somewhat less than eight miles from the nearest point of Corsica, and the Straits between them are even still more reduced by the small islands there situate, called the Cuniculariæ, as also those of Phintonis and Fossæ, from which last the Straits themselves have obtained the name of Taphros.

  (7.) Sardinia extends, upon the east side, a distance of 188 miles, on the west 175, on the south 77, and on the north 125, being 565 miles in circumference. Its promontory of Caralis is distant from Africa 200, and from Gades 1400 miles. Off the promontory of Gordis it has two islands called the Isles of Hercules, off that of Sulcis, the island of Enosis, and off that of Caralis, Ficaria. Some writers place Beleris not far from it, as also Callodis, and the island known as Heras Lutra.

  The most celebrated peoples of this island are the Ilienses, the Balari, and the Corsi; and among its eighteen towns, there are those of the Sulcitani, the Valentini, the Neapoli- tani, the Bosenses, the Caralitani, who enjoy the rights of Roman citizens, and the Norenses. There is also one colony which is called Ad Turrim Libysonis. Timæus has called this island Sandaliotis, on account of the similarity of its shape to the sole of a shoe, while Myrtilus has given it the name of Ichnusa, from its resemblance to the print of a footstep. Opposite to the Gulf of Pæstum is Leucasia, so called from a Siren who is buried there; opposite to Velia are Poiitia and Isacia, both known by one name, that of Œnotrides, a proof that Italy was formerly possessed by the Œnotrians. Opposite to Vibo are the little islands called Ithacesiæ from the watch-tower of Ulysses situate there.

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  CHAP. 14. (8.)

  SICILY.

  But more celebrated than all is Sicily, called Sicania by Thucydides, and by many writers Trinacria or Trinacia, from its triangular appearance. According to Agrippa it is 618 miles in circumference. In former times it was a continuation of the territory of Bruttium, but, in consequence of the overflowing of the sea, became severed from it; thus forming a strait of 15 miles in length, and a mile and a half in width in the vicinity of the Pillar of Rhegium. It was from this circumstance of the land being severed asunder that the Greeks gave the name of Rhegium to the town situate on the Italian shore.

  In these Straits is the rock of Scylla, as also Charybdis, a whirlpool of the sea, both of them noted for their perils. Of this triangle, the promontory, which, as we have already mentioned, is called Pelorus, faces Scylla and juts out towards Italy, while Pachynum extends in the direction of Greece, Peloponnesus being at a distance from it of 440 miles, and Lilybæum, towards Africa, being distant 180 miles from the promontory of Mercury, and from that of Caralis in Sardinia 190. These promontories and sides are situate at the following distances from each other: by land it is 186 miles from Pelorus to Pachynum, from Pachynum to Lilybæum 200, and from Lilybæum to Pelorus 170.

  In this island there are five colonies and sixty-three cities or states. Leaving Pelorus and facing the Ionian Sea, we have the town of Messana, whose inhabitants are also called Mamertini and enjoy the rights of Roman citizens; the promontory of Drepanum, the colony of Tauromenium, formerly called Naxos, the river Asines, and Mount Ætna, wondrous for the flames which it emits by night. Its crater is twenty stadia in circumference, and from it red-hot cinders are thrown as far as Tauromenium and Catina, the noise being heard even at Maroneum and the Gemellian Hills. We then come to the three rocks of the Cyclopes, the Port of Ulysses, the colony of Catina, and the rivers Symæthus and Terias; while more inland lie the Læstrygonian Plains.

  To these rivers succeed the towns of Leontinum and Megaris, the river Pantagies, the colony of Syracuse, with the fountain of Arethusa, (the people in the Syracusan ter- ritory drink too of the fountains of Temenitis, Archidemia, Magæa, Cyane, and Milichie,) the port of Naustathmus, the river Elorus, and the promontory of Pachynum. This side of Sicily begins with the river Hirminius, then follow the town of Camarina, the river Gelas, and the town of Agragas, which our people have named Agrigentum. We next come to the colony of Thermæ, the rivers Achates, Mazara, and Hypsa; the town of Selinus, and then the Promontory of Lilybæum, which is succeeded by Drepana, Mount Eryx, the towns of Panhormus, Solus and Himera, with a river of the same name, Cephalœdis, Aluntium, Agathyrnum, the colony of Tyndaris, the town of Mylæ, and then Pelorus, the spot at which we began.

  In the interior there are the following towns enjoying Latin privileges, those of the Centuripini, the Netini, and the Segestani; tributary towns are those of the Assorini, the Ætnenses, the Agyrini, the Acestæi, the Acrenses, the Bidini, the Cetarini, the Cacyrini, the Drepanitani, the Ergetini, the Echetlienses, the Erycini, the Entellini, the Enini, the Enguini, the Gelani, the Gala- tini, the Halesini, the Hennenses, the Hyblenses, the Herbitenses, the Herbessenses, the Herbulenses, the Halicyenses, the Hadranitani, the Imacarenses, the Ipanenses, the Ietenses, the Mytistratini, the Magellini, the Murgentini, the Mutycenses, the Menanini, the Naxii, the Noæi, the Petrini, the Paropini, the Phthinthienses, the Semellitani, the Scherini, the Selinuntii, the Symæthii, the Talarienses, the Tissinenses, the Triocalini, the Tyraci- nenses, and the Zanclæi, a Messenian colony on the Straits of Sicily. Towards Africa, its islands are Gaulos, Melita, 87 miles from Camerina, and 113 from Lilybæum, Cosyra, Hieronnesos, Cæne, Galata, Lopadusa, Æthusa, written by some Ægusa, Bucinna, Osteodes, distant from Soluntum 75 miles, and, opposite to Paropus, Ustica.

  On this side of Sicily, facing the river Metaurus, at a di- stance of nearly 25 miles from Italy, are the seven islands called the Æolian, as also the Liparæan islands; by the Greeks they are called the
Hephæstiades, and by our writers the Vulcanian Isles; they are called “Æolian” because in the Trojan times Æolus was king there.

  (9.) Lipara, with a town whose inhabitants enjoy the rights of Roman citizens, is so called from Liparus, a former king who succeeded Æolus, it having been previously called Melogonis or Meligunis. It is 25 miles distant from Italy, and in circumference a little less. Between this island and Sicily we find another, the name of which was formerly Therasia, but now called Hiera, because it is sacred to Vulcan: it contains a hill which at night vomits forth flames. The third island is Strongyle, lying one mile to the east of Lipara, over which Æolus reigned as well; it differs only from Lipara in the superior brilliancy of its flames. From the smoke of this volcano it is said that some of the inhabitants are able to predict three days beforehand what winds are about to blow; hence arose the notion that the winds are governed by Æolus. The fourth of these islands is Didyme, smaller than Lipara, the fifth Ericusa, the sixth Phœnicusa, left to be a pasture-ground for the cattle of the neighbouring islands, and the last and smallest Euonymos. Thus much as to the first great Gulf of Europe.

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  CHAP. 15. (10.)

  MAGNA GRÆCIA, BEGINNING AT LOCRI.

  At Locri begins the fore-part of Italy, called Magna Græcia, whose coast falls back in three bays formed by the Ausonian sea, so called from the Ausones, who were the first inhabitants of the country. According to Varro it is 86 miles in extent; but most writers have made it only 75. Along this coast there are rivers innumerable, but we shall mention those only that are worthy of remark. After leaving Locri we come to the Sagra, and the ruins of the town of Caulon, Mystiæ, Consilinum Castrum, Cocinthum, in the opinion of some, the longest headland of Italy, and then the Gulf of Scylacium, and Scylacium itself, which was called by the Athenians, when they founded it, Scylletium. This part of Italy is nearly a peninsula, in consequence of the Gulf of Terinæum running up into it on the other side; in it there is a harbour called Castra Hannibalis: in no part is Italy narrower than here, it being but twenty miles across. For this reason the Elder Dionysius entertained the idea of severing this portion from the main-land of Italy at this spot, and adding it to Sicily. The navigable rivers in this district are the Carcines, the Crotalus, the Semirus, the Arocas, and the Targines. In the interior is the town of Petilia, and there are besides, Mount Clibanus, the promontory of Lacinium, in front of which lies the island of Dioscoron, ten miles from the main-land, and another called the Isle of Calypso, which Homer is supposed to refer to under the name of Ogygia; as also the islands of Tiris, Eranusa, and Meloessa. According to Agrippa, the promontory of Lacinium is seventy miles from Caulon.