§ 1.1.1  PREFACE IN THE FORM OF A LETTER: PLINIUS SECUNDUS TO HIS DEAR VESPASIAN, GREETING MOST Gracious Highness (let this title, a supremely true one, be yours, while that of 'Most Eminent' grows to old age with your sire) — I have resolved to recount to you, in a somewhat presumptuous letter, The offspring of my latest travail, my volumes of Natural History (a novel task for the native Muses of your Roman citizens) — For 'twas e'er your way, To deem my trifles something worth — to give a passing touch of polish to my "opposite number" — you recognize even this service slang — Catullus (for he, as you know, by interchanging the first syllables made himself a trifle harsher than he wished to be considered by his 'darling Veraniuses and Fabulluses') and at the same time that my present sauciness may effect what in the case of another impudent letter of mine lately you complained of as not coming off — that it may result in something getting done, and everyone may know on what equal terms the empire lives with you — you with a triumph to your name and censorial rank, six times consul, colleague in tribune's authority, and (a service that you have made more illustrious than these in rendering it equally to your father and to the equestrian order) commander of his bodyguard; and all this in your public life — and then what a good comrade to us in the companionship of the camp! Nor has fortune's grandeur made any change in you save in enabling you to bestow all the benefit you desire. Consequently as all those methods of paying you reverence are open to everybody else, to me is left only the presumption of treating you with more intimate respect. For that presumption therefore you will debit the responsibility to yourself, and will grant yourself pardon on the score of my offence. I have tried to put on a bold face, and yet have not succeeded, as your grandeur meets me by another route and the rods of office that your genius bears make me move on yet further: in no other person ever radiate more genuinely the dictatorial power of oratory and the tribunician authority of wit! How eloquently you thunder forth your father's praises and your brother's fame! How great you are in the poet's art! O mighty fertility of genius — you have contrived a way to imitate your brother also.

§ 1.2.1  But who could judge the value of these compositions with confidence when about to submit to the verdict of your talent, especially when that verdict has been invited? for formal dedication of the work to you puts one in a different position from mere publication. In the latter case I could have said: 'Why does your Highness read that? It was written for the common herd, the mob of farmers and of artisans, and after them for students who have nothing else to occupy their time: why do you put yourself on the jury? You were not on this panel when I took the contract for this undertaking: I knew you to be too great for me to think you likely to descend to this! Moreover even in the court of learning there is an official procedure for challenging the jury: it is employed even by Marcus Cicero, who where genius is in question stands outside all hazard... It may surprise us, but Cicero calls in the aid of council — nor yet for the very learned; Manius Persius I don't want to read this, I want Junius Congus.

§ 1.3.1  But if Lucilius, the originator of critical sniffing, thought fit to say this, and Cicero to quote it, especially when writing his Theory of the Constitution, how much more reason have we to stand on the defensive against a particular juryman? But for my part at the present I have deprived myself of these defences by my nomination, as it matters a great deal whether one obtains a judge by lot or by one's own selection, and one's style of entertainment ranks quite differently with a guest one has invited and one who has offered himself. The candidates in a hotly contested election deposited sums of money with Cato, that resolute foe of corruption, who enjoyed a defeat at the polls as an honour obtained free of charge; and they gave out that they did this in the defence of the highest among human possessions, their innocence. This was the occasion of that famous sigh of Cicero — 'O happy Marcus Porcius whom no one dares to ask for something underhand!' Lucius Scipio Asiaticus by appealing to the tribunes, one of them being Gracchus, testified that his case could be made good even to an unfriendly judge: in fact a judge whom one chooses oneself one makes the supreme arbiter of one's case — this is the source of the term 'appeal.' You yourself indeed, I know, being placed on the loftiest pinnacle of all mankind, and being endowed with supreme eloquence and learning, are approached with reverential awe even by persons paying a visit of ceremony, and consequently care is taken that what is dedicated to you may be worthy of you. However, country folk, and many natives, not having incense, make offerings of milk and salted meal, and no man was ever charged with irregularity for worshipping the gods in whatever manner was within his power.

§ 1.4.1  My own presumption has indeed gone further, in dedicating to you the present volumes — a work of a lighter nature, as it does not admit of talent, of which in any case I possessed only quite a moderate amount, nor does it allow of digressions, nor of speeches or dialogues, nor marvellous accidents or unusual occurrences — matters interesting to relate or entertaining to read. My subject is a barren one — the world of nature, or in other words life; and that subject in its least elevated department, and employing either rustic terms or foreign, nay barbarian, words that actually have to be introduced with an apology. Moreover, the path is not a beaten highway of authorship, nor one in which the mind is eager to range: there is not one person to be found among us who has made the same venture, nor yet one among the Greeks who has tackled single-handed all departments of the subject. A large part of us seek agreeable fields of study, while topics of immeasurable abstruseness treated by others are drowned in the shadowy darkness of the theme. Deserving of treatment before all things are the subjects included by the Greeks under the name of 'Encyclic Culture'; and nevertheless they are unknown, or have been obscured by subtleties, whereas other subjects have been published so widely that they have become stale. It is a difficult task to give novelty to what is old, authority to what is new, brilliance to the commonplace, light to the obscure, attraction to the stale, credibility to the doubtful, but nature to all things and all her properties to nature. Accordingly, even if we have not succeeded, it is honourable and glorious in the fullest measure to have resolved on the attempt.

§ 1.5.1  For my own part I am of opinion that a special in learning belongs to those who have preferred service of overcoming difficulties to the of giving pleasure; and I have myself done this in other works also, and I declare that I admire the famous writer Livy when he begins a volume of his History of Rome from the Foundation of the City with the words 'I have already achieved enough of fame, and I might have retired to leisure, did not my restless mind find its sustenance in work.' For assuredly he ought to have composed his history for the glory of the world-conquering nation and of the Roman name, not for his own; it would have been a greater merit to have persevered from love of the work, not for the sake of his own peace of mind, and to have rendered this service to the Roman nation and not to himself. As Domitus Piso says, it is not books but storehouses that are needed; consequently by perusing about 2000 volumes, very few of which, owing to the abstruseness of their contents, are ever handled by students, we have collected in 36 volumes 20,000 noteworthy facts obtained from one hundred authors that we have explored, with a great number of other facts in addition that were either ignored by our predecessors or have been discovered by subsequent experience. Nor do we doubt that there are many things that have escaped us also; for we are but human, and beset with duties, and we pursue this sort of interest in our spare moments, that is at night — lest any of your house should think that the night hours have been given to idleness. The days we devote to you, and we keep our account with sleep in terms of health, content even with this reward alone, that, while we are dallying (in Varro's phrase) with these trifles, we are adding hours to our life — since of a certainty to be alive means to be awake. Because of these reasons and these difficulties I dare make no promise; the very words I am writing to you are supplied by yourself. This guarantees my work, and this rates its value; many objects are deemed extremely precious just because of the fact that they are votive offerings.

§ 1.6.1  As for your sire, your brother and yourself, we have dealt with you all in a regular book, the History of our own Times, that begins where Aufidius's history leaves off. Where is this work? you will enquire. The draft has long been finished and in safe keeping; and in any case it was my resolve to entrust it to my heir, to prevent its being thought that my lifetime bestowed anything on ambition: accordingly I do a good turn to those who seize the vacant position, and indeed also to future generations, who I know will challenge us to battle as we ourselves have challenged our predecessors. You will deem it a proof of this pride of mine that I have prefaced these volumes with the names of my authorities. I have done so because it is, in my opinion, a pleasant thing and one that shows an honourable modesty, to own up to those who were the means of one's achievements, not to do as most of the authors to whom I have referred did. For you must know that when collating authorities I have found that the most professedly reliable and modern writers have copied the old authors word for word, without acknowledgement, not in that valorous spirit of Virgil, for the purpose of rivalry, nor with the candour of Cicero who in his Republic declares himself a companion of Plato, and in his Consolation to his daughter says 'I follow Crantor,' and similarly as to Panaetius in his De Officiis — volumes that you know to be worth having in one's hands every day, nay even learning by heart. Surely it marks a mean spirit and an unfortunate disposition to prefer being detected in a theft to repaying a loan — especially as interest creates capital.

§ 1.7.1  There is a marvellous neatness in the titles given to books among the Greeks. One they entitled Κηρίον, meaning Honeycomb; others called their Kέρας Αμαλθείας, i.e. Horn of Plenty (so that you can hope to find a draught of hen's milk in the volume), and again Violets, Muses, Hold-alls, Handbooks, Meadow, Tablet, Impromptu titles that might tempt a man to forfeit his bail. But when you get inside them, good heavens, what a void you will find between the covers! Our authors being more serious use the titles Antiquities, Instances and Systems, the wittiest, Talks by Lamplight, I suppose because the author was a toper — indeed Tippler was his name. Varro makes a rather smaller claim in his Satires A Ulysses-and-a-half and Folding-tablet. Diodorus among the Greeks stopped playing with words and gave his history the title of Library. Indeed the philologist Apion (the person whom Tiberius Caesar used to call 'the world's cymbal,' though he might rather have been thought to be a drum, advertising his own renown) wrote that persons to whom he dedicated his compositions received from him the gift of immortality. For myself, I am not ashamed of not having invented any livelier title. And so as not to seem a downright adversary of the Greeks, I should like to be accepted on the lines of those founders of painting and sculpture who, as you will find in these volumes, used to inscribe their finished works, even the masterpieces which we can never be tired of admiring, with a provisional title such as Worked on by Apelles or Polyclitus, as though art was always a thing in process and not completed, so that when faced by the vagaries of criticism the artist might have left him a line of retreat to indulgence, by implying that he intended, if not interrupted, to correct any defect noted. Hence it is exceedingly modest of them to have inscribed all their works in a manner suggesting that they were their latest, and as though they had been snatched away from each of them by fate. Not more than three, I fancy, are recorded as having an inscription denoting completion — Made by so-and-so (these I will bring in at their proper places); this made the artist appear to have assumed a supreme confidence in his art, and consequently all these works were very unpopular.

§ 1.8.1  For my own part I frankly confess that my works would admit of a great deal of amplification, and not only those now in question but also all my publications, so that in passing I may insure myself against your 'Scourges of Homer' (that would be the more correct term), as I am informed that both the Stoics and the Academy, and also the Epicureans, — as for the philologists, I always expected it from them — are in travail with a reply to my publications on Philology, and for the last ten years have been having a series of miscarriages — for not even elephants take so long to bring their offspring to birth! But as if I didn't know that Theophrastus, a mortal whose eminence as an orator won him the title of 'the divine,' actually had a book written against him by a woman — which was the origin of the proverb about 'choosing your tree to hang from'! I am unable to refrain from quoting the actual words of Cato the Censor applying to this, to show that even the treatise on military discipline of Cato, who had learnt his soldiering under Africanus, or rather under him and Hannibal as well, and had been unable to endure even Africanus, who when commander-in-chief had won a triumph, found critics ready for it of the sort that try to get glory for themselves by running down another man's knowledge. 'What then?' he says in the book in question, 'I myself know that if certain writings are published there will be plenty of people to quibble and quarrel, but mostly people quite devoid of true distinction. For my part I have let these persons' eloquence run its course.' Plancus also put it neatly, when told that Asinius Pollio was composing declamations against him, to be published by himself or his children after Plancus's death, so that he might be unable to reply: 'Only phantoms fight with the dead!' This remark dealt those declamations such a nasty blow that in cultivated circles they are thought the most shameless things extant. Accordingly, being safeguarded even against quibble-quarrellers (Cato's nickname for them — a neat compound word, for what else do these people do but quarrel or seek a quarrel?) we will follow out the remainder of our intended plan. As it was my duty in the public interest to have consideration for the claims upon your time, I have appended to this letter a table of contents of the several books, and have taken very careful precautions to prevent your having to read them. You by these means will secure for others that they will not need to read right through them either, but only look for the particular point that each of them wants, and will know where to find it. This plan has been adopted previously in Roman literature, by Valerius Soranus in his books entitled Lady Initiates.

§ 2.1.1  THE world and this — whatever other name men have chosen to designate the sky whose vaulted roof encircles the universe, is fitly believed to be a deity, eternal, immeasurable, a being that never began to exist and never will perish. What is outside it does not concern men to explore and is not within the grasp of the human mind to guess. It is sacred, eternal, immeasurable, wholly within the whole, nay rather itself the whole, finite and resembling the infinite certain of all things and resembling the uncertain, holding in its embrace all things that are without and within, at once the work of nature and nature herself.

§ 2.1.2  That certain persons have studied, and have dared to publish, its dimensions, is mere madness; and again that others, taking or receiving occasion from the former, have taught the existence of a countless number of worlds, involving the belief in as many systems of nature, or, if a single nature embraces all the worlds, nevertheless the same number of suns, moons and other immeasurable and innumerable heavenly bodies, as already in a single world; just as if owing to our craving for some End the same problem would not always encounter us at the termination of this process of thought, or as if, assuming it possible to attribute this infinity of nature to the artificer of the universe, that same property would not he easier to understand in a single world, especially one that is so vast a structure. It is madness, downright madness, to go out of that world, and to investigate what lies outside it just as if the whole of what is within it were already clearly known; as though, forsooth, the measure of anything could be taken by him that knows not the measure of himself, or as if the mind of man could see things that the world itself does not contain.

§ 2.2.1  Its shape has the rounded appearance of a perfect sphere. This is shown first of all by the name of 'orb' which is bestowed upon it by the general consent of mankind. It is also shown by the evidence of the facts: not only does such a figure in all its parts converge upon itself; not only must it sustain itself, enclosing and holding itself together without the need of any fastenings, and without experiencing an end or a beginning at any part of itself; not only is that shape the one best fitted for the motion with which, as will shortly appear, it must repeatedly revolve, but our eyesight also confirms this belief, because the firmament presents the aspect of a concave hemisphere equidistant in every direction, which would be impossible in the case of any other figure.

§ 2.3.1  The world thus shaped then is not at rest but eternally revolves with indescribable velocity, each revolution occupying the space of 24 hours: the rising and setting of the sun have left this not doubtful. Whether the sound of this vast mass whirling in unceasing rotation is of enormous volume and consequently beyond the capacity of our ears to perceive, for my own part I cannot easily say — any more in fact than whether this is true of the tinkling of the stars that travel round with it, revolving in their own orbits; or whether it emits a sweet harmonious music that is beyond belief charming. To us who live within it the world glides silently alike by day and night. Stamped upon it are countless figures of animals and objects of all kinds — it is not the case, as has been stated by very famous authors, that its structure has an even surface of unbroken smoothness, like that which we observe in birds' eggs: this is proved by the evidence of the facts, since from seeds of all these objects, falling from the sky in countless numbers, particularly in the sea, and usually mixed together, monstrous shapes are generated; and also by the testimony of sight — in one place the figure of a bear, in another of a bull, in another a wain, in another a letter of the alphabet, the middle of the circle across the pole being more radiant.

§ 2.3.2  For my own part I am also influenced by the agreement of the nations. The Greeks have designated the world by a word that means 'ornament,' and we have given it the name of mundus because of its perfect finish and grace! As for our word caelum, it undoubtedly has the signification 'engraved,' as is explained by Marcus Varro. Further assistance is contributed by its orderly structure, the circle called the Zodiac being marked out into the likenesses of twelve animals; and also by the uniform regularity in so many centuries of the sun's progress through these signs.

§ 2.4.1  As regards the elements also I observe that they are accepted as being four in number: topmost the element of fire, source of yonder eyes of all those blazing stars; next the vapour which the Greeks and our own nation call by the same name, air — this is the principle of life, and penetrates all the universe and is intertwined with the whole; suspended by its force in the centre of space is poised the earth, and with it the fourth element, that of the waters. Thus the mutual embrace of the unlike results in an interlacing, the light substances being prevented by the heavy ones from flying up, while on the contrary the heavy substances are held from crashing down by the upward tendency of the light ones. In this way owing to an equal urge in opposite directions the elements remain stationary, each in its own place, bound together by the unresting revolution of the world itself; and with this always running back to its starting-point, the earth is the lowest and central object in the whole, and stays suspended at the pivot of the universe and also balancing the bodies to which its suspension is due; thus being alone motionless with the universe revolving round her she both hangs attached to them all and at the same time is that on which they all rest. Upheld by the same vapour between earth and heaven, at definite spaces apart, hang the seven stars which owing to their motion we call 'planets,' although no stars wander less than they do. In the midst of these moves the sun, whose magnitude and power are the greatest, and who is the ruler not only of the seasons and of the lands; but even of the stars themselves and of the heaven. Taking into account all that he effects, we must believe him to be the soul, or more precisely the mind, of the whole world, the supreme ruling principle and divinity of nature. He furnishes the world with light and removes darkness, he obscures and he illumines the rest of the stars, he regulates in accord with nature's precedent the changes of the seasons and the continuous rebirth of the year, he dissipates the gloom of heaven and even calms the storm-clouds of the mind of man, he lends his light to the rest of the stars also; he is glorious and pre-eminent, all-seeing and even all-hearing — this I observe that Homer the prince of literature held to be true in the case of the sun alone.

§ 2.5.1  For this reason I deem it a mark of human weakness to seek to discover the shape and form of God. Whoever God is — provided there is a God — and in whatever region he is, he consists wholly of sense, sight and hearing, wholly of soul, wholly of mind, wholly of himself. To believe in gods without number, and gods corresponding to men's vices as well as to their virtues, like the Goddesses of Modesty, Concord, Intelligence, Hope, Honour, Mercy and Faith — or else, as Democritus held, only two, Punishment and Reward, reaches an even greater height of folly. Frail, toiling mortality, remembering its own weakness, has divided such deities into groups, so as to worship in sections, each the deity he is most in need of. Consequently different races have different names for the deities, and we find countless deities in the same races, even those of the lower world being classified into groups, and diseases and also many forms of plague, in our nervous anxiety to get them placated. Because of this there is actually a Temple of Fever consecrated by the nation on the Palatine Hill, and one of Bereavement at the Temple of the Household Deities, and an Altar of Misfortune on the Esquiline. For this reason we can infer a larger population of celestials than of human beings, as individuals also make an equal number of gods on their own, by adopting their own private Junos and Genii; while certain nations have animals, even some loathsome ones, for gods, and many things still more disgraceful to tell of — swearing by rotten articles of food and other things of that sort. To believe even in marriages taking place between gods, without anybody all through the long ages of time being born as a result of them, and that some are always old and grey, others youths and boys, and gods with dusky complexions, winged, lame, born from eggs, living and dying on alternate days — this almost ranks with the mad fancies of children; but it passes all bounds of shamelessness to invent acts of adultery taking place between the gods themselves, followed by altercation and enmity, and the existence of deities of theft and of crime. For mortal to aid mortal — this is god; and this is the road to eternal glory: by this road went our Roman chieftains, by this road now proceeds with heavenward step, escorted by his children, the greatest ruler of all time, His Majesty Vespasian, coming to the succour of an exhausted world. To enrol such men among the deities is the most ancient method of paying them gratitude for their benefactions. In fact the names of the other gods, and also of the stars that I have mentioned above, originated from the services of men: at all events who would not admit that it is the interpretation of men's characters that prompts them to call each other Jupiter or Mercury or other names, and that originates the nomenclature of heaven? That that supreme being, whatever it be, pays heed to man's affairs is a ridiculous notion. Can we believe that it would not be defiled by so gloomy and so multifarious a duty? Can we doubt it? It is scarcely pertinent to determine which is more profitable for the human race, when some men pay no regard to the gods at all and the regard paid by others is of a shameful nature: they serve as the lackeys of foreign ritual, and they carry gods on their fingers; also they pass sentence of punishment upon the monsters they worship, and devise elaborate viands for them; they subject themselves to awful tyrannies, so as to find no repose even in sleep; they do not decide on marriage or having a family or indeed anything else except by the command of sacrifices; others cheat in the very Capitol and swear false oaths by Jupiter who wields the thunderbolts — and these indeed make a profit out of their crimes, whereas the others are penalized by their religious observances.

§ 2.5.2  Nevertheless mortality has rendered our guesses about God even more obscure by inventing for itself a deity intermediate between these two conceptions. Everywhere in the whole world at every hour by all men's voices Fortune alone is invoked and named, alone accused, alone impeached, alone pondered, alone applauded, alone rebuked and visited with reproaches; deemed volatile and indeed by most men blind as well, wayward, inconstant, uncertain, fickle in her favours and favouring the unworthy. To her is debited all that is spent and credited all that is received, she alone fills both pages in the whole of mortals' account; and we are so much at the mercy of chance that Chance herself, by whom God is proved uncertain, takes the place of God. Another set of people banishes fortune also, and attributes events to its star and to the laws of birth, holding that for all men that ever are to be God's decree has been enacted once for all, while for the rest of time leisure has been vouchsafed to Him. This belief begins to take root, and the learned and unlearned mob alike go marching on towards it at the double: witness the warnings drawn from lightning, the forecasts made by oracles, the prophecies of augurs, and even inconsiderable trifles — a sneeze, a stumble — counted as omens. His late Majesty put abroad a story that on the day on which he was almost overthrown by a mutiny in the army he had put his left boot on the wrong foot. This series of instances entangles unforeseeing mortality, so that among these things but one thing is in the least certain — that nothing certain exists, and that nothing is more pitiable, or more presumptuous, than man! inasmuch as with the rest of living creatures their sole anxiety is for the means of life, in which nature's bounty of itself suffices, the one blessing indeed that is actually preferable to every other being the fact that they do not think about glory, money, ambition, and above all death.

§ 2.5.3  But it agrees with life's experience to believe that in these matters the gods exercise an interest in human affairs; and that punishment for wickedness, though sometimes tardy, as God is occupied in so vast a mass of things, yet is never frustrated; and that man was not born God's next of kin for the purpose of approximating to the beasts in vileness. But the chief consolations for nature's imperfection in the case of man are that not even for God are all things possible — for he cannot, even if he wishes, commit suicide, the supreme boon that he has bestowed on man among all the penalties of life, nor bestow eternity on mortals or recall the deceased, nor cause a man that has lived not to have lived or one that has held high office not to have held it — and that he has no power over what is past save to forget it, and (to link our fellowship with God by means of frivolous arguments as well) that he cannot cause twice ten not to be twenty, or do many things on similar lines: which facts unquestionably demonstrate the power of nature, and prove that it is this that we mean by the word 'God.' It will not have been irrelevant to have diverged to these topics, which have already been widely disseminated because of the unceasing enquiry into the nature of God.

§ 2.6.1  Let us return from these questions to the remaining facts of nature. We have stated that the stars are attached to the firmament, not assigned to each of us in the way in which the vulgar believe, and dealt out to mortals with a degree of radiance proportionate to the lot of each, the brightest stars to the rich, the smaller ones to the poor, the dim to those who are worn out; they do not each rise with their own human being, nor indicate by their fall that someone's life is being extinguished. There is no such close alliance between us and the sky that the radiance of the stars there also shares our fate of mortality. When the stars are believed to fall, what happens is that owing to their being overfed with a draught of liquid they give back the surplus with a fiery flash, just as with us also we see this occur with a stream of oil when lamps are lit. But the heavenly bodies have a nature that is eternal — they interweave the world and are blended with its weft; yet their potency has a powerful influence on the earth, indeed it is owing to the effects that they produce and to their brilliance and magnitude that it has been possible for them to become known with such a degree of precision, as we shall show in the proper place. Also the system of the revolutions of the sky will be more appropriately stated when we deal with geography, since it is entirely related to the earth; only we must not postpone the discoveries that have been made as to the zodiac. Tradition says that Anaximander of Miletus in the fifty-eighth Olympiad was the first person to discover the obliquity of the zodiac, that is, to open the portals of science; and that next Cleostratus explained the signs in it, beginning with the Ram and the Archer; the firmament itself having been explained long before by Atlas.

§ 2.6.2  Let us now leave the frame of the world itself and treat the remaining bodies situated between the sky and the earth. The following points are certain: (1) The star called Saturn's is the highest and consequently looks the smallest and revolves in the largest orbit, returning in thirty years at the shortest to its initial station. (2) The motions of all the planets, and among them the sun and moon, follow a course contrary to that of the world, namely to the left, the world always running to the right. (3) Although they are borne on by it and carried westward with an unceasing revolution of immeasurable velocity, nevertheless they travel with an opposite motion along their respective tracks. (4) Thus it comes about that the air is not massed in a dull lethargic ball by revolving in the same direction because of the eternal rotation of the world, but is scattered into separate portions by the opposite impact of the stars. (5) Saturn is of a cold and frozen nature. The orbit of Jupiter is much below it and therefore revolves much faster, completing one rotation every twelve years. The third star is Mars, called by some Hercules; owing to the proximity of the sun it has a fiery glow; it revolves once in about two years, and consequently, owing to its excessive heat and Saturn's frost, Jupiter being situated between them combines the influence of each and is rendered healthy. (6) Next, the sun's course is divided into 360 parts, but in order that an observation taken of the shadows that it casts may come round to the starting-point, five and a quarter days per annum are added; consequently to every fourth a year an intercalary day is added to make our chronology tally with the course of the sun.

§ 2.6.3  Below the sun revolves a very large star named Venus, which varies its course alternately, and whose alternative names in themselves indicate its rivalry with the sun and moon — when in advance and rising before dawn it receives the name of Lucifer, as being another sun and bringing the dawn, whereas when it shines after sunset it is named Vesper, as prolonging the daylight, or as being a deputy for the moon. This property of Venus was first discovered by Pythagoras of Samos about the 42nd Olympiad, [612-609 BC] 142 years after the foundation of Rome. Further it surpasses all the other stars in magnitude, and is so brilliant that alone among stars it casts a shadow by its rays. Consequently there is a great competition to give it a name, some having called it Juno, others Isis, others the Mother of the Gods. Its influence is the cause of the birth of all things upon earth; at both of its risings it scatters a genital dew with which it not only fills the conceptive organs of the earth but also stimulates those of all animals. It completes the circuit of the zodiac every 348 days, and according to Timaeus is never more than 46 degrees distant from the sun. The star next to Venus is Mercury, by some called Apollo; it has a similar orbit, but is by no means similar in magnitude or power. It travels in a lower circle, with a revolution nine days quicker, shining sometimes before sunrise and sometimes after sunset, but according to Cidenas and Sosigenes never more than 22 degrees away from the sun. Consequently the course of these stars also is peculiar, and not shared by those above-mentioned: those are often observed to be a quarter or a third of the heaven away from the sun and travelling against the sun, and they all have other larger circuits of full revolution, the specification of which belongs to the theory of the Great Years.

§ 2.6.4  But the wonder of everyone is vanquished by the last star, the one most familiar to the earth, and devised by nature to serve as a remedy for the shadows of darkness — the moon. By the riddle of her transformations she has racked the wits of observers, who are ashamed that the star which is nearest should be the one about which we know least — always waxing or waning, and now curved into the horns of a sickle, now just halved in size, now rounded into a circle; spotted and then suddenly shining clear; vast and full-orbed, and then all of a sudden not there at all; at one time shining all night and at another rising late and for a part of the day augmenting the light of the sun, eclipsed and nevertheless visible during the eclipse, invisible at the end of the month when she is not believed to be in trouble; again at one time low down and at another up aloft, and not even this in a uniform way, but sometimes raised to the sky and sometimes touching the mountain-tops, now borne up to the North and now carried down to the South. The first human being to observe all these facts about her was Endymion — which accounts for the traditional story of his love for her. We forsooth feel no gratitude towards those whose assiduous toil has given us illumination on the subject of this luminary, while owing to a curious disease of the human mind we are pleased to enshrine in history records of bloodshed and slaughter, so that persons ignorant of the facts of the world may be acquainted with the crimes of mankind.

§ 2.6.5  The moon then is nearest to the pole, and therefore has the smallest orbit, completing the same distance every 27⅓ days that Saturn the highest star covers, as we have said, in 30 years. Then she lingers two days in conjunction with the sun, and after the 30th day at latest sets out again on the same course — being perhaps our teacher as to all the facts that it has been possible to observe in the heavens; (1) that the year is to be divided into twelve monthly spaces, because she herself that number of times follows the sun in his return to his starting point; (2) that she is governed by the sun's radiance as are the rest of the stars, as in fact she shines with a light entirely borrowed from him, like the light which we see flickering reflected in water; (3) that consequently she only causes water to evaporate with a rather gentle and imperfect force, and indeed increases its quantity, whereas the sun's rays dry it up; (4) also that the reason why she is seen to vary in her light is that she is full only when opposite to the sun, and on the remaining days shows as much light from herself to the earth as she herself conceives from the sun; though (5) she is indeed invisible when in conjunction with the sun, because being turned towards him she gives back the entire draught of light to the source from which she receives it; (6) but that the stars are undoubtedly nourished by the moisture of the earth, since she is sometimes seen spotted in half her orb, clearly because she has not yet got sufficient strength to go on drinking — her spots being merely dirt from the earth taken up with the moisture; (7) but that her eclipses and those of the sun, the most marvellous and indeed portentous occurrence in the whole of our observation of nature, serve as indications of their dimensions and shadow.

§ 2.7.1  It is in fact obvious that the sun is hidden by the passage across it of the moon, and the moon by the interposition of the earth, and that they retaliate on one another, the same rays of the sun being taken away from the earth by the moon intervening and from the moon by the earth: at the transit of the former a sudden shadow passes over the earth, and in return the shadow of the latter dims the heavenly body (the moon), and the darkness is merely the earth's shadow, but the shape of the shadow is conical, resembling a spinning-top upside down, as it impinges only with its point and does not go beyond the altitude of the moon, because no other star is obscured in the same way, and a conical figure always tapers off into a point: that shadows are made to disappear by distance is proved when birds fly to extreme heights. Consequently the frontier between the moon and the other heavenly bodies is at the point where the air ends and the aether begins. All the space above the moon is clear and filled with continual light, but to us the stars are visible through the night in the same way as other lights in shadows. And these are the reasons why the moon wanes in the night-time; but both of her wanings are irregular and not monthly, because of the slant of the zodiac and the widely varying curves of the moon's course, as has been stated, the motion of the heavenly bodies not always tallying in minute fractional quantities.

§ 2.8.1  This theory leads mortal minds upward to heaven, and discloses to their observation from that height, as it were, the greatness of the three greatest parts of the universe; clearly it would not be possible for the whole of the sun to be eclipsed from the earth by the passage of the moon between them if the earth were larger than the moon. The vast size of the sun will be shown with the more certainty from the two bodies, so that there is no need to investigate its size by the evidence of the eyes and by logical inference, arguing that it is immeasurably large for the following reasons: (1) the shadow that it throws of rows of trees along the balks of fields are at equal distances apart for ever so many miles, just as if over the whole space the sun were in the centre; (2) during the equinoxes it reaches the vertical simultaneously for all the inhabitants of the southern region; (3) the shadows of the people living round the Tropic of Cancer fall northward at midday but westward at sunrise, which could not happen unless the sun were much larger than the earth; (4) when it is rising its breadth exceeds Mount Ida, overlapping it widely right and left — and that though it is separated from it by so great a distance.

§ 2.8.2  The eclipse of the moon supplies indubitable proof of the size of the sun, just as the sun itself when it suffers eclipse proves the smallness of the earth. For shadows are of three shapes, and it is clear that, if the solid object that throws a shadow is equal in area to the shaft of light, the shadow projected is shaped like a pillar and is of infinite length, but if the solid body is larger than the light, the shadow has the shape of an upright spinning-top, so that it is narrowest at the bottom, and infinite in length as in the former case, while if the solid is smaller than the light the result is the figure of a cone narrowing down to end in a point, and this is the nature of the shadow observed during an eclipse of the moon; hence it is proved without any further possibility of doubt remaining that the sun exceeds the earth's size. Indeed, this is also proved by the silent testimony of nature herself; for why in the division of the turns of the year does the winter sun retire, so as to refresh the earth with the darkness of the nights? when otherwise it would unquestionably scorch up the earth, and even as it is does so in a certain part, so great is its magnitude.

§ 2.9.1  The first person indeed of Roman nationality who published an explanation of both kinds of eclipse was Sulpicius Gallus — the colleague in the consulship of Marcus Marcellus [166 BCE], but at the time military tribune — who delivered the army from fear when on the day before the defeat of King Perseus by Paulus he was brought before an assembly by the commander-in chief to foretell an eclipse; and later also by writing a treatise. The original discovery was made in Greece by Thales of Miletus, who in the fourth year of the 48th Olympiad [585 BCE} foretold the eclipse of the sun that occurred in the reign of Alyattes, in the 170th year after the foundation of Rome. After their time the courses of both stars for 600 years were prophesied by Hipparchus, whose work embraced the calendar of the nations and the situations of places and aspects of the peoples — his method being, on the evidence of his contemporaries none other than full partnership in the designs of nature. O mighty heroes, of loftier than mortal estate, who have discovered the law of those great divinities and released the miserable mind of man from fear, mortality dreading as it did in eclipses of the stars crimes or death of some sort (those sublime singers, the bards Stesichorus and Pindar, clearly felt this fear owing to an eclipse of the sun), or in the dying of the moon inferring that she was poisoned and consequently coming to her aid with a noisy clattering of cymbals (this alarm caused the Athenian general Nicias, in his ignorance of the cause, to be afraid to lead his fleet out of harbour, so destroying the Athenians' resources: all hail to your genius, ye that interpret the heavens and grasp the facts of nature, discoverers of a theory whereby you have vanquished gods and men! for who beholding these truths and the regularity of the stars' periods of trouble (for so it has pleased you to call them), would not forgive his own destiny for the generation of mortals?

§ 2.9.2  Now I will briefly and summarily touch on facts that are admitted about the same matters, giving an account of them only at necessary points and in a cursory manner, because such theorizing does not form part of the task that I have set in hand, and also it is less surprising that explanations cannot be produced for all the facts than that agreement has been reached on some of them.

§ 2.10.1  It is certain that eclipses recur in cycles of 223 months — eclipses of the sun only when the moon is in her last or first phase (this is called their 'conjunction'), eclipses of the moon only at full moon — and always within the period of their last occurrence; but that yearly at fixed days and hours eclipses of either star occur below the earth, and that even when they occur above the earth they are not visible everywhere, sometimes owing to clouds, more often because the earth's globe stands in the way of the world's curvature. Less than 200 years ago the penetration of Hipparchus discovered that an eclipse of the moon also sometimes occurs four months after the one before and an eclipse of the sun six months, and that the latter when above earth is hidden twice in thirty days, but that this eclipse is visible to different nations, and — the most remarkable features of this remarkable occurrence — that when it comes about that the moon is obscured by the shadow of the earth, this sometimes happens to it from the west side and sometimes from the east; and he also discovered for what exact reason, although the shadow causing the eclipse must from sunrise onward be below the earth, it happened once in the past that the moon was eclipsed in the west while both luminaries were visible above the earth. For the eclipse of both sun and moon within 15 days of each other has occurred even in our time, in the year of the third consulship of the elder Emperor Vespasian and the second consulship of the younger.

§ 2.11.1  It is unquestionable that the moon's horns are always turned away from the sun, and that when waxing she faces east and when waning west; and that the moon shines 47 1/2 minutes longer daily from the day after new moon to full and 47 1/2 minutes less daily to her wane, while within 14 degrees of the sun she is always invisible. This fact proves that the planets are of greater magnitude than the moon, since these occasionally become visible even on reaching 7 degrees' distance; but their altitude makes them appear smaller, just as the sun's radiance makes the fixed stars invisible in daytime, although they are shining as much as in the night, which becomes manifest at a solar eclipse and also when the star is reflected in a very deep well.

§ 2.12.1  The three planets whose positions we have stated to be above the sun travel with the sun when they set and are never more than 11 degrees separate from the sun at dawn when they rise. Afterwards they retire from contact with his rays, and make their morning or 'first' stations in a triangle 120 degrees away, and subsequently their evening risings opposite 180 degrees away, and again approaching from the other side, make their evening or 'second' stations 120 degrees away, till the sun overtaking them at 12 degrees obscures them — this is called their evening setting. The planet Mars being nearer feels the sun's rays even from its quadrature, at an angle of 90 degrees, which has given to his motion after each rising the name of 'first' or 'second ninety-degree.' At the same time Mars remains stationary in the signs of the zodiac for periods of six months (otherwise having a two-month period), whereas Jupiter and Saturn spend less than four months in each station. The two lower planets (Mercury and Venus) are similarly obscured at their evening conjunction, and when left by the sun make their morning rising the same number of degrees away, and from the further limits of their distance follow the sun and when they have overtaken him are hidden in their morning setting and pass away. Then they rise in the evening at the same distance apart, as far as the limits we have stated. From these they pass backward to the sun, and disappear in their evening setting. The planet Venus actually makes two stations, morning and evening, after each rise, from the furthest limits of her distance. Mercury's stations have too short a period to be perceptible.

§ 2.13.1  This is the system of the shining and occultation of the planets: it is more complicated from their motion and involves many remarkable facts, inasmuch as they change their magnitude and their colours, and both approach the North and retire towards the South, and suddenly are seen closer to the earth or to the sky. And although our account of these matters will differ in many points from that of our predecessors, we confess that credit for these points also must be given to those who first demonstrated the methods of investigating them: only nobody must abandon the hope that the generations are constantly making progress.

§ 2.13.2  All these occurrences are due to a plurality of causes. The first is the factor of the circles which in the case of the stars the Greeks designate apsides or arcs (it will be necessary to employ Greek terms). Each planet has its own circle, and these are not the same as those of the firmament, since the earth between the two vertices, named in Greek poles, is the centre of the sky, and also of the zodiac, which is situated on a slant between the poles. [All these facts are always established beyond doubt by the method of compasses.] Therefore the special arc of each is drawn from a different centre, and consequently they have different orbits and dissimilar motions, because the inner arcs must necessarily be shorter.

§ 2.13.3  It follows that the points of the arcs highest above the centre of the earth are: in the case of Saturn in Scorpio, in that of Jupiter in Virgo, of Mars in Leo, of the Sun in the Twins, of Venus in the Archer, of Mercury in Capricorn, of the moon in the Bull, at the middle of each, and the points lowest and nearest to the centre of the earth are opposite. The result of this is that they appear to move slower and to be smaller when they are travelling at the highest point of their circuit, but to be larger and travel faster when they have come nearer to the earth, not because they actually accelerate or reduce their natural motions, which are fixed and individual to them, but because lines drawn from the top of the arc to the centre necessarily converge like the spokes of a wheel, and the same motion at one time is perceived as faster and at another slower according to its distance from the centre.

§ 2.13.4  Another reason of their elevations is because they have the points of their arcs highest from their centre in different signs — Saturn in the 20th degree of the Scales, Jupiter in the 15th of the Crab, Mars in the 28th of Capricorn, the sun in the 29th of the Ram, Venus in the 27th of the Fishes, Mercury in the 15th of Virgo, the moon in the 4th of the Bull.

§ 2.13.5  A third explanation of their altitudes is explained by the dimensions of the firmament, not that of a circle, the eye judging them to rise or to sink through the depth of the air.

§ 2.13.6  Linked with this is the cause of the latitudes of the zodiac and of its obliquity. The stars we have mentioned travel through the zodiac, and the only habitable part of the earth is what lies beneath it — all the other parts towards the poles are frost-bound. Only the planet Venus goes two degrees outside the zodiac; this is understood to be the reason that causes some animals to be born even in the desert places of the world. The moon also wanders through the whole of its breadth, but without going at all outside it. The planet Mercury diverges very widely from these, but without wandering over more than 6 of the 12 degrees of latitude of the zodiac, and these 6 not uniformly but two in the middle of the zodiac, four above it and two below it. Then the sun travels unevenly in the middle of the zodiac between the two halves with a wavy serpentine course, the planet Mars over 4 degrees in the middle, Jupiter one in the middle and two above it, Saturn two like the sun. This will be the principle of the latitudes of the planets when setting towards the South or rising towards the North. Most people have supposed that with this system agrees also the third mentioned above, that of their rising from the earth to the sky, and that this ascent also is made simultaneously; but this is a mistake. To refute them it is necessary to develop an extremely abstruse argument that embraces all the causes mentioned.

§ 2.13.7  It is agreed that the planets are nearest to the earth in both altitude and latitude at their evening setting, and that their morning risings occur at the beginning of both altitude and latitude, while their stations occur in the middle sections of the altitudes, called 'ecliptics.' It is similarly admitted that their velocity increases as long as they are in the neighbourhood of the earth and decreases when they withdraw from it to a height: this theory is specially supported by the apogees of the moon. It is equally undoubted that the three higher ones moreover increase their motion in their morning risings and diminish it from their first (morning) stations to their second (evening) stations. In view of these facts it will be evident that the latitudes are ascended from their morning rising, because in that state their acceleration first begins to diminish, but in their first stations their altitude also is ascended, since then the numbers first begin to be reduced and the stars begin to recede. The reason for this must especially be given. When struck in the degree that we stated and by a triangular ray of the sun they are prevented from pursuing a straight course, and are lifted upward by the fiery force. This cannot be directly perceived by our sight, and therefore they are thought to be stationary, which has given rise to the term 'station.' Then the violent force of the same ray advances and compels them by the impact of the heat to retire. This occurs much more at their evening rising, when they are driven out to the top of their apsides by the full opposing force of the sun, and appear very small because they are at the distance of their greatest altitude and are moving with their smallest velocity — which is proportionately smaller when this occurs in the highest signs of their apsides. From their evening rise their altitude is descended with a velocity now decelerating less and less, but not accelerating before their second stations, when their altitude also is descended, the ray passing above them from the other side and pressing them down again to the earth with the same force as that with which it had raised them to the sky from the former triangle. So much difference does it make whether the rays come from below or from above, and the same things occur far more in the evening setting.

§ 2.13.8  This is the theory of the higher stars; that of the rest is more difficult and has been explained by nobody before ourselves.

§ 2.14.1  First therefore let us state the reason why Venus never departs more than 46 degrees and Mercury never more than 23 degrees from the sun, and why they often retire and return towards the sun within those limits. As situated below the sun both have arcs that are the opposite of those of the other planets, and as much of their circle is below the earth as that of the planets mentioned before is above it; and they cannot be further from it than they are because the curve of their arcs does not allow greater elongation there; consequently the edges of their arcs put a limit on a similar principle for each, and compensate for the dimensions of their longitude by the enlargement of their latitude. But, it will be objected, why do they not reach 46 and 23 degrees always? As a matter of fact they do, but the explanation escapes the theorists. For it is manifest that even their arcs alter, because they never cross the sun; accordingly when the edges have fallen on one side or the other into the actual degree of the sun, then the stars also are understood to have reached their longest distances, but when the edges are short of that, they themselves too are compelled to return with proportionately greater velocity, since with each of them that is always the extreme limit.

§ 2.14.2  This also explains the contrary principle of their motions. For the higher planets travel most quickly in their evening setting, whereas these travel most slowly, and the former are farthest from the earth when their pace is slowest but the latter are highest when their pace is quickest — the reason being that with the latter the circumference of the circle accelerates their pace in the same manner as proximity to the centre does in the case of the former; the former begin to decelerate from their morning setting, but the latter to accelerate. The former travel backward from their morning to their evening station, the planet Venus from her evening to her morning station. But she begins to climb her latitude after her morning rise, but after her morning station to ascend her altitude and follow the sun, being swiftest and highest at her morning setting; whereas she begins to descend in latitude and decelerate after her evening rising, and to turn back and simultaneously to descend in altitude after her evening station; on the other hand the planet Mercury begins to climb in both ways after his morning rising, but after his evening rising to descend in latitude, and following the sun at an interval of 15 degrees he stands motionless for almost four days. Afterwards he descends from his altitude and proceeds back from his evening setting to his morning rise. And only this planet and the moon set in as many days as they have risen in; Venus ascends in 15 times as many days as she sets in, while Saturn and Jupiter descend in twice as many, and Mars in actually four times as many. So great is the variety of nature; but the reason is evident — bodies that strain up into the heat of the sun also have difficulty in descending.

§ 2.15.1  Many more facts can be produced about these mysteries of nature and the laws that she obeys — for example, in the case of the planet Mars (whose course it is very difficult to observe) that it never makes its station with Jupiter at an angle of 120, and very seldom with Jupiter separated 60 (which amounts to 1/6th of the celestial sphere), and never makes its rises simultaneously with Jupiter except in two signs only, Cancer and Leo, whereas the planet Mercury rarely makes its evening rises in Pisces, and most frequently in Virgo, its morning rises in Libra, and also its morning rises in Aquarius, very rarely in Leo; it does not make its return in Taurus and in Gemini, and not below the 25th degree in Cancer; Gemini is the only sign in which the moon makes conjunction with the sun twice, Sagittarius the only one in which she does not meet him at all, Aries the only one in which the old moon and the new moon are visible on the same day or night (and this too it has happened to few mortals to see, hence Lynceus's reputation for keen sight); the longest period of invisibility for the planets Saturn and Mars is 170 days, for Jupiter 36 days; the shortest periods for all these are 10 days less; Venus's period is 69 days or at shortest 52, Mercury's 13 or at longest 17.

§ 2.16.1  The colours of the planets vary with their altitudes, inasmuch as they are assimilated to the stars into whose atmosphere they come in rising, and the circuit of another's path modifies their colour in either direction as they approach, a colder circuit to pallor, a hotter one to redness, a windy one to a leaden colour, the sun and the intersection of its orbit with theirs, and also the extremities of their paths, changing them to black darkness. It is true that each has its own special hue — Saturn white, Jupiter transparent, Mars fiery, Lucifer bright white, Vesper glaring, Mercury radiant, the moon soft, the sun when rising glowing and afterwards radiant; with these being causally connected also the appearance of the fixed stars. For at one time there is a dense crowd of stars in the sky round the circle of the half-moon, a fine night giving them a gentle radiance, but at another time they are scarce, so that we wonder at their flight, when the full moon hides them or when the rays of the sun or the planets above-mentioned dim our sight. But the moon herself also is undoubtedly sensitive to the variations of the strength of impact of the rays of the sun, as moreover the curve of the earth dulls their impact, except when the impact of the rays meets at a right angle. And so the moon is at half in the sun's quadrature, and curved in a hollow circle in its trinal aspect, but waxes to full at the sun's opposition, and then waning exhibits the same configurations at corresponding intervals, on the same principle as the three planets above the sun.

§ 2.17.1  The sun itself has four differences, as there are two equinoxes, in spring and autumn, when it coincides with the centre of the earth at the eighth degree of Aries and Libra, and two changes of its course, in the eighth degree of Capricorn at midwinter when the days begin to lengthen and in the same degree of Cancer at the summer solstice. The variation is due to the slant of the zodiac, as at every moment an equal part of the firmament is above and below the earth; but the planets that follow a straight path at their rising keep their light for a longer tract and those that follow a slanting path pass in a swifter period.

§ 2.18.1  Most men are not acquainted with a truth known to the founders of the science from their arduous study of the heavens, that what when they fall to earth are termed thunderbolts are the fires of the three upper planets, particularly those of Jupiter, which is in the middle position — possibly because it voids in this way the charge of excessive moisture from the upper circle (of Saturn) and of excessive heat from the circle below (of Mars); and that this is the origin of the myth that thunderbolts are the javelins hurled by Jupiter. Consequently heavenly fire is spit forth by the planet as crackling charcoal flies from a burning log, bringing prophecies with it, as even the part of himself that he discards does not cease to function in its divine tasks. And this is accompanied by a very great disturbance of the air, because moisture collected causes an overflow, or because it is disturbed by the birth-pangs so to speak of the planet in travail.

§ 2.19.1  Many people have also tried to discover the distances of the planets from the earth, and have given out that the distance of the sun from the moon is 19 times that of the moon itself from the earth. The penetrating genius of Pythagoras, however, inferred that the distance of the moon from the earth was 15,750 miles, and that of the sun from the moon twice that figure, and of the sun from the twelve signs of the Zodiac three times. Our fellow-countryman Sulpicius Gallus also held this view.

§ 2.20.1  But occasionally Pythagoras draws on the theory of music, and designates the distance between the earth and the moon as a whole tone, that between the moon and Mercury a semitone, between Mercury and Venus the same, between her and the sun a tone and a half, between the sun and Mars a tone (the same as the distance between the earth and the moon), between Mars and Jupiter half a tone, between Jupiter and Saturn half a tone, between Saturn and the zodiac a tone and a half: the seven tones thus producing the so-called diapason, a universal harmony; in this Saturn moves in the Dorian mode, Jupiter in the Phrygian, and similarly with the other planets — a refinement more entertaining than convincing.

§ 2.21.1  A stade is equivalent to 125 Roman paces, that is 625 feet. Posidonius holds that mists and winds and clouds reach to a height of not less than 5 miles from the earth, but that from that point the air is clear and liquid and perfectly luminous, but that the distance between the cloudy air and the moon is 250,000 miles and between the moon and the sun 625,000 miles, it being due to this distance that the sun's vast magnitude does not burn up the earth. The majority of writers, however, have stated that the clouds rise to a height of 111 miles. These figures are really unascertained and impossible to disentangle, but it is proper to put them forward became they have been put forward already, although they are matters in which the method of geometrical inference, which never misleads, is the only method that it is possible not to reject, were anybody desirous of pursuing such questions more deeply, and with the intention of establishing not precise measurement (for to aspire to that would mark an almost insane absorption in study) but merely a conjectural calculation. For since it appears from the sun's revolution that the circle through which its orb travels extends nearly 366 degrees, and since the diameter of a circle always measures a little less than ⅓ + 1/21 of the circumference, it appears that, as half the circle is subtracted by the interposition of the earth at the centre, the measure of the sun's altitude comprises about tth of this conjecturally estimated immense space of the solar circle round the earth, and the moon's altitude tth, since the moon runs in a circuit that is much shorter than the sun's; so that it comes between the sun and the earth. It is marvellous to what length the depravity of man's intellect will go when lured on by some trifling success, in the way in which reason furnishes impudence with its opportunity in the case of the calculations above stated. And when they have dared to guess the distances of the sun from the earth they apply the same figures to the sky, on the ground that the sun is at its centre, with the consequence that they have at their finger's ends the dimensions of the world also. For they argue that the circumference of a circle is us times its diameter, as though the measure of the heavens were merely regulated from a plumb-line! The Egyptian calculation published by Petosiris and Nechepsos infers that one degree of the lunar circle measures (as has been said) just over 4⅛ miles at the least, one degree of the widest circle, Saturn's, twice that size, and one of the sun's circle, which we stated to be in the middle, the mean between the other two. This computation is a most shameful business, since the addition of the distance of the zodiac itself to the circle of Saturn produces a multiple that is even beyond reckoning.

§ 2.22.1  A few facts about the world remain. There are also stars that suddenly come to birth in the heaven itself; of these there are several kinds. The Greeks call them 'comets,' in our language 'long-haired stars,' because they have a blood-red shock of what looks like shaggy hair at their top. The Greeks also give the name of 'bearded stars' to those from whose lower part spreads a mane resembling a long beard. 'Javelin-stars' quiver like a dart; these are a very terrible portent. To this class belongs the comet about which Titus Imperator Caesar in his 5th consulship wrote an account in his famous poem, that being its latest appearance down to the present day. The same stars when shorter and sloping to a point have been called 'Daggers'; these are the palest of all in colour, and have a gleam like the flash of a sword, and no rays, which even the Quoit-star, which resembles its name in appearance but is in colour like amber, emits in scattered form from its edge. The 'Tub-star' presents the shape of a cask, with a smoky light all round it. The 'Horned star' has the shape of a horn, like the one that appeared when Greece fought the decisive battle of Salamis. The 'Torch-star' resembles glowing torches, the 'Horse-star horses' manes in very rapid motion and revolving in a circle. There also occurs a shining comet whose silvery tresses glow so brightly that it is scarcely possible to look at it, and which displays within it a shape in the likeness of a man's countenance. There also occur 'Goat comets,' enringed with a sort of cloud resembling tufts of hair. Once hitherto it has happened that a 'Mane-shaped' comet changed into a spear; this was in the 108th Olympiad [348-345 BCE] , AUC 408 [346 BC]. The shortest period of visibility on record for a comet is 7 days, the longest 80.

§ 2.23.1  Some comets move, like the planets, but others are fixed and stationary, almost all of them towards the due North, not in any particular part of it, though chiefly in the luminous region called the Milky Way. Aristotle also records that several may be seen at the same time — a fact not observed by anyone else, as far as I am aware — and that this signifies severe winds or heat. Comets also occur in the winter months and at the south pole, but comets in the south have no rays. A terrible comet was seen by the people of Ethiopia and Egypt, to which Typhon the king of that period gave his name; it had a fiery appearance and was twisted like a coil, and it was very grim to behold: it was not really a star so much as what might be called a ball of fire. Planets and all other stars also occasionally have spreading hair. But sometimes there is a comet in the western sky, usually a terrifying star and not easily expiated: for instance, during the civil disorder in the consulship of Octavius, and again during the war between Pompey and Caesar, or in our day about the time of the poisoning which secured the bequest of the empire by Claudius Caesar to Domitius Nero, and thereafter during Nero's principate shining almost continuously and with a terrible glare. People think that it matters in what direction a comet darts, what star's strength it borrows, what shapes it resembles, and in what places it shines; that if it resembles a pair of flutes. It is a portent for the art of music, in the private parts of the constellations it portends immorality, if it forms an equilateral triangle or a rectangular quadrilateral in relation to certain positions of the fixed stars, it portends men of genius and a revival of learning, in the head of the Northern or the Southern Serpent it brings poisonings.

§ 2.23.2  The only place in the whole world where a comet is the object of worship is a temple at Rome. His late Majesty Augustus had deemed this comet very propitious to himself; as it had appeared at the beginning of his rule, at some games which, not long after the decease of his father Caesar, as a member of the college founded by him he was celebrating in honour of Mother Venus. In fact he made public the joy that it gave him in these words: 'On the very days of my Games a comet was visible for seven days in the northern part of the sky. It was rising about an hour before sunset, and was a bright star, visible from all lands. The common people believed that this star signified the soul of Caesar received among the spirits of the immortal gods, and on this account the emblem of a star was added to the bust of Caesar that we shortly afterwards dedicated in the forum.' This was his public utterance, but privately he rejoiced because he interpreted the comet as having been born for his own sake and as containing his own birth within it; and, to confess the truth, it did have a health-giving influence over the world.

§ 2.23.3  Some persons think that even comets are everlasting, and travel in a special circuit of their own, but are not visible except when the sun leaves them; there are others, however, who hold that they spring into existence out of chance moisture and fiery force, and consequently are dissolved.

§ 2.24.1  Hipparchus before-mentioned, who can never be sufficiently praised, no one having done more to prove that man is related to the stars and that our souls are a part of heaven, detected a new star that came into existence during his lifetime; the movement of this star in its line of radiance led him to wonder whether this was a frequent occurrence, whether the stars that we think to be fixed are also in motion; and consequently he did a bold thing, That would be reprehensible even for God — he dared to schedule the stars for posterity, and tick off the heavenly bodies by name in a list, devising machinery by means of which to indicate their several positions and magnitudes, in order that from that time onward it might be possible easily to discern not only whether stars perish and are born, but whether some are in transit and in motion, and also whether they increase and decrease in magnitude — thus bequeathing the heavens as a legacy to all mankind, supposing anybody had been found to claim that inheritance!

§ 2.25.1  There are also meteoric lights that are only seen when falling, for instance one that ran across the sky at midday in full view of the public when Germanicus Caesarwas giving a gladiatorial show. Of these there are two kinds: one sort are called lampades, which means torches, the other bolides (missiles), — that is the sort that appeared at the time of the disasters of Modena. The difference between them is that 'torches' make long tracks, with their front part glowing, whereas a 'boils' glows throughout its length, and traces a longer path.

§ 2.26.1  Other similar meteoric lights are 'beams.' in Greek dokoi, for example one that appeared when the Spartans were defeated at sea and lost the empire of Greece. There also occurs a yawning of the actual sky, called chasma,

§ 2.27.1  and also something that looks like blood, and a fire that falls from it to the earth — the most alarming possible cause of terror to mankind; as happened in the third year [349BC] of the 107th Olympiad, when King Philip was throwing Greece into disturbance. My own view is that these occurrences take place at fixed dates owing to natural forces, like all other events, and not, as most people think, from the variety of causes invented by the cleverness of human intellects; it is true that they were the harbingers of enormous misfortunes, but I hold that those did not happen because the marvellous occurrences took place but that these took place because the misfortunes were going to occur, only the reason for their occurrence is concealed by their rarity, and consequently is not understood as are the risings and setting of the planets described above and many other phenomena.

§ 2.28.1  Stars are also seen throughout the daytime in company with the sun, usually actually surrounding the sun's orb like wreaths made of ears of corn and rings of changing colour — for instance, when Augustus Caesar in early manhood entered the city after the death of his father to assume his mighty surname. Similar haloes occur round the moon and round The principal fixed stars.

§ 2.29.1  A bow appeared round the sun in the consulship of Lucius Opimius and Quintus Fabius, a hoop in that of Gaius Porcius and Manius Acilius, and a red ring in that of Lucius Julius and Publius Rutilius.

§ 2.30.1  Portentous and protracted eclipses of the sun occur, such as the one after the murder of Caesar the dictator and during the Antonine war which caused almost a whole year's continuous gloom.

§ 2.31.1  Again, several suns are seen at once, neither above nor below the real sun but at an angle with it, never alongside of nor opposite to the earth, and not at night but either at sunrise or at sunset. It is also reported that once several suns were seen at midday at the Bosphorus, and that these lasted from dawn till sunset. In former times three suns have often been seen at once, for example in the consulships of Spurius Postumius and Quintus Mucius, of Quintus Marcius and Marcus Porcius, of Marcus Antonius and Publius Dolabella, and of Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Plancus; and our generation saw this during the principate of his late Majesty Claudius, in his consulship, when Cornelius Orfitus was his colleague. It is not stated that more than three suns at a time have ever been seen hitherto.

§ 2.32.1  Also three moons have appeared at once, for instance in the consulship of Gnaeus Domitius and Gaius Fannius.

§ 2.33.1  A light from the sky by night, the phenomenon usually called 'night-suns,' was seen in the consulship of Gaius Caecilius and Gnaeus Papirius and often on other occasions causing apparent daylight in the night.

§ 2.34.1  In the consulship of Lucius Valerius and Gaius Marius a burning shield scattering sparks ran across the sky at sunset from west to east.

§ 2.35.1  In the consulship of Gnaeus Octavius and Gaius Scribonius a spark was seen to fall from a star and increase in size as it approached the earth, and after becoming as large as the moon it diffused a sort of cloudy daylight, and then returning to the sky changed into a torch; this is the only record of this occurring. It was seen by the proconsul Silanus and his suite.

§ 2.36.1  Also stars appear to shoot to and fro; and this invariably portends the rise of a fierce hurricane from the same quarter.

§ 2.37.1  Stars also come into existence at sea on land. I have seen a radiance of star-like appearance clinging to the javelins of soldiers on sentry duty at night in front of the rampart; and on a voyage stars alight on the yards and other parts of the ship, with a sound resembling a voice, hopping from perch to perch in the manner of birds. These when they come singly are disastrously heavy and wreck ships, and if they fall into the hold burn them up. If there are two of them, they denote safety and portend a successful voyage; and their approach is said to put to flight the terrible star called Helena: for this reason they are called Castor and Pollux, and people pray to them as gods for aid at sea. They also shine round men's heads at evening time; this is a great portent. All these things admit of no certain explanation; they are hidden away in the grandeur of nature.

§ 2.38.1  So much as to the world itself and the stars. Now the remaining noteworthy facts as to the heavens: for the name 'heaven' was also given by our ancestors to this which is otherwise designated 'air' — the whole of that apparently empty space which pours forth this breath of life. This region below the moon, and a long way below it (as I notice is almost universally agreed), blends together an unlimited quantity from the upper element of air and an unlimited quantity of terrestrial vapour, being a combination of both orders. From it come clouds, thunder-claps and also thunderbolts, hail, frost, rain, storms and whirlwinds; from it come most of mortals' misfortunes, and the warfare between the elements of nature. The force of the stars presses down terrestrial objects that strive to move towards the sky, and also draws to itself things that lack spontaneous levitation. Rain falls, clouds rise, rivers dry up, hailstorms sweep down; rays scorch, and impinging from every side on the earth in the middle of the world, then are broken and recoil and carry with them the moisture they have drunk up. Steam falls from on high and again returns on high. Empty winds sweep down, and then go back again with their plunder. So many living creatures draw their breath from the upper air; but the air strives in the opposite direction, and the earth pours back breath to the sky as if to a vacuum. Thus as nature swings to and fro like a kind of sling, discord is kindled by the velocity of the world's motion. Nor is the battle allowed to stand still, but is continually carried up and whirled round, displaying in an immense globe that encircles the world the causes of things, continually overspreading another and another heaven interwoven with the clouds. This is the realm of the winds. consequently their nature is here pre-eminent, and almost includes all the rest of the phenomena caused by the air, as most men attribute the hurling of thunderbolts and lightning to the winds' violence, and indeed hold that the cause of the rain of stones that sometimes occurs is that the stones are caught up by the wind; and likewise many other things. On this account more facts have to be set out at the same time.

§ 2.39.1  Storms and rain obviously have some regular causes, but some that are accidental, or at all events not hitherto explained. For who can doubt that summer and winter and the yearly vicissitudes observed in the seasons are caused by the motion of the heavenly bodies? Therefore as the nature of the sun is understood to control the year's seasons, so each of the other stars also has a force of its own that creates effects corresponding to its particular nature. Some are productive of moisture dissolved into liquid, others of moisture hardened into frost or coagulated into snow or frozen into hail, others of a blast of air, others of warmth or heat, others of dew, others of cold. But it must not be thought that the stars are of the size that they appear to the sight, since the consideration of their immense altitude proves that none of them is smaller than the moon. Consequently each of them exercises its own nature in its own motion, a fact which the transits of Saturn in particular make clear by their storms of rain. Nor does this power belong to the moving stars only, but also to many those that are fixed to the sky, whenever they are impelled forward by the approach of the planets or goaded on by the impact of their rays, as we observe occurring in the case of the Little Pigs, the Greek name for which is consequently the Hyades, a word denoting rain. Indeed some stars move of themselves and at fixed times — compare the rising of the Kids. But the rising of the constellation Arcturus is almost always accompanied by a hail-storm.

§ 2.40.1  For who is not aware that the heat of the sun increases at the rising of the Lesser Dog-star, whose effects are felt on earth very widely? At its rise the seas are rough, wine in the cellars ripples in waves, pools of water are stirred. There is a wild animal in Egypt called the gazelle that according to the natives stands facing this dog-star at its rise, and gazing at it as if in worship, after first giving a sneeze. It is indeed beyond doubt that dogs throughout the whole of that period are specially liable to rabies.

§ 2.41.1  Moreover also the parts of some constellations have an influence of their own — for instance at the autumnal equinox and at midwinter, when we learn by the storms that the sun is completing its orbit; and not only by falls of rain and storms, but by many things that happen to our bodies and to the fields. Some men are paralysed by a star, others suffer periodic disturbances of the stomach or sinews or bead or mind. The olive and white poplar and willow turn round their leaves at the solstice. Fleabane hung up in the house to dry flowers exactly on midwinter day, and inflated skins burst. This may surprise one who does not notice in daily experience that one plant, called heliotrope, always looks towards the sun as it passes and at every hour of the day turns with it, even when it is obscured by a cloud. Indeed persistent research has discovered that the influence of the moon causes the shells of oysters, cockles and all shell-fish to grow larger and again smaller in bulk, and moreover that the phases of the moon affect the tissues of the shrewmouse, and that the smallest animal, the ant, is sensitive to the influence of the planet and at the time of the new moon is always slack. This makes ignorance all the more disgraceful to man, especially as he admits that with some cattle diseases of the eyes increase and diminish with the moon. His excuse is the heaven's vastness, being divided at an enormous height into 72 signs, that is, shapes of things or of animals into which the learned have mapped out the sky. In them they have indeed noted 1600 stars as being specially remarkable for their influence or their appearance, for instance the seven which they have named the Pleiades in the tail of the Bull and the Little Pigs in his forehead, and Bootes the star that follows the Seven Plough-oxen.

§ 2.42.1  I would not deny that rain and wind can arise from other causes than these; it is certain that the earth exhales a damp mist and at other times a smoky one due to vapour, and that clouds are formed out of moisture rising to a height or air condensed into moisture. Their density and bulk are conjectured with certain inference from the fact that they obscure the sun, which is otherwise visible even to those diving into water to whatever depth.

§ 2.43.1  Consequently I would not go against the view that it is also possible for the fires of stars to fall from above into the clouds (as we often see happen. in fine weather, and the impact of these fires unquestionably shakes the air since even weapons when flung make a hissing noise); and that when they reach the cloud, a hissing steam is produced, just as when red-hot iron is plunged into water, and a coil of smoke whirls up. And I agree that these produce storms, and if there is wind or steam struggling in the cloud, it gives out claps of thunder, if it bursts out on fire, flashes of lightning, if it forces its way on a longer track, heat-lightning. The latter cleaves the cloud, the flashes burst through it, and thunder-claps are the blows of the fires colliding, causing fiery cracks at once to flash out in the clouds. It is also possible for breath emerging from the earth, when pressed down by the counter-impact of the stars, to be checked by a cloud and so cause thunder, nature choking down the sound while the struggle goes on but the crash sounding when the breath bursts out, as when a skin is stretched by being blown into. It is also possible for this breath, whatever it is, to be set on fire by the friction during its headlong progress. It is also possible for it to be struck out by the impact of the clouds, as by that of two stones, with heat-lightning flashing out like sparks. But all these occurrences are accidental — they cause mere senseless and ineffectual thunder-claps, as their coming obeys no principle of nature — they merely cleave mountains and seas, and all their other blows are ineffectual; but the former are prophetical and sent from on high, they come by fixed causes and from their own stars.

§ 2.44.1  Similarly I am not prepared to deny that it is possible for winds or rather gusts of air to be produced also by a dry and parched breath from the earth, and also possible when bodies of water breathe out a vapour that is neither condensed into mist or solidified into clouds; and also they may be caused by the driving force of the sun, because wind is understood to be nothing else than a wave of air; and in more ways as well. For we see winds arising both from rivers and bays and from the sea even when calm, and others, called altani, arising from the land; the latter when they come back again from the sea are called turning winds, but if they go on, offshore winds.

§ 2.44.2  The windings of mountains and their clustered peaks and ridges curved in an elbow or broken off into shoulders, and the hollow recesses of valleys, cleaving with their irregular contours the air that is consequently reflected from them (a phenomenon that in many place causes words spoken to be endlessly echoed) are productive of winds. So again are caverns, like the one with an enormous gaping mouth on the coast of Dalmatia, from which, if you throw some light object into it, even in calm weather a gust like a whirlwind bursts out; the name of the place is Senta. Also it is said that in the province of Cyrenaica there is a certain cliff, sacred to the South wind, which it is sacrilege for the hand of man to touch, the South wind immediately causing a sandstorm. Even manufactured vessels in many houses if shut up in the dark have peculiar exhalations. Thus there must be some cause for this.

§ 2.45.1  But there is a great difference between a gust of air and a wind. The latter, regular and blowing steadily, and felt not by some particular tract only but by whole countries, and not being breezes nor tempests but winds — even their name being a masculine word — whether they are caused by the continuous motion of the world and the impact of the stars travelling in the opposite direction or whether wind is the famous 'breath' that generates the universe by fluctuating to and fro as in a sort of womb, or air whipped by the irregular impact of the planets and the non-uniform emission of their rays, or whether they issue forth from these nearer stars which are their own or fall from those stars which are fixed in the heaven — it is manifest that the winds too obey a law of nature that is not unknown, even if not yet fully known.

§ 2.45.2  More than twenty Greek authors of the past have published observations about these subjects. This makes me all the more surprised that, although when the world was at variance, and split up into kingdoms, that is, sundered limb from limb, so many people devoted themselves to these abstruse researches; especially when wars surrounded them and hosts were untrustworthy, and also when rumours of pirates, the foes of all mankind, terrified intending travellers — so that now-a-days a person may learn some facts about his own region from the notebooks of people who have never been there more truly than from the knowledge of the natives — yet now in these glad times of peace under an emperor who so delights in productions of literature and science, no addition whatever is being made to knowledge by means of original research, and in fact even the discoveries of our predecessors are not being thoroughly studied. The rewards were not greater when the ample successes were spread out over made the discoveries in question with no other many students, and in fact the majority of these reward at all save the consciousness of benefiting posterity. Age has overtaken the characters of mankind, not their revenues, and now that every sea has been opened up and every coast offers hospitable landing, an immense multitude goes on voyages — but their object is profit not knowledge; and in their blind engrossment with avarice they do not reflect that knowledge is a more reliable means even of making profit. Consequently in view of these thousands of persons who go on voyages I will give a more detailed account of the winds than is perhaps suited to the task I have set in hand.

§ 2.46.1  The ancients noticed four winds in all, corresponding to the four quarters of the world (this is the reason why even Homer mentions no more) — a dull-witted system, as it was soon afterwards considered; the following age added eight — this system on the other hand was too subtle and meticulous. Their successors adopted a compromise, adding to the short list four winds from the long one. There are consequently two winds in each of the four quarters of the heaven: Subsolanus blowing from the equinoctial sunrise (E.) and Vulturnus from the winter sunrise (S.E.) — the former designated by the Greeks Apeliotes, the latter Eurus; Auster from the sun at midday (S.) and Afriens from the winter sunset (S.W.) — named in Greek Notus and Libs; Favonius from the equinoctial sunset (W.), Corus from the sunset at the solstice (N.W.) — these the Greeks call Zephyr and Argestes; Septentrio from the North and Aquilo between him and sunrise at the solstice (N.E.) — called in Greek Aparctias and Boreas. The more numerous scheme had inserted four between these: Thrascias (N.N.W.) in the space between Septentrio (N.) and the sunset at the solstice (N.W.) and also Caecias (E.N.E.) in the space between Aquilo (N.E.) and the equinoctial sunrise (B.) on the side of the sunrise at the solstice, and Phoenix (S.S.E.) in the space between winter sunrise (S.E.) and midday (S.), and also between Libs (S.W.) and Notus (S.) the combination of the two, Libonotus (S.S.W.), midway between midday (S.) and winter sunset (S.W.). Nor is this the end, inasmuch as others have also added one named Meses between Boreas (N.E.) and Caecias (E.N.E.), and Euronotus between Eurus (S.E.) and Notus (S.). There are also certain winds peculiar to particular races, which do not go outside a special region, e.g. the Athenians have Sciron, slightly diverging from Argestes (N.W.), a name unknown to the rest of Greece — elsewhere the same breeze is called Olympias: customarily all these names are taken to denote Argestes. Some people call Caecias (E.N.E.) Hellespontias, and others have other variants for these names. Similarly in the province of Narbonne the most famous of the winds is Circius (W.N.W.), which is inferior to none other at all in force and which usually carries a vessel right across the Ligurian Sea to Ostia; the same wind is not only unknown in the remaining quarters of the sky, but it does not even touch Vienne, a city of the same province, a few miles before reaching which this mighty wind is checked by the obstacle of a moderate ridge of hills. Fabianus asserts that South winds also do not penetrate Egypt — which reveals the law of nature that even winds have their prescribed limits as well as seasons.

§ 2.47.1  Accordingly the spring opens the seas to voyagers; at its beginning the West winds soften the wintry heaven, when the sun occupies the 25th degree of Aquarius; the date of this is Feb. 8. This also practically applies to all the winds whose positions I shall give afterwards, although every leap-year they come a day earlier, but they keep the regular rule in the period that follows. Certain persons give the name Chelidonias to the West wind on the 19th February, owing to the appearance of the swallow, but some call it Ornithias, from the arrival of the birds on the 71st day after the shortest day, when it blows for nine days. Opposite to the West wind is the wind that we have called Subsolanus (E.). The rise of the Pleiades in the same degrees of Taurus on May 10 brings summer; it is a period of South wind, Auster, the opposite of Septentrio. But in the hottest period of summer the Dog-star rises, when the sun is entering the first degree of Leo — this day is July 17. The Dog-star's rise is preceded for about eight days by North-east winds: these are called the Forerunners. But two days after his rising the North-east winds begin again, and continue blowing steadily for 30 days; these are called Etesian or Annual winds. They are believed to be softened by the sun's warmth being reinforced by the heat of the star; and they are the most regular of any of the winds. They are followed in turn by South winds, continuing to the rise of Areturus, which occurs 40 days before the autumnal equinox. With the equinox begins the North-west wind; this, the opposite of Volturnus, marks the beginning of autumn. About 44 days after the autumnal equinox the setting of the Pleiades marks the beginning of winter, which it is customary to date on November 11; this is the period of the winter Aquilo, which is very unlike the summer one mentioned above; it is opposite to the South-west wind. But for six days before the shortest day and six days after it the sea calms down for the breeding of the halcyons from which these days derive their name. The rest of the time there is wintry weather. However, not even the fury of the storms closes the sea; pirates first compelled men by the threat of death to rush into death and venture on the winter seas, but now avarice exercises the same compulsion.

§ 2.48.1  The actually coldest winds are those that we have stated to blow from the North, and their neighbour Corus (N.W.); these check the other winds and also drive away the clouds. The Southwest and especially the South are for Italy the damp winds; it is said that on the Black Sea the East-north-east also attracts clouds. The North-west and South-east are dry, except when they are falling. The North-east and North are snow winds; the North brings hailstorms, and so does the North-west. The South wind is hot, the South-east and West warm; the latter are also drier than the East wind, and in general all the northerly and westerly winds are drier than the southerly and easterly. The healthiest of all is the North wind; the South is harmful, and more so when dry, perhaps because when damp it is colder; living creatures are believed to be less hungry when it is blowing. Etesian winds usually cease at night and rise at eight o'clock in the morning; in Spain and Asia they are East winds, on the Black Sea North, and in other regions South. But they also begin to blow at midwinter then they are called the Bird-winds), but more gently and only for a few days. Two winds also change their nature with their geographical position: the South wind in Africa is fine and the North-east cloudy. All the winds blow in their own turns, usually the one opposite to the one that ceases beginning. When those next to the ones falling rise, they go round from left to right a like the sun. The fourth moon usually decides about the course of the winds for the month. Vessels by means of slacking sheets can sail in contrary directions with the same winds, so that collisions occur, usually at night, between ships on opposite tacks. The South wind causes larger waves than the Northeast because the former being below blows from the bottom of the sea but the latter from the top; consequently earthquakes following South winds are specially destructive. The South wind is more violent at night and the North-east wind in the day-time; and easterly winds continue longer than westerly. North winds usually stop after blowing an odd number of days, an observation that holds good in many other departments of nature also: this is why the odd numbers are thought to be masculine. The sun both increases and reduces the force of the wind — the former when rising and setting, the latter at midday in summer seasons; consequently the winds are usually lulled at midday or midnight, because either excessive cold or excessive heat makes them slack. Also winds are lulled by rain; but they are most to be expected from quarters where the clouds have broken, revealing a clear sky.

§ 2.48.2  Eudoxus however thinks that (if we choose to study the minimal circuits) there is a regular recurrence of all phenomena — not only of winds but largely of other sorts of bad weather as well — in four-yearly periods, and that the period always begins in a leap-year at the rising of Sirius.

§ 2.48.3  These are our observations with regard to the winds that are regular.

§ 2.49.1  Now as to sudden blasts, which arise as has been said from exhalations of the earth, and fall back again to the earth drawing over it an envelope of cloud; these occur in a variety of forms. The fact is that their onrush is quite irregular, like that of mountain torrents (as we have pointed out is the view of certain persons), and they give forth thunder and lightning. If travelling with a heavier momentum they burst a great gap in a dry cloud, they produce a storm called by the Greeks a cloudburst; but if they break out from a downward curve of cloud with a more limited rotation, they cause a whirl unaccompanied by fire — I mean by lightning — that is called a typhoon, which denotes a whirling cloudburst. This brings down with it a portion of heat torn from a cloud, which it turns and whirls round, increasing its own downward velocity by its weight, and shifting from place to place with a rapid whirl; it is specially disastrous to navigators, as it twists round and shatters not only the yards, but the vessels themselves, leaving only the slender remedy of pouring out vinegar in advance of its approach, vinegar being a very cold substance. The same whirlwind when beaten back by its very impact snatches things up and carries them back with it to the sky, sucking them high aloft.

§ 2.50.1  But if it bursts out of a larger cavern of downward pressing cloud but not so wide a one as in the case of a storm, and is accompanied by a crashing noise, this is what they call a whirlwind, which overthrows everything in its neighbourhood. When the same rages hotter and with a fiery flow, it is called a rester, as while sweeping away the things it comes in contact with it also scorches them up. But a typhoon does not occur with a northerly wind, nor a cloudburst with snow or when snow is lying. If it flared up as soon as it burst the cloud, and had fire in it, did not catch fire afterwards, it is a thunderbolt. It differs from a fiery pillar in the way in which a flame differs from a fire: a fiery pillar spreads out its blast widely, whereas a thunderbolt masses together its onrush. On the other hand a tornado differs from a whirlwind by returning, and as a whiz differs from a crash; a storm is different from either in its extent — it is caused by the scattering rather than the bursting of a cloud. There also occurs a darkness caused by a cloud shaped like a wild monster — this is direful to sailors. There is also what is called a column, when densified and stiffened moisture raises itself aloft; in the same class also is a waterspout, when a cloud draws up water like a pipe.

§ 2.51.1  Thunderbolts are rare in winter and in summer, from opposite causes. In winter, owing to the thicker envelope of cloud, the air is rendered extremely dense, and all the earth's exhalation being stiff and cold extinguishes whatever fiery vapour it receives. This reason renders Scyrthia and the frozen regions round it immune from the fall of thunderbolts, while conversely the excessive heat does the same for Egypt, inasmuch as the hot and dry exhalations from the earth condense very rarely, and only form thin and feeble clouds. But in spring and autumn thunderbolts are more frequent, their summer and winter causes being combined in each of those seasons; this explains why they are frequent in Italy, where the milder winter and stormy summer make the air more mobile, and it is always somewhat vernal or autumnal. Also in the parts of Italy that slope down from the north towards the warmth, such as the district of Rome and the Campagna, lightning occurs in winter just as in summer, which does not happen in any other locality.

§ 2.52.1  Of thunderbolts themselves several varieties are reported. Those that come with a dry flash do not cause a fire but an explosion. The smoky ones do not burn but blacken. There is a third sort, called 'bright thunderbolts,' of an extremely remarkable nature; this kind drains casks dry without damaging their lids and without leaving any other trace, and melts gold and copper and silver in their bags without singeing the bags themselves at all, and even without melting the wax seal. Marcia, a lady of high station at Rome, was struck by lightning when enceinte, and though the child was killed, she herself survived without being otherwise injured. Among the portents in connexion with Catiline, a town-councillor of Pompei named Marcus Herennius was struck by lightning on a fine day.

§ 2.53.1  The Tuscan writers hold the view that there are nine gods who send thunderbolts, and that these are of eleven kinds, because Jupiter hurls three varieties. Only two of these deities have been retained by the Romans, who attribute thunderbolts in the daytime to Jupiter and those in the night to Summanus, the latter being naturally rare because the sky at night is colder. Etruria believes that some also burst out of the ground, which it calls 'low bolts,' and that these are rendered exceptionally direful and accursed by the season of winter, though all the bolts that they believe of earthly origin are not the ordinary ones and do not come from the stars but from the nearer and more disordered element: a clear proof of this being that all those coming from the upper heaven deliver slanting blows, whereas these which they call earthly strike straight. And those that fall from the nearer elements are supposed to come out of the earth because they leave no traces as a result of their rebound, although that is the principle not of a downward blow but of a slanting one. Those who pursue these enquiries with more subtlety think that these bolts come from the planet Saturn, just as the inflammatory ones come from Mars, as, for instance, when Bolsena, the richest town in Etruria, was entirely burnt up by a thunderbolt. Also the first ones that occur after a man sets up house for himself are called 'family meteors,' as foretelling his fortune for the whole of his life. However, people think that private meteors, except those that occur either at a man's first marriage or on his birthday, do not prophecy beyond ten years, nor public ones beyond the 30th year, except those occurring at the colonization of a town.

§ 2.54.1  Historical record also exists of thunderbolts being either caused by or vouchsafed in answer to certain rites and prayers. There is an old story of the latter in Etruria, when the portent which they called Olta came to the city of Bolsena, when its territory had been devastated; it was sent in answer to the prayer of its king Porsina. Also before his time, as is recorded on the reliable authority of Lucius Piso in his Annals I, this was frequently practised by Numa, though when Tullus Hostilius copied him with incorrect ritual he was struck by lightning. We also have groves and altars and rites, and among the other Jupiters, the Stayers and Thunderers and Receivers of Offerings, tradition gives us Jupiter the Invoked. On this matter the opinion of mankind varies, in correspondence with our individual dispositions. It takes a bold man to believe that Nature obeys the behests of ritual, and equally it takes a dull man to deny that ritual has beneficent powers, when knowledge has made such progress even in the interpretation of thunderbolts that it can prophecy that others will come on a fixed day, and whether they will destroy a previous one or other previous ones that are concealed: this progress has been made by public and private experiments in both fields. In consequence although such indications are certain in some cases but doubtful in others, and approved to some persons but in the view of others to be condemned, in accordance with Nature's will and pleasure, we for our part are not going to leave out the rest of the things worth recording in this department.

§ 2.55.1  It is certain that when thunder and lightning occur simultaneously, the flash is seen before the thunderclap is heard (this not being surprising, as light travels more swiftly than sound); but that Nature so regulates the stroke of a thunderbolt and the sound of the thunder that they occur together, although the sound is caused by the bolt starting, not striking; moreover that the current of air travels faster than the bolt, and that consequently the object always is shaken and feels the blast before it is struck; and that nobody hit has ever seen the lightning or heard the thunder in advance. Flashes on the left are considered lucky, because the sun rises on the left-hand side of the firmament; and their approach is not so visible as their return, whether after the blow a fire springs from it or the breath returns when its work is done or its fire used up.

§ 2.55.2  In making these observations the Tuscans divided the heaven into sixteen parts: the first quarter is from the North to the equinoctial sunrise (East), the second to the South, the third to the equinoctial sunset (West), and the fourth occupies the remaining space extending from West to North; these quarters they subdivided into four parts each, of which they called the eight starting from the East the left-hand regions and the eight opposite ones the right-hand. Of these the most formidable are those lying between West and North. Hence the line of approach and the line of retirement of thunderbolts is of very great importance. It is best for them to return to parts in the region of sunrise. Accordingly it will be a portent of supreme happiness when they come from the first part of the sky and retire to the same part — a sign that history records to have been vouchsafed to the dictator Sulla; but all the others are less fortunate or actually direful, in accordance with the division of the actual firmament where they occur. Some people think it wrong to give or to listen to reports of thunderbolts, except if they are told to a guest or a parent.

§ 2.55.3  The great folly of paying attention to these occurrences was discovered when the Temple of Juno at Rome was struck by lightning in the time of Scaurus, who was afterwards head of the state.

§ 2.55.4  Lightning unaccompanied by thunder occurs more often by night than in the daytime. Man is the one creature that is not always killed when struck — all others are killed on the spot; nature doubtless bestows this honour on man because so many animals surpass him in strength. All things (when struck) fall in the opposite direction to the flash. A man does not die unless the force of the blow turns him right round. Men struck from above collapse. A man struck while awake is found with his eyes shut; while asleep, with them open. It is not lawful to cremate a man who loses his life in this manner; religious tradition prescribes burial. No living creature can be burnt by lightning without being killed. The temperature of the wound of those struck is lower than that of the rest of the body.

§ 2.56.1  Among things that grow in the ground, it does not strike a laurel bush. It never penetrates more than five feet into the earth; consequently when in fear of lightning men think caves of greater depth are the safest, or else a tent made of the skin of the creatures called sea-calves, because that alone among marine animals lightning does not strike, just as it does not strike the eagle among birds; this is why the eagle is represented as armed with a thunderbolt as a weapon. In Italy in the time of the Caesarian war people ceased to build towers between Terracina and the Temple of Feronia, as every tower there was destroyed by lightning.

§ 2.57.1  Besides these events in the lower sky, it is entered in the records that in the consulship of Manius Acilius and Gaius Porcius [114 BCE] it rained milk and blood, and that frequently on other occasions there it has rained flesh, for instance in the consulship of Publius Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius [461 BCE], and that none of the flesh left unplundered by birds of prey went bad; and similarly that it rained iron in the district of Lucania the year before Marcus Crassus was killed a by the Parthians and with him all the Lucanian soldiers, of whom there was a large contingent in his army; the shape of the iron that fell resembled sponges; the augurs prophesied wounds from above. But in the consulship of Lucius Paullus and Gaius Marcellus {50 BCE] it rained wool in the vicinity of Compsa Castle, near which Titus Annius Milo was killed a year later. It is recorded in the annals of that year that while Milo was pleading a case in court it rained baked bricks.

§ 2.58.1  We are told that during the wars with the Cimbri a noise of clanging armour and the sounding of a trumpet were heard from the sky, and that the same thing has happened frequently both before then and later. In the third consulship of Marius the inhabitants of Ameria and Tuder saw the spectacle of heavenly armies advancing from the East and the West to meet in battle, those from the West being routed. It has often been seen, and is not at all surprising, that the sky itself catches fire when the clouds have been set on fire by an exceptionally large flame.

§ 2.59.1  The Greeks tell the story that Anaxagoras of Clazomenae in the 2nd year [467 BC] of the 78th Olympiad was enabled by his knowledge of astronomical literature to prophecy that in a certain number of days a rock would fall from the sun; and that this occurred in the daytime in the Goat's River (Aegospotami) district of Thrace (the stone is still shown — it is of the size of a wagon-load and brown in colour), a comet also blazing in the nights at the time. If anyone believes in the fact of this prophecy, that involves his allowing that the divining powers of Anaxagoras covered a greater marvel, and that our understanding of the physical universe is annihilated and everything thrown into confusion if it is believed either that the sun is itself a stone or ever had a stone inside it. But it will not be doubted that stones do frequently fall. A stone is worshipped for this reason even at the present day in the exercising ground at Abydos — one of moderate size, it is true, but which the same Anaxagoras is said to have prophesied as going to fall in the middle of the country. There is also one that is worshipped at Cassandria, the place that has been given the name of Potidaea, and where a colony was settled on account of this occurrence. I myself saw one that had recently come down in the territory of the Vocontii.

§ 2.60.1  The common occurrences that we call rainbows have nothing miraculous or portentous about them, for they do not reliably portend even rain or fine weather. The obvious explanation of them is that a ray of the sun striking a hollow cloud has its point repelled and is reflected back to the sun, and that the diversified colouring is due to the mixture of clouds, fires and air. Rainbows certainly do not occur except opposite to the sun, and never except in semi-circular shape, and not at night time, although Aristotle does state that a rainbow has been sometimes seen at night, though he also admits that it cannot happen except on the 14th day of the lunar month. Rainbows in winter occur chiefly when the day is drawing in after the autumnal equinox; when the day draws out again after the vernal equinox they do not occur, nor in the longest days about the solstice, but they occur frequently in midwinter; also they are high in the sky when the sun is low and low when it is high; and smaller but of wider breadth at sunrise or sunset, and narrow but of large circumference at midday. In summer they are not seen during midday, but after the autumn equinox they are seen at any hour; and never more than two are seen at once.

§ 2.61.1  I observe that the facts as to the other phenomena of the same kind are generally familiar: viz., that hail is produced from frozen rain and snow from the same fluid less solidly condensed, but hoar frost from cold dew; that snow fall during winter but not hail; and hail itself falls more often in the daytime than at night, and melts much faster than snow; that mists do not occur in summer nor in extremely cold weather, nor dew in frosty or very hot or windy weather, and only on fine nights; that liquid is reduced in bulk by freezing, and when ice is thawed the bulk produced is not the same; that variations of colour and shape are seen in the clouds in proportion as the fire mingled with them gains the upper hand or is defeated;

§ 2.62.1  and moreover that particular places have particular special qualities: the nights of Africa are dewy in summer, in Italy rainbows are seen every day at Locri and at the Veine Lake, at Rhodes and Syracuse there is never such a thick curtain of cloud that the sun is not visible at some hour of the day. Such special features will be more suitably related in their places. So much on the subject of the air.

§ 2.63.1  Next comes the earth, the one division of the natural world on which for its merits we have bestowed the venerable title of mother. She belongs to men as the sky belongs to God: she receives us at birth, and gives us nurture after birth, and when once brought forth she upholds us always, and at the last when we have now been disinherited by the rest of nature she embraces us in her bosom and at that very time gives us her maternal shelter; sanctified by no service more than that whereby she makes us also sacred, even bearing our monuments and epitaphs and prolonging our name and extending our memory against the shortness of time; whose divinity is the last which in anger we invoke to lie heavy on those who are now no more, as though we did not know that she is the only element that is never wroth with man. Water rises in mist, freezes into hail, swells in waves, falls headlong in torrents; air becomes thick with clouds and rages with storms; but earth is kind and gentle and indulgent, ever a handmaid in the service of mortals, producing under our compulsion, or lavishing of her own accord, what scents and savours, what juices, what surfaces for the touch, what colours! how honestly she repays the interest lent her! what produce she fosters for our benefit! since for living creatures that are noxious the breath of life is to blame — she is compelled to receive them when their seed is sown and to maintain them when they have been born; but their harm lies in the evils of those that generate them. When a serpent has stung a man she harbours it no more, and she exacts retribution even on the account of the helpless; she produces medicinal herbs, and is ever fertile for man's benefit; nay, even poisons she may be thought to have invented out of compassion for us, lest, when we were weary of life, hunger, the death most alien to earth's beneficence, should consume us with slow decay, lest precipices should scatter in fragments our lacerated body, lest departure it is seeking; lest if we sought death in the deep our burial should serve for fodder; lest the torture of the steel should cleave our body. So is it! in mercy did she generate the potion whereof the easiest draught — as men drink when thirsty — gifts might painlessly just blot us out, without injury to the body or loss of blood, in such wise that when dead no birds nor beasts should touch us, and one that had perished for himself should be preserved for the earth. Let us own the truth: what earth has produced as a cure for our ills, we have made into a deadly poison; why, do we not also put her indispensable gift of iron to a similar use? Nor yet should we have any right to complain even if she had engendered poison to serve the purpose of crime. In fact in regard to one of nature's elements we have no gratitude. For what luxuries and for what outrageous uses does she not subserve mankind? She is flung into the sea, or dug away to allow us to let in the channels. Water, iron, wood, fire, stone, growing crops, are employed to torture her at all hours, and much more to make her minister to our luxuries than our sustenance. Yet in order to make the sufferings inflicted on her surface and mere outer skin seem endurable, we probe her entrails, digging into her veins of gold and silver and mines of copper and lead; we actually drive shafts down into the depth to search for gems and certain tiny stones; we drag out her entrails, we seek a jewel merely to be worn upon a finger! How many hands are worn away with toil that a single knuckle may shine resplendent! If any beings of the nether world existed, assuredly even they would have been dug up ere now by the burrowings of avarice and luxury. And can we wonder if earth has also generated some creatures for our harm? since the wild animals, I well believe, are her guardians, and protect her from sacrilegious hands; do not serpents infest our mines, do we not handle veins of gold mingled with the roots of poison? Yet that shows the goddess all the kinder towards us, because all these avenues from which wealth issues lead but to crime and slaughter and warfare, and her whom we besprinkle with our blood we cover with unburied bones, over which nevertheless, when at length our madness has been finally discharged, she draws herself as a veil, and hides even the crimes of mortals. I would reckon this too among the crimes of our ingratitude, that we are ignorant of her nature.

§ 2.64.1  But her shape is the first fact about which men's judgement agrees. We do undoubtedly speak of the earth's sphere, and admit that the globe is shut in between poles. Nor yet in fact do all these lofty mountains and widely spreading plains comprise the outline of a perfect sphere, but a figure whose circuit would produce a perfect sphere if the ends of all the lines were enclosed in a circumference. This is the consequence of the very nature of things, it is not due to the same causes as those we have adduced in the case of the heaven; for in the heaven the convex hollow converges on itself and from all sides rests upon its pivot, the earth, whereas the earth being a solid dense mass rises like an object swelling, and expands outward. The world converges to its centre, whereas the earth radiates outward from its centre, the ceaseless revolution of the world around her forcing her immense globe into the shape of a sphere.

§ 2.65.1  Here there is a mighty battle between learning on one side and the common herd on the other: the theory being that human beings are distributed all round the earth and stand with their feet pointing towards each other, and that the top of the sky is alike for them all and the earth trodden under foot at the centre in the same way from any direction, while ordinary people enquire why the persons on the opposite side don't fall off — just as if it were not reasonable that the people on the other side wonder that we do not fall off. There is an intermediate theory that is acceptable even to the unlearned crowd — that the earth is of the shape of an irregular globe, resembling a pine cone, yet nevertheless is inhabited all round. But what is the good of this theory when there arises another marvel, that the earth herself hangs suspended and does not fall and carry us with it? As if forsooth there were any doubt about the force of breath, especially when shut up inside the world, or as if it were possible for the earth to fall when nature opposes, and denies it any place to fall to For just as the sole abode of fires is in the element of fire, and of waters in water, and of breath in breath, so earth, barred out by all the other elements, has no place except in itself. Yet it is surprising that with this vast level expanse of sea and plains the resulting formation is a globe. This view has the support of Dicaearchus, a savant of the first rank, who with the support of royal patrons took the measurement of mountains, and published that the highest of them was Pelion, with an altitude of 1250 paces [above 6000 feet] inferring that this was no portion of the earth's general sphericity. To me this seems a questionable guess, as I know that some peaks of the Alps rise to a great height, not less than 50,000 paces.

§ 2.65.2  But what the crowd most debates is if it must believe that the conformation of the waters also rises in a curve. Nevertheless nothing else in the natural world is more visibly manifest. For (1) hanging drops of liquid always take the shape of small round globes; (2) when dropped on dust or placed on the downy surface of leaves they are seen to be absolutely spherical; (3) in goblets when filled the surface curves upward most at the centre, though owing to the transparency of the liquid and its fluidity tending to find its own level this is more easily discovered by theory than by observation; and (4) a still more remarkable fact is that when a very little additional liquid is poured into a cup that has already been filled the surplus overflows, but the opposite happens when weighty solids, often as many as 20 coins, are put into it, presumably because these pass inside the liquid and raise its surface to a peak, whereas liquids poured on to the upward curving surface slip off. (5) The same cause explains why the land is not visible from the deck of a ship when in sight from the masthead; and why as a vessel passes far into the distance, if some shining object is tied to the top of the mast it appears slowly to sink and finally it is hidden from sight. Lastly (6) what other conformation could have caused the ocean, which we acknowledge to be at the extreme outside, to cohere and not fall away, if there is no boundary beyond to enclose it? The very question as to how, although the sea is globular in shape, its edge does not fall away, itself ranks with the marvellous. On the other side the Greek investigators, greatly to their delight and to their glory, prove by subtle mathematical reasoning that it cannot possibly be the case that the seas are really flat and have the shape that they appear to have. For, they argue, while it is the ease that water travels downward from an elevation, and this is its admitted nature, and nobody doubts that the water on any coast has reached the farthest point allowed by the slope of the earth, it is manifest beyond doubt that the lower an object is the nearer it is to the centre of the earth, and that all the lines drawn from the centre to the nearest bodies of water are shorter than those drawn from the edge of these waters to the farthest point in the sea: it therefore follows that all the water from every direction converges towards the centre, this pressure inward being the cause of its not falling off.

§ 2.66.1  The reason for this formation must be thought to be the inability of earth when absolutely dry to cohere of itself and without moisture, and of water in its turn to remain still without being held up by earth; the intention of the Artificer of nature must have been to unite earth and water in a mutual embrace, earth opening her bosom and water penetrating her entire frame by means of a network of veins radiating within and without, above and below, the water bursting out even at the tops of mountain ridges, to which it is driven and squeezed out by the weight of the earth, and spurts out like a jet of water from a pipe, and is so far from being in danger of falling down that it leaps upward to all the loftiest elevations. This theory shows clearly why the seas do not increase in bulk with the daily accession of so many rivers. The consequence is that the earth at every point of its globe is encircled and engirdled by sea flowing round it, and this does not need theoretical investigation, but has already been ascertained by experience.

§ 2.67.1  Today the whole of the West is navigated from Cadiz and the Straits of Gibraltar all round Spain and France. But the larger part of the Northern Ocean was explored under the patronage of his late Majesty Augustus, when a fleet sailed round Germany to the promontory of the Cimbri, and thence seeing a vast sea in front of them or learning of it by report, reached the region of Scythia and localities numb with excessive moisture. On this account it is extremely improbable that there is no sea in those parts, as there is a superabundance of the moist element there. But next, on the Eastward side, the whole quarter under the same star stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Caspian Sea was navigated throughout by the Macedonian forces in the reigns of Seleucus and Antiochus, who desired that it should be called both Seleucis and Antiochis after themselves. And many coasts of Ocean round the Caspian have been explored, and very nearly the whole of the North has been completely traversed from one side to the other by galleys, so that similarly also there is now overwhelming proof, leaving no room for conjecture, of the existence of the Maeotic Marsh, whether it be a gulf of that Ocean, as I notice many have believed, or an overflow from it from which it is separated off by a narrow space. On the other side of Cadiz, from the same Western point, a great part of the Southern gulf is navigated today in the circuit of Mauretania. Indeed the greater part of it Alexander the Great's eastern conquests also explored as far as the Arabian gulf; in which, when Augustus's son Gaius Caesar was operating there, it is said that figureheads of ships from Spanish wrecks were identified. Also when the power of Carthage flourished, Hanno sailed round from Cadiz to the extremity of Arabia and published a memoir of his voyage, as did Himileo when despatched at the same date to explore the outer coasts of Europe. Moreover we have it on the authority of Cornelius Nepos that a certain contemporary of his named Eudoxus when flying from King Lathyrus emerged from the Arabian Gulf and sailed right round to Cadiz; and much before him Caelius Antipater states that he had seen someone who had gone on a trading voyage from Spain to Ethiopia. Nepos also records as to the northern circuit that Quintus Metellus Celer, colleague of Afranius in the consulship but at the time pro-consul of Gaul, received from the King of the Swabians a present of some Indians, who on a trade voyage had been carried off their course by storms to Germany. Thus there are seas encircling the globe on every side and dividing it in two, so robbing us of half the world since there is no region affording a passage from there to here or from here to there. This reflexion serves to expose the vanity of mortals, and appears to demand that I should display to the eye and exhibit the extent of this whole indefinite region in which men severally find no satisfaction.

§ 2.68.1  In the first place it is apparently reckoned as forming one half of the globe — just as if no part were cut off for the ocean itself, which surrounding and encircling the whole of it, and pouring forth and reabsorbing the waters and pasturing and all the moisture that goes to form the clouds, the stars themselves with all their numbers and their mighty size, can be supposed to occupy a space — of what extent, pray? The freehold owned by that mighty climatic mass is bound to be enormous — without limit! Add that of what is left more than half is taken by the sky. For this has five divisions called zones, and all that lies beneath the two outermost zones that surround the poles at either end — both the pole named from the Seven Oxen and the one opposite to it called after Auster — is all crushed under cruel frost and everlasting cold. In both regions perpetual mist prevails, and a light that the invisibility of the milder stars renders niggardly and that is only white with hoarfrost. But the middle portion of the lands, where the sun's orbit is, is scorched by its flames and burnt up by the proximity of its heat: this is the torrid zone. There are only two temperate zones between the torrid one and the frozen ones, and these have no communication with each other because of the fiery heat of the heavenly body.

§ 2.68.2  Thus the sky has stolen three quarters of the earth. The extent of the trespass of ocean is unascertained; but even the one portion left to us suffers perhaps an even greater loss, inasmuch as the same ocean, spreading out, as we shall describe, into a number of bays, advances with its threatening roar so close to the inner seas that there is only a distance of 115 miles between the Arabian Gulf and the Egyptian Sea and of 375 between the Caspian and the Black Sear; and also with its inner channels through so many seas whereby it sunders Africa, Europe and Asia, it occupies — what area of the land? Calculate moreover the dimensions of all those rivers and vast swamps, add also the lakes and pools, and next the ridges too that rise into the heaven and are precipitous even to the eye, next the forests and steep glens, and the deserts and areas for a thousand reasons left deserted; subtract all these portions from the earth or rather from this pinprick, as the majority of thinkers have taught, in the world — for in the whole universe the earth is nothing else: and this is the substance of our glory, this is its habitation, here it is that we fill positions of power and covet wealth, and throw mankind into an uproar, and launch even civil wars and slaughter one another to make the land more spacious! And to pass over the collective insanities of the nations, this is the land in which we expel the tenants next to us and add a spade-full of turf to our own estate by stealing from our neighbour's — to the end that he who has marked out his acres most widen and banished his neighbours beyond all record may rejoice in owning — how small a fraction of the earth's surface? or, when he has stretched his boundaries to the full measure of his avarice, may still retain — what portion, pray, of his estate when he is dead?

§ 2.69.1  That the earth is at the centre of the universe is proved by irrefragable arguments, but the clearest is the equal hours of day and night at the equinox. For if the earth were not at the centre, it can be realized that it could not have the days and nights equal; and binoculars confirm this very powerfully, since at the season of the equinox sunrise and sunset are seen on the same line, whereas sunrise at midsummer and sunset at midwinter fall on a line of their own. These things could not occur without the earth's being situated at the centre.

§ 2.70.1  But the three circles intertwined between the zones aforesaid are the cause of the differences of the seasons: the Tropic of Cancer on the side of the highest part of the zodiac to the northward of us, and opposite to it the Tropic of Capricorn towards the other pole, and also the equator that runs in the middle circuit of the zodiac.

§ 2.71.1  The cause of the remaining facts that surprise us is found in the shape of the earth itself, which together with the waters also the same arguments prove to resemble a globe. For this is undoubtedly the cause why for us the stars of the northern region never set and their opposites of the southern region never rise, while on the contrary these northern stars are not visible to the antipodes, as the curve of the earth's globe bars our view of the tracts between. Cave-dweller Country [Trogodytike, Abyssinia/Somaliland] and Egypt which is adjacent to it do not see the Great and Little Bear, and Italy does not see Canopus and the constellation called Berenice's Hair, also the one that in the reign of his late Majesty Augustus received the name of Caesar's Throne, constellations that are conspicuous there. And so clearly does the rising vault curve over that to observers at Alexandria Canopus appears to be elevated nearly a quarter of one sign above the earth, whereas from Rhodes it seems practically to graze the earth itself, and on the Black Sea, where the North Stars are at their highest, it is not visible at all. Also Canopus is hidden from Rhodes, and still more from Alexandria; in Arabia in November it is hidden during the first quarter of the night and shows itself in the second; at Meroe it appears a little in the evening at midsummer and a few days before the rising of Areturus is seen at daybreak. These phenomena are most clearly disclosed by the voyages of those at sea, the sea sloping upward in the direction of some and downward in the direction of others, and the stars that were hidden behind the curve of the ball suddenly becoming visible as it were rising out of the sea. For it is not the fact, as some have said, that the world rises up at this higher pole — or else these stars would be visible everywhere; but these stars are believed to be higher the nearer people are to them, while they seem low to those far away, and just as at present this pole seems lofty to those situated on the declivity, so when people pass across to yonder downward slope of the earth those stars rise while the ones that here were high sink, which could not happen except with the conformation of a ball.

§ 2.72.1  Consequently inhabitants of the East do not perceive evening eclipses of the sun and moon, nor do those dwelling in the West see morning eclipses, while the latter see eclipses at midday later than we do. The victory of Alexander the Great is said to have caused an eclipse of the moon at Arbela at 8 p.m. while the same eclipse in Sicily was when the moon was just rising. An eclipse of the sun that occurred on April 30 in the consulship [59 AD] of Vipstanus and Fonteius a few years ago was visible in Campania between 1 and 2 p.m. but was reported by Corbulo commanding in Armenia as observed between 4 and 5: this was because the curve of the globe discloses and hides different phenomena for different localities. If the earth were flat, all would be visible to all alike at the same time; also the nights would not vary in length, because corresponding periods of 12 hours would be visible equally to others than those at the equator, periods that as it is do not exactly correspond in every region alike.

§ 2.73.1  Consequently also although night and day are the same thing all over the world, it is not night and day at the same time all over the world, the intervention of the globe bringing night or its revolution day. This has been discovered by many experiments — that of Hannibal's towers in Africa and Spain, and in Asia when piratical alarms prompted the precaution of watchtowers of the same sort, warning fires lit on which at noon were often ascertained to have been seen by the people farthest to the rear at 9 p.m. Alexander above mentioned had a runner named Philonides who did the 1200 stades from Sicyon to Elis in 9 hours from sunrise and took till 9 p.m. for the return journey, although the way is downhill; this occurred repeatedly. The reason was that going his way lay with the sun but returning he was passing the sun as it met him travelling in the opposite direction. For this reason ships sailing westward beat even in the shortest day the distances they sail in the nights, because they are going with the actual sun.

§ 2.74.1  Travellers' sundials are not the same for reference everywhere, because the shadows thrown by the sun as they alter alter the readings at every 300 or at farthest 500 stades. Consequently in Egypt at midday on the day of the equinox the shadow of the pin or 'gnomon' measures a little more than half the length of the gnomon itself, whereas in the city of Rome the shadow is 1/9th shorter than the gnomon, at the town of Ancona 1/35th longer, and in the district of Italy called Venezia the shadow is equal to the gnomon, at the same hours.

§ 2.75.1  Similarly it is reported that at the town of Syene, 5000 stades South of Alexandria, at noon in midsummer no shadow is cast, and that in a well made for the sake of testing this the light reaches to the bottom, clearly showing that the sun is vertically above that place at the time; and this is stated in the writings of Onesicritus also to occur at the same time in India South of the river Hypasis. It is also stated that in the Cave-dwellers' city of Berenice, and 4820 stades away at the town of Ptolemais in the same tribe, which was founded on the shore of the Red Sea for the earliest elephant hunts, the same thing occurs 45 days before and 45 days after midsummer, and during that period of 90 days the shadows are thrown southward. Again in Meroe — this is an inhabited island in the river Nile 5000 stades from Syene, and is the capital of the Aethiopian race — the shadows disappear twice a year, when the sun is in the 18th degree of Taurus and in the 14th of Leo. There is a mountain named Maleus in the Indian tribe of the Oretes, near which shadows are thrown southward in summer and northward in winter; the northern constellation is visible there on only 15 nights. Also in India at the well-known port of Patala the sun rises on the right and shadows fall southward. It was noticed when Alexander was staying at this place that the Great and Little Bears were visible only in the early part of the night. Alexander's guide Onesicritus wrote that this constellation is not visible at the places in India where there are no shadows, and that these places are called Shadeless, and no reckoning is kept of the hours there.

§ 2.76.1  But according to Eratosthenes in the whole of Cave-dweller Country on 90 days once a year shadows fall the wrong way.

§ 2.77.1  Thus it comes about that owing to the varied lengthening of daylight the longest day covers 12 8/9 equinoctial hours at Meroe, but 14 hours at Alexandria, 15 in Italy, and 17 in Britain, where the light nights in summer substantiate what theory compels us to believe, that, as on summer days the sun approaches nearer to the top of the world, owing to a narrow circuit of light the underlying parts of the earth have continuous days for 6 months at a time, and continuous nights when the sun has withdrawn in the opposite direction towards winter. Pytheas of Marseilles writes that this occurs in the island of Thule, 6 days' voyage N. from Britain, and some declare it also to occur in the Isle of Anglesea, which is about 200 miles from the British town of Colchester.

§ 2.78.1  This theory of shadows and the science called gnomonics was discovered by Anaximenes of Miletus, the pupil of Anaximander of whom we have spoken; he first exhibited at Sparta the time-piece they call 'Hunt-the-Shadow.'

§ 2.79.1  The actual period of a day has been differently kept by different people: the Babylonians count the period between two sunrises, the Athenians that between two sunsets, the Umbrians from midday to midday, the common people everywhere from dawn to dark, the Roman priests and the authorities who fixed the official day, and also the Egyptians and Hipparchus, the period from midnight to midnight. But it is obvious that the breaks in daylight between sunset and sunrise are smaller near the solstice than at the equinoxes, because the position of the zodiac is more slanting around its middle points but straighter near the solstice.

§ 2.80.1  We must deal next with the results connected with these heavenly causes. For it is beyond question that the Ethiopians are burnt by the heat of the heavenly body near them, and are born with a scorched appearance, with curly beard and hair, and that in the opposite region of the world the races have white frosty skins, with yellow hair that hangs straight; while the latter are fierce owing to the rigidity of their climate but the former wise because of the mobility of theirs; and their legs themselves prove that with the former the juice is called away into the upper portions of the body by the nature of heat, while with the latter it is driven down to the lower parts by falling moisture; in the latter country dangerous wild beasts are found, in the former a great variety of animals and especially of birds; but in both regions men's stature is high, owing in the former to the pressure of the fires and in the latter to the nourishing effect of the damp; whereas in the middle of the earth, owing to a healthy blending of both elements, there are tracts that are fertile for all sorts of produce, and men are of medium bodily stature, with a marked blending even in the matter of complexion; customs are gentle, senses clear, intellects fertile and able to grasp the whole of nature; and they also have governments, which the outer races never have possessed, any more than they have ever been subject to the central races, being quite detached and solitary on account of the savagery of the nature that broods over those regions.

§ 2.81.1  The theory of the Babylonians deems that even earthquakes and fissures in the ground are caused by the force of the stars that is the cause of all other phenomena, but only by that of those three stars to which they assign thunderbolts; and that they occur when these are travelling with the sun or are in agreement with him, and particularly about the quadratures of the world. On this subject a remarkable and immortal inspiration is attributed (if we can believe it) to the natural philosopher Anaximander of Miletus, who is said to have warned the Spartans to be careful of their city and buildings, because an earthquake was impending; and subsequently the whole of their city collapsed, and also a large part of Mount Taygetus projecting in the shape of a ship's stern broke off and crashing down on it added to the catastrophe. Also another conjecture is attributed to Pherecydes the teacher of Pythagoras, this also inspired: he is said to have foretold to his fellow-citizens an earthquake, of which he had obtained a premonition in drawing water from a well. Assuming the truth of these stories, how far pray can such men even in their lifetime be thought to differ from a god? And though these matters may be left to the estimation of individual judgment; I think it indubitable that their cause is to be attributed to the winds; for tremors of the earth never occur except when the sea is calm and the sky so till that birds are unable to soar because all the Breath that carries them has been withdrawn; and never except after wind, doubtless because then the blast has been shut up in the veins and hidden bob lows of the sky. And a trembling in the earth is not different from a thunderclap in a cloud, and a fissure is no different from when an imprisoned current of air by struggling and striving to go forth to freedom causes a flash of lightning to burst out.

§ 2.82.1  Consequently earthquakes occur in a variety of ways, and cause remarkable consequences, in some places overthrowing walls, in others drawing them down into a gaping cleft, in others thrusting up masses of rock, in others sending out rivers and sometimes even fires or hot springs, in others diverting the course of rivers. They are however preceded or accompanied by a terrible sound, that sometimes resembles a rumble, sometimes the lowing of cattle or the shouts of human beings or the clash of weapons struck together, according to the nature of the material that receives the shock and the shape of the caverns or burrows through which it passes, proceeding with smaller volume in a narrow channel but with a harsh noise in channels that bend, echoing in hard channels, bubbling in damp ones, forming waves in stagnant ones, raging against solid ones. Accordingly even without any movement occurring a sound is sometimes emitted. And sometimes the earth is not shaken in a simple manner but trembles and vibrates. Also the gap sometimes remains open, showing the objects that it has sucked in, while sometimes it hides them by closing its mouth and drawing soil over it again in such a way as to leave no traces; it being usually cities that are engulfed, and a tract of farmland swallowed, although seaboard districts are most subject to earthquakes, and also mountainous regions are not free from disaster of the kind: I have ascertained that tremors have somewhat frequently occurred in the Alps and Apennines.

§ 2.82.2  Earthquakes are more frequent in autumn and spring, as is lightning. Consequently the Gallic provinces and Egypt suffer very little from them, as in the latter the summer is the cause that prevents them and in the former the winter. Similarly they are more frequent by night than in the daytime. The severest earthquakes occur in the morning and the evening, but they are frequent near dawn and in the daytime about noon. They also occur at an eclipse of the sun or moon, since then storms are lulled, but particularly when heat follows rain or rain heat.

§ 2.83.1  Sailors at sea can also anticipate an earthquake and forecast it with certainty when a sudden wave swells up without there being a wind, or a shock shakes the vessel. Even in ships posts begin to tremble just as they do in buildings, and foretell an earthquake by rattling; nay more, birds of timid kinds perch on the rigging. There is also a sign in the sky: when an earthquake is impending, either in the daytime or a little after sunset, in fine weather, it is preceded by a thin streak of cloud stretching over a wide space.

§ 2.84.1  Another sign is when the water in wells is muddier and has a somewhat foul smell, just as in wells there is also a remedy for earthquake such as frequently caves too afford, as they supply an outlet for the confined breath. This is noticed in whole towns: buildings pierced by frequent conduits for drainage are less shaken, and also among these the ones erected over vaults are much safer — as is noticed in Italy at Naples, the solidly built portion of the city being specially liable to collapses of this nature. The safest parts of buildings are arches, also angles of walls, and posts, which swing back into position with each alternate thrust; and walls built of clay bricks suffer less damage from being shaken. There is also a great difference in the actual kind of movement, as the earth shakes in several ways; there is least danger when it quivers with a trembling rattle of the buildings, and when it rises in a swell and settles back again, with an alternating motion; also no harm is done when buildings collide and ram against each other, as the one motion counteracts the other. A waving bend and a sort of billowy fluctuation is dangerous, or when the whole movement drives in one direction. Earthquakes stop when the wind has found an outlet, or else, if they go on, they do not stop before forty days, and usually even longer, some in fact having gone on for one or two years' time.

§ 2.85.1  I find in the books of the lore of Etruria that once a vast and portentous earthquake occurred in the district of Modena; this was during the consulship of Lucius Marcius and Sextus Julius. Two mountains ran together with a mighty crash, leaping forward and then retiring with flames and smoke rising between them to the sky; this took place in the daytime, and was watched from the Aemilian road by a large crowd of Knights of Rome with their retinues and passers by. The shock brought down all the country houses, and a great many animals in the buildings were killed. It was in the year before the Allies' War, which was perhaps more disastrous to the land of Italy than the civil wars. Our generation also experienced a not less marvellous manifestation in the last year of the Emperor Nero, as we have set forth in our history of his principate: meadows and olive trees with a public road running between then got over to the opposite sides of the road; this took place in the Marrucinian territory, on the lands of Vettius Marcellus, Knight of Rome, Nero's estate-manager.

§ 2.86.1  Earthquakes are accompanied by inundations of the sea, which is presumably caused to flood the land by the same current of air, or drawn into the bosom of the earth as it subsides. The greatest earthquake in human memory occurred when Tiberius Caesar was emperor, twelve Asiatic cities being overthrown in one night; the most numerous series of shocks was during the Punic War, when reports reached Rome of fifty-seven in a single year; it was the year when a violent earthquake occurring during an action between the Carthaginian and Roman armies at Lake Trasimene was not noticed by the combatants on either side. Nor yet is the disaster a simple one, nor does the danger consist only in the earthquake itself, but equally or more in the fact that it is a portent; the city of Rome was never shaken without this being a premonition of something about to happen.

§ 2.87.1  The cause of the birth of new lands is the same, when that same breath although powerful enough to cause an upheaval of the soil has not been able to force an exit. For lands are born not only through the conveyance of soil by streams (as the Echinades Islands when heaped up from the river Achelous and the greater part of Egypt from the Nile — the crossing from the island of Pharos to the coast, if we believe Homer, having formerly taken twenty-four hours) or by the retirement of the sea as once took place at Circei; such a retirement is also recorded to have occurred to a distance of 10,000 paces in the harbour of Ambracia, and to a distance of 5,000 at the Athenian port of Piraeus; and at Ephesus, where once the sea used to wash up to the temple of Diana. At all events if we believe Herodotus, there was sea above Memphis as far as the mountains of Ethiopia and also towards the plains of Arabia, and sea round Ilium, and over the whole territory of Teuthras and where the Maeander has spread prairie-land.

§ 2.88.1  New lands are also formed in another way, and suddenly emerge in a different sea, nature as it were balancing accounts with herself and restoring in another place what an earthquake has engulfed.

§ 2.89.1  The famous islands of Delos and Rhodes are recorded in history as having been born from the sea long ago, and subsequently smaller ones, Anaphe beyond Melos, the Neae between Lemnos and the Dardanelles, Halone between Lebedos and Teos, in the Cyclades Thera and Therasia, and between them, in the 4th year of the 145th Olympiad Hiera, likewise Automate, 130 years later; and 2 stades from Hiera, 110 years later, in our age, Thia island, on July 8 in the year of the consulship of Marcus Junius Silanus and Lucius Balbus (19 AD).

§ 2.89.2  Before our time also among the Aeolian Islands near Italy, as well as near Crete, there emerged from the sea one island 2500 paces long, with hot springs, and another in the 3rd year [126 BC] of Olympiad 163 in the bay of Etruria, this one burning with a violent blast of air; and it is recorded that a great quantity of fish were floating round it, and that people who ate of them immediately expired. So also the Monkey Islands (Pithecusae are said to have risen in the bay of Campania, and later one among them, Mount Epopos, is said to have suddenly shot up a great flame and then to have been levelled with the surface of the plain. In the same plain also a town was sucked down into the depths, and another earthquake caused a swamp to emerge, and another overturned mountains and threw up the island of Procida.

§ 2.90.1  For another way also in which nature has made islands is when she tore Sicily away from Italy, Cyprus from Syria, Euboea from Boeotia, land. Atalante and Macria from Euboea, Besbicus from Bithynia, Leucosia from the Sirens' Cape.

§ 2.91.1  Again she has taken islands away from the sea and joined them to the land — Antissa to Lesbos, Zephyrium to Halicarnassus, Aethusa to Myndus, Dromiscum and Pernes to Miletus, Narthecusa to Cape Parthenius. Hybanda, once an Ionian island, is now 25 miles distant from the sea, Ephesus has Syria as part of the mainland, and its neighbour Magnesia the Derasides and Sapphonia. Epidaurus and Oricum have ceased to be islands.

§ 2.92.1  Cases of land entirely stolen away by the first of all (if we accept Plato's story [Tim. 24 E]), the vast area covered by the Atlantic, and next, in the inland seas also, the areas that we see submerged at the present day, Acarnania covered by the Ambracian Gulf, Achaea by the Gulf of Corinth, Europe and Asia by the Propontis and the Black Sea. Also the sea has made the channels of Leucas, Antirrhium, the Dardanelles and the two Bospori.

§ 2.93.1  And to pass over bays and marshes, the earth is eaten up by herself. She has devoured the highest mountain in Caria, Cibotus, together with the town of that name, Sipylus in Magnesia, and previously the very celebrated city in the same place that used to be called Tantalis, the territories of Galene and Gamale in Phoenicia with the cities themselves, and the loftiest mountain range in Ethiopia, Phegium — just as if the coasts also did not treacherously encroach!

§ 2.94.1  The Black Sea has stolen Pyrra and Antissa in the neighbourhood of Lake Maeotis, the Gulf of Corinth Helice and Bura, traces of which are visible at the bottom of the water. The sea suddenly snatched away more than 30,000 paces together with most of the human beings from the island of Ceos, and half the city of Tyndaris in Sicily, and all the gap in the coast of Italy, and similarly Eleusis in Boeotia.

§ 2.95.1  For let earthquakes not be mentioned, and every case where at least the tombs of cities survive, and at the same time let us tell of the marvels of the earth rather than the crimes of nature. And, I will swear, not even the heavenly phenomena could have been more difficult to recount: the wealth of mines so varied, so opulent, so prolific, brought to the surface in so many ages, although every day all over the world so much devastation is wrought by fires, collapse of buildings, shipwrecks, wars, frauds, and so great is the consumption of luxury and of the multitudes of mankind; such a variety of patterned gems, such many-coloured markings in stones, and among them the brilliance of a certain stone a that only allows actual daylight to penetrate through it; the profusion of medicinal springs; the flames of fire flickering up in so many places, unceasing for so many centuries; the lethal breaths either emitted from chasms or due to the mere formation of the ground, in some places fatal only to birds, as in the region of Soracte near Rome, in others to all living creatures except man, and sometimes to man also, as in the territory of Sinuessa and of Pozzuoli — the places called breathing holes, or by other people jaws of hell — ditches that exhale a deadly breath; also the place near the Temple of Mephitis at Ampsanctus in the Hirpinian district, on entering which people die; likewise the hole at Hierapolis in Asia, harmless only to the priest of the Great Mother; elsewhere prophetic caves, those intoxicated by whose exhalations foretell the future, as at the very famous oracle at Delphi. In these matters what other explanation could any mortal man adduce save that they are caused by the divine power of that nature which is diffused throughout the universe, repeatedly bursting out in different ways?

§ 2.96.1  In some places, the earth trembles when trodden on — for instance in the Gabii district not from the city of Rome about 200 acres shake when horsemen gallop over them, and similarly in the Reate district. Certain islands are always afloat, as in the districts of Caecubum and of Reate mentioned above and Modena and Statonium, and in Lake Vadimon, the dense wood near the springs of Cutilia which is never to be seen in the same place by day and by night, the islands in Lydia named the Reed Islands which are not only driven by the winds, but can be punted in any direction at pleasure with poles, and so served to rescue a number of the citizens in the Mithridatic war. There are also small islands at Nymphaion called the Dancing Islands, because they move to the foot-beats of persons keeping time with the chanting of a choral song. On the great lake of Tarquinium in Italy two islands float about carrying woods, their outline as the winds drive them forward now forming the shape of a triangle and now of a circle, but never a square.

§ 2.97.1  Paphos possesses a famous shrine of Venus on a certain court in which rain does not fall, and the same in the case round an image of Minerva at the town of Nea in the Troad; in the same town also sacrifices left over do not go bad.

§ 2.98.1  Near the town of Harpasa in Asia stands a jagged rock that can be moved with one finger, but that also resists a push made with the whole body. On the peninsula of the Taurians in the state of Parasinum there is some earth which heals all wounds. But in the neighbourhood of Assos in the Troad a stone is produced that causes all bodies to waste away; it is called the Flesh-eater. There are two mountains near the river Indus, the nature of one of which is to hold all iron and that of the other to reject it; consequently if a man has nails in his shoes, on one of the mountains at each step he is unable to tear his foot away from the ground and on the other he cannot set it down on the ground. It is recorded that at Locri and Croton there has never been a plague or earthquake, and that in Lycia an earthquake is always followed by forty days' fine weather. Corn sown in the Arpi district does not come up, and at Mycian Altars in the district of Veii and at Tusculum and in the Ciminian Forest there are places where stakes driven into the ground cannot be pulled out. Hay grown in the Crustuminum district is noxious on the spot but healthy when conveyed elsewhere.

§ 2.99.1  About the nature of bodies of water a great deal has been said. But the rise and fall of the tides of the sea is extremely mysterious, at all events in its irregularity; however the cause lies in the sun and moon. Between two risings of the moon there are two high and two low tides every 24 hours, the tide first swelling as the world moves upward with the moon, then falling as it slopes from the midday summit of the sky towards sunset, and again coming in as after sunset the world goes below the earth to the lowest parts of the heaven and approaches the regions opposite to the meridian, and from that point sucking back until it rises again; and never flowing back at the same time as the day before, just as if gasping for breath as the greedy star draws the seas with it at a draught and constantly rises from another point than the day before; yet returning at equal intervals and in every six hours, not of each day or night or place but equinoctial hours, so that the tidal periods are not equal by the space of ordinary hours whenever the tides occupy larger measures of either diurnal or nocturnal hours, and only equal everywhere at the equinox. It is a vast and illuminating proof, and one of even divine utterance, that those are dull of wit who deny that the same stars pass below the earth and rise up again, and that they present a similar appearance to the lands and indeed to the whole of nature in the same processes of rising and setting, the course or other operation of a star being manifest beneath the earth in just the same way as when it is travelling past our eyes.

§ 2.99.2  Moreover, the lunar difference is manifold, and to begin with, its period is seven days: inasmuch as the tides, which are moderate from new moon to half-moon, therefrom rise higher and at full moon are at their maximum; after that they relax, at the seventh day being equal to what they were at first; and they increase again when the moon divides on the other side, at the union of the moon with the sun being equal to what they were at full moon. When the moon is northward and retiring further from the earth the tides are gentler than when she has swerved towards the south and exerts her force at a nearer angle. At every eighth year the tides are brought back at the hundredth circuit of the moon to the beginnings of their motion and to corresponding stages of increase. They make all these increases owing to the yearly influences of the sun, swelling most at the two equinoxes and more at the autumn than the spring one, but empty at mid-winter and more so at midsummer. Nevertheless this does not occur at the exact points of time I have specified, but a few days after, just as it is not at full or new moon but afterwards, and not immediately when the world shows or hides the moon or slopes it in the middle quarter, but about two equinoctial hours later, the effect of all the occurrences in the sky reaching the earth more slowly than the sight of them, as is the case with lightning, thunder and thunderbolts.

§ 2.99.3  But all the tides cover and lay bare greater spaces in the ocean than in the rest of the sea, whether because it is more furious when moved in its entirety than when in part, or because the open extent feels the force of the star when it marches untrammelled with more effect, whereas narrow spaces hinder the force, which is the reason why neither lakes nor rivers have tides like the ocean (Pytheas of Marseilles states that north of Britain the tides rise 120 ft.) But also the more inland seas are shut in by land like the water in a harbour; yet a more untrammelled expanse is subject to the tidal sway, inasmuch as there are several instances of people making the crossing from Italy to Utica in two days in a calm sea and with no wind in the sails when a strong tide was running. But these motions are observed more round the coasts than in the deep sea, since in the body too the extremities are more sensitive to the pulse of the veins, that is of the breath. But in most estuaries owing to the different risings of the stars in each region the tides occur irregularly, varying in time though not in method, as for instance in the Syrtes.

§ 2.100.1  And nevertheless some tides have a special nature, for instance the channel at Taormina that ebbs and flows more frequently, and the one at Euboea that has seven tides in twenty-four hours. The tide at Euboea stops three times a month, on the seventh, eighth and ninth day after the new moon. At Cadiz the spring nearest the shrine of Hercules, which is enclosed like a well, sometimes rises and sinks with the ocean and sometimes does both at the contrary periods; a second spring in the same place agrees with the motions of the ocean.

§ 2.100.2  There is a town on the banks of the Baetis whose wells sink when the tide rises and rise when it falls, remaining stationary in the intervening periods. At Hispalis there is one well in the actual town that has the same nature, though all the others are as usual. The Black Sea always flows out into the Propontis — the tide never sets inward into the Black Sea.

§ 2.101.1  All seas excrete refuse at high tide, some also periodically. In the neighbourhood of Messina and Mylae scum resembling dung is spat out on to the shore, which is the origin of the story that this is the place where the Oxen of the Sun are stalled. To this (so that I may leave out nothing that is within my knowledge) Aristotle adds that no animal dies except when the tide is ebbing. This has been widely noticed in the Gallic Ocean, and has been found to hold good at all events in the case of man.

§ 2.102.1  This is the source of the true conjecture that the moon is rightly believed to be the star of the breath, and that it is this star that saturates the earth and fills bodies by its approach and empties them by its departure; and that consequently shells increase in size as the moon waxes, and that its breath is specially felt by bloodless creatures, but also the blood even of human beings increases and diminishes with its light; and that also leaves and herbage (as will be stated in the proper place) are sensitive to it, the same force penetrating into all things.

§ 2.103.1  Consequently liquid is dried by the heat of the sun, and we are taught that this is the male star, which scorches and sucks up everything; and that in this way the flavour of salt is boiled into the wide expanse of the sea, either because the sweet and liquid, which is easily attracted by fiery force, is drawn out of it, but all the harsher and denser portion is left (this being why in a calm sea the water at a depth is sweeter than that at the top, this being the truer explanation of its harsh flavour, rather than because the sea is the ceaseless perspiration of the land), or because a great deal of warmth from the dry is mixed with it, or because the nature of the earth stains the waters as if they were drugged. One instance is that when Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily was expelled from that position, he encountered the portent that on one day the sea-water in the harbour became fresh water.

§ 2.104.1  The moon on the contrary is said to be a feminine and soft star, and to disengage moisture at night and attract, not remove it. The proof given for this is that the moon by her aspect melts the bodies of wild animals that have been killed and causes them to putrefy, and that when people are fast asleep she recalls the torpor and collects it into the head, and thaws ice, and unstiffens everything with moistening breath: thus (it is said) nature's alternations are held in balance, and there is always a supply, some of the stars drawing the elements together while others scatter them. But the nutriment of the moon is stated to be contained in bodies of fresh water as that of the sun is in seawater.

§ 2.105.1  According to the account of Fabianus, the deepest sea has a depth of nearly two miles. Others report an immense depth of water (called the Black Sea Deeps) off the coast of the Coraxi tribe on the Black Sea, about 37 miles from land, where soundings have never reached bottom.

§ 2.106.1  This is rendered more remarkable by springs of fresh water bubbling out as if from pipes on the seashore. In fact the nature of water also is not deficient in marvels. Patches of fresh water float on the surface of the sea, being doubtless lighter. Consequently also seawater being of a heavier nature gives more support to objects floating upon it. But some fresh waters too float on the surface of others; cases are the river carried on the surface of Lake Fucinus, the Adde on Larius (the Lake of Como), the Ticinus on Verbanus, the Mincio on Benacus (Garda), the Ollius on Sebinnus (Lago d'Iseo), the Rhone on Lemannus (the last north of the Alps, but all the rest in Italy), after a passing visit that covers many miles carrying out their own waters only and no larger quantity than they introduced. This has also been stated in the case of the river Orontes in Syria and many others. But some rivers so hate the sea that they actually flow underneath the bottom of it, for instance the spring Arethusa at Syracuse, in which things emerge that have been thrown into the Alpheus which flows through Olympia and reaches the coast in the Peloponnese. Instances of rivers that flow under ground and come to the surface again are the Lycus in Asia, the Erasinus in the Argolid and the Tigris in Mesopotamia; and objects thrown into the Spring of Aesculapius at Athens are given back again in Phaleron Harbour. Also a river that goes underground in the Plain of Atinas comes out 20 miles further on, as also does the Timavus in the district of Aquileia. In Lake Asphaltis in Judea, which produces bitumen, nothing can sink, and also in the Aretissa in Greater Armenia; the latter indeed is a nitrous lake that supports fish. A lake near the town of Manduria in the Salentine district is full to the brim, and is not reduced when water is drawn out of it nor increased when water is poured into it. In the river of the Cicones and in the Veline Lake of Picenum, wood thrown into the water gets covered with a film of stone, and in the river Surius in Colchis this goes so far that the stone in most cases is covered with bark still lasting. Similarly in the Silerus beyond Sorrentum not only twigs but also leaves immersed in the river become petrified, though apart from this its water is healthy to drink. Rock forms in the outlet of the marsh at Reate, and olive trees and green bushes grow in the Red Sea.

§ 2.106.2  But the nature of a great many springs is of remarkably high temperature, and this is found even on the ridges of the Alps, and actually in the sea, for instance in the Gulf of Baiae between Italy and the Island of Ischia, and in the river Liris and many others. In fact fresh water may be drawn from the sea in a great many places, as at the Chelidoniae islands and at Aradus and in the Gulf of Cadiz. Green grass grows in the hot springs of the Patavini, frogs in those of Pisa, fishes at Vetulonia in Etruria near the sea. A river in the district of Casinum called Scatebra is cold, and is fuller in summer; water voles are born in it, as they are in the Stymphalis of Arcadia. The Fountain of Jupiter at Dodona, though it is cold and puts out torches dipped in it, sets them alight if they are brought near to it when they are out. The same spring always stops flowing at noon, on account of which it is called the ἀναπαυόμενον; later it rises again and towards midnight flows abundantly, thereafter gradually ceasing again. A cold spring in Illyria sets fire to clothes spread out above it. The swamp of Jupiter Ammon is cold by day and hot at night. A spring in Trogodytis called the Fountain of the Sun is sweet and very cold at midday, but then gradually warming, towards the middle of the night it becomes spoilt owing to its heat and bitter taste. The source of the Po always dries up at midday in summer as if taking a siesta. A spring on the island of Tenedos after midsummer always overflows from 9 to 12 p.m.; and the spring Inopus on the island of Delos sinks or rises in the same way as the Nile and at the same times. On a small island in the sea at the mouth of the river Timavus there are hot springs that grow larger and smaller with the rise and fall of the tide. In the Pitinate district across the Apennines the river Novanus is always hot at midsummer and dried up at midwinter. In the district of Falerii all the water makes oxen that drink it white. The Melas in Boeotia makes sheep black, the Cephisus flowing from the same lake makes them white, the Peneus again makes them black, and the river Xanthus at Ilium red, which gives the river its name. Mares pastured on the plains watered by the river Astaces on the Black Sea suckle their foals with black milk. The spring called Neminie in the district of Reate rises now in one place and now in another, indicating a change in the price of corn. A spring in the harbour at Brindisi always supplies pure water for mariners. The slightly acid spring called Lyncestis makes men tipsy, like wine; the same occurs in Paphlagonia and in the territory of Cales.

§ 2.106.3  It is accredited by the Mucianus who was three times consul that the water flowing from a spring in the temple of Father Liber on the island of Andros always has the flavour of wine on January 5th: the day is called God's Gift Day. To drink of the Styx near Nonacris in Arcadia causes death on the spot, although the river is not peculiar in smell or colour; similarly three springs on Mount Liberosus in Taurica irremediably but painlessly cause death. In the Carrinensis territory in Spain there are two adjacent springs of which one rejects all objects and the other sucks them down; another in the same nation makes all the fish in it look of a golden colour, although except when in that water there is nothing peculiar about them. In the district by the Larium Lake of Como a copious spring always swells up and sinks back again every hour. A hot spring on the island of Cydonea off Lesbos flows only in the springtime. Lake Sannaus in Asia is dyed by the wormwood springing up round it. In the cave of Clarian Apollo at Colophon there is a pool a draught from which causes marvellous oracular utterances to be produced, though the life of the drinkers is shortened. Even our generation has seen rivers flow backward at Nero's last moments, as we have recorded in our history of that Emperor.

§ 2.106.4  Again everybody is aware that all springs are colder in summer than in winter, as well as of the following miracles of nature that bronze and lead sink when in mass form, but float when flattened out into sheets; that among objects of the same weight some float, and others sink; that heavy bodies are more easily moved in water; that Scyrian [or Syrium] stone in however large a mass floats, and the same stone broken into small pieces sinks; that bodies recently dead sink to the bottom but rise when they begin to swell; that empty vessels cannot be drawn out of the water more easily than full ones; that rain water is more useful than other water for salt-works, and that fresh water has to be mixed with sea water for the salt to he deposited; that sea water freezes more slowly, and boils more quickly; that the sea is warmer in winter and salted in autumn; that all sea water is made smooth by oil, and so divers sprinkle oil from their mouth because it calms the rough element and carries light down with them; that on the high sea no snow falls; that though all water travels downward, springs leap upwards, and springs rise even at the roots of Etna, which is so hot that it belches out sands in a ball of flame over a space of 50 to 100 miles at a time.

§ 2.107.1  (For we must also report some marvels connected with fire, the fourth element of nature, but first those arising from water.)

§ 2.108.1  In Samosata the city of Commagene there is a marsh that produces an inflammable mud called mineral pitch. When this touches anything solid it sticks to it; also when people touch it, it actually follows them as they try to get away from it. By these means they defended the city walls when attacked by Lucullus: the troops kept getting burnt by their own weapons. Water merely makes it burn more fiercely; experiments have shown that it can only be put out by earth.

§ 2.109.1  Naphtha is of a similar nature — this is the name of a substance that flows out like liquid bitumen in the neighbourhood of Babylon and the Austacenis area of Parthia. Naphtha has a close affinity with fire, which leaps to it at once when it sees it in any direction. This is how Medea in the legend burnt her rival, whose wreath caught fire after she had gone up to the altar to offer sacrifice.

§ 2.110.1  But among mountain marvels — Etna always glows at night, and supplies its fires with fuel sufficient for a vast period, though in winter cloaked with snow and covering its output of ashes with hoar frost. Nor does nature's wrath employ Mount Etna only to threaten the lands with conflagration. Mount Chimaera in the country of Phaselis is on fire, and indeed burns with a flame that does not die by day or night; Ctesias of Cnidos states that water increases its fire but earth or dung puts it out. Also the Mountains of Hephaestus in Lycia flare up when touched with a flaming torch, and so violently that even the stones of the rivers and the sands actually under water glow; and rain only serves to feed this fire. They say that if somebody lights a stick at it and draws a furrow with the stick, streams of fire follow it. At Cophantium in Bactria a coil of flame blazes in the night, and the same in Media and in Sittacene the frontier of Persia: indeed at the White Tower at Susa it does so from fifteen smoke-holes, from the largest in the daytime also. The Babylonian Plain sends a blaze out of a sort of pool an acre in extent; also near Mount Hesperus in Ethiopia the plains shine at night like stars. Likewise in the territory of Megalopolis. For if that agreeable Bowl of Nymphaeus, which does not scorch the foliage of the thick wood above it and though near a cold stream is always glowing hot, ceases to flow, it portends horrors to its neighbours in the town of Apollonia, as Theopompus has recorded. It is augmented by rain, and sends forth asphalt to mingle with that unappetizing stream, which even without this is more liquid than ordinary asphalt. But who would be surprised by these things? During the Allies' War Holy Island and Lipari among the Aeolian Islands near Italy burnt in mid sea for several days, as did the sea itself, till a deputation from the senate performed a propitiatory ceremony. Nevertheless the largest volcanic blaze is that of the ridge in Ethiopia called the Gods' Carriage, which discharges flames that glow with truly solar heat.

§ 2.110.2  In so many places and by so many fires does nature burn the countries of the earth.

§ 2.111.1  Moreover, as this one element has a fertile principle that engenders itself and grows out of the smallest sparks, what must be expected to happen in future among all these funeral pyres of the earth? What is the natural principle that pastures a most voracious appetite on the whole world while itself unimpaired? Add thereto the innumerable stars and the mighty sun, add the fires of man's making and also those implanted in the nature of stone and of timber rubbing against itself, and again the fire of clouds, and the sources of thunderbolts — and doubtless all marvels will be surpassed by the fact that there has ever been a single day on which there has not been a universal conflagration, when also hollow mirrors facing the sun's rays set things alight more easily than any other fire. What of the countless small but natural eruptions of fire? In the river Nymphaeus a flame comes out of a rock that is kindled by rain; also one comes out at the Scantian Springs, not a strong one, it is true, as it passes away, and not lasting long on any substance which it touches — an ash tree shading this fiery spring is everlastingly green; one comes out in the district of Mutina on the days appointed as sacred to Vulcan. It is found in the authorities that in the fields lying under Aricia if charcoal is dropped on the ground, the earth is set on fire; that in the Sabine and Sidicine district a stone flames up when oiled; that in the Sallentine town of Egnatia, if wood is put on a certain sacred rock, a flame at once shoots up; that ashes on the altar of Juno at Lacinium, which stands in the open air, remains motionless when stormy winds sweep over it in every direction. Moreover, it is recorded that sudden fires arise both in pools of water and in bodies, even human bodies: Valerius Antias tells that the whole of Lake Trasimene once was on fire; that when Servius Tullius was a boy a flame flashed out from his head while he was asleep; and that a similar flame burnt on Lucius Marcius in Spain when he was making a speech after the death of the Scipios and exhorting the soldiers to revenge. Later we shall give more instances, and more in detail; for at the present we are displaying a sort of medley of marvels of all the elements. But leaving the interpretation of nature our mind hastens to lead the reader's attention by the hand on a tour of the whole world.

§ 2.112.1  Our own portion of the earth, which is my subject, swims as it were in the ocean by which, as we have said, it is surrounded; its longest extent is from East to West, i.e. from India to the Pillars consecrated to Hercules at Cadiz, a distance of 8,568 miles according to Artemidorus, but 9,818 according to Isidore. Artemidorus adds in addition from Cadiz round the Sacred Promontory to Artabrum promontory, the longest projection of the coast of Spain, 890 1/2 miles. The measurement runs by a double route; from the river Ganges and its mouth where it flows into the Eastern Ocean, through India and Parthyene to the Syrian city of Myriandrus situated on the Issic gulf 5,215, from there by the shortest sea-route to the island of Cyprus, from Patara in Lycia to Rhodes, to the island of Astypalaea in the Carpathian Sea, to Taenarus in Laconia, Lilybaion in Sicily, Caralis in Sardinia, 213, thence to Cadiz 1,250, the total distance from the Eastern Sea making 8,568. Another route, which is more certain, extends mainly overland from the Ganges to the river Euphrates 5,169, thence to Mazaca in Cappadocia 244, thence through Phrygia and Caria to Ephesus 499, from Ephesus across the Aegean Sea to Delos 200, to the Isthmus 202 1/2, thence by land and the Alcyonian Sea and the Gulf of Corinth to Patras in the Peloponnese 102 1/2, to Leucas 87 1/2, to Corcyra ditto, to Acroceraunia 82 1/2, to Brindisi 87 1/2, to Rome 360, across the Alps to the village of Scingomagum 518, through Gallia to the Pyrenees at Illiberis 456, to the Ocean and the coast of Spain 832, across to Cadiz 7 1/2 — which figures by Artemidorus's calculation make 8,995 miles.

§ 2.112.2  But the breadth of the earth from the south point to the north is calculated by Isidorus as less by about one half, 5,462 miles, showing how much the heat has abstracted on one side and the cold on the other. As a matter of fact I do not think that there is this reduction in the earth, or that it is not the shape of a globe, but that the uninhabitable parts on either side have not been explored. This measurement runs from the coast of the Ethiopic Ocean, where habitation just begins, to Meroe 705 miles, thence to Alexandria, 1,250, Rhodes 584, Cnidus 86 1/2, Cos 25, Samos 100, Chios 94, Mitylene 65, Tenedos 49, Cape Sigeum 12 1/2, Bosphorus 312 1/2, Cape Carambis 350, mouth of Lake Maeotis 312 1/2, mouth of the Tanais 266, — a route that by cutting down the crossings can be shortened. From the mouth of the Tanais to the Canopic mouth of the Nile the most careful authorities have made the distance 2,110 miles. Artemidorus thought that the regions beyond had not been explored, though admitting that the tribes of the Sarmatae dwell round the Tanais to the northward. Isidorus added 1,250 miles right on to Thule, which is a purely conjectural estimate. I understand that the territory of the Sarmatae is known to an extent not less than the limit just stated. And from another aspect, how large is the space bound to be that is large enough to hold innumerable races that are continually migrating? This makes me think that there is an uninhabitable region beyond of much wider extent; for I am informed that beyond Germany also there are vast islands that were discovered not long ago.

§ 2.112.3  These are the facts that I consider worth recording in regard to the earth's length and breadth. Its total circumference was given by Bratosthenes (an expert in every refinement of learning, but on this point assuredly an outstanding authority — I notice that he is universally accepted) as 252,000 stades, a measurement that by Roman reckoning makes 31,500 miles — an audacious venture, but achieved by such subtle reasoning that one is ashamed to be sceptical. Hipparchus, who in his refutation of Eratosthenes and also in all the rest of his researches is remarkable, adds a little less than 26,000 stades.

§ 2.112.4  Dionysodorus (for I will not withhold this outstanding instance of Greek folly) has a different creed. He belonged to Melos, and was a celebrated geometrician; his old age came to its term in his native place; his female relations who were his heirs escorted his obsequies. It is said that while these women on the following days were carrying out the due rites they found in the tomb a letter signed with his name and addressed to those on earth, which stated that he had passed from his tomb to the bottom of the earth and that it was a distance of 42,000 stades. Geometricians were forthcoming who construed this to mean that the letter had been sent from the centre of the earth's globe, which was the longest space downward from the surface and was also the centre of the sphere. From this the calculation followed that led them to pronounce the circumference of the globe to be 252,000 stades.

§ 2.113.1  To this measurement the principle of uniformity, which leads to the conclusion that the nature of things is self-consistent, adds 12,000 stades, making the earth the 1/96th part of the whole world.

§ 3.0.1  Thus far have I treated of the position and the wonders of the earth, of the waters, the stars, and the proportion of the universe and its dimensions. I shall now proceed to describe its individual parts; although indeed we may with reason look upon the task as of an infinite nature, and one not to be rashly commenced upon without incurring censure. And yet, on the other hand, there is nothing which ought less to require an apology, if it is only considered how far from surprising it is that a mere mortal cannot be acquainted with everything. I shall therefore not follow any single author, but shall employ, in relation to each subject, such writers as I shall look upon as most worthy of credit. For, indeed, it is the characteristic of nearly all of them, that they display the greatest care and accuracy in the description of the countries in which they respectively flourished; so that by doing this, I shall neither have to blame nor contradict any one.

§ 3.0.2  The names of the different places will here be simply given, and as briefly as possible; the account of their celebrity, and the events which have given rise thereto, being deferred to a more appropriate occasion; for it must be remembered that I am here speaking of the earth as a whole, and I wish to be understood as using the names without any reference whatever to their celebrity, and as though the places themselves were in their infancy, and had not as yet acquired any fame through great events. The name is mentioned, it is true, but only as forming a part of the world and the system of the universe.

§ 3.0.3  The whole globe is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Our description commences where the sun sets and at the Straits of Gades, where the Atlantic ocean, bursting in, is poured forth into the inland seas. As it makes its entrance from that side, Africa is on the right hand and Europe on the left; Asia lies between them; the boundaries being the rivers Tanais and Nile. The Straits of the ocean, of which I have just spoken, extend fifteen miles in length and five in breadth, measured from the village of Mellaria in Spain to the Album Promontorium or White Promontory in Africa, as we learn from Turranius Gracilis, who was born in that vicinity. Titus Livius and Cornelius Nepos however have stated the breadth, where it is least, to be seven miles, and where greatest, ten; from so small a mouth as this does so immense an expanse of water open upon us! Nor is our astonishment diminished by the fact of its being of great depth; for, instead of that, there are numerous breakers and shoals, white with foam, to strike the mariner with alarm. From this circumstance it is, that many have called this spot the threshold of The Inland Sea.

§ 3.0.4  At the narrowest part of the Straits, there are mountains placed to form barriers to the entrance on either side, Abyla in Africa, and Calpe in Europe, the boundaries formerly of the labours of Hercules. Hence it is that the inhabitants have called them the Columns of that god; they also believe that they were dug through by him; upon which the sea, which was before excluded, gained admission, and so changed the face of nature.

§ 3.1.1  THE BOUNDARIES AND GULFS OF EUROPE FIRST SET FORTH IN A GENERAL WAY. I shall first then speak of Europe, the foster-mother of that people which has conquered all other nations, and itself by far the most beauteous portion of the earth. Indeed, many persons have, not without reason, considered it, not as a third part only of the earth, but as equal to all the rest, looking upon the whole of our globe as divided into two parts only, by a line drawn from the river Tanais to the Straits of Gades. The ocean, after pouring the waters of the Atlantic through the inlet which I have here described, and, in its eager progress, overwhelming all the lands which have had to dread its approach, skirts with its winding course the shores of those parts which offer a more effectual resistance, hollowing out the coast of Europe especially into numerous bays, among which there are four Gulfs that are more particularly remarkable. The first of these begins at Calpe, which I have previously mentioned, the most distant mountain of Spain; and bends, describing an immense curve, as far as Locri and the Promontory of Bruttium.

§ 3.2.1  OF SPAIN GENERALLY. The first land situate upon this Gulf is that which is called the Farther Spain or Baetica; next to which, beginning at the frontier town of Urgi, is the Nearer, or Tarraconensian Spain, extending as far as the chain of the Pyrenees. The Farther Spain is divided lengthwise into two provinces, Lusitania and Baetica, the former stretching along the northern side of the latter, and being divided from it by the river Ana. The source of this river is in the district of Laminium, in the Nearer Spain. It first spreads out into a number of small lakes, and then again contracts itself into a narrow channel, or entirely disappears under ground, and after frequently disappearing and again coming to light, finally discharges itself into the Atlantic Ocean. Tarraconensian Spain lies on one side, contiguous to the Pyrenees, running downwards along the sides of that chain, and, stretching across from the Iberian Sea to the Gallic ocean, is separated from Baetica and Lusitania by Mount Solorius, the chains of the Oretani and the Carpetani, and that of the Astures.

§ 3.3.1  OF BAETICA. Baetica, so called from the river which divides it in the middle, excels all the other provinces in the richness of its cultivation and the peculiar fertility and beauty of its vegetation.

§ 3.3.2  It consists of four jurisdictions, those of Gades, of Corduba, of Astigi, and of Hispalis. The total number of its towns is 175; of these nine are colonies, and eight municipal towns; twenty-nine have been long since presented with the old Latin rights; six are free towns, three federate, and 120 tributary.

§ 3.3.3  In this district, the things that more especially deserve notice, or are more easily explained in the Latin tongue, are the following, beginning at the river Ana, along the line of the seashore; the town of Onoba, surnamed Aestuaria; the rivers Luxia and Urium, flowing through this territory between the Ana and the Baetis; the Marian [Hareni] Mountains; the river Baetis; the coast of Corum, with its winding bay; opposite to which is Gades, of which we shall have occasion to speak among the islands. Next comes the Promontory of Juno, and the port of Baesippo; the towns of Baelo and Mellaria, at which latter begin the Straits of the Atlantic; Carteia, called by the Greeks Tartessos; and the mountain of Calpe.

§ 3.3.4  Along the coast of the inland sea is the town of Barbesula with its river; also Salduba; the town of Suel; and then Malaca, with its river, one of the federate towns. Next to this comes Maenoba, with its river; then Sexifirmum, surnamed Julium; Selambina; Abdera; and Murgi, which is at the boundary of Baetica. M. Agrippa supposed that all this coast was peopled by colonists of Punic origin. Beyond the Anas, and facing the Atlantic, is the country of the Bastuli and the Turditani. M. Varro informs us, that the Iberians, the Persians, the Phoenicians, the Celts, and the Carthaginians spread themselves over the whole of Spain; that the name "Lusitania" is derived from the games (lusus) of Father Bacchus, or the fury (lyssa) of his frantic attendants, and that Pan was the governor of the whole of it. But the traditions respecting Hercules and Pyrene, as well as Saturn, I conceive to be fabulous in the highest degree.

§ 3.3.5  The Baetis does not rise, as some writers have asserted, near the town of Mentesa, in the province of Tarraco, but in the Tugiensian Forest; and near it rises the river Tader, which waters the territory of Carthage. At Ilorcum it turns away from the Funeral Pile of Scipio; then taking a sweep to the left, it falls into the Atlantic Ocean, giving its name to this province: at its source it is but small, though during its course it receives many other streams, which it deprives as well of their waters as their renown. It first enters Baetica in Ossigitania, and glides gently, with a smooth current, past many towns situate on either side of its banks.

§ 3.3.6  Between this river and the sea-shore the most celebrated places inland are Segida, also surnamed Augurina; Ulia, called Fidentia; Urgao or Alba, Ebora or Cerealis, Iliberri or Florentini, Ilipula or Laus, Artigi or Julienses, Vesci or Faventia, Singili, Ategua, Arialdunum, Agla Minor, Baebro, Castra Vinaria, Cisimbrium, Hippo Nova, Ilurco, Osca, Oscua, Sucaelo, Unditanum, Old Tucci; all which towns are in that part of Bastetania which extends towards the sea, but in the jurisdiction of Corduba. In the neighbourhood of the river itself is Ossigi, also surnamed Latonium, Iliturgi or Forum Julium, Ipra, Isturgi or Triumphales, Ucia, and, fourteen miles inland, Obulco, which is also called Pontificense.

§ 3.3.7  Next to these comes Ripa, Epora, of the federate towns, Sacili Martialium, and Onoba. On the right bank is Corduba, a Roman colony surnamed Patricia; here the Baetis first becomes navigable. There are also the towns of Carbula and Detumo, and the river Singilis, which falls into the Baetis on the same side.

§ 3.3.8  The towns in the jurisdiction of Hispalis are the following: Celti, Axati, Arua, Canama, Naeva, Ilipa, surnamed Ilpa, and Italica. On the left of the river is the colony of Hispalis named Romuliensis, and, on the opposite side, the town of Osset, surnamed Julia Constantia, Lucurgentum, or Juli Genius, Orippo Caura, Siarum, and the river Maenuba, which enters the Baetis on its right bank. Between the aestuaries of the Baetis lie the towns of Nebrissa, surnamed Veneria, and of Colobana. The colonies are, Hasta, which is also called Regia, and, more inland, that of Asido, surnamed Caesarina.

§ 3.3.9  The river Singilis, discharging itself into the Baetis at the place already mentioned, washes the colony of Astigi, surnamed Augusta Firma, at which place it becomes navigable. The other colonies in this jurisdiction which are exempt from tribute are Tucci, surnamed Augusta Gemella, Itucci called Virtus Julia, Ucubi or Claritas Julia, Urso or Genetiva Urbanorum; and among them in former times Munda, which was taken with the son of Pompey. The free towns are Old Astigi and Ostippo; the tributary towns are Callet, Callicula, Castra Gemina, the Lesser Ilipula, Marruca, Sacrana, Obulcula, Oningi, Sabora, Ventippo. As you move away from the sea-coast, near where the river Maenoba is navigable, you find, at no great distance, the Olontigi, Laelia, Lastigi.

§ 3.3.10  The country which extends from the Baetis to the river Anas, beyond the districts already described, is called Baeturia, and is divided into two parts and the same number of nations; the Celtici, who border upon Lusitania, in the jurisdiction of Hispalis, and the Turduli, who dwell on the verge of Lusitania and Tarraconensis, and are under the protection of the laws of Corduba. It is evident that the Celtici have sprung from the Celtiberi, and have come from Lusitania, from their religious rites, their language, and the names of their towns, which in Baetica are distinguished by the following epithets, which have been given to them. Seria has received the surname of Fama Julia, Nertobriga that of Concordia Julia, Segida that of Restituta Julia, and Ugultunia Contributa Julia, which Curiga also has now. Constantia Julia was Lacimurga, the present Fortunales were the Stereses, and the Aeneanici were the Callenses. Besides these, there are in Celtica the towns of Acinippo, Arunda, Arunci, Turobriga, Lastigi, Salpesa, Saepone, and Serippo.

§ 3.3.11  The other Baeturia, which we have mentioned, is inhabited by the Turduli, and, in the jurisdiction of Corduba, has some towns which are by no means inconsiderable; Arsa, Mellaria, Mirobriga, and Sisapo, in the district of Osintias.

§ 3.3.12  To the jurisdiction of Gades belongs Regina, with Roman citizens; and Laepia, Ulia, Carisa surnamed Aurelia, Urgia or Castrum Julium, likewise called Caesaris Salutariensis, all of which enjoy Latin rights. The tributary towns are Besaro, Belippo, Barbesula, Lacippo, Baesippo, Callet, Cappa with Oleastro, Iptuci, Brana, Lacibi, Saguntia, Saudo, Usaepo.

§ 3.3.13  M. Agrippa has also stated the whole length of this province to be 475 miles, and its breadth 257; but this was at a time when its boundaries extended to Carthage, a circumstance which has often caused great errors in calculations; which are generally the result either of changes effected in the limits of provinces, or of the fact that in the reckoning of distances the length of the miles has been arbitrarily increased or diminished. In some parts too the sea has been long making encroachments upon the land, and in others again the shores have advanced; while the course of rivers in this place has become more serpentine, in that more direct. And then, besides, some writers begin their measurements at one place, and some at another, and so proceed in different directions; and hence the result is, that no two accounts agree.

§ 3.3.14  (2.) At the present day the length of Baetica, from the town of Castulo, on its frontier, to Gades is 250 miles, and from Murgi, which lies on the sea-coast, twenty-five miles more. The breadth, measured from the coast of Carteia, is 234 miles. Who is there that can entertain the belief that Agrippa, a man of such extraordinary diligence, and one who bestowed so much care on his subject, when he proposed to place before the eyes of the world a survey of that world, could be guilty of such a mistake as this, and that too when seconded by the late emperor the divine Augustus? For it was that emperor who completed the [Vipsania] Portico which had been begun by his sister, and in which the survey was to be kept, in conformity with the plan and descriptions of M. Agrippa.

§ 3.4.1  OF NEARER SPAIN: The ancient form of the Nearer Spain, like that of many other provinces, is somewhat changed, since the time when Pompey the Great, upon the trophies he erected in the Pyrenees, testified that 877 towns, from the Alps to the borders of the Farther Spain, had been reduced to subjection by him. The whole province is now divided into seven jurisdictions, those of Carthage, of Tarraco, of Caesar Augusta, of Clunia, of Asturica, of Lucus, and of the Bracari. To these are to be added the islands, which will be described on another occasion, as also 293 states which are dependent on others; besides which the province contains 179 towns. Of these, twelve are colonies, thirteen, towns with the rights of Roman citizens, eighteen with the old Latian rights, one confederate, and 135 tributary.

§ 3.4.2  The first people that we come to on the coast are the Bastuli; after whom, proceeding according to the order which I shall follow, as we go inland, there are the Mentesani, the Oretani, and the Carpetani on the Tagus, and next to them the Vaccaei, the Vectones, and the Celtiberian Arevaci. The towns nearest to the coast are Urci, and Barea included in Baetica, the district of Mavitania, next to it Deitania, and then Contestania, and the colony of New Carthage; from the Promontory of which, known as the Promontorium Saturni, to the city of Caesarea in Mauritania, the passage is a distance of 187 miles. The remaining objects worthy of mention on the coast are the river Tader, and the free colony of Ilici, whence the Ilicitanian Gulf derives its name; to this colony the Icositani are subordinate.

§ 3.4.3  We next have Lucentum, holding Latin rights; Dianium, a tributary town; the river Sucro, and in former times a town of the same name, forming the frontier of Contestania. Next is the district of Edetania, with the delightful expanse of a lake before it, and extending backward to Celtiberia. Valentia, a colony, is situate three miles from the sea, after which comes the river Turium, and Saguntum at the same distance, a town of Roman citizens famous for its fidelity, the river Uduba, and the district of the Ilergaones. The Iberus, a river enriched by its commerce, takes its rise in the country of the Cantabri, not far from the town of Juliobriga, and flows a distance of 450 miles; 260 of which, from the town of Varia namely, it is available for the purposes of navigation. From this river the name of Iberia has been given by the Greeks to the whole of Spain.

§ 3.4.4  Next comes the district of Cossetania, the river Subi, and the colony of Tarraco, which was built by the Scipios as Carthage was by the Carthaginians. Then the district of the Ilergetes, the town of Subur, and the river Rubricatum, beyond which begin the Laletani and the Indigetes. Behind these, in the order in which they will be mentioned, going back from the foot of the Pyrenees, are the Ausetani, the Lacetani, and along the Pyrenees, the Cerretani, next to whom are the Vascones. On the coast is the colony of Barcino, surnamed Faventia; Baetulo and Iluro, towns with Roman citizens; the river Larnum, Blandae, the river Alba; Emporiae, a city consisting of two parts, one peopled by the original inhabitants, the other by the Greek descendants of the Phocaeans; and the river Ticher. From this to the Venus Pyrenaea, on the other side of the Promontory, is a distance of forty miles.

§ 3.4.5  I shall now proceed to give an account of the more remarkable things in these several jurisdictions, in addition to those which have been already mentioned. Forty-three different peoples are subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Tarraco: of these the most famous are — holding the rights of Roman citizens, the Dertusani and the Bisgargitani; enjoying Latin rights, the Ausetani, and the Cerretani, both Julian and Augustan, the Edetani, the Gerundenses, the Gessorienses, and the Teari, also called Julienses. Among the tributaries are the Aquicaldenses, the Onenses, and the Baeculonenses.

§ 3.4.6  Caesar Augusta, a free colony, watered by the river Iberus, on the site of the town formerly called Salduba, is situate in the district of Edetania, and is the resort of fifty-five nations. Of these there are, with the rights of Roman citizens, the Bellitani, the Celsenses, a former colony, the Calagurritani, surnamed the Nassici, the Ilerdenses, of the nation of the Surdaones, near whom is the river Sicoris, the Oscenses in the district of Vescitania, and the Turiasonenses. Of those enjoying the rights of the ancient Latins, there are the Cascantenses the Ergavicenses, the Graccuritani, the Leonicenses, and the Osicerdenses; of federate states, there are the Tarragenses; and of tributaries, the Arcobrigenses, the Andologenses, the Aracelitani, the Bursaonenses, the Calagurritani, who are also surnamed the Fibularenses, the Complutenses, the Carenses, the Cincenses, the Cortonenses, the Damanitani, the Larnenses, the Lursenses, the Lumberitani, the Lacetani, the Lubienses, the Pompelonenses, and the Segienses.

§ 3.4.7  Sixty-five different nations resort to Carthage, besides the inhabitants of the islands. Of the Accitana colony, there are the Gemellenses, and the town of Libisosona, surnamed Foroaugustana, to both of which have been granted Italian rights. Of the colony of Salaria, there are the people of the following towns, enjoying the rights of ancient Latium: the Castulonenses, also called the Caesari Venales, the Saetabitani or Augustani, and the Valerienses. The best known among the tributaries are the Alabanenses, the Bastitani, the Consaburrenses, the Dianenses, the Egelestani, the Ilorcitani, the Laminitani, the Mentesani, both those called Oritani and those called Bastuli, and the Oretani who are surnamed Germani, the people of Segobriga the capital of Celtiberia, those of Toletum the capital of Carpetania, situate on the river Tagus, and after them the Viatienses and the Virgilienses.

§ 3.4.8  To the jurisdiction of Clunia the Varduli contribute fourteen nations, of whom we need only particularize the Albanenses, the Turmodigi, consisting of four tribes, among which are the Segisamonenses and the Segisamaiulienses. To the same jurisdiction belong the Carietes and the Vennenses with five states, among which are the Velienses. Thither too resort the Pelendones of the Celtiberians, in four different nations, among whom the Numantini were especially famous. Also, among the eighteen states of the Vaccaei, there are the Intercatienses, the Pallantini, the Lacobrigenses, and the Caucenses. But among the seven peoples belonging to the Cantabri, Juliobriga is the only place worthy of mention; and of the ten states of the Autrigones, Tritium and Virovesca. The river Areva gives its name to the Arevaci; of whom there are six towns, Segontia and Uxama, names which are frequently given to other places, as also Segovia and Nova Augusta, Termes, and Clunia itself, the frontier of Celtiberia. The remaining portion turns off towards the ocean, being occupied by the Varduli, already mentioned, and the Cantabri.

§ 3.4.9  Next upon these touch the twenty-two nations of the Astures, who are divided into the Augustani and the Transmontani, with the magnificent city of Asturica. Among these we have the Cigurri, the Paesici, the Lancienses, and the Zoelae. The total number of the free population amounts to 240,000 persons.

§ 3.4.10  The jurisdiction of Lucus embraces, besides the Celtici and the Lebuni, sixteen different nations, but little known and with barbarous names. The number however of the free population amounts to nearly 166,000.

§ 3.4.11  In a similar manner the twenty-four states of the jurisdiction of the Bracari contain a population of 175,000, among whom, besides the Bracari themselves, we may mention, without wearying the reader, the Bibali, the Coelerni, the Gallaeci, the Hequaesi, the Limici, and the Querquerni.

§ 3.4.12  The length of the Nearer Spain, from the Pyrenees to the frontier of Castulo, is 607 miles, and a little more if we follow the line of the coast; while its breadth, from Tarraco to the shore of Olarson, is 307 miles. From the foot of the Pyrenees, where it is wedged in by the near approach of the two seas, it gradually expands until it touches the Farther Spain, and thereby acquires a width more than double.

§ 3.4.13  Nearly the whole of Spain abounds in mines of lead, iron, copper, silver, and gold; in the Nearer Spain there is also found lapis specularis; in Baetica there is cinnabar. There are also quarries of marble. The Emperor Vespasianus Augustus, while still harassed by the storms that agitated the Roman state, conferred the Latin rights on the whole of Spain. The Pyrenean mountains divide Spain from Gaul, their extremities projecting into the two seas on either side.

§ 3.5.1  OF THE PROVINCE OF GALLIA NARBONENSIS: That part of the Gallias which is washed by the inland sea is called the province of [Gallia] Narbonensis, having formerly borne the name of Braccata. It is divided from Italy by the river Varus, and by the range of the Alps, the great safeguards of the Roman Empire. From the remainder of Gaul, on the north, it is separated by the mountains Cebenna and Jura. In the cultivation of the soil, the manners and civilization of the inhabitants, and the extent of its wealth, it is surpassed by none of the provinces, and, in short, might be more truthfully described as a part of Italy than as a province. On the coast we have the district of the Sordones, and more inland that of the Consuarani. The rivers are the Tecum and the Vernodubrum. The towns are Illiberis, the scanty remains of what was formerly a great city, and Ruscino, a town with Latin rights. We then come to the river Atax, which flows from the Pyrenees, and passes through the Rubrensian Lake, the town of Narbo Martius, a colony of the tenth legion, twelve miles distant from the sea, and the rivers Arauris and Liria. The towns are otherwise but few in number, in consequence of the numerous lakes which skirt the sea-shore. We have Agatha, formerly belonging to the Massilians, and the district of the Volcae Tectosages; and there is the spot where Rhoda, a Rhodian colony, formerly stood, from which the river takes its name of Rhodanus; a stream by far the most fertilizing of any in either of the Gallias. Descending from the Alps and rushing through lake Lemanus, it carries along with it the sluggish Arar, as well as the torrents of the Isara and the Druentia, no less rapid than itself. Its two smaller mouths are called Libica, one being the Spanish, and the other the Metapinian mouth; the third and largest is called the Massiliotic. There are some authors who state that there was formerly a town called Heraclea at the mouth of the Rhodanus or Rhone.

§ 3.5.2  Beyond this are the Canals leading out of the Rhone, a famous work of Caius Marius, and still distinguished by his name; the Lake of Mastramela, the town of Maritima of the Avatici, and, above this, the Stony Plains, memorable for the battles of Hercules; the district of the Anatilii, and more inland, that of the Desuviates and the Cavari. Again, close upon the sea, there is that of the Tricorii, and inland, there are the Tricolli, the Vocontii, and the Segovellauni, and, after them, the Allobroges.

§ 3.5.3  On the coast is Massilia, a colony of Phocaean Greeks, and a federate city; we then have the Promontory of Zao, the port of Citharista, and the district of the Camatullici; then the Suelteri, and above them the Verrucini. Again, on the coast, we find Athenopolis, belonging to the Massilians, Forum Julii Octavanorum, a colony, which is also called Pacensis and Classica, the river Argenteus, which flows through it, the district of the Oxubii and that of the Ligauni; above whom are the Suetri, the Quariates and the Adunicates. On the coast we have Antipolis, a town with Latin rights, the district of the Deciates, and the river Varus, which proceeds from Mount Cema, one of the Alps.

§ 3.5.4  The colonies in the interior are Arelate Sextanorum, Beterrae Septimanorum, and Arausio Secundanorum; Valentia in the territory of the Cavari, and Vienne in that of the Allobroges. The towns that enjoy Latin rights are Aquae Sextiae in the territory of the Saluvii, Avenio in that of the Cavari, Apta Julia in that of the Volgientes, Alebece in that of the Reii Apollinares, Alba in that of the Helvi, and Augusta in that of the Tricastini, Anatilia, Aeria, the Bormanni, the Comaci, Cabellio, Carcasum in the territory of the Volcae Tectosages, Cessero, Carpentoracte in the territory of the Memini, the Cenicenses, the Cambolectri, surnamed the Atlantici, Forum Voconi, Glanum Livi, the Lutevani, also called the Foroneronienses, Nemausum in the territory of the Arecomici, Piscenae, the Ruteni, the Sanagenses, the Tolosani in the territory of the Tectosages on the confines of Aquitania, the Tasconi, the Tarusconienses, the Umbranici, Vasio andLucus Augusti, the two capitals of the federate state of the Vocontii. There are also nineteen towns of less note, as well as twenty-four belonging to the people of Nemausum. To this list the Emperor Galba added two tribes dwelling among the Alps, the Avantici and the Bodiontici, to whom belongs the town of Dinia. According to Agrippa the length of the province of Gallia Narbonensis is 370 miles, and its breadth 248.

§ 3.6.1  OF ITALY: Next comes Italy, and we begin with the Ligures, after whom we have Etruria, Umbria, Latium, where the mouths of the Tiber are situate, and Rome, the Capital of the world, sixteen miles distant from the sea. We then come to the coasts of the Volsci and of Campania, and the districts of Picenum, of Lucania, and of Bruttium, where Italy extends the farthest in a southerly direction, and projects into the [two] seas with the chain of the Alps, which there forms pretty nearly the shape of a crescent. Leaving Bruttium we come to the coast of Graecia, then the Salentini, the Pediculi, the Apuli, the Peligni, the Frentani, the Marrucini, the Vestini, the Sabini, the Picentes, the Galli, the Umbri, the Tusci, the Veneti, the Carni, the Iapydes, the Histri, and the Liburni.

§ 3.6.2  I am by no means unaware that I might be justly accused of ingratitude and indolence, were I to describe thus briefly and in so cursory a manner the land which is at once the foster-child and the parent of all lands; chosen by the providence of the Gods to render even heaven itself more glorious, to unite the scattered empires of the earth, to bestow a polish upon men's manners, to unite the discordant and uncouth dialects of so many different nations by the powerful ties of one common language, to confer the enjoyments of discourse and of civilization upon mankind, to become, in short, the mother-country of all nations of the Earth.

§ 3.6.3  But how shall I commence this undertaking? So vast is the number of celebrated places (what man living could enumerate them all?), and so great the renown attached to each individual nation and subject, that I feel myself quite at a loss. The city of Rome alone, which forms a portion of it, a face well worthy of shoulders so beauteous, how large a work would it require for an appropriate description! And then too the coast of Campania, taken singly by itself! so blest with natural beauties and opulence, that it is evident that when nature formed it she took a delight in accumulating all her blessings in a single spot — how am I to do justice to it? And then the climate, with its eternal freshness and so replete with health and vitality, the sereneness of the weather so enchanting, the fields so fertile, the hill sides so sunny, the thickets so free from every danger, the groves so cool and shady, the forests with a vegetation so varying and so luxuriant, the breezes descending from so many a mountain, the fruitfulness of its grain, its vines, and its olives so transcendent; its flocks with fleeces so noble, its bulls with necks so sinewy, its lakes recurring in never-ending succession, its numerous rivers and springs which refresh it with their waters on every side, its seas so many in number, its havens and the bosom of its lands opening everywhere to the commerce of all the world, and as it were eagerly stretching forth into the very midst of the waves, for the purpose of aiding as it were the endeavours of mortals!

§ 3.6.4  For the present I forbear to speak of its genius, its manners, its men, and the nations whom it has conquered by eloquence and force of arms. The very Greeks themselves, a race fond in the extreme of expatiating on their own praises, have amply given judgment in its favour, when they named but a small part of it 'Magna Graecia.' But we must be content to do on this occasion as we have done in our description of the heavens; we must only touch upon some of these points, and take notice of but a few of its stars. I only beg my readers to bear in mind that I am thus hastening on for the purpose of giving a general description of everything that is known to exist throughout the whole earth.

§ 3.6.5  I may premise by observing that this land very much resembles in shape an oak leaf, being much longer than it is broad; towards the top it inclines to the left, while it terminates in the form of an Amazonian buckler, in which the spot at the central projection is the place called Cocinthos, while it sends forth two horns at the end of its crescent-shaped bays, Leucopetra on the right and Lacinium on the left. It extends in length 1020 miles, if we measure from the foot of the Alps at Praetoria Augusta, through the city of Rome and Capua to the town of Rhegium, which is situate on the shoulder of the Peninsula, just at the bend of the neck as it were. The distance would be much greater if measured to Lacinium, but in that case the line, being drawn obliquely, would incline too much to one side. Its breadth is variable; being 410 miles between the two seas, the Lower and the Upper, and the rivers Varus and Arsia: at about the middle, and in the vicinity of the city of Rome, from the spot where the river Aternus flows into the Adriatic sea, to the mouth of the Tiber, the distance is 136 miles, and a little less from Castrum-novum on the Adriatic sea to Alsium on the Tuscan; but in no place does it exceed 200 miles in breadth. The circuit of the whole, from the Varus to the Arsia, is 3059 miles.

§ 3.6.6  As to its distance from the countries that surround it Istria and Liburnia are, in some places, 100 miles from it, and Epirus and Illyricum 50; Africa is less than 200, as we are informed by M. Varro; Sardinia is 120, Sicily 1 1/2, Corsica less than 80, and Issa 50. It extends into the two seas towards the southern parts of the heavens, or, to speak with more minute exactness, between the sixth hour and the first hour of the winter solstice.

§ 3.6.7  We will now describe its extent and its different cities; in doing which, it is necessary to premise, that we shall follow the arrangement of the late Emperor Augustus, and adopt the division which he made of the whole of Italy into eleven districts; taking them, however, according to their order on the sea-line, as in so hurried a detail it would not be possible otherwise to describe each city in juxtaposition with the others in its vicinity. And for the same reason, in describing the interior, I shall follow the alphabetical order which has been adopted by that Emperor, pointing out the colonies of which he has made mention in his enumeration. Nor is it a very easy task to trace their situation and origin; for, not to speak of others, the Ingaunian Ligurians have had lands granted to them as many as thirty different times.

§ 3.7.1  OF THE NINTH REGION OF ITALY: To begin then with the river Varus; we have the town of Nicaea, founded by the Massilians, the river Paulo, the Alps and the Alpine tribes, distinguished by various names, but more especially the Capillati, Cemenelio, a town of the state of the Vediantii, the port of Hercules Monaecus, and the Ligurian coast. The more celebrated of the Ligurian tribes beyond the Alps are the Salluvii, the Deciates, and the Oxubii; on this side of the Alps, the Veneni, and the Vagienni, who are derived from the Caturiges, the Statielli, the Bimbelli, the Magelli, the Euburiates, the Casmonates, the Veleiates, and the peoples whose towns we shall describe as lying near the adjoining coast. The river Rutuba, the town of Albium Intemelium, the river Merula, the town of Albium Ingaunum, the port of Vadum Sabatiorum, the river Porcifera, the town of Genua, the river Feritor, the Portus Delphini, Tigullia, Tegesta of the Tigullii, and the river Macra, which is the boundary of Liguria.

§ 3.7.2  Extending behind all the before-mentioned places are the Apennines, the most considerable of all the mountains of Italy, the chain of which extends unbroken from the Alps to the Sicilian sea. On the other side of the Apennines, towards the Padus, the richest river of Italy, the whole country is adorned with noble towns; Libarna, the colony of Dertona, Iria, Barderate, Industria, Pollentia, Carrea Potentia, Foro Fulvi or Valentinum, Augusta of the Vagienni, Alba Pompeia, Asta, and Aquae Statiellorum. This is the ninth region, according to the arrangement of Augustus. The coast of Liguria extends 211 miles, between the rivers Varus and Macra.

§ 3.8.1  THE SEVENTH REGION OF ITALY: Next to this comes the seventh region, in which is Etruria, a district which begins at the river Macra, and has often changed its name. At an early period the Umbri were expelled from it by the Pelasgi; and these again by the Lydians, who from a king of theirs were named Tyrrheni, but afterwards, from the rites observed in their sacrifices, were called, in the Greek language, Tusci. The first town in Etruria is Luna, with a noble harbour, then the colony of Luca, at some distance from the sea, and nearer to it again the colony of Pisae, between the rivers Auser and Arnus, which owes its origin to Pelops and the Pisans, or else to the Teutani, a people of Greece. Next is Vada Volaterrana, then the river Cecinna, and Populonium formerly belonging to the Etrurians, the only town they had on this coast. Next to these is the river Prile, then the Umbro, which is navigable, and where the district of Umbria begins, the port of Telamon, Cosa of the Volcientes, founded by the Roman people, Graviscae, Castrum novum, Pyrgi, the river Caeretanus, and Caere itself, four miles inland, called Agylla by the Pelasgi who founded it, Alsium, Fregenae, and the river Tiber, 284 miles from the Macra.

§ 3.8.2  In the interior we have the colonies of Falisci, founded by the Argives, according to the account of Cato, and surnamed Falisci Etruscorum, Lucus Feroniae, Rusellana, the Senienses, and Sutrina. The remaining peoples are the Arretini Veteres, the Arretini Fidentes, the Arretini Julienses, the Amitinenses, the Aquenses, surnamed Taurini, the Blerani, the Cortonenses, the Capenates, the Clusini Novi, the Clusini Veteres, the Florentini, situated on the stream of the Arnus, Faesulae, Ferentinum, Fescennia, Hortanum, Herbanum, Nepeta, Novem Pagi, the Claudian praefecture of Foroclodium, Pistorium, Perusia, the Suanenses, the Saturnini, formerly called the Aurinini, the Subertani, the Statones, the Tarquinienses, the Tuscanienses, the Vetulonienses, the Veietani, the Vesentini, the Volaterrani, the Volcentini, surnamed Etrusci, and the Volsinienses. In the same district the territories of Crustumerium and Caletra retain the names of the ancient towns.

§ 3.9.1  THE FIRST REGION OF ITALY; THE TIBER; ROME. The Tiber or Tiberis, formerly called Thybris, and previously Albula, flows down from nearly the central part of the chain of the Apennines, in the territory of the Arretini. It is at first small, and only navigable by means of sluices, in which the water is dammed up and then discharged, in the same manner as the Timia and the Glanis, which flow into it; for which purpose it is found necessary to collect the water for nine days, unless there should happen to be a fall of rain. And even then, the Tiber, by reason of its rugged and uneven channel, is really more suitable for navigation by rafts than by vessels, for any great distance. It winds along for a course of 150 miles, passing not far from Tifernum, Perusia, and Ocriculum, and dividing Etruria from the Umbri and the Sabini, and then, at a distance of less than sixteen miles from the city, separating the territory of Veii from that of Crustuminum, and afterwards that of the Fidenates and of Latium from Vaticanum.

§ 3.9.2  Below its union with the Glanis from Arretinum the Tiber is swollen by two and forty streams, particularly the Nar and the Anio, which last is also navigable and shuts in Latium at the back; it is also increased by the numerous aqueducts and springs which are conveyed to the City. Here it becomes navigable by vessels of any burden which may come up from the Italian sea; a most tranquil dispenser of the produce of all parts of the earth, and peopled and embellished along its banks with more villas than nearly all the other rivers of the world taken together. And yet there is no river more circumscribed than it, so close are its banks shut in on either side; but still, no resistance does it offer, although its waters frequently rise with great suddenness, and no part is more liable to be swollen than that which runs through the City itself. In such case, however, the Tiber is rather to be looked upon as pregnant with prophetic warnings to us, and in its increase to be considered more as a promoter of religion than a source of devastation.

§ 3.9.3  Latium has preserved its original limits, from the Tiber to Circeii, a distance of fifty miles: so slender at the beginning were the roots from which this our Empire sprang. Its inhabitants have been often changed, and different nations have peopled it at different times, the Aborigines, the Pelasgi, the Arcades, the Seculi, the Aurunci, the Rutuli, and, beyond Circeii, the Volsci, the Osci, and the Ausones whence the name of Latium came to be extended as far as the river Liris.

§ 3.9.4  We will begin with Ostia, a colony founded by a king of Rome, the town of Laurentum, the grove of Jupiter Indiges, the river Numicius, and Ardea, founded by Danae, the mother of Perseus. Next come the former site of Aphrodisium, the colony of Antium, the river and island called Astura, the river Nymphaeus, the Clostra Romana, and Circeii, formerly an island, and, if we are to believe Homer, surrounded by the open sea, though now by an extensive plain. The circumstances which we are enabled to publish on this subject for the information of the world are very remarkable. Theophrastus, the first foreigner who treated of the affairs of Rome with any degree of accuracy (for Theopompus, before whose time no Greek writer had made mention of us, only stated the fact that the city had been taken by the Gauls, and Clitarchus, the next after him, only spoke of the embassy that was sent by the Romans to Alexander) — Theophrastus, I say, following something more than mere rumour, has given the circuit of the island of Circeii as being eighty stadia, in the volume which he wrote during the archonship of Nicodorus at Athens, being the 440th year of our city. Whatever land therefore has been annexed to that island beyond the circumference of about ten miles, has been added to Italy since the year previously mentioned.

§ 3.9.5  Another wonderful circumstance too. — Near Circeii are the Pomptine Marshes, formerly the site, according to Mucianus, who was thrice consul, of four-and-twenty cities. Next to this comes the river Ufens, upon which is the town of Terracina, called, in the language of the Volsci, Anxur; the spot too where Amyclae stood, a town destroyed by serpents. Next is the site of the Grotto, Lake Fundanus, the port of Caieta, and then the town of Formiae, formerly called Hormiae, the ancient seat of the Laestrygones, it is supposed. Beyond this, formerly stood the town of Pyrae; and we then come to the colony of Minturnae, which still exists, and is divided by the river Liris, also called the Glanis. The town of Sinuessa is the last in the portion which has been added to Latium; it is said by some that it used to be called Sinope.

§ 3.9.6  At this spot begins that blessed country Campania, and in this vale first take their rise those hills clad with vines, the juice of whose grape is extolled by Fame all over the world; the happy spot where, as the ancients used to say, father Liber and Ceres are ever striving for the mastery. Hence the fields of Setia and of Caecubum extend afar, and, next to them those of Falernum and of Calinum. As soon as we have passed these, the hills of Massica, of Gaurus, and of Surrentum rise to our view. Next, the level plains of Laborium are spread out far and wide, where every care is bestowed on cultivating crops of spelt, from which the most delicate fermenty is made. These shores are watered by warm springs, while the seas are distinguished beyond all others for the superlative excellence of their shell and other fish. In no country too has the oil of the olive a more exquisite flavour. This territory, a battle-ground as it were for the gratification of every luxurious pleasure of man, has been held successively by the Osci, the Greeks, the Umbri, the Tusci, and the Campani.

§ 3.9.7  On the coast we first meet with the river Savo, the town of Volturnum with a river of the same name, the town of Liternum, Cumae, a Chalcidian colony, Misenum, the port of Baiae, Bauli, the Lucrine Lake, and Lake Avernus, near which there stood formerly a town of the Cimmerians. We then come to Puteoli, formerly called the colony of Dicaearchia, then the Phlegraean Plains, and the Marsh of Acherusia in the vicinity of Cumae.

§ 3.9.8  Again, on the coast we have Neapolis, also a colony of the Chalcidians, and called Parthenope from the tomb there of one of the Sirens, Herculaneum, Pompeii, from which Mount Vesuvius may be seen at no great distance, and which is watered by the river Sarnus; the territory of Nuceria, and, at the distance of nine miles from the sea, the town of that name, and then Surrentum, with the Promontory of Minerva, formerly the abode of the Sirens. The distance thence by sea to Circeii is seventy-eight miles. This region, beginning at the Tiber, is looked upon as the first of Italy according to the division of Augustus.

§ 3.9.9  Inland there are the following colonies: — Capua, so called from its champaign country, Aquinum, Suessa, Venafrum, Sora, Teanum surnamed Sidicinum, Nola; and the towns of Abella, Aricia, Alba Longa, the Acerrani, the Allifani, the Atinates, the Aletrinates, the Anagnini, the Atellani, the Affilani, the Arpinates, the Auximates, the Abellani, the Alfaterni (both those who take their names from the Latin, the Hernican and the Labicanian territory), Bovillae, Calatia, Casinum, Calenum, Capitulum of the Hernici, the Cereatini, surnamed Mariani, the Corani, descended from the Trojan Dardanus, the Cubulterini, the Castrimoenienses, the Cingulani, the Fabienses on the Alban Mount, the Foropopulienses of the Falernian district, the Frusinates, the Ferentinates, the Freginates, the old Frabaterni, the new Frabaterni, the Ficolenses, the Fregellani, Forum Appi, the Forentani, the Gabini, the Interamnates Succasini, also surnamed Lirinates, the Ilionenses Lavinii, the Norbani, the Nomentani, the Praenestini (whose city was formerly called Stephane), the Privernates, the Setini, the Signini, the Suessulani, the Telesini, the Trebulani, surnamed Balinienses, the Trebani, the Tusculani, the Verulani, the Veliterni, the Ulubrenses, the Urbinates, and, last and greater than all, Rome herself, whose other name the hallowed mysteries of the sacred rites forbid us to mention without being guilty of the greatest impiety. After it had been long kept buried in secrecy with the strictest fidelity and in respectful and salutary silence, Valerius Soranus dared to divulge it, but soon did he pay the penalty of his rashness.

§ 3.9.10  It will not perhaps be altogether foreign to the purpose, if I here make mention of one peculiar institution of our forefathers which bears especial reference to the inculcation of silence on religious matters. The goddess Angerona, to whom sacrifice is offered on the twelfth day before the calends of January [21st December], is represented in her statue as having her mouth bound with a sealed fillet.

§ 3.9.11  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 [73 CE], 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 Praetorian 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.

§ 3.9.12  Besides those previously mentioned, there were formerly in the first region the following famous towns of Latium: Satricum, Pometia, Scaptia, Politorium, Tellene, Tifata, Caenina, Ficana, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullum, Corniculum, Saturnia, on the site of the present city of Rome, Antipolis, now Janiculum, forming part of Rome, Antemnae, 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 Aesulani, the Accienses, the Abolani, the Bubetani, 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.

§ 3.9.13  In the Campanian territory there was also the town of Stabiae, 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 Valerius Antias that king L. Tarquinius took Apiolae, 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.

§ 3.10.1  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 Oenotrii, 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 Paestum, which received from the Greeks the name of Posidonia, the Gulf of Paestum, 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 Graecia Pyxus, and the river Laus; there was formerly a town also of the same name.

§ 3.10.2  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. Situated 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 Scyllaion, the river Crataeis, the mother of Scylla it is said; then the Pillar of Rhegium, the Straits of Sicily, and the two promontories which face each other, Caenys 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 promontory 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.

§ 3.10.3  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 sea, 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 sea; thence to Crete, the Sicilian; and beyond that island, the Cretan Sea.

§ 3.11.1  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 Pityussae, 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 Pityussae, 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 Gymnasiae.

§ 3.11.2  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.

§ 3.11.3  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 Maenariae, Tiquadra, and Little Hannibalis.

§ 3.11.4  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 Stoechades, 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 Hypaea. After these come Sturium, Phoenice, Phila, Lero, and, opposite to Antipolis, Lerina, where there is a remembrance of a town called Vergoanum having once existed.

§ 3.12.1  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 Sulla. 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.

§ 3.12.2  We next have Urgo, a larger island, and Capraria, which the Greeks have called Aegilion; then Igilium and Dianium, which they have also called Artemisia, both of them opposite the coast of Cosa; also Barpana, Maenaria, Columbaria, and Venaria. We then come to Ilva with its iron mines, an island 100 miles in circumference, 10 miles distant from Populonium, and called Aethalia 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 Formiae, Pontiae. In the Gulf of Puteoli are Pandateria, and Prochyta, so called, not from the nurse of Aeneas, but because it has been poured forth or detached from Aenaria, an island which received its name from having been the anchorage of the fleet of Aeneas, 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, Capreae, famous for the castle of the emperor Tiberius: it is eleven miles in circumference.

§ 3.13.1  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 Cuniculariae, as also those of Phintonis and Fossae, from which last the Straits themselves have obtained the name of Taphros.

§ 3.13.2  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 Loutra.

§ 3.13.3  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 Neapolitani, 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. Timaeus 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 Paestum 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 Oenotrides, a proof that Italy was formerly possessed by the Oenotrians. Opposite to Vibo are the little islands called Ithacesiae from the watch-tower of Ulysses situate there.

§ 3.14.1  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.

§ 3.14.2  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 Lilybaion, 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 Lilybaion 200, and from Lilybaion to Pelorus 170.

§ 3.14.3  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 Aetna, 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 Symaethus and Terias; while more inland lie the Laestrygonian Plains.

§ 3.14.4  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 territory drink too of the fountains of Temenitis, Archidemia, Magaea, 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 Thermae, the rivers Achates, Mazara, and Hypsa; the town of Selinus, and then the Promontory of Lilybaion, which is succeeded by Drepana, Mount Eryx, the towns of Panhormus, Solus and Himera, with a river of the same name, Cephaloedis, Aluntium, Agathyrnum, the colony of Tyndaris, the town of Mylae, and then Pelorus, the spot at which we began.

§ 3.14.5  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 Aetnenses, the Agyrini, the Acestaei, 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 Galatini, 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 Noaei, the Petrini, the Paropini, the Phthinthienses, the Semellitani, the Scherini, the Selinuntii, the Symaethii, the Talarienses, the Tissinenses, the Triocalini, the Tyracinenses, and the Zanclaei, a Messenian colony on the Straits of Sicily. Towards Africa, its islands are Gaulos, Melita, 87 miles from Camerina, and 113 from Lilybaion, Cosyra, Hieronnesos, Caene, Galata, Lopadusa, Aethusa, written by some Aegusa, Bucinna, Osteodes, distant from Soluntum 75 miles, and, opposite to Paropus, Ustica.

§ 3.14.6  On this side of Sicily, facing the river Metaurus, at a distance of nearly 25 miles from Italy, are the seven islands called the Aeolian, as also the Liparaean islands; by the Greeks they are called the Hephaestiades, and by our writers the Vulcanian Isles; they are called "Aeolian" because in the Trojan times Aeolus was king there.

§ 3.14.7  (9.) Lipara, with a town whose inhabitants enjoy the rights of Roman citizens, is so called from Liparus, a former king who succeeded Aeolus, 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 Aeolus 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 Aeolus. The fourth of these islands is Didyme, smaller than Lipara, the fifth Ericusa, the sixth Phoenicusa, 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.

§ 3.15.1  MAGNA GRAECIA, BEGINNING AT LOCRI: At Locri begins the fore-part of Italy, called Magna Graecia, 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, Mystiae, 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 Terinaion 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 mainland, 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.

§ 3.15.2  At the promontory of Lacinium begins the second Gulf of Europe, the bend of which forms an are of great depth, and terminates at Acroceraunium, a promontory of Epirus, from which it is distant seventy-five miles. We first come to the town of Croton, and then the river Neaethus, and the town of Thurii, situate between the two rivers Crathis and Sybaris, upon the latter of which there was once a city of the same name. In a similar manner Heraclia, sometimes called Siris, lies between the river of that name and the Aciris. We next come to the rivers Acalandrus and Casuentum, and the town of Metapontum, with which the third region of Italy terminates. In the interior of Bruttium, the Aprustani are the only people; but in Lucania we find the Atinates, the Bantini, the Eburini, the Grumentini, the Potentini, the Sontini, the Sirini, the Tergilani, the Ursentini, and the Volcentani, whom the Numestrani join. Besides these, we learn from Cato that Thebes in Lucania has disappeared, and Theopompus informs us that there was formerly a city of the Lucani called Pandosia, at which Alexander, the king of Epirus, died.

§ 3.16.1  THE SECOND REGION OF ITALY: Adjoining to this district is the second region of Italy, which embraces the Hirpini, Calabria, Apulia, and the Salentini, extending a distance of 250 miles along the Gulf of Tarentum, which receives its name from a town of the Laconians so called, situate at the bottom of the Gulf; to which was annexed the maritime colony which had previously settled there. Tarentum is distant from the promontory of Lacinium 136 miles, and throws out the territory of Calabria opposite to it in the form of a peninsula. The Greeks called this territory Messapia, from their leader; before which it was called Peucetia, from Peucetius, the brother of Oenotrius, and was comprised in the Sallentine territory . Between the two promontories there is a distance of 100 miles. The breadth across the peninsula from Tarentum to Brundusium by land is 35 miles, considerably less if measured from the port of Sasina. The towns inland from Tarentum are Uria surnamed Apulia, Messapia, and Aletium; on the coast, Senum, and Callipolis, now known as Anxa, 75 miles from Tarentum. Thence, at a distance of 32 miles, is the Promontory called Acra Iapygia, at which point Italy projects the greatest distance into the sea. At a distance of 19 miles from this point is the town of Basta, and then Hydruntum, the spot at which the Ionian is separated from the Adriatic sea, and from which the distance across to Greece is the shortest. The town of the Apolloniates lies opposite to it, and the breadth of the arm of the sea which runs between is not more than fifty miles. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was the first who entertained the notion of uniting these two points and making a passage on foot, by throwing a bridge across, and after him M. Varro, when commanding the fleet of Pompey in the war against the Pirates. Other cares however prevented either of them from accomplishing this design. Passing Hydruntum, we come to the deserted site of Soletum, then Fratuertium, the Portus Tarentinus, the haven of Miltopa, Lupia, Balesium, Caelia, and then Brundisium, fifty miles from Hydruntum. This last place is one of the most famous ports of Italy, and, although more distant, affords by far the safest passage across to Greece, the place of disembarkation being Dyrrachium, a city of Illyria; the distance across is 225 miles.

§ 3.16.2  Adjoining Brundusium is the territory of the Pediculi; nine youths and as many maidens, natives of Illyria, became the parents of sixteen nations. The towns of the Pediculi are Rudiae, Egnatia, and Barium; their rivers are the Iapyx (so called from the son of Daedalus, who was king there, and who gave it the name of Iapygia), the Pactius, and the Aufidus, which rises in the Hirpinian mountains and flows past Canusium.

§ 3.16.3  At this point begins Apulia, surnamed the Daunian, from the Daunii, who take their name from a former chief, the father-in-law of Diomedes. In this territory are the towns of Salapia, famous for Hannibal's amour with a courtezan, Sipontum, Uria, the river Cerbalus, forming the boundary of the Daunii, the port of Agasus, and the Promontory of Mount Garganus, distant from the SallentinePromontory or Iapygia 234 miles. Making the circuit of Garganus, we come to the port of Garna, the Lake Pantanus, the river Frento, the mouth of which forms a harbour, Teanum of the Apuli, and Larinum, Cliternia, and the river Tifernus, at which the district of the Frentani begins. Thus there were three different nations of the Apulians, [the Daunii, ] the Teani, so called from their leader, and who sprang from the Greeks, and the Lucani, who were subdued by Calchas, and whose country is now possessed by the Atinates. Besides those already mentioned, there are, of the Daunii, the colonies of Luceria and Venusia, the towns of Canusium and Arpi, formerly called Argos Hippium and founded by Diomedes, afterwards called Argyrippa. Here too Diomedes destroyed the nations of the Monadi and the Dardi, and the two cities of Apina and Trica, whose names have passed into a by-word and a proverb.

§ 3.16.4  Besides the above, there is in the interior of the second region one colony of the Hirpini, Beneventum, so called by an exchange of a more auspicious name for its old one of Maleventum; also the Aeculani the Aquilonii, the Abellinates surnamed Protropi, the Compsani, the Caudini, the Ligures, both those called the Corneliani and Bebiani, the Vescellani, the Aeclani, the Aletrini, the Abellinates surnamed Marsi, the Atrani, the Aecani, the Alfellani, the Atinates, the Arpani, the Borcani, the Collatni, the Corinenses, the Cannenses, rendered famous by the defeat of the Romans, the Dirini, the Forentani, the Genusini, the Herdonienses, the Hyrini, the Larinates surnamed Frentani, the Merinates of Garganus, the Mateolani, the Netini, the Rubustini, the Silvini, the Strapellini, the Turmentini, the Vibinates, the Venusini, and the Ulurtini. In the interior of Calabria there are the Aegetini, the Apamestini, the Argentini, the Butuntinenses, the Deciani, the Grumbestini, the Norbanenses, the Palionenses, the Sturnini, and the Tutini: there are also the following Salentine nations; the Aletini, the Basterbini, the Neretini, the Uxentini, and the Veretini.

§ 3.17.1  THE FOURTH REGION OF ITALY: We now come to the fourth region, which includes the most valiant probably of all the nations of Italy. Upon the coast, in the territory of the Frentani, after the river Tifernus, we find the river Trinium, with a good harbour at its mouth, the towns of Histonium, Buca, and Ortona, and the river Aternus. In the interior are the Anxani surnamed Frentani, the Higher and Lower Carentini, and the Lanuenses; in the territory of the Marrucini, the Teatini; in that of the Peligni, the Corfinienses, the Superaequani, and the Sulmonenses; in that of the Marsi, the Anxantini, the Atinates, the Fucentes, the Lucenses, and the Marruvini; in that of the Albenses, the town of Alba on Lake Fucinus; in that of the Aequiculani, the Cliternini, and the Carseolani; in that of the Vestini, the Angulani, the Pinnenses, and the Peltuinates, adjoining to whom are the Aufinates Cismontani; in that of the Samnites, who have been called Sabelli, and whom the Greeks have called Saunitae, the colony of old Bovianum, and that of the Undecumani, the Aufidenates, the Esernini, the Fagifulani, the Ficolenses, the Saepinates, and the Tereventinates; in that of the Sabini, the Amiternini, the Curenses, Forum Deci, Forum Novum, the Fidenates, the Interamnates, the Nursini, the Nomentani, the Reatini, the Trebulani, both those called Mutusci and those called Suffenates, the Tiburtes, and the Tarinates.

§ 3.17.2  In these districts, the Comini, the Tadiates, the Caedici, and the Alfaterni, tribes of the Aequiculi, have disappeared. From Gellianus we learn that Archippe, a town of the Marsi, built by Marsyas, a chieftain of the Lydians, has been swallowed up by Lake Fucinus, and Valerianus informs us that the town of the Viticini in Picenum was destroyed by the Romans. The Sabini (called, according to some writers, from their attention to religious observances and the worship of the gods, Sevini) dwell on the dew-clad hills in the vicinity of the Lakes of the Velinus. The Nar, with its sulphureous waters, exhausts these lakes, and, descending from Mount Fiscellus, unites with them near the groves of Vacuna and Reate, and then directs its course towards the Tiber, into which it discharges itself. Again, in another direction, the Anio, taking its rise in the mountain of the Trebani, carries into the Tiber the waters of three lakes remarkable for their picturesque beauty, and to which Sublaqueum is indebted for its name. In the territory of Reate is the Lake of Cutiliae, in which there is a floating island, and which, according to M. Varro, is the navel or central point of Italy. Below the Sabine territory lies that of Latium, on one side Picenum, and behind it Umbria, while the range of the Apennines flanks it on either side.

§ 3.18.1  THE FIFTH REGION OF ITALY: The fifth region is that of Picenum, once remarkable for the denseness of its population; 360,000 Picentines took the oaths of fidelity to the Roman people. They are descended from the Sabines, who had made a vow to celebrate a holy spring. Their territory commenced at the river Aternus, where the present district and colony of Adria is, at a distance of six miles from the sea. Here we find the river Vomanus, the territories of Praetutia and Palma, Castrum Novum, the river Batinus; Truentum, with its river of the same name, which place is the only remnant of the Liburni in Italy; the river Albula; Tervium, at which the Praetutian district ends, and that of Picenum begins; the town of Cupra, Castellum Firmanorum, and above it the colony of Asculum, the most illustrious in Picenum; in the interior there is the town of Novana. Upon the coast we have Cluana, Potentia, Numana, founded by the Siculi, and Ancona, a colony founded by the same people on the Promontory of Cumerus, forming an elbow of the coast, where it begins to bend inwards, and distant from Garganus 183 miles. In the interior are the Auximates, the Beregrani, the Cingulani, the Cuprenses surnamed Montani, the Falarienses, the Pausulani, the Planinenses, the Ricinenses, the Septempedani, the Tollentinates, the Treienses, and the Pollentini of Urbs Salvia.

§ 3.19.1  THE SIXTH REGION OF ITALY: Adjoining to this is the sixth region, which includes Umbria and the Gallic territory in the vicinity of Ariminum. At Ancona begins the coast of that part of Gaul known as Gallia Togata. The Siculi and the Liburni possessed the greater part of this district, and more particularly the territories of Palma, of Praetutia, and of Adria. These were expelled by the Umbri, these again by the Etrurians, and these in their turn by the Gauls. The Umbri are thought to have been the most ancient race in Italy, it being supposed that they were called "Ombrii" by the Greeks, from the fact of their having survived the rains which had inundated the earth. We read that 300 of their towns were conquered by the Tusci; at the present day we find on their coast the river Aesis, Senogallia, the river Metaurus, the colonies of Fanum Fortunae and Pisaurum, with a river of the same name; and, in the interior, those of Hispellum and Tuder.

§ 3.19.2  Besides the above, there are the Amerini, the Attidiates, the Asisinates, the Arnates, the Aesinates, the Camertes, the Casuentillani, the Carsulani, the Dolates surnamed Salentini, the Fulginiates, the Foroflaminienses, the Forojulienses surnamed Concupienses, the Forobrentani, the Forosempronienses, the Iguvini, the Interamnates surnamed Nartes, the Mevanates, the Mevanionenses, the Matilicates, the Narnienses, whose town used formerly to be called Nequinum; the Nucerini, both those surnamed Favonienses and those called Camellani; the Ocriculani, the Ostrani, the Pitulani, both those surnamed Pisuertes and the others called Mergentini; the Plestini, the Sentinates, the Sarsinates, the Spoletini, the Suasini, the Sestinates, the Suillates, the Tadinates, the Trebiates, the Tuficani, the Tifernates surnamed Tiberini, and the others called Metaurenses, the Vesinicates, the Urbinates, both those surnamed Metaurenses and the others called Hortenses, the Vettonenses, the Vindinates, and the Viventani. In this district there exist no longer the Feliginates who possessed Clusiolum above Interamna, and the Sarranates, with their towns of Acerrae, surnamed Vafriae, and Turocelum, also called Vettiolum; as also the Solinates, the Curiates, the Fallienates, and the Apiennates. The Arienates also have disappeared with the town of Crinovolum, as well as the Usidicani, the Plangenses, the Paesinates, and the Caelestini. Cato writes that Ameria above-mentioned was founded 964 years before the war with Perseus.

§ 3.20.1  THE EIGHTH REGION OF ITALY; THE PADUS. The eighth region is bounded by Ariminum, the Padus, and the Apennines. Upon the coast we have the river Crustumium, and the colony of Ariminum, with the rivers Ariminus and Aprusa. Next comes the river Rubicon, once the boundary of Italy, and after it the Sapis, the Vitis, and the Anemo, and then, Ravenna, a town of the Sabines, with the river Bedesis, 105 miles from Ancona; and, not far from the sea, Butrium, a town of the Umbri. In the interior there are the colonies of Bononia, formerly called Felsina, when it was the chief place of Etruria, Brixillum, Mutina, Parma, and Placentia. There are also the towns of Caesena, Claterna, Forum Clodi, Forum Livi, Forum Popili, Forum Truentinorum, Forum Corneli, Forum Licini, the Faventini, the Fidentini, the Otesini, the Padinates, the Regienses, who take their name from Lepidus, the Solonates, the Saltus Galliani, surnamed Aquinates, the Tannetani, the Veliates, who were anciently surnamed Regiates, and the Urbanates. In this district the Boii have disappeared, of whom there were 112 tribes according to Cato; as also the Senones, who captured Rome.

§ 3.20.2  The Padus descends from the bosom of Mount Vesulus, one of the most elevated points of the chain of the Alps, in the territories of the Ligurian Vagienni, and rises at its source in a manner that well merits an inspection by the curious; after which it hides itself in a subterranean channel until it rises again in the country of the Forovibienses. It is inferior in fame to none whatever among the rivers, being known to the Greeks as the Eridanus and famous as the scene of the punishment of Phaethon. At the rising of the Dog-star it is swollen by the melted snows; but, though it proves more furious in its course to the adjoining fields than to the vessels that are upon it, still it takes care to carry away no portion of its banks, and when it recedes, renders them additionally fertile. Its length from its source is 300 miles, to which we must add eighty-eight for its sinuosities; and it receives from the Apennines and Alps not only several navigable rivers, but immense lakes as well, which discharge themselves into its waters, thus conveying altogether as many as thirty streams into the Adriatic Sea.

§ 3.20.3  Of these the best known are the following — flowing from the range of the Apennines, the Jactus, the Tanarus, the Trebia which passes Placentia, the Tarus, the Incia, the Gabellus, the Scultenna, and the Rhenus: from the chain of the Alps, the Stura, the Orgus, the two Duriae, the Sessites, the Ticinus, the Lambrus, the Addua, the Ollius, and the Mincius. There is no river known to receive a larger increase than this in so short a space; so much so indeed that it is impelled onwards by this vast body of water, and, invading the land, forms deep channels in its course: hence it is that, although a portion of its stream is drawn off by rivers and canals between Ravenna and Altinum, for a space of 120 miles, still, at the spot where it discharges the vast body of its waters, it is said to form seven seas.

§ 3.20.4  By the Augustan Canal the Padus is carried to Ravenna, at which place it is called the Padusa, having formerly borne the name of Messanicus. The nearest mouth to this spot forms the extensive port known as that of Vatrenus, where Claudius Caesar, on his triumph over the Britons, entered the Adriatic in a vessel that deserved rather the name of a vast palace than a ship. This mouth, which was formerly called by some the Eridanian, has been by others styled the Spinetic mouth, from the city of Spina, a very powerful place which formerly stood in the vicinity, if we may form a conclusion from the amount of its treasure deposited at Delphi; it was founded by Diomedes. At this spot the river Vatrenus, which flows from the territory of Forum Corneli, swells the waters of the Padus.

§ 3.20.5  The next mouth to this is that of Caprasia, then that of Sagis, and then Volane, formerly called Olane; all of which are situate upon the Flavian Canal, which the Tuscans formerly made from Sagis, thus drawing the impetuous stream of the river across into the marshes of the Atriani, which they call the Seven Seas; and upon which is the noble port of Atria, a city of the Tuscans, from which place the sea was formerly called the Atriatic, though now the Adriatic.

§ 3.20.6  We next come to the overflowing mouths of Carbonaria, and the Fosses of Philistina, by some called Tartarus, all of which originate in the overflow of the waters in the Philistinian Canal, swollen by the streams of the Atesis, descending from the Tridentine Alps, and of the Togisonus, flowing from the territory of the Patavini. A portion of them also forms the adjoining port of Brundulum, in the same manner as Edron is formed by the two rivers Meduacus and the Clodian Canal. With the waters of these streams the Padus unites, and with them discharges itself into the sea, forming, according to most writers, between the Alps and the sea-shore a triangular figure, 2000 stadia in circumference, not unlike the Delta formed by the Nile in Egypt. I feel somewhat ashamed to have to borrow from the Greeks any statement in reference to Italy; Metrodorus of Scepsis, however, informs us that this river has obtained its name of Padus from the fact, that about its source there are great numbers of pine-trees, which in the Gallic language are called "padi." In the tongue of the Ligurians this river is called "Bodincus," which signifies "the bottomless." This derivation is in some measure supported by the fact that near this river there is the town of Industria, of which the ancient name was Bodincomagum, and where the river begins to be of greater depth than in other parts.

§ 3.21.1  THE ELEVENTH REGION OF ITALY; ITALIA TRANSPAIDANA. From the river Padus the eleventh region receives its name of Transpadana; to which, situate as it is wholly in the interior, the river, by its bounteous channel, conveys the gifts of all the seas. The towns are Vibi Forum and Segusio; and, at the foot of the Alps, the colony of Augusta Taurinorum, at which place the Padus becomes navigable, and which was founded by the ancient race of the Ligurians, and of Augusta Praetoria of the Salassi, near the two passes of the Alps, the Grecian and the Penine (by the latter it is said that the Carthaginians passed into Italy, by the Grecian, Hercules) — the town of Eporedia, the foundation of which by the Roman people was enjoined by the Sibylline books; the Gauls call tamers of horses by the name of "Eporediae" — Vercellae, the town of the Libici, derived its origin from the Salluvii, and Novaria, founded by the Vertacomacori, is at the present day a district of the Vocontii, and not, as Cato supposes, of the Ligurians; of whom two nations, called the Laevi and the Marici, founded Ticinum, not far from the Padus, as the Boii, descended from the Transalpine nations, have founded Laus Pompeia and the Insubres Mediolanum.

§ 3.21.2  From Cato we also learn that Comum, Bergomum, and Licini forum, and some other peoples in the vicinity, originated with the Orobii, but he admits that he is ignorant as to the origin of that nation. Cornelius Alexander however informs us that they came from Greece, interpreting their name as meaning "those who live upon the mountains." In this district, Parra has disappeared, a town of the Orobii, from whom, according to Cato, the people of Bergomum are descended; its site even yet shows that it was situate in a position more elevated than fruitful. The Caturiges have also perished, an exiled race of the Insubres, as also Spina previously mentioned; Melpum too, a place distinguished for its opulence, which, as we are informed by Cornelius Nepos, was destroyed by the Insubres, the Boii, and the Senones, on the very day on which Camillus took Veii.

§ 3.22.1  THE TENTH REGION OF ITALY: We now come to the tenth region of Italy, situate on the Adriatic Sea. In this district are Venetia, the river Silis, rising in the Tarvisanian mountains, the town of Altinum, the river Liquentia rising in the mountains of Opitergium, and a port with the same name, the colony of Concordia; the rivers and harbours of Romatinum, the greater and less Tiliaventum, the Anaxum, into which the Varamus flows, the Alsa, and the Natiso with the Turrus, which flow past the colony of Aquileia at a distance of fifteen miles from the sea. This is the country of the Carni, and adjoining to it is that of the Iapydes, the river Timavus, the fortress of Pucinum, famous for its wines, the Gulf of Tergeste, and the colony of that name, thirty-three miles from Aquileia. Six miles beyond this place lies the river Formio, 189 miles distant from Ravenna, the ancient boundary of enlarged Italy, and now the frontier of Istria. That this region takes its name from the river Ister which flows from the Danube, also called the Ister, into the Adriatic opposite the mouth of the Padus, and that the sea which lies between them is rendered fresh by their waters running from opposite directions, has been erroneously asserted by many, and among them by Nepos even, who dwelt upon the banks of the Padus. For it is the fact that no river which runs from the Danube discharges itself into the Adriatic. They have been misled, I think, by the circumstance that the ship Argo came down some river into the Adriatic sea, not far from Tergeste; but what river that was is now unknown. The most careful writers say that the ship was carried across the Alps on men's shoulders, having passed along the Ister, then along the Savus, and so from Nauportus, which place, lying between Aemona and the Alps, from that circumstance derives its name.

§ 3.23.1  ISTRIA, ITS PEOPLE AND LOCALITY: Istria projects in the form of a peninsula. Some writers have stated its length to be forty miles, and its circumference 125; and the same as to Liburnia which adjoins it, and the Flanatic Gulf, while others make it 225; others again make the circumference of Liburnia 180 miles. Some persons too extend Iapydia, at the back of Istria, as far as the Flanatic Gulf, a distance of 130 miles, thus making Liburnia but 150 miles. Tuditanus, who subdued the Istri, had this inscription on his statue which was erected there: "From Aquileia to the river Titus is a distance of 1000 stadia."

§ 3.23.2  The towns of Istria with the rights of Roman citizens are Aegida, Parentium, and the colony of Pola, now Pietas Julia, formerly founded by the Colchians, and distant from Tergeste 100 miles: after which we come to the town of Nesactium, and the river Arsia, now the boundary of Italy. The distance across from Ancona to Pola is 120 miles. In the interior of the tenth region are the colonies of Cremona, Brixia in the territory of the Cenomanni, Ateste belonging to the Veneti, and the towns of Acelum, Patavium, Opitergium, Belunum, and Vicetia; with Mantua, the only city of the Tuscans now left beyond the Padus. Cato informs us that the Veneti are descendants of the Trojans, and that the Cenomanni dwelt among the Volcae in the vicinity of Massilia. There are also the towns of the Fertini, the Tridentini, and the Beruenses, belonging to the Rhaeti, Verona, belonging to the Rhaeti and the Euganei, and Julienses to the Carni. We then have the following peoples, whom there is no necessity to particularize with any degree of exactness, the Alutrenses, the Asseriates, the Flamonienses with those surnamed Vanienses, and the others called Culici, the Forojulienses surnamed Transpadani, the Foretani, the Nedinates, the Quarqueni, the Taurisani, the Togienses, and the Varvari. In this district there have disappeared — upon the coast — Iramene, Pellaon, and Palsatium, Atina and Caelina belonging to the Veneti, Segeste and Ocra to the Carni, and Noreia to the Taurisci. L. Piso also informs us that although the senate disapproved of his so doing, M. Claudius Marcellus razed to the ground a tower situated at the twelfth mile-stone from Aquileia.

§ 3.23.3  In this region also and the eleventh there are some celebrated lakes, and several rivers that either take their rise in them or else are fed by their waters, in those cases in which they again emerge from them. These are the Addua, fed by the Lake Larius, the Ticinus by Lake Verbannus, the Mincius by Lake Benacus, the Ollius by Lake Sebinnus, and the Lambrus by Lake Eupilis — all of them flowing into the Padus.

§ 3.23.4  Caelius states that the length of the Alps from the Upper Sea to the Lower is 1000 miles, a distance which Timagenes shortens by twenty-two. Cornelius Nepos assigns to them a breadth of 100 miles, and T. Livius of 3000 stadia; but then in different places. For in some localities they exceed 100 miles; where they divide Germany, for instance, from Italy; while in other parts they do not reach seventy, being thus narrowed by the providential dispensation of nature as it were. The breadth of Italy, taken from the river Var at the foot of these mountains, and passing along by the Vada Sabatia, the Taurini, Comum, Brixia, Verona, Vicetia, Opitergium, Aquileia, Tergeste, Pola, and Arsia, is 745 miles.

§ 3.24.1  THE ALPS, AND THE ALPINE NATIONS: Many nations dwell among the Alps; but the more remarkable, between Pola and the district of Tergeste, are the Secusses, the Subocrini, the Catali, the Menocaleni, and near the Carni the people formerly called the Taurisci, but now the Norici. Adjoining to these are the Rhaeti and the Vindelici, who are all divided into a multitude of states. It is supposed that the Rhaeti are the descendants of the Tuscans, who were expelled by the Gauls and migrated hither under the command of their chief, whose name was Rhaetus. Turning then to the side of the Alps which fronts Italy, we have the Euganean nations enjoying Latin rights, and of whom Cato enumerates thirty-four towns. Among these are the Triumpilini, a people who were sold with their territory; and then the Camuni, and several similar tribes, each of them in the jurisdiction of its neighbouring municipal town. The same author also considers the Lepontii and the Salassi to be of Tauriscan origin, but most other writers, giving a Greek interpretation to their name, consider the Lepontii to have been those of the followers of Hercules who were left behind in consequence of their limbs being frozen by the snow of the Alps. They are also of opinion that the inhabitants of the Grecian Alps are descended from a portion of the Greeks of his army, and that the Euganeans, being sprung from an origin so illustrious, thence took their name. The head of these are the Stoeni. The Vennonenses and the Sarunetes, peoples of the Rhaeti, dwell about the sources of the river Rhenus, while the tribe of the Lepontii, known as the Uberi, dwell in the vicinity of the sources of the Rhodanus, in the same district of the Alps. There are also other native tribes here, who have received Latin rights, such as the Octodurenses, and their neighbours the Centrones, the Cottian states, the Ligurian Vagienni, descended from the Caturiges, as also those called Montani; besides numerous nations of the Capillati, on the confines of the Ligurian Sea.

§ 3.24.2  It may not be inappropriate in this place to subjoin the inscription now to be seen upon the trophy erected on the Alps, which is to the following effect: — "To the Emperor Caesar — The son of Caesar now deified, Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, and emperor fourteen years, in the seventeenth year of his holding the tribunitial authority, the Senate and the Roman people, in remembrance that under his command and auspices all the Alpine nations which extended from the upper sea to the lower were reduced to subjection by the Roman people — The Alpine nations so subdued were: the Triumpilini, the Camuni, the Venostes, the Vennonenses, the Isarci, the Breuni, the Genaunes, the Focunates, four nations of the Vindelici, the Consuanetes, the Rucinates, the Licates, the Catenates, the Ambisontes, the Rugusci, the Suanetes, the Calucones, the Brixentes, the Lepontii, the Uberi, the Nantuates, the Seduni, the Varagri, the Salassi, the Acitavones, the Medulli, the Uceni, the Caturiges, the Brigiani, the Sogiontii, the Brodiontii, the Nemaloni, the Edenates, the Esubiani, the Veamini, the Gallitae, the Triulatti, the Ecdini, the Vergunni, the Eguituri, the Nementuri, the Oratelli, the Nerusi, the Velauni, and the Suetri."

§ 3.24.3  The twelve states of the Cottiani were not included in the list, as they had shown no hostility, nor yet those which had been placed by the Pompeian law under the jurisdiction of the municipal towns.

§ 3.24.4  Such then is Italy, sacred to the gods, such are the nations, such the cities of her peoples; to which we may add, that this is that same Italy, which, when L. Aemilius Paulus and C. Attilius Regulus were Consuls, on hearing of the rising in Gaul, unaided, and without any foreign assistance whatever, without the help even of that portion which lies beyond the Padus, armed 80,000 horse and 700,000 foot. In abundance of metals of every kind. Italy yields to no land whatever; but all search for them has been prohibited by an ancient decree of the Senate, who gave orders thereby that Italy shall be exempted from such treatment.

§ 3.25.1  LIBURNIA AND ILLYRICUM: The nation of the Liburni adjoins the river Arsia, and extends as far as the river Titus. The Mentores, the Hymani, the Encheleae, the Buni, and the people whom Callimachus calls the Peucetiae, formerly formed part of it; but now the whole in general are comprised under the one name of Illyricum. But few of the names of these nations are worthy of mention, or indeed very easy of pronunciation. To the jurisdiction of Scardona resort the Iapydes and fourteen cities of the Liburni, of which it may not prove tedious if I mention the Lacinienses, the Stlupini, the Burnistae, and the Olbonenses. Belonging to the same jurisdiction there are, in the enjoyment of Italian rights, the Alutae, the Flanates, from whom the Gulf takes its name, the Lopsi, and the Varvarini; the Assesiates, who are exempt from tribute; and upon the islands, the Fertinates and the Curiattae.

§ 3.25.2  Besides these, there are on the coast, after leaving Nesactium, Alvona, Flanona, Tarsatica, Senia, Lopsica, Ortopula, Vegium, Argyruntum, Corinium, Aenona, the city of Pasinum, and the river Tedanius, at which Iapydia terminates. The islands of this Gulf, with their towns, besides those above mentioned, are Absyrtium, Arba, Crexa, Gissa, and Portunata. Again, on the mainland there is the colony of Iadera, distant from Pola 160 miles; then, at a distance of thirty miles, the island of Colentum, and of eighteen, the mouth of the river Titus.

§ 3.26.1  DALMATIA: Scardona, situate upon the river, at a distance of twelve miles from the sea, forms the boundary of Liburnia and the beginning of Dalmatia. Next to this place comes the ancient country of the Autariatares and the fortress of Tariona, the Promontory of Diomedes, or, as others call it, the peninsula of Hyllis, 100 miles in circuit. Then comes Tragurium, a place with the rights of Roman citizens, and celebrated for its marble, Sicum, a place to which Claudius, the emperor lately deified, sent a colony of his veterans, and Salona, a colony, situate 112 miles from Iadera. To this place resort for legal purposes, having the laws dispensed according to their divisions into decuries or tithings, the Dalmatae, forming 342 decuries, the Deurici 22, the Ditiones 239, the Mazaei 269, and the Sardiates 52. In this region are Burnum, Andetrium, and Tribulium, fortresses ennobled by the battles of the Roman people. To the same jurisdiction also belong the Issaei, the Colentini, the Separi, and the Epetini, nations inhabiting the islands. After these come the fortresses of Peguntium and of Rataneum, with the colony of Narona, the seat of the third jurisdiction, distant from Salona eighty-two miles, and situate upon a river of the same name, at a distance of twenty miles from the sea. M. Varro states that eighty-nine states used to resort thither, but now nearly the only ones that are known are the Cerauni with 24 decuries, the Daorizi with 17, the Daesitiates with 103, the Docleatae with 33, the Deretini with 14, the Deremistae with 30, the Dindari with 33, the Glinditiones with 44, the Melcomani with 24, the Naresii with 102, the Scirtarii with 72, the Siculotae with 24, and the Vardaei, once the scourges of Italy, with no more than 20 decuries. In addition to these, this district was possessed by the Ozuaei, the Partheni, the Hemasini, the Arthitae, and the Armistae. The colony of Epidaurum is distant from the river Naron 100 miles. After Epidaurum come the following towns, with the rights of Roman citizens: — Rhizinium, Acruvium, Butua, Olcinium, formerly called Colchinium, having been founded by the Colchians; the river Drilo, and, upon it, Scodra, a town with the rights of Roman citizens, situate at a distance of eighteen miles from the sea; besides in former times many Greek towns and once powerful states, of which all remembrance is fast fading away. For in this region there were formerly the Labeatae, the Enderini, the Sasaei, the Grabaei, properly called Illyrii, the Taulantii, and the Pyrei. The Promontory of Nymphaion on the sea-coast still retains its name; and there is Lissum, a town enjoying the rights of Roman citizens, at a distance from Epidamnum of 100 miles.

§ 3.26.2  At Lissum begins the province of Macedonia, the nations of the Parthini, and behind them the Dassaretae. The mountains of Candavia are seventy-eight miles from Dyrrhachium. On the coast lies Denda, a town with the rights of Roman citizens, the colony of Epidamnum, which, on account of its inauspicious name, was by the Romans called Dyrrhachium, the river Aous, by some called Aeas, and Apollonia, formerly a colony of the Corinthians, at a distance of four miles from the sea, in the vicinity of which the celebrated Nymphaion is inhabited by the barbarous Amantes and Buliones. Upon the coast too is the town of Oricum, founded by the Colchians. At this spot begins Epirus, with the Acroceraunian mountains, by which we have previously mentioned this Gulf of Europe as bounded. Oricum is distant from the Sallentine Promontory in Italy eighty miles.

§ 3.27.1  THE NORICI: In the rear of the Carni and the Iapydes, along the course of the great river Ister, the Rhaeti touch upon the Norici: their towns are Virunum, Celeia, Teurnia, Aguntum, Vianiomina, Claudia, and Flavium Solvense. Adjoining to the Norici is Lake Peiso, and the deserts of the Boii; they are however now inhabited by the people of Sabaria, a colony of the now deified emperor Claudius, and the town of Scarabantia Julia.

§ 3.28.1  PANNONIA: Next to them comes acorn-bearing Pannonia, along which the chain of the Alps, gradually lessening as it runs through the middle of Illyricum from north to south, forms a gentle slope on the right hand and the left. The portion which looks towards the Adriatic Sea is called Dalmatia and Illyricum, above mentioned, while Pannonia stretches away towards the north, and has the Danube for its extreme boundary. In it are the colonies of Aemona and Siscia. The following rivers, both known to fame and adapted for commerce, flow into the Danube; the Draus, which rushes from Noricum with great impetuosity, and the Savus, which flows with a more gentle current from the Carnic Alps, there being a space between them of 120 miles. The Draus runs through the Serretes, the Serrapilli, the Iasi, and the Andizetes; the Savus through the Colapiani and the Breuci; these are the principal peoples. Besides them there are the Arivates, the Azali, the Amantini, the Belgites, the Catari, the Cornacates, the Eravisci, the Hercuniates, the Latovici, the Oseriates, the Varciani, and, in front of Mount Claudius, the Scordisci, behind it the Taurisci. In the Savus there is the island of Metubarris, the greatest of all the islands formed by rivers. Besides the above, there are these other rivers worthy of mention: — the Colapis, which flows into the Savus near Siscia, where, dividing its channel, it forms the island which is called Segestica a; and the river Bacuntius, which flows into the Savus at the town of Sirmium, where we find the state of the Sirmienses and the Amantini. Forty-five miles thence is Taurunum, where the Savus flows into the Danube; above which spot the Valdanus and the Urpanus, themselves far from ignoble rivers, join that stream.

§ 3.29.1  MOESIA: Joining up to Pannonia is the province called Moesia, which runs, with the course of the Danube, as far as the Euxine. It commences at the confluence previously mentioned. In it are the Dardani, the Celegeri, the Triballi, the Timachi, the Moesi, the Thracians, and the Scythians who border on the Euxine. The more famous among its rivers are the Margis, which rises in the territory of the Dardani, the Pingus, the Timachus, the Oescus which rises in Mount Rhodope, and, rising in Mount Haemus, the Utus, the Asamus, and the Ieterus.

§ 3.29.2  The breadth of Illyricum at its widest part is 325 miles, and its length from the river Arsia to the river Drinius 530; from the Drinius to the Promontory of Acroceraunia Agrippa states to be 175 miles, and he says that the entire circuit of the Italian and Illyrian Gulf is 1700 miles. In this Gulf, according to the limits which we have drawn, are two seas, the Ionian in the first part, and the Adriatic, which runs more inland and is called the Upper Sea.

§ 3.30.1  ISLANDS OF THE IONIAN SEA AND THE ADRIATIC: In the Ausonian Sea there are no islands worthy of notice beyond those which we have already mentioned, and only a few in the Ionian; those, for instance, upon the Calabrian coast, opposite Brundusium, by the projection of which a harbour is formed; and, over against the Apulian coast, Diomedia, remarkable for the monument of Diomedes, and another island called by the same name, but by some Teutria.

§ 3.30.2  The coast of Illyricum is clustered with more than 1000 islands, the sea being of a shoaly nature, and numerous creeks and aestuaries running with their narrow channels between portions of the land. The more famous are those before the mouths of the Timavus, with warm springs that rise with the tides of the sea, the island of Cissa near the territory of the Istri, and the Pullaria and Absyrtides, so called by the Greeks from the circumstance of Absyrtus, the brother of Medea, having been slain there. Some islands near them have been called the Electrides, upon which amber, which they call "electrum," was said to be found; a most assured instance however of that untruthfulness which is generally ascribed to the Greeks, seeing that it has never yet been ascertained which of the islands were meant by them under that name. Opposite to the Iader is Lissa, and other islands whose names have been already mentioned. Opposite to the Liburni are some islands called the Crateae, and no smaller number styled Liburniecae and Celadussae. Opposite to Surium is Bavo, and Brattia, famous for its goats, Issa with the rights of Roman citizens, and Pharia with a town. At a distance of twenty-five miles from Issa is Corcyra Melaena, with a town founded by the Cnidians; between which and Illyricum is Melite, from which, as we learn from Callimachus, a certain kind of little dogs were called Melitaei; fifteen miles from it we find the seven Elaphites. In the Ionian Sea, at a distance of twelve miles from Oricum, is Sasonis, notorious from having been a harbour of pirates.

§ 4.1.1  EPIRUS: The third great Gulf of Europe begins at the mountains of Acroceraunia, and ends at the Hellespont, embracing an extent of 2500 miles, exclusive of the sea-line of nineteen smaller gulfs. Upon it are Epirus, Acarnania, Aitolia, Phocis, Locris, Achaia, Messenia, Laconia, Argolis, Megaris, Attica, Boeotia; and again, upon the other sea, the same Phocis and Locris, Doris, Phthiotis, Thessalia, Magnesia, Macedonia and Thracia. All the fabulous lore of Greece, as well as the effulgence of her literature, first shone forth upon the banks of this Gulf. We shall therefore dwell a little the longer upon it.

§ 4.1.2  Epirus, generally so called, begins at the mountains of Acroceraunia. The first people that we meet are the Chaones, from whom Chaonia receives its name, then the Thesproti, and then the Antigonenses. We then come to the place where Aornos stood, with its exhalations so deadly to the feathered race, the Cestrinis, the Perrhaebi, in whose country Mount Pindus is situate, the Cassiopaei, the Dryopes, the Sellae, the Hellopes, the Molossi, in whose territory is the temple of the Dodonaean Jupiter, so famous for its oracle; and Mount Tomarus, so highly praised by Theopompus, with its hundred springs gushing from its foot.

§ 4.1.3  Epirus, properly so called, advances towards Magnesia and Macedonia, having at its back the Dassaretae, previously mentioned, a free nation, and after them the Dardani, a savage race. On the left hand, before the Dardani are extended the Triballi and the nations of Moesia, while in front of them the Medi and the Denselatae join, and next to them the Thracians, who stretch away as far as the Euxine: in such a manner is a rampart raised around the lofty heights of Rhodope, and then of Haemus.

§ 4.1.4  On the coast of Epirus is the fortress of Chimaer, situate upon the Acroceraunian range, and below it the spring known as the Royal Waters; then the towns of Maeandria, and Cestria, the Thyamis, a river of Thesprotia, the colony of Buthrotum, and the Ambracian Gulf, so famed in history; which, with an inlet only half a mile in width, receives a vast body of water from the sea, being thirty-seven miles in length, and fifteen in width. The river Acheron, which runs through Acherusia, a lake of Thesprotia, flows into it after a course of thirty-six miles; it is considered wonderful for its bridge, 1000 feet in length, by a people who look upon everything as wonderful that belongs to themselves. Upon this Gulf is also situate the town of Ambracia. There are also the Aphas and the Arachthus, rivers of the Molossi; the city of Anactoria, and the place where Pandosia stood.

§ 4.2.1  ACARNANIA: The towns of Acarnania, the ancient name of which was Curetis, are Heraclia, Echinus, and, on the coast, Actium, a colony founded by Augustus, with its famous temple of Apollo and the free city of Nicopolis. Passing out of the Ambracian Gulf into the Ionian Sea, we come to the coast of Leucadia, with the Promontory of Leucate, and then the Gulf and the peninsula of Leucadia, which last was formerly called Neritis. By the exertions of the inhabitants it was once cut off from the mainland, but was again joined to it by the vast bodies of sand accumulated through the action of the winds. This spot is called Dioryctos, and is three stadia in length: on the peninsula is the town of Leucas, formerly called Neritus. We next come to Alyzia, Stratos, and Argos, surnamed Amphilochian, cities of the Acarnanians: the river Achelous flows from the heights of Pindus, and, after separating Acarnania from Aitolia, is fast adding the island of Artemita to the mainland by the continual deposits of earth which it brings down its stream.

§ 4.3.1  AETOLIA: The peoples of Aitolia are the Athamanes, the Tymphaei, the Ephyri, the Aenienses, the Perrhaebi, the Dolopes, the Maraces, and the Atraces, in whose territory rises the river Atrax, which flows into the Ionian Sea. Calydon is a city of Aitolia, situate at a distance of seven miles from the sea, and near the banks of the river Evenus. We then come to Macynia, and Molycria, behind which lie Mounts Chalcis and Taphiassus. On the coast again, there is the promontory of Antirrhium, off which is the mouth of the Corinthian Gulf, which flows in and separates Aitolia from the Peloponnesus, being less than one mile in width. The promontory which faces it on the opposite side is called Rhion. The towns of Aitolia, however, on the Corinthian Gulf are Naupactus and Pylene; and, more inland, Pleuron and Halicyrna. The most famous mountains are Tomarus, in the district of Dodona, Crania in Ambracia, Aracynthus in Acarnania, and Acanthon, Panaetolium, and Macynium, in Aitolia.

§ 4.4.1  LOCRIS AND PHOCIS: Next to Aitolia are the Locri surnamed Ozolae; a people exempt from tribute. Here is the town of Oianthe, the port of Apollo Phaestius, and the Gulf of Crissa. In the interior are the towns of Argyna, Eupalia, Phaestum, and Calamisus. Beyond are the Cirrhaean plains of Phocis, the town of Cirrha, and the port of Chalaeon, seven miles from which, in the interior, is situate the free town of Delphi, at the foot of Mount Parnassus, and having the most celebrated oracle of Apollo throughout the whole world. There is the Fountain too of Castalia, and the river Cephisus which flows past Delphi, rising in the former city of Lilaea. Besides these, there is the town of Crissa and that of Anticyra, with the Bulenses; as also Naulochum, Pyrrha, Amphissa, exempt from all tribute, Tithrone, Tritea, Ambrysus, and Drymaea, which district has also the name of Daulis. The extremity of the gulf washes one corner of Boeotia, with its towns of Siphae and Thebes, surnamed the Corsian, in the vicinity of Helicon. The third town of Boeotia on this sea is that of Pagae, from which point the Isthmus of the Peloponnesus projects in the form of a neck.

§ 4.5.1  THE PELOPONNESUS: The Peloponnesus, which was formerly called Apia and Pelasgia, is a peninsula, inferior in fame to no land upon the face of the earth. Situate between the two seas, the Aegean and the Ionian, it is in shape like the leaf of a plane-tree, in consequence of the angular indentations made in its shores. According to Isidorus, it is 563 miles in circumference; and nearly as much again, allowing for the sea-line on the margin of its gulfs. The narrow pass at which it commences is known by the name of the Isthmus. At this spot the two seas, which we have previously mentioned, running from the north and the east, invade the land from opposite sides, and swallow up its entire breadth, the result being that through these inroads in opposite directions of such vast bodies of water, the sides of the land are eaten away to such an extent, that Hellas only holds on to the Peloponnesus by the narrow neck, five miles in width, which intervenes. The Gulfs thus formed, the one on this side, the other on that, are known as the Corinthian and the Saronic Gulfs. The ports of Lecheae, on the one side, and of Cenchreae on the other, form the frontiers of this narrow passage, which thus compels to a tedious and perilous circumnavigation such vessels as from their magnitude cannot be carried across by land on vehicles. For this reason it is that both King Demetrius, Caesar the Dictator, the prince Caius, and Domitius Nero, have at different times made the attempt to cut through this neck by forming a navigable canal; a profane design, as may be clearly seen by the result in every one of these instances.

§ 4.5.2  Upon the middle of this intervening neck which we have called the Isthmus, stands the colony of Corinth, formerly known by the name of Ephyre, situate upon the brow of a hill, at a distance of sixty stadia from the shore of either sea. From the heights of its citadel, which is called Acrocorinthus, or the "Heights of Corinth," and in which is the Fountain of Pirene, it looks down upon the two seas which lie in the opposite directions. From Leucas to Patrae upon the Corinthian gulf is a distance of eighty-eight miles. The colony of Patrae is founded upon the most extensive promontory of the Peloponnesus, facing Aitolia and the river Evenus, the Corinthian Gulf being, as we have previously stated, less than a mile in width at the entrance there, though extending in length as far as the isthmus, a distance of eighty-five miles.

§ 4.6.1  ACHAIA: The province called Achaia begins at the Isthmus; from the circumstance of its cities being ranged in regular succession on its coast, it formerly had the name of Aegialos. The first place there is Lecheae, already mentioned, a port of the Corinthians; next to which is Olyros, a fortress of the people of Pellene; then the former towns of Helice and Bura, and the places in which their inhabitants took refuge after their towns had been swallowed up by the sea, Sikyon namely, Aegira, Aegium, and Erineos. In the interior are Kleonai and Hysiae; then come the port of Panormus, and Rhium already mentioned; from which promontory, Patrae, of which we have previously spoken, is distant five miles; and then the place where Pherae stood. Of the nine mountains of Achaia, Scioessa is the most famous; there is also the Fountain of Cymothoe. Beyond Patrae we find the town of Olenum, the colony of Dyme, the places where Buprasium and Hyrmine once stood, the Promontory of Araxus, the Bay of Cyllene, and the Promontory of Chelonates, at five miles' distance from Cyllene. There is also the fortress of Phlious [Pheia?]; the district around which was called by Homer Araethyrea, and, after his time, Asopis.

§ 4.6.2  The territory of the Eleans then begins, who were formerly called Epei, with the city of Elis in the interior, and, at a distance of twelve miles from Phlious [Pylos, Pheia?], being also in the interior, the temple of Olympian Jupiter, which by the universal celebrity of its games, gives to Greece its mode of reckoning. Here too once stood the town of Pisa, the river Alpheus flowing past it. On the coast there is the Promontory of Ichthys. The river Alpheus is navigable six miles, nearly as far as the towns of Aulon and Leprion. We next come to the Promontory of Platanodes. All these localities lie to the west.

§ 4.7.1  MESSENIA: Further south is the Gulf of Cyparissus, with the city of Cyparissa on its shores, the line of which is seventy-two miles in length. Then, the towns of Pylos and Methone, the place where Helos stood, the Promontory of Acritas, the Asinaean Gulf, which takes its name from the town of Asine, and the Coronean, so called from Corone; which gulfs terminate at the Promontory of Taenarum. These are all in the country of Messenia, which has eighteen mountains, and the river Pamisus also. In the interior are Messene, Ithome, Oichalia, Arene, Pteleon, Thryon, Dorion, and Zancle, all of them known to fame at different periods. The margin of this gulf measures eighty miles, the distance across being thirty.

§ 4.8.1  LACONIA: At Taenarum begins the territory of Laconia, inhabited by a free nation, and situate on a gulf 106 miles in circuit, and 38 across. The towns are, Taenarum, Amyclae, Pherae, and Leuctra; and, in the interior, Sparta, Theramne, and the spots where Cardamyle, Pitane, and Anthea formerly stood; the former site of Thyrea, and Gerenia. Here is also Mount Taygetus, the river Eurotas, the Gulf of Egilodes, the town of Psamathus, the Gulf of Gytheum, so called from the town of that name, from which place the passage is the safest across to the island of Crete. All these places are bounded by the Promontory of Malea.

§ 4.9.1  ARGOLIS: The next gulf, which extends as far as Scyllaion, is called the Argolic Gulf, being fifty miles across, and 162 in circuit. The towns upon it are, Boea, Epidaurus surnamed Limera, Zarax, and the port of Cyphanta. The rivers are the Inachus and the Erasinus, between which lies Argos, surnamed Hippium, situate beyond the place called Lerna, and at a distance of two miles from the sea. Nine miles farther is Mycenae, and the place where, it is said, Tiryns stood; the site, too, of Mantinea. The mountains are, Artemius, Apesantus, Asterion, Parparus, and some others, eleven in number. The fountains are those of Niobe, Amymone, and Psamathe.

§ 4.9.2  From Scyllaion to the Isthmus of Corinth is a distance of 177 miles. We find here the towns of Hermione, Troezen, Coryphasium, and Argos, sometimes called "Inachian," sometimes "Dipsian" Argos. Then comes the port of Schoenites, and the Saronic Gulf, which was formerly encircled with a grove of oaks, from which it derives its present name, oaks in ancient Greece having been so called. Upon this gulf is the town of Epidaurus, famous for its temple of Aesculapius, the Promontory of Spiraion, the port of Anthedus, Bucephalus, and then Cenchreae, previously mentioned, on this side of the Isthmus, with its temple of Neptune, famous for the games celebrated there every five years. So many are the gulfs which penetrate the shores of the Peloponnesus, so many the seas which howl around it. Invaded by the Ionian on the north, it is beaten by the Sicilian on the west, buffeted by the Cretan on the south, by the Aegean on the S.E., and by the Myrtoan on the N.E.; which last sea begins at the Gulf of Megara, and washes all the coast of Attica.

§ 4.10.1  ARCADIA: Its interior is occupied for the greater part by Arcadia, which, remote from the sea on every side, was originally called Drymodes, and at a later period Pelasgis. The cities of Arcadia are, Psophis, Mantinea, Stymphalus, Tegea, Antigonea, Orchomenus, Pheneum, Palantium (from which the Palatium at Rome derives its name), Megalopolis, Gortyna, Bucolium, Carnion, Parrhasia, Thelpusa, Melaenae, Heraea, Pylae, Pallene, Agrae, Epium, Cynaethae, Lepreon of Arcadia, Parthenium, Alea, Methydrium, Enispe, Macistum, Lampia, Clitorium, and Kleonai; between which two last towns is the district of Nemea, commonly known as Bembinadia.

§ 4.10.2  The mountains of Arcadia are, Pholoe, with a town of the same name, Cyllene, Lycaeus, upon which is the sanctuary of Lycaean Jupiter; Maenalus, Artemisius, Parthenius, Lampeus, and Nonacris, besides eight others of no note. The rivers are the Ladon, which rises in the marshes of Pheneus, and the Erymanthus, which springs from a mountain of the same name, and flows into the Alpheus.

§ 4.10.3  The other cities of Achaia worthy of mention are those of the Aliphiraei, the Abeatae, the Pyrgenses, the Paroreatae, the Paragenitae [or Pharygenitae], the Tortuni, the Typanei, the Thriasii [Thriusi] and the Tritienses. >Domitius Nero [the emperor] granted liberty to the whole of Achaia. The Peloponnesus, from the Promontory of Malea to the town of Aegium on the Corinthian Gulf, is 190 miles in length, and 125 miles across from Elis to Epidaurus; the distance being, from Olympia to Argos, through Arcadia, sixty-eight miles. The distance from Olympia to Phlious has been already mentioned. Throughout the whole of this region, as though nature had been desirous to compensate for the inroads of the sea, seventy-six mountains raise their lofty heads.

§ 4.11.1  ATTICA: At the narrow neck of the Isthmus, Hellas begins, by our people known as Graecia. The first state that presents itself is Attica, anciently called Acte. It touches the Isthmus in that part of it which is called Megaris, from the colony of Megara, lying on the opposite side to Pagae.

§ 4.11.2  These two towns are situate at the spot where the Peloponnesus projects to the greatest distance; being placed, one on each side, upon the very shoulders of Hellas as it were. The Pagaeans, as well as the people of Aegosthena, belong to the jurisdiction of Megara. On the coast there is the port of Schoenos, the towns of Sidus and Cremmyon, the Scironian Rocks, six miles in length, Geranea, Megara, and Eleusis. Oinoe and Probalinthos also formerly existed here; the ports of Piraeus and Phalerum are distant from the Isthmus fifty-five miles, being united to Athens, which lies in the interior, by a wall five miles in length. Athens is a free city, and needs not a word more from us in its commendation; of fame it enjoys even more than enough. In Attica there are the Fountains of Cephisia, Larine, Callirrhoe Enneacrunos, and the mountains of Brilessus, Aegialeus, Icarius, Hymettus, Lycabettus, and the place where Ilissus stood. At the distance of forty-five miles from the Piraeus is the Promontory of Sounion. There is also the Promontory of Thoricos; Potamos, Steria, and Brauron, once towns, the borough of Rhamnus, the place where Marathon stood, the Thriasian plain, the town of Melite, and Oropus upon the confines of Boeotia.

§ 4.12.1  BOIOTIA: In this country are Anthedon, Onchestus, the free town of Thespiae, Lebadea, and then Thebes, surnamed Boeotian, which does not yield the palm to Athens even in celebrity; the native land, according to the common notion, of the two Divinities Liber and Hercules. The birth-place of the Muses too is pointed out in the grove of Helicon. To this same Thebes also belong the forest of Cithaeron, and the river Ismenus. Besides these, there are in Boeotia the Fountains of Oidipodia, Psamathe, Dirce, Epicrane, Arethusa, Hippocrene, Aganippe, and Gargaphie; and, besides the mountains already mentioned, Mycalesos, Hadylius, and Acontius. The remaining towns between Megara and Thebes are Eleutherae, Haliartus, Plataeae, Pherae, Aspledon, Hyle, Thisbe, Erythrae, Glissas, and Copae; near the river Cephisus, Larymna and Anchoa; as also Medeon, Phlygone, Acraephia, Coronea, and Chaeronea. Again, on the coast and below Thebes, are Ocalea, Heleon, Scolos, Schoenos, Peteon, Hyriae, Mycalesos, Iresion, Pteleon, Olyros, and Tanagra, the people of which are free; and, situate upon the very mouth of the Euripus, a strait formed by the opposite island of Euboea, Aulis, so famous for its capacious harbour. The Boeotians formerly had the name of Hyantes.

§ 4.12.2  After them come the Locrians, surnamed Epicnemidii, formerly called Leleges, through whose country the river Cephisus passes, in its course to the sea. Their towns are Opus; from which the Opuntian Gulf takes its name, and Cynos. Daphnus is the only town of Phocis situate on the coast. In the interior of Locris is Elatea, and on the banks of the Cephisus, as we have previously stated, Lilaea, and, facing Delphi, Cnemis and Hyampolis. Again, upon the coast of the Locrians, are Larymna, and Thronium, near which last the river Boagrius enters the sea. Also, the towns of Narycion, Alope, and Scarphia; and then the gulf which receives the name of the Maliac from the people who dwell there, and upon which are the towns of Halcyone, Econia, and Phalara.

§ 4.13.1  DORIS: Doris comes next, in which are Sperchios, Erineon, Boion, Pindus, and Cytinum . Behind Doris lies Mount Oita.

§ 4.14.1  PHTHIOTIS: Haemonia follows, a country which has often changed its name, having been successively called Pelasgic Argos, Hellas, Thessaly, and Dryopis, always taking its surname from its kings. In this country was born the king whose name was Graecus; and from whom Graecia was so called; and here too was born Hellen, from whom the Hellenes derive their name. The same people Homer has called by three different names, Myrmidones, Hellenes, and Achaei.

§ 4.14.2  That portion of these people which inhabit the country adjacent to Doris are called Phthiotae. Their towns are Echinus, at the mouth of the river Sperchius, and, at four miles from the narrow pass of Thermopylae, Heraclea, which from it takes its surname of Trachin. Here too is Mount Callidromus, and the celebrated towns of Hellas, Halos, Lamia, Phthia, and Arne.

§ 4.15.1  THESSALY PROPER: In Thessaly is Orchomenus, formerly called the Minyan, and the towns of Almon, by some called Salmon, Atrax, and Pelinna; the Fountain of Hyperia; the towns also of Pherae, at the back of which is Pieria, extending to Macedonia, Larisa, Gomphi, Thebes of Thessaly, the grove of Pteleon, the Gulf of Pagasa, the town of Pagasa, which was afterwards called Demetrias, the Plains of Pharsalia, with a free city of similar name, Crannon, and Iletia. The mountains of Phthiotis are Nymphaeus, once so beautiful for its garden scenery, the work of nature; Busygaeus, Donacesa, Bermius, Daphusa, Chimerion, Athamas, and Stephane. In Thessaly there are thirty-four, of which the most famous are Cercetii, Olympus, Pierus, and Ossa, opposite to which last are Pindus and Othrys, the abodes of the Lapithae. These mountains look towards the west, Pelion towards the east, all of them forming a curve like an amphitheatre, in the interior of which, lying before them, are no less than seventy-five cities. The rivers of Thessaly are the Apidanus, the Phoenix, the Enipeus, the Onochonus, and the Pamisos. There is also the Fountain of Messeis, and the lake Boebeis. The river Peneus too, superior to all others in celebrity, takes its rise near Gomphi, and flows down a well-wooded valley between Ossa and Olympus, a distance of five hundred stadia, being navigable half that distance. The vale, for a distance of five miles through which this river runs, is called by the name of Tempe; being a jugerum and a half nearly in breadth, while on the right and left, the mountain chain slopes away with a gentle elevation, beyond the range of human vision, the foliage imparting its colour to the light within. Along this vale glides the Peneus, reflecting the green tints as it rolls along its pebbly bed, its banks covered with tufts of verdant herbage, and enlivened by the melodious warblings of the birds. The Peneus receives the river Orcus, or rather, I should say, does not receive it, but merely carries its waters, which swim on its surface like oil, as Homer says; and then, after a short time, rejects them, refusing to allow the waters of a river devoted to penal sufferings and engendered for the Furies to mingle with his silvery streams.

§ 4.16.1  MAGNESIA: To Thessaly Magnesia joins, in which is the fountain of Libethra, the towns Iolcos, Ormenium, Pyrrha, Methone, Olizon, the Promontory of Sepias, the towns Castana and Spalathra, the promontory Aeantium, the towns Meliboea, Rhizus, and Erymnae (Eurymenai); the mouth of the Peneus, the towns Homolium, Orthe, Iresiae, Pelinna (Phalanna), Thaumacie, Gyrton, Crannon, Acharne, Dotion, Melite, Phylace, and Potniae. The length of Epirus, Achaia, Attica, and Thessaly is said altogether to amount to 490 miles, the breadth to 297.

§ 4.17.1  MACEDONIA: Macedonia comes next, including 150 nations, and renowned for its two kings and its former empire over the world; it was formerly known by the name of Emathia. Stretching away towards the nations of Epirus on the west it lies at the back of Magnesia and Thessaly, being itself exposed to the attacks of the Dardani. Paeonia and Pelagonia protect its northern parts from the Triballi. Its towns are Aegiae, at which place its kings were usually buried, Beroea, and, in the country called Pieria from the grove of that name, Aiginium. Upon the coast are Heraclea, the river Apilas, the towns of Pydna and Aloros, and the river Haliacmon. In the interior are the Aloritae, the Vallaei, the Phylacaei, the Cyrrhestae, the Tyrissaei, the colony of Pella, and Stobi, a town with the rights of Roman citizens. Next comes Antigonea, Europus upon the river Axius, and another place of the same name by which the Rhoemdias flows, Scydra, Eordaea, Mieza, and Gordyniae. Then, upon the coast, Ichne, and the river Axius: along this frontier the Dardani, the Treres, and the Pieres, border on Macedonia. Leaving this river, there are the nations of Paeonia, the Paroraei, the Eordenses, the Almopii, the Pelagones, and the Mygdones.

§ 4.17.2  Next come the mountains of Rhodope, Scopius, and Orbelus; and, lying along the extent of country in front of these mountains, the Arethusii, the Antiochienses, the Idomenenses, the Doberi, the Aestraeenses, the Allantenses, the Audaristenses, the Morylli, the Garesci, the Lyncestae, the Othryonei, and the Amantini and Orestae, both of them free peoples; the colonies of Bullis and Dium, the Xylopolitae, the Scotussaei, a free people, Heraclea Sintica, the Tymphaei, and the Toronaei.

§ 4.17.3  Upon the coast of the Macedonian Gulf there are the town of Chalastra, and, more inland, Piloros; also Lete, and at the extreme bend of the Gulf, Thessalonica, a free city; (from this place to Dyrrhachium it is 245 miles,) and then Thermae. Upon the Gulf of Thermae are the towns of Dicaea, Pydna, Derra, Scione, the Promontory of Canastraion, and the towns of Pallene and Phlegra. In this region also are the mountains Hypsizorus, Epitus, Halcyone, and Elaeuomne; the towns of Nyssos, Phryxelon, Mendae, and what was formerly Potidaea on the isthmus of Pallene, but now the colony of Cassandria; Anthemus, Olophyxus, and the Gulf of Mecyberna; the towns of Miscella, Ampelos, Torone, Singos, and the canal, a mile and a half in length, by means of which Xerxes, king of the Persians, cut off Mount Athos from the main land. This mountain projects from the level plain of the adjacent country into the sea, a distance of seventy-five miles; its circumference at its base being 150 miles in extent. There was formerly upon its summit the town of Acroathon: the present towns are Uranopolis, Palaeorium, Thyssus, Kleonai, and Apollonia, the inhabitants of which have the surname of Macrobii. The town also of Cassera, and then the other side of the Isthmus, after which come Acanthus, Stagira, Sithone, Heraclea, and the country of Mygdonia that lies below, in which are situate, at some distance from the sea, Apollonia and Arethusa. Again, upon the coast we have Posidium, and the bay with the town of Cermorus, Amphipolis, a free town, and the nation of the Bisaltae. We then come to the river Strymon which takes its rise in Mount Haemus and forms the boundary of Macedonia: it is worthy of remark that it first discharges itself into seven lakes before it proceeds onward in its course.

§ 4.17.4  Such is Macedonia, which was once the mistress of the world, which once extended her career over Asia, Armenia, Iberia, Albania, Cappadocia, Syria, Egypt, Taurus, and Caucasus, which reduced the whole of the East under her power, and triumphed over the Bactri, the Medes, and the Persians. She too it was who proved the conqueror of India, thus treading in the footsteps of Father Liber and of Hercules; and this is that same Macedonia, of which our own general Paulus Aemilius sold to pillage seventy-two cities in one day. So great the difference in her lot resulting from the actions of two individuals!

§ 4.18.1  THRACE; THE AEGEAN SEA. Thrace now follows, divided into fifty strategies, and to be reckoned among the most powerful nations of Europe. Among its peoples whom we ought not to omit to name are the Denseletae and the Medi, dwelling upon the right bank of the Strymon, and joining up to the Bisaltae above mentioned; on the left there are the Digerri and a number of tribes of the Bessi, with various names, as far as the river Mestus, which winds around the foot of Mount Pangaion, passing among the Elethi, the Diobessi, the Carbilesi; and then the Brysae, the Sapaei, and the Odomanti. The territory of the Odrysae gives birth to the Hebrus, its banks being inhabited by the Cabyleti, the Pyrogeri, the Drugeri, the Caenici, the Hypsalti, the Beni, the Corpili, the Bottiaei, and the Edoni. In the same district are also the Selletae, the Priantae, the Doloncae, the Thyni, and the Greater Coeletae, below Mount Haemus, the Lesser at the foot of Rhodope. Between these tribes runs the river Hebrus. We then come to a town at the foot of Rhodope, first called Poneropolis, afterwards Philippopolis from the name of its founder, and now, from the peculiarity of its situation, Trimontium. To reach the summit of Haemus you have to travel six miles. The sides of it that look in the opposite direction and slope towards the Ister are inhabited by the Moesi, the Getae, the Aorsi, the Gaudae, and the Clariae; below them, are the Arraei Sarmatae, also called Arreatae, the Scythians, and, about the shores of the Euxine, the Moriseni and the Sithonii, the forefathers of the poet Orpheus, dwell.

§ 4.18.2  Thus is Thrace bounded by the Ister on the north, by the Euxine, and the Propontis on the east, and by the Aegean Sea on the south; on the coast of which, after leaving the Strymon, we come in turn to Apollonia, Oisyma, Neapolis and Datos. In the interior is the colony of Philippi, distant from Dyrrhachium 325 miles; also Scotussa, the city of Topiris, the mouth of the river Mestus, Mount Pangaeus, Heraclea, Olynthos, Abdera, a free city, the people of the Bistones and their Lake. Here was formerly the city of Tirida, which struck such terror with its stables of the horses of Diomedes. At the present day we find here Dicaea, Ismaron, the place where Parthenion stood, Phalesina, and Maronea, formerly called Orthagorea. We then come to Mount Serrium and Zone, and then the place called Doriscus, capable of containing ten thousand men, for it was in bodies of ten thousand that Xerxes here numbered his army. We then come to the mouth of the Hebrus, the Port of Stentor, and the free town of Aenos, with the tomb there of Polydorus, the region formerly of the Cicones.

§ 4.18.3  From Doriscus there is a winding coast as far as Macron Tichos, or the "Long Wall," a distance of 122 miles; round Doriscus flows the river Melas, from which the Gulf of Melas receives its name. The towns are, Cypsela, Bisanthe, and Macron Tichos, already mentioned, so called because a wall extends from that spot between the two seas, — that is to say, from the Propontis to the Gulf of Melas, thus excluding the Chersonesus, which projects beyond it.

§ 4.18.4  The other side of Thrace now begins, on the coast of the Euxine, where the river Ister discharges itself; and it is in this quarter perhaps that Thrace possesses the finest cities, Histropolis, namely, founded by the Milesians, Tomi, and Callatis, formerly called Acervetis. It also had the cities of Heraclea and Bizone, which latter was swallowed up by an earthquake; it now has Dionysopolis, formerly called Cruni, which is washed by the river Zyras. All this country was formerly possessed by the Scythians, surnamed Aroteres; their towns were, Aphrodisias, Libistos, Zygere, Rocobe, Eumenia, Parthenopolis, and Gerania, where a nation of Pigmies is said to have dwelt; the barbarians used to call them Cattuzi, and entertain a belief that they were put to flight by cranes. Upon the coast, proceeding from Dionysopolis, is Odessus, a city of the Milesians, the river Panysus, and the town of Tetranaulochus. Mount Haemus, which, with its vast chain, overhangs the Euxine, had in former times upon its summit the town of Aristaion. At the present day there are upon the coast Mesembria, and Anchialum, where Messa formerly stood. The region of Astice formerly had a town called Anthium; at the present day Apollonia occupies its site. The rivers here are the Panisos, the Riras, the Tearus, and the Orosines; there are also the towns of Thynias, Halmydessos, Develton, with its lake, now known as Deultum, a colony of veterans, and Phinopolis, near which last is the Bosporus. From the mouth of the Ister to the entrance of the Euxine, some writers have made to be a distance of 555 miles; Agrippa, however, increases the length by sixty miles. The distance thence to Macron Tichos, or the Long Wall, previously mentioned, is 150 miles; and, from it to the extremity of the Chersonesus, 125.

§ 4.18.5  On leaving the Bosporus we come to the Gulf of Casthenes, and two harbours, the one called the Old Men's Haven, and the other the Women's Haven. Next comes the promontory of Chrysoceras, upon which is the town of Byzantium, a free state, formerly called Lygos, distant from Dyrrhachium 711 miles, — so great being the space of land that intervenes between the Adriatic Sea and the Propontis. We next come to the rivers Bathynias and Pydaras, or Athyras, and the towns of Selymbria and Perinthus, which join the mainland by a neck only 200 feet in width. In the interior are Bizya, a citadel of the kings of Thrace, and hated by the swallows, in consequence of the sacrilegious crime of Tereus; the district called Caenica, and the colony of Flaviopolis, where formerly stood a town called Caela. Then, at a distance of fifty miles from Bizya, we come to the colony of Apros, distant from Philippi 180 miles. Upon the coast is the river Erginus; here formerly stood the town of Ganos; and Lysimachia in the Chersonesus is being now gradually deserted.

§ 4.18.6  At this spot there is another isthmus, similar in name to the other, and of about equal width; and, in a manner by no means dissimilar, two cities formerly stood on the shore, one on either side, Pactye on the side of the Propontis, and Cardia on that of the Gulf of Melas, the latter deriving its name from the shape which the land assumes. These, however, were afterwards united with Lysimachia, which stands at a distance of five miles from Macron Tichos. The Chersonesus formerly had, on the side of the Propontis, the towns of Tiristasis, Crithotes, and Cissa, on the banks of the river Aegos; it now has, at a distance of twenty-two miles from the colony of Apros, Resistos, which stands opposite to the colony of Parium. The Hellespont also, which separates, as we have already stated, Europe from Asia, by a channel seven stadia in width, has four cities facing each other, Callipolis and Sestos in Europe, and Lampsacus and Abydos in Asia. On the Chersonesus, there is the promontory of Mastusia, lying opposite to Sigeum; upon one side of it stands the Cynossema (for so the tomb of Hecuba is called), the naval station of the Achaeans, and a tower; and near it the shrine of Protesilaus. On the extreme front of the Chersonesus, which is called Aeolium, there is the city of Elaeus. Advancing thence towards the Gulf of Melas, we have the port of Coelos, Panormus, and then Cardia, previously mentioned.

§ 4.18.7  In this manner is the third great Gulf of Europe bounded. The mountains of Thrace, besides those already mentioned, are Edonus, Gigemoros, Meritus, and Melamphyllos; the rivers are the Bargus and the Syrmus, which fall into the Hebrus. The length of Macedonia, Thrace, and the Hellespont has been already mentioned; some writers, however, make it 720 miles, the breadth being 384.

§ 4.18.8  What may be called a rock rather than an island, lying between Tenos and Chios, has given its name to the Aegean Sea; it has the name of Aex from its strong resemblance to a goat, which is so called in Greek, and shoots precipitately from out of the middle of the sea. Those who are sailing towards the isle of Andros from Achaia, see this rock on the left, boding no good, and warning them of its dangers. Part of the Aegean Sea bears the name of Myrtoan, being so called from the small island [of Myrtos ] which is seen as you sail towards Macedonia from Geraistos, not far from Carystus in Euboea. The Romans include all these seas under two names, — the Macedonian, in those parts where it touches the coasts of Macedonia or Thrace, and the Grecian where it washes the shores of Greece The Greeks, however, divide the Ionian Sea into the Sicilian and the Cretan Seas, after the name of those islands; and they give the name of Icarian to that part which lies between Samos and Myconos. The gulfs which we have already mentioned, have given to these seas the rest of their names. Such, then, are the seas and the various nations which are comprehended in the third great Gulf of Europe.

§ 4.19.1  THE ISLANDS WHICH LIE BEFORE THE LANDS ALREADY MENTIONED. Lying opposite to Thesprotia, at a distance of twelve miles from Buthrotus, and of fifty from Acroceraunia, is the island of Corcyra, with a city of the same name, the citizens of which are free; also a town called Cassiope, and a temple dedicated to Jupiter Cassius. This island is ninety-seven miles in length, and in Homer has the names of Scheria and Phaeacia; while Callimachus calls it Drepane. There are some other islands around it, such as Thoronos, lying in the direction of Italy, and the two islands of Paxos in that of Leucadia, both of them five miles distant from Corcyra. Not far from these, and in front of Corcyra, are Ericusa, Marathe, Elaphusa, Malthace, Trachie, Pythionia, Ptychia, Tarachie, and, off Phalacrum, a promontory of Corcyra, the rock into which (according to the story, which arises no doubt from the similarity of appearance) the ship of Ulysses was changed.

§ 4.19.2  Before Leucimna we find the islands of Sybota, and between Leucadia and Achaia a great number of islands, among which are those called Teleboides, as also Taphiae; by the natives, those which lie before Leucadia are called by the names of Taphias, Oxiae, and Prinoessa; while those that are in front of Aitolia are the Echinades, consisting of Aegialia, Cotonis, Thyatira, Geoaris, Dionysia, Cyrnus, Chalcis, Pinara, and Mystus.

§ 4.19.3  In front of these, and lying out at sea, are Cephallenia and Zacynthus, both of them free, Ithaca, Dulichium, Same, and Crocyle. Cephallenia, formerly known as Melaena, lies at a distance of eleven miles from Paxos, and is ninety-three miles in circumference: its city of Same has been levelled to the ground by the Romans; but it still possesses three others. Between this island and Achaia lies the island of Zacynthus, remarkable for its city of the same name, and for its singular fertility. It formerly had the name of Hyrie, and lies to the south of Cephallenia, at a distance of twenty-five miles; in it there is the famous mountain of Elatus. This island is thirty-six miles in circumference. At a distance of fifteen miles from Zacynthus is Ithaca, in which is Mount Neritus; its circumference in all is twenty-five miles. Twelve miles distant from this island is Araxus, a promontory of the Peloponnesus. Before Ithaca, lying out in the main sea, are Asteris and Prote; and before Zacynthus, at a distance of thirty-five miles in the direction of the south-east wind, are the two Strophades, by some known as the Plotae. Before Cephallenia lies Letoia, before Pylos the three Sphagiae, and before Messene the Oinussae, as many in number.

§ 4.19.4  In the Asinaean Gulf there are the three Thyrides, and in that of Laconia Theganusa, Cothon, and Cythera, with the town of that name, the former name of which island was Porphyris. It is situate five miles from the promontory of Malea, thus forming a strait very dangerous to navigation. In the Gulf of Argolis are Pityusa, Irine, and Ephyre; opposite the territory of Hermione, Tiparenus, Aperopia, Colonis, and Aristera; and, opposite that of Troezen, Calauria, at a distance of half a mile, Plateis, Belbina, Lasia, and Baucidias. Opposite Epidaurus is Cecryphalos, and Pityonesos, six miles distant from the mainland; and, at a distance of fifteen miles from this last, Aigina, a free island, the length of which, as you sail past it, is eighteen miles. This island is twenty miles distant from Piraeus, the port of Athens: it used formerly to be called Oinone. Opposite the promontory of Spiraion, lie Eleusa, Adendros, the two islands called Craugiae, the two Caeciae, Selachusa Cenchreis, and Aspis; as also, in the Gulf of Megara, the four Methurides. Aegila lies at a distance of fifteen miles from Cythera, and of twenty-five from Phalasarna, a city of Crete.

§ 4.20.1  CRETE: Crete itself lies from east to west, the one side facing the south, the other the north, and is known to fame by the renown of its hundred cities. Dosiades says, that it took its name from the nymph Crete, the daughter of Hesperides; Anaximander, from a king of the Curetes; Philistides of Mallos and Crates say that it was at first called Aeria, and after that Curetis; and some have been of opinion that it had the name of Macaron from the serenity of its climate. In breadth it nowhere exceeds fifty miles, being widest about the middle. In length, however, it is full 270 miles, and 589 in circumference, forming a bend towards the Cretan Sea, which takes its name from it. At its eastern extremity is the Promontory of Sammonium, facing Rhodes, while towards the west it throws out that of Criumetopon, in the direction of Cyrene.

§ 4.20.2  The more remarkable cities of Crete are, Phalasarna, Etaea, Cisamon, Pergamum, Cydonia, Minoium, Apteron, Pantomatrium, Amphimalla, Rhithymna, Panormus, Cytaion, Apollonia, Matium, Heraclea, Miletos, Ampelos, Hierapytna, Lebena, and Hierapolis; and, in the interior, Gortyna, Phaestum, Cnossus, Polyrrenium, Myrina, Lycastus, Rhamnus, Lyctus, Dium, Asus, Pyloros, Rhytion, Elatos, Pharae, Holopyxos, Lasos, Eleuthernae, Therapnae, Marathusa, and Tylisos; besides some sixty others, of which the memory only exists. The mountains are those of Cadistus, Ida, Dictynnaeus, and Corycus. This island is distant, at its promontory of Criumetopon, according to Agrippa, from Phycus, the promontory of Cyrene, 125 miles; and at Cadistus, from Malea in the Peloponnesus, eighty. From the island of Carpathus, at its promontory of Sammonium it lies in a westerly direction, at a distance of sixty miles; this last-named island is situate between it and Rhodes.

§ 4.20.3  The other islands in its vicinity, and lying in front of the Peloponnesus, are the two isles known as Corycae, and the two called Mylae. On the north side, having Crete on the right, and opposite to Cydonia, is Leuce, and the two islands known as Budroae. Opposite to Matium lies Dia; opposite to the promontory of Itanum, Onisia and Leuce; and over against Hierapytna, Chrysa and Gaudos. In the same neighbourhood, also, are Ophiussa, Butoa, and Aradus; and, after doubling Criumetopon, we come to the three islands known as Musagorus. Before the promontory of Sammonium lie the islands of Phocoe, the Platiae, the Sirnides, Naulochos, Armedon, and Zephyre.

§ 4.20.4  Belonging to Hellas, but still in the Aegean Sea, we have the Lichades, consisting of Scarphia, Coresa, Phocaria, and many others which face Attica, but have no towns upon them, and are consequently of little note. Opposite Eleusis, however, is the far-famed Salamis; before it, Psyttalia; and, at a distance of five miles from Sounion, the island of Helene. At the same distance from this last is Ceos, which some of our countrymen have called Cea, and the Greeks Hydrussa, an island which has been torn away from Euboea. It was formerly 500 stadia in length; but more recently four-fifths of it, in the direction of Boeotia, have been swallowed up by the sea. The only towns it now has left are Iulis and Carthaea; Coresus and Poeeessa have perished. Varro informs us, that from this place there used to come a cloth of very fine texture, used for women's dresses.

§ 4.21.1  EUBOIA: Euboea itself has also been rent away from Boeotia; the channel of the Euripus, which flows between them, being so narrow as to admit of the opposite shores being united by a bridge. At the south, this island is remarkable for its two promontories, that of Geraistos, which looks towards Attica, and that of Caphareus, which faces the Hellespont; on the north it has that of Kenaion. In no part does this island extend to a greater breadth than forty miles, while it never contracts to less than two. In length it runs along the whole coast of Boeotia, extending from Attica as far as Thessaly, a distance of 150 miles. In circumference it measures 365, and is distant from the Hellespont, on the side of Caphareus, 225 miles. The cities for which it was formerly famous were, Pyrrha, Porthmos, Nesos, Cerinthos, Oreus, Dium, Aedepsus, Ocha, and Oichalia; at present it is ennobled by those of Chalcis(opposite which, on the mainland, is Aulis), Geraistos, Eretria, Carystus, Oritanum, and Artemisium. Here are also the Fountain of Arethusa, the river Lelantos, and the warm springs known as Ellopiae; it is still better known, however, for the marble of Carystus. This island used formerly to be called Chalcodontis and Macris, as we learn from Dionysius and Ephorus; according to Aristides, Macra; also, as Callidemus says, Chalcis, because copper was first discovered here. Menaechmus says that it was called Abantias, and the poets generally give it the name of Asopis.

§ 4.22.1  THE CYCLADES: Beyond Euboea, and out in the Myrtoan Sea, are numerous other islands; but those more especially famous are, Glauconnesos and the Aegila. Off the promontory, too, of Geraistos are the Cyclades, lying in a circle around Delos, from which circumstance they derive their name. The first of them is the one called Andros with a city of the same name, distant from Geraistos ten miles, and from Ceos thirty-nine. Myrsilus tells us that this island was at first called Cauros, and after that Antandros; Callimachus calls it Lasia, and others again Nonagria, Hydrussa, and Epagris. It is ninety-three miles in circumference. At a distance of one mile from Andros and of fifteen from Delos, is Tenos, with a city of the same name; this island is fifteen miles in length. Aristotle says that it was formerly called Hydrussa, from the abundance of water found here, while some writers call it Ophiussa. The other islands are, Myconos, with the mountain of Dimastus, distant from Delos fifteen miles; Siphnos, formerly called Meropia and Acis, twenty-eight miles in circumference; Seriphos, twelve miles in circuit; Prepesinthus; Cythnos; and then, by far the most famous among the Cyclades, and lying in the very middle of them, Delos itself; so famous for its temple of Apollo, and its extensive commerce. This island long floated on the waves, and, as tradition says, was the only one that had never experienced an earthquake, down to the time of M. Varro; Mucianus however has informed us, that it has been twice so visited. Aristotle states that this island received its name from the fact of its having so suddenly made its appearance on emerging from the sea; Aglaosthenes, however, gives it the name of Cynthia, and others of Ortygia, Asteria, Lagia, Chlamydia, Cynthus, and, from the circumstance of fire having been first discovered here, Pyrpile. Its circumference is five miles only; Mount Cynthus here raises his head.

§ 4.22.2  Next to this island is Rhene, which Anticlides calls by the name of Celadussa, and Callidemus, Artemite; Scyros, which the old writers have stated to be twenty miles in circumference, but Mucianus 160; Oliaros; and Paros, with a city of the same name, distant from Delos thirty-eight miles, and famous for its marble; it was first called Platea, and after that, Minois. At a distance of seven miles from this last island is Naxos, with a town of the same name; it is eighteen miles distant from Delos. Naxos was formerly called Strongyle, then Dia, and then Dionysias, in consequence of the fruitfulness of its vineyards; others again have called it the Lesser Sicily, or Callipolis. It is seventy-five miles in circumference — half as large again as Paros.

§ 4.23.1  THE SPORADES: The islands thus far are considered as belonging to the Cyclades; the rest that follow are the Sporades. These are, Helene, Phacussa, Nicasia, Schinussa, Pholegandros, and, at a distance of thirty-eight miles from Naxos, Icaros, which has given its name to the surrounding sea, and is the same number of miles in length, with two cities, and a third now no longer in existence: this island used formerly to be called Doliche, Macris, and Ichthyoessa. It is situate fifty miles to the north-east of Delos, and thirty-five from the island of Samos. Between Euboea and Andros, there is an arm of the sea ten miles in width, and from Icaros to Geraistos is a distance of 112 1/2 miles.

§ 4.23.2  After we pass these, no regular order can be well observed; the rest must therefore be mentioned indiscriminately. There is the island of Scyros, and that of Ios, eighteen miles distant from Naxos, and deserving of all veneration for the tomb there of Homer; it is twenty-five miles in length, and was formerly known by the name of Phoenice; also Odia, Oletandros, and Gyara, with a city of the same name, the island being twelve miles in circumference, and distant from Andros sixty-two. At a distance of eighty miles from Gyara is Syrnos, then Cynaethus, Telos, noted for its unguents, and by Callimachus called Agathussa, Donusa, Patmos, thirty miles in circumference, the Corassiae, Lebinthus, Leros, Cinara; Sicinus, formerly called Oinoe; Hieracia, also called Onus; Casos, likewise called Astrabe; Cimolus, or Echinussa; and Melos, with a city of that name, which island Aristides calls Memblis, Aristotle Zephyria, Callimachus Mimallis, and Heraclides called Siphis and Acyta. This last is the most circular in form of all these islands. [Buporthmus], Machia, then Hypere, formerly Patage, or, as others have it, Platage, but now called Amorgos, Polyaegos, Sapyle, and Thera, known as Calliste when it first sprang from the waves. From this, at a later period, the island of Therasia was torn away, and between the two afterwards arose Automate, also called Hiera, and Thia, which in our own times came into existence in the vicinity of these islands. Ios is distant from Thera twenty-five miles.

§ 4.23.3  Next to these follow Lea, Ascania, Anaphe, Hippuris, and Astypalaea, a free state. This island is eighty-eight miles in circumference, and 125 miles distant from Cadistus, in Crete. From Astypalaea, Platea is distant sixty miles, and Caminia thirty-eight from this last. We then come to the islands of Azibintha, Lamse, Tragaea, Pharmacussa, Thetaedia, Chalcia, Calymna, in which is a town, Coos, Eulimna, at a distance of twenty-five miles from which is Carpathus, which has given its name to the Carpathian Sea. The distance thence to Rhodes, in the direction of the south-west wind, is fifty miles. From Carpathus to Casus is seven miles, and from Casus to Sammonium, the promontory of Crete, thirty. In the Euripus of Euboea, almost at the very mouth of it, are the four islands called Petaliae; and, at its outlet, Atalante. The Cyclades and the Sporades are bounded on the east by the Asiatic shores of the Icarian Sea, on the west by the Attic shores of the Myrtoan Sea, on the north by the Aegean, and on the south by the Cretan and Carpathian seas, extending 700 miles in length, and 200 in breadth.

§ 4.23.4  The Gulf of Pagasa has in front of it Euthia, Cicynethus, Scyros, previously mentioned, and the very furthermost of the Cyclades and Sporades, Gerontia and Scandila; the Gulf of Thermae, Iraesia, Solimnia, Eudemia, and Nea, which last is sacred to Minerva. Athos has before it four islands; Peparethus, formerly called Evoenus, with a city of that name, at a distance from Athos of nine miles; Sciathus, at a distance of fifteen, and Imbros, with a city of the same name, at a distance of eighty-eight, miles. This last island is distant from Mastusia, in the Chersonesus, twenty-five miles; it is sixty-two miles in circumference, and is washed by the river Ilisus. At a distance of twenty-two miles from it is Lemnos, being distant from Mount Athos eighty-seven; it is 112 miles in circumference, and has the cities of Hephaestia and Myrina; into the market-place of which last city Athos throws its shadow at the summer solstice. The island of Thasos, constituting a free state, is six miles distant from Lemnos; it formerly had the name of Aeria, or Aethria. Abdera, on the mainland, is distant from Thasos twenty-two miles, Athos sixty-two. The island of Samothrace, a free state, facing the river Hebrus, is the same distance from Thasos, being also thirty-two miles from Imbros, twenty-two from Lemnos, and thirty-eight from the coast of Thrace; it is thirty-two miles in circumference, and in it rises Mount Saoce, ten miles in height. This island is the most inaccessible of them all. Callimachus mentions it by its ancient name of Dardania.

§ 4.23.5  Between the Chersonesus and Samothrace, at a distance of about fifteen miles from them both, is the island of Halonnesos, and beyond it Gethone, Lamponia, and Alopeconnesus, not far from Coelos, a port of the Chersonesus, besides some others of no importance. The following names may be also mentioned, as those of uninhabited islands in this gulf, of which we have been enabled to discover the names: — Desticos, Sarnos, Cyssiros, Charbrusa, Calathusa, Scylla, Draconon, Arconnesus, Diethusa, Scapos, Capheris, Mesate, Aeantion, Pateronnesos, Pateria, Calate, Neriphus, and Polendos.

§ 4.24.1  THE HELLESPONT. — THE LAKE MAEOTIS. The fourth great Gulf of Europe begins at the Hellespont and ends at the entrance of the Maeotis. But in order that the several portions of the Euxine and its coasts may be the better known, we must briefly embrace the form of it in one general view. This vast sea, lying in front of Asia, is shut out from Europe by the projection of the shores of the Chersonesus, and effects an entrance into those countries by a narrow channel only, of the width, as already mentioned, of seven stadia, thus separating Europe from Asia. The entrance of these Straits is called the Hellespont; over it Xerxes, the king of the Persians, constructed a bridge of boats, across which he led his army. A narrow channel extends thence a distance of eighty-six miles, as far as Priapus, a city of Asia, at which Alexander the Great passed over. At this point the sea becomes wider, and after some distance again takes the form of a narrow strait. The wider part is known as the Propontis, the Straits as the Thracian Bosporus, being only half a mile in width, at the place where Darius, the father of Xerxes, led his troops across by a bridge. The extremity of this is distant from the Hellespont 239 miles.

§ 4.24.2  We then come to the vast sea called the Euxine, which invades the land as it retreats afar, and the name of which was formerly Axenus. As the shores bend inwards, this sea with a vast sweep stretches far away, curving on both sides after the manner of a pair of horns, so much so that in shape it bears a distinct resemblance to a Scythian bow. In the middle of the curve it is joined by the mouth of Lake Maeotis, which is called the Cimmerian Bosporus, and is two miles and a half in width. Between the two Bospori, the Thracian and the Cimmerian, there is a distance in a straight line, of 500 miles, as Polybius informs us. We learn from Varro and most of the ancient writers, that the circumference of the Euxine is altogether 2150 miles; but to this number Cornelius Nepos adds 350 more; while Artemidorus makes it 2919 miles, Agrippa 2360, and Mucianus 2425. In a similar manner some writers have fixed the length of the European shores of this sea at 1478 miles, others again at 1172. M. Varro gives the measurement as follows: — from the mouth of the Euxine to Apollonia 187 miles, and to Callatis the same distance; thence to the mouth of the Ister 125 miles; to the Borysthenes 250; to Chersonesus, a town of the Heracleotae, 325; to Panticapaion, by some called Bosporus, at the very extremity of the shores of Europe, 212 miles: the whole of which added together, makes 1337 miles. Agrippa makes the distance from Byzantium to the river Ister 560 miles, and from thence to Panticapaion, 635.

§ 4.24.3  Lake Maeotis, which receives the river Tanais as it flows from the Riphaean Mountains, and forms the extreme boundary between Europe and Asia, is said to be 1406 miles in circumference; which however some writers state at only 1125. From the entrance of this lake to the mouth of the Tanais in a straight line is, it is generally agreed, a distance of 375 miles.

§ 4.24.4  The inhabitants of the coasts of this fourth great Gulf of Europe, as far as Istropolis, have been already mentioned in our account of Thrace. Passing beyond that spot we come to the mouths of the Ister. This river rises in Germany in the heights of Mount Abnoba, opposite to Rauricum, a town of Gaul, and flows for a course of many miles beyond the Alps and through nations innumerable, under the name of the Danube. Adding immensely to the volume of its waters, at the spot where it first enters Illyricum, it assumes the name of Ister, and, after receiving sixty rivers, nearly one half of which are navigable, rolls into the Euxine by six vast channels. The first of these is the mouth of Peuce, close to which is the island of Peuce itself, from which the neighbouring channel takes its name; this mouth is swallowed up in a great swamp nineteen miles in length. From the same channel too, above Istropolis, a lake takes its rise, sixty-three miles in circuit; its name is Halmyris. The second mouth is called Naracu-Stoma; the third, which is near the island of Sarmatica, is called Calon-Stoma; the fourth is known as Pseudo-Stomon, with its island called Conopon-Diabasis; after which come the Boreon Stoma and the Psilon-Stoma. These mouths are each of them so considerable, that for a distance of forty miles, it is said, the saltness of the sea is quite overpowered, and the water found to be fresh.

§ 4.25.1  DACIA, SARMATIA: On setting out from this spot, all the nations met with are Scythian in general, though various races have occupied the adjacent shores; at one spot the Getae, by the Romans called Daci; at another the Sarmatae, by the Greeks called Sauromatae, and the Hamaxobii or Aorsi, a branch of them; then again the base-born Scythians and descendants of slaves, or else the Troglodytae; and then, after them, the Alani and the Rhoxalani. The higher parts again, between the Danube and the Hercynian Forest, as far as the winter quarters of Pannonia at Carnuntum, and the borders of the Germans, are occupied by the Sarmatian lazyges, who inhabit the level country and the plains, while the Daci, whom they have driven as far as the river Pathissus, inhabit the mountain and forest ranges. On leaving the river Marus, whether it is that or the Duria, that separates them from the Suevi and the kingdom of Vannius, the Basternae, and, after them, other tribes of the Germans occupy the opposite sides. Agrippa considers the whole of this region, from the Ister to the ocean, to be 2100 miles in length, and 4400 miles in breadth to the river Vistula in the deserts of Sarmatia. The name "Scythian" has extended, in every direction, even to the Sarmatae and the Germans; but this ancient appellation is now only given to those who dwell beyond those nations, and live unknown to nearly all the rest of the world.

§ 4.26.1  SCYTHIA: Leaving the Ister, we come to the towns of Cremniscos, Aepolium, the mountains of Macrocremnus, and the famous river Tyra, which gives name to a town on the spot where Ophiusa is said formerly to have stood. The Tyragetae inhabit a large island situate in this river, which is distant from Pseudostomos, a mouth of the Ister, so called, 130 miles. We then come to the Axiacae, who take their name from the river Axiaces, and beyond them, the Crobyzi, the river Rhodes, the Sagarian Gulf, and the port of Ordesos. At a distance of 120 miles from the Tyra is the river Borysthenes, with a lake and a people of similar name, as also a town in the interior, at a distance of fifteen miles from the sea, the ancient names of which were Olbiopolis and Miletopolis. Again, on the shore is the port of the Achaei, and the island of Achilles, famous for the tomb there of that hero, and, at a distance of 125 miles from it, a peninsula which stretches forth in the shape of a sword, in an oblique direction, and is called, from having been his place of exercise, Achilleos Dromos: the length of this, according to Agrippa, is eighty miles. The Taurian Scythians and the Siraci occupy all this tract of country.

§ 4.26.2  At this spot begins a well-wooded district, which has given to the sea that washes its banks the name of the Hylaean Sea; its inhabitants are called Enoechadlae. Beyond them is the river Panticapes, which separates the Nomades and the Georgi, and after it the Acesinus. Some authors say that the Panticapes flows into the Borysthenes below Olbia. Others, who are more correct, say that it is the Hypanis: so great is the mistake made by those who have placed it in Asia.

§ 4.26.3  The sea runs in here and forms a large gulf, until there is only an intervening space of five miles between it and the Lake Maeotis, its margin forming the sea-line of extensive tracts of land, and numerous nations; it is known as the Gulf of Carcinites. Here we find the river Pacyris, the towns of Navarum and Carcine, and behind it Lake Buges, which discharges itself by a channel into the sea. This Buges is separated by a ridge of rocks from Coretus, a gulf in the Lake Maeotis; it receives the rivers Buges, Gerrus, and Hypacaris, which approach it from regions that lie in various directions. For the Gerrus separates the Basilidae from the Nomades, the Hypacaris flows through the Nomades and the Hylaei, by an artificial channel into Lake Buges, and by its natural one into the Gulf of Coretus: this region bears the name of Scythia Sindice.

§ 4.26.4  At the river Carcinites, Scythia Taurica begins, which was once covered by the sea, where we now see level plains extended on every side: beyond this the land rises into mountains of great elevation. The peoples here are thirty in number, of which twenty-three dwell in the interior, six of the cities being inhabited by the Orgocyni, the Characeni, the Lagyrani, the Tractari, the Arsilachitae, and the Caliordi. The Scythotauri possess the range of mountains: on the west they are bounded by the Chersonesus, and on the east by the Scythian Satarchae. On the shore, after we leave Carcinites, we find the following towns; Taphrae, situated on the very isthmus of the peninsula, and then Heraclea Chersonesus, to which its freedom has been granted by the Romans. This place was formerly called Megarice, being the most polished city throughout all these regions, in consequence of its strict preservation of Grecian manners and customs. A wall, five miles in length, surrounds it. Next to this comes the Promontory of Parthenium, the city of the Tauri, Placia, the port of the Symboli, and the Promontory of Criumetopon, opposite to Carambis, a promontory of Asia, which runs out in the middle of the Euxine, leaving an intervening space between them of 170 miles, which circumstance it is in especial that gives to this sea the form of a Scythian bow. After leaving this headland we come to a great number of harbours and lakes of the Tauri. The town of Theodosia is distant from Criumetopon 125 miles, and from Chersonesus 165. Beyond it there were, in former times, the towns of Cytae, Zephyrium, Acrae, Nymphaion, and Dia. Panticapaion, a city of the Milesians, by far the strongest of them all, is still in existence; it lies at the entrance of the Bosporus, and is distant from Theodosia eighty-seven miles and a half, and from the town of Cimmerium, which lies on the other side of the Strait, as we have previously stated, two miles and a half. Such is the width here of the channel which separates Asia from Europe, and which too, from being generally quite frozen over, allows of a passage on foot. The width of the Cimmerian Bosporus is twelve miles and a half: it contains the towns of Hermisium, Myrmecium, and, in the interior of it, the island of Alopece. From the spot called Taphrae, at the extremity of the isthmus, to the mouth of the Bosporus, along the line of the Lake Maeotis, is a distance of 260 miles.

§ 4.26.5  Leaving Taphrae, and going along the mainland, we find in the interior the Auchetae, in whose country the Hypanis has its rise, as also the Neuroe, in whose district the Borysthenes has its source, the Geloni, the Thyssagetae, the Budini, the Basilidae, and the Agathyrsi with their azure-coloured hair. Above them are the Nomades, and then a nation of Anthropophagi or cannibals. On leaving Lake Buges, above the Lake Maeotis we come to the Sauromatae and the Essedones. Along the coast, as far as the river Tanais, are the Maeotae, from whom the lake derives its name, and the last of all, in the rear of them, the Arimaspi. We then come to the Riphaean mountains, and the region known by the name of Pterophoros, because of the perpetual fall of snow there, the flakes of which resemble feathers; a part of the world which has been condemned by the decree of nature to lie immersed in thick darkness; suited for nothing but the generation of cold, and to be the asylum of the chilling blasts of the northern winds.

§ 4.26.6  Behind these mountains, and beyond the region of the northern winds, there dwells, if we choose to believe it, a happy race, known as the Hyperborei, a race that lives to an extreme old age, and which has been the subject of many marvellous stories. At this spot are supposed to be the hinges upon which the world revolves, and the extreme limits of the revolutions of the stars. Here we find light for six months together, given by the sun in one continuous day, who does not, however, as some ignorant persons have asserted, conceal himself from the vernal equinox to autumn. On the contrary, to these people there is but one rising of the sun for the year, and that at the summer solstice, and but one setting, at the winter solstice. This region, warmed by the rays of the sun, is of a most delightful temperature, and exempt from every noxious blast. The abodes of the natives are the woods and groves; the gods receive their worship singly and in groups, while all discord and every kind of sickness are things utterly unknown. Death comes upon them only when satiated with life; after a career of feasting, in an old age sated with every luxury, they leap from a certain rock there into the sea; and this they deem the most desirable mode of ending existence. Some writers have placed these people, not in Europe, but at the very verge of the shores of Asia, because we find there a people called the Attacori, who greatly resemble them and occupy a very similar locality. Other writers again have placed them midway between the two suns, at the spot where it sets to the Antipodes and rises to us; a thing however that cannot possibly be, in consequence of the vast tract of sea which there intervenes. Those writers who place them nowhere but under a day which lasts for six months, state that in the morning they sow, at mid-day they reap, at sunset they gather in the fruits of the trees, and during the night conceal themselves in caves. Nor are we at liberty to entertain any doubts as to the existence of this race; so many authors are there who assert that they were in the habit of sending their first-fruits to Delos to present them to Apollo, whom in especial they worship. Virgins used to carry them, who for many years were held in high veneration, and received the rites of hospitality from the nations that lay on the route; until at last, in consequence of repeated violations of good faith, the Hyperboreans came to the determination to deposit these offerings upon the frontiers of the people who adjoined them, and they in their turn were to convey them on to their neighbours, and so from one to the other, till they should have arrived at Delos. However, this custom, even, in time fell into disuse.

§ 4.26.7  The length of Sarmatia, Scythia, and Taurica, and of the whole of the region which extends from the river Borysthenes, is, according to Agrippa, 980 miles, and its breadth 717. I am of opinion, however, that in this part of the earth all estimates of measurement are exceedingly doubtful.

§ 4.27.1  THE ISLANDS OF THE EUXINE. THE ISLANDS OF THE NORTHERN OCEAN. But now, in conformity with the plan which I originally proposed, the remaining portions of this gulf must be described. As for its seas, we have already made mention of them.

§ 4.27.2  The Hellespont has no islands belonging to Europe that are worthy of mention. In the Euxine there are, at a distance of a mile and a half from the European shore, and of fourteen from the mouth of the Strait, the two Cyanaean islands, by some called the Symplegades, and stated in fabulous story to have run the one against the other; the reason being the circumstance that they are separated by so short an interval, that while to those who enter the Euxine opposite to them they appear to be two distinct islands, but if viewed in a somewhat oblique direction they have the appearance of becoming gradually united into one. On this side of the Ister there is the single island of the Apolloniates, eighty miles from the Thracian Bosporus; it was from this place that M. Lucullus brought the Capitoline Apollo. Those islands which are to be found between the mouths of the Ister we have already mentioned. Before the Borysthenes is Achillea previously referred to, known also by the names of Leuce and Macaron. Researches which have been made at the present day place this island at a distance of 140 miles from the Borysthenes, of 120 from Tyra, and of fifty from the island of Peuce. It is about ten miles in circumference. The remaining islands in the Gulf of Carcinites are Cephalonnesos, Rhosphodusa, and Macra. Before we leave the Euxine, we must not omit to notice the opinion expressed by many writers that all the interior seas take their rise in this one as the principal source, and not at the Straits of Gades. The reason they give for this supposition is not an improbable one — the fact that the tide is always running out of the Euxine and that there is never any ebb.

§ 4.27.3  We must now leave the Euxine to describe the outer portions of Europe. After passing the Riphaean mountains we have now to follow the shores of the Northern Ocean on the left, until we arrive at Gades. In this direction a great number of islands are said to exist that have no name; among which there is one which lies opposite to Scythia, mentioned under the name of Raunonia, and said to be at a distance of the day's sail from the mainland; and upon which, according to Timaeus, amber is thrown up by the waves in the spring season. As to the remaining parts of these shores, they are only known from reports of doubtful authority. With reference to the Septentrional or Northern Ocean; Hecataeus calls it, after we have passed the mouth of the river Parapanisus, where it washes the Scythian shores, the Amalchian sea, the word 'Amalchian' signifying in the language of these races, frozen. Philemon again says that it is called Morimarusa or the "Dead Sea" by the Cimbri, as far as the Promontory of Rubeas, beyond which it has the name of the Cronian Sea. Xenophon of Lampsacus tells us that at a distance of three days' sail from the shores of Scythia, there is an island of immense size called Baltia, which by Pytheas is called Basilia. Some islands called Oonae are said to be here, the inhabitants of which live on the eggs of birds and oats; and others again upon which human beings are produced with the feet of horses, thence called Hippopodes. Some other islands are also mentioned as those of the Panotii, the people of which have ears of such extraordinary size as to cover the rest of the body, which is otherwise left naked.

§ 4.27.4  Leaving these however, we come to the nation of the Ingaevones, the first in Germany; at which we begin to have some information upon which more implicit reliance can be placed. In their country is an immense mountain called Sevo, not less than those of the Riphaean range, and which forms an immense gulf along the shore as far as the Promontory of the Cimbri. This gulf, which has the name of the 'Codanian,' is filled with islands; the most famous among which is Scandinavia, of a magnitude as yet unascertained: the only portion of it at all known is inhabited by the nation of the Hilleviones, who dwell in 500 villages, and call it a second world: it is generally supposed that the island of Eningia is of not less magnitude. Some writers state that these regions, as far as the river Vistula, are inhabited by the Sarmati, the Venedi, the Sciri, and the Hirri, and that there is a gulf there known by the name of Cylipenus, at the mouth of which is the island of Latris, after which comes another gulf, that of Lagnus, which borders on the Cimbri. The Cimbrian Promontory, running out into the sea for a great distance, forms a peninsula which bears the name of Cartris. Passing this coast, there are three and twenty islands which have been made known by the Roman arms: the most famous of which is Burcana, called by our people Fabaria, from the resemblance borne by a fruit which grows there spontaneously. There are those also called Glaesaria by our soldiers, from their amber; but by the barbarians they are known as Austeravia and Actania.

§ 4.28.1  GERMANY: The whole of the shores of this sea as far as the Scaldis, a river of Germany, is inhabited by nations, the dimensions of whose respective territories it is quite impossible to state, so immensely do the authors differ who have touched upon this subject. The Greek writers and some of our own countrymen have stated the coast of Germany to be 2500 miles in extent, while Agrippa, comprising Rhaetia and Noricum in his estimate, makes the length to be 686 miles, and the breadth 148. The breadth of Rhaetia alone however very nearly exceeds that number of miles, and indeed we ought to state that it was only subjugated at about the period of the death of that general; while as for Germany, the whole of it was not thoroughly known to us for many years after his time. If I may be allowed to form a conjecture, the margin of the coast will be found to be not far short of the estimate of the Greek writers, while the distance in a straight line will nearly correspond with that mentioned by Agrippa.

§ 4.28.2  There are five German races; the Vandili, parts of whom are the Burgundiones, the Varini, the Carini, and the Gutones: the Ingaevones, forming a second race, a portion of whom are the Cimbri, the Teutoni, and the tribes of the Chauci. The Istaevones, who join up to the Rhine, and to whom the Cimbri belong, are the third race; while the Hermiones, forming a fourth, dwell in the interior, and include the Suevi, the Hermunduri, the Chatti, and the Cherusci: the fifth race is that of the Peucini, who are also the Basternae, adjoining the Daci previously mentioned. The more famous rivers that flow into the ocean are the Guttalus, the Vistillus or Vistula, the Albis, the Visurgis, the Amisius, the Rhine, and the Mosa. In the interior is the long extent of the Hercynian range, which in grandeur is inferior to none.

§ 4.29.1  NINETY-SIX ISLANDS OF THE GALLIC OCEAN. In the Rhine itself, nearly 100 miles in length, is the most famous island of the Batavi and the Canninefates, as also other islands of the Frisii, the Chauci, the Frisiabones, the Sturii, and the Marsacii, which lie between Helium and Flevum. These are the names of the mouths into which the Rhine divides itself, discharging its waters on the north into the lakes there, and on the west into the river Mosa. At the middle mouth which lies between these two, the river, having but a very small channel, preserves its own name.

§ 4.30.1  BRITANNIA: Opposite to this coast is the island called Britannia, so celebrated in the records of Greece and of our own country. It is situate to the north-west, and, with a large tract of intervening sea, lies opposite to Germany, Gaul, and Spain, by far the greater part of Europe. Its former name was Albion; but at a later period, all the islands, of which we shall just now briefly make mention, were included under the name of "Britanniae." This island is distant from Gesoriacum, on the coast of the nation of the Morini, at the spot where the passage across is the shortest, fifty miles. Pytheas and Isidorus say that its circumference is 4875 miles. It is barely thirty years since any extensive knowledge of it was gained by the successes of the Roman arms, and even as yet they have not penetrated beyond the vicinity of the Caledonian forest. Agrippa believes its length to be 800 miles, and its breadth 300; he also thinks that the breadth of Hibernia is the same, but that its length is less by 200 miles. This last island is situate beyond Britannia, the passage across being the shortest from the territory of the Silures, a distance of thirty miles. Of the remaining islands none is said to have a greater circumference than 125 miles. Among these there are the Orcades, forty in number, and situate within a short distance of each other, the seven islands called Acmodae, the Haebudes, thirty in number, and, between Hibernia and Britannia, the islands of Mona, Monapia, Ricina, Vectis, Limnus, and Andros. Below it are the islands called Samnis and Axantos, and opposite, scattered in the German Sea, are those known as the Glaesariae, but which the Greeks have more recently called the Electrides, from the circumstance of their producing electrum or amber. The most remote of all that we find mentioned is Thule, in which, as we have previously stated, there is no night at the summer solstice, when the sun is passing through the sign of Cancer, while on the other hand at the winter solstice there is no day. Some writers are of opinion that this state of things lasts for six whole months together. Timaeus the historian says that an island called Mictisis within six days' sail of Britannia, in which white load is found; and that the Britons sail over to it in boats of osier, covered with sewed hides. There are writers also who make mention of some other islands: Scandia, Dumna, Bergos, and, greater than all, Nerigos, from which persons embark for Thule. At one day's sail from Thule is the frozen ocean, which by some is called the Cronian Sea.

§ 4.31.1  GALLIA BELGICA: The whole of Gaul that is comprehended under the one general name of Comata, is divided into three races of people, which are more especially kept distinct from each other by the following rivers. From the Scaldis to the Sequana it is Belgic Gaul; from the Sequana to the Garumna it is Celtic Gaul or Lugdunensis; and from the Garumna to the promontory of the Pyrenaean range it is Aquitanian Gaul, formerly called Aremorica. Agrippa makes the entire length of the coast of Gaul to be 1800 miles, measured from the Rhine to the Pyrenees: and its length, from the ocean to the mountains of Cebenna and Jura, excluding there from Gallia Narbonensis, he computes at 420 miles, the breadth being 318.

§ 4.31.2  Beginning at the Scaldis, the parts beyond are inhabited by the Toxandri, who are divided into various peoples with many names; after whom come the Menapii, the Morini, the Oromarsaci, who are adjacent to the burgh which is known as Gesoriacum, the Britanni, the Ambiani, the Bellovaci, the Hassi, and, more in the interior, the Catoslugi, the Atrebates, the Nervii, a free people, the Veromandui, the Suaeuconi, the Suessiones, a free people, the Ulmanetes, a free people, the Tungri, the Sunuci, the Frisiabones, the Betasi, the Leuci, a free people, the Treveri, who were formerly free, and the Lingones, a federal state, the federal Remi, the Mediomatrici, the Sequani, the Raurici, and the Helvetii. The Roman colonies are Equestris and Rauriaca. The nations of Germany which dwell in this province, near the sources of the Rhine, are the Nemetes, the Triboci, and the Vangiones; nearer again, the Ubii, Colonia Agrippinensis, the Cugerni, the Batavi, and the peoples whom we have already mentioned as dwelling on the islands of the Rhine.

§ 4.32.1  GALLIA LUGDUNENSIS: That part of Gaul which is known as Lugdunensis contains the Lexovii, the Vellocasses, the Galeti, the Veneti, the Abrincatui, the Ossismi, and the celebrated river Ligeris, as also a most remarkable peninsula, which extends into the ocean at the extremity of the territory of the Ossismi, the circumference of which is 625 miles, and its breadth at the neck 125. Beyond this are the Nannetes, and in the interior are the Aedui, a federal people, the Carnuti, a federal people, the Boii, the Senones, the Aulerci, both those surnamed Eburovices and those called Cenomanni, the Meldi, a free people, the Parisii, the Tricasses, the Andecavi, the Viducasses, the Bodiocasses, the Venelli, the Cariosvelites, the Diablinti, the Rhedones, the Turones, the Atesui, and the Secusiani, a free people, in whose territory is the colony of Lugdunum.

§ 4.33.1  GALLIA AQUITANICA: In Aquitanica are the Ambilatri, the Anagnutes, the Pictones, the Santoni, a free people, the Bituriges, surnamed Vivisci, the Aquitani, from whom the province derives its name, the Sediboviates, the Convenae, who together form one town, the Begerri, the Tarbelli Quatuorsignani, the Cocosates Sexsignani, the Venami, the Onobrisates, the Belendi, and then the Pyrenaean range. Below these are the Monesi, the Oscidates a mountain race, the Sibyllates, the Camponi, the Bercorcates, the Pindedunni, the Lassunni, the Vellates, the Tornates, the Consoranni, the Ausci, the Elusates, the Sottiates, the Oscidates Campestres, the Succasses, the Tarusates, the Basabocates, the Vassei, the Sennates, and the Cambolectri Agessinates. Joining up to the Pictones are the Bituriges, a free people, who are also known as the Cubi, and then the Lemovices, the Arverni, a free people, and the Gabales.

§ 4.33.2  Again, adjoining the province of Narbonensis are the Ruteni, the Cadurci, the Nitiobriges, and the Petrocori, separated by the river Tarnis from the Tolosani. The seas around the coast are the Northern Ocean, flowing up to the mouth of the Rhine, the Britannic Ocean between the Rhine and the Sequana, and, between it and the Pyrenees, the Gallic Ocean. There are many islands belonging to the Veneti, which bear the name of "Veneticae," as also in the Aquitanic Gulf, that of Uliarus.

§ 4.34.1  NEARER SPAIN, ITS COAST ALONG THE GALLIC OCEAN: At the Promontory of the Pyrenees Spain begins, more narrow, not only than Gaul, but even than itself in its other parts, as we have previously mentioned, seeing to what an immense extent it is here hemmed in by the ocean on the one side, and by the Iberian Sea on the other. A chain of the Pyrenees, extending from due east to south-west, divides Spain into two parts, the smaller one to the north, the larger to the south. The first coast that presents itself is that of the Nearer Spain, otherwise called Tarraconensis. On leaving the Pyrenees and proceeding along the coast, we meet with the forest ranges of the Vascones, Olarso, the towns of the Varduli, the Morosgi, Menosca, Vesperies, and the Port of Amanus, where now stands the colony of Flaviobriga. We then come to the district of the nine states of the Cantabri, the river Sauga, and the Port of Victoria of the Juliobrigenses, from which place the sources of the Iberus are distant forty miles. We next come to the Port of Blendium, the Orgenomesci, a people of the Cantabri, Vereasueca their port, the country of the Astures, the town of Noega, and on a peninsula, the Paesici. Next to these we have, belonging to the jurisdiction of Lucus, after passing the river Navilubio, the Cibarci, the Egovarri, surnamed Namarini, the Iadoni, the Arrotrebae, the Celtic Promontory, the rivers Florius and Nelo, the Celtici, surnamed Neri, and above them the Tamarici, in whose peninsula are the three altars called Sestianae, and dedicated to Augustus; the Capori, the town of Noela, the Celtici surnamed Praesamarci, and the Cilen: of the islands, those worthy of mention are Corticata and Aunios. After passing the Cileni, belonging to the jurisdiction of the Bracari, we have the Heleni, the Gravii, and the fortress of Tyde, all of them deriving their origin from the Greeks. Also, the islands called Cicae, the famous city of Abobrica, the river Minius, four miles wide at its mouth, the Leuni, the Seurbi, and Augusta, a town of the Bracari, above whom lies Gallaecia. We then come to the river Limia, and the river Durius, one of the largest in Spain, and which rises in the district of the Pelendones, passes near Numantia, and through the Arevaci and the Vaccaei, dividing the Vettones from Asturia, the Gallaeci from Lusitania, and separating the Turduli from the Bracari. The whole of the region here mentioned from the Pyrenees is full of mines of gold, silver, iron, and lead, both black and white.

§ 4.35.1  LUSITANIA: After passing the Durius, Lusitania begins. We here have the ancient Turduli, the Paesuri, the river Vaga, the town of Talabrica, the town and river of Aeminium, the towns of Conimbrica, Collippo, and Eburobritium. A promontory then advances into the sea in shape of a large horn; by some it has been called Artabrum, by others the Great Promontory, while many call it the Promontory of Olisipo, from the city near it. This spot forms a dividing line in the land, the sea, and the heavens. Here ends one side of Spain; and, when we have doubled the promontory, the front of Spain begins. On one side of it lie the North and the Gallic Ocean, on the other the West and the Atlantic. The length of this promontory has been estimated by some persons at sixty miles, by others at ninety. A considerable number of writers estimate the distance from this spot to the Pyrenees at 1250 miles; and, committing a manifest error, place here the nation of the Artabri, a nation that never was here. For, making a slight change in the name, they have placed at this spot the Arrotrebae, whom we have previously spoken of as dwelling in front of the Celtic Promontory.

§ 4.35.2  Mistakes have also been made as to the more celebrated rivers. From the Minius, which we have previously mentioned, according to Varro, the river Aeminius is distant 200 miles, which others suppose to be situate elsewhere, and called Limaea. By the ancients it was called the "River of Lethe," and it has been made the subject of many fabulous stories. At a distance of 200 miles from the Durius is the Tagus, the Munda lying between them. The Tagus is famous for its golden sands. At a distance of 160 miles from it is the Sacred Promontory, projecting from nearly the very middle of the front of Spain. From this spot to the middle of the Pyrenees, Varro says, is a distance of 1400 miles; while to the Anas, by which we have mentioned Lusitania as being separated from Baetica, is 126 miles, it being 102 more to Gades.

§ 4.35.3  The peoples are the Celtici, the Turduli, and, about the Tagus, the Vettones. From the river Anas to the Sacred Promontory are the Lusitani. The cities worthy of mention on the coast, beginning from the Tagus, are that of Olisipo, famous for its mares, which conceive from the west wind; Salacia, which is surnamed the Imperial City; Merobrica; and then the Sacred Promontory, with the other known by the name of Cuneus, and the towns of Ossonoba, Balsa, and Myrtili.

§ 4.35.4  The whole of this province is divided into three jurisdictions, those of Emerita, Pax, and Scalabis. It contains in all forty-six peoples, among whom there are five colonies, one municipal town of Roman citizens, three with the ancient Latin rights, and thirty-six that are tributaries. The colonies are those of Augusta Emerita, situate on the river Anas, Metallinum, Pax, and Norba, surnamed Caesariana. To this last place of jurisdiction the people of Castra Servilia and Castra Caecilia resort. The fifth jurisdiction is that of Scalabis, which also has the name of Praesidium Julium. Olisipo, surnamed Felicitas Julia, is a municipal city, whose inhabitants enjoy the rights of Roman citizens. The towns in the enjoyment of the ancient Latin rights are Ebora, which also has the name of Liberalitas Julia, and Myrtili and Salacia, which we have previously mentioned. Those among the tributaries whom it may not be amiss to mention, in addition to those already alluded to among the names of those in Baetica, are the Augustobrigenses, the Ammienses, the Aranditani, the Arabricenses, the Balsenses, the Cesarobricenses, the Caperenses, the Caurenses, the Colarni, the Cibilitani, the Concordienses, the Elbocorii, the Interannienses, the Lancienses, the Mirobrigenses, surnamed Celtici, the Medubrigenses, surnamed Plumbarii, the Ocelenses or Lancienses, the Turduli, also called Barduli, and the Tapori. Agrippa states, that Lusitania, with Asturia and Gallaecia, is 540 miles in length, and 536 in breadth. The provinces of Spain, measured from the two extreme promontories of the Pyrenees, along the sea-line of the entire coast, are thought to be 3922 miles in circumference; while some writers make them to be but 2600.

§ 4.36.1  THE ISLANDS IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN: Opposite to Celtiberia are a number of islands, by the Greeks called Cassiterides, in consequence of their abounding in tin: and, facing the Promontory of the Arrotrebae, are the six Islands of the Gods, which some persons have called the Fortunate Islands. At the very commencement of Baetica, and twenty-five miles from the mouth of the Straits of Gades, is the island of Gadis, twelve miles long and three broad, as Polybius states in his writings. At its nearest part, it is less than 700 feet distant from the mainland, while in the remaining portion it is distant more than seven miles. Its circuit is fifteen miles, and it has on it a city which enjoys the rights of Roman citizens, and whose people are called the Augustani of the city of Julia Gaditana. On the side which looks towards Spain, at about 100 paces distance, is another long island, three miles wide, on which the original city of Gades stood. By Ephorus and Philistides it is called Erythia, by Timaeus and Silenus Aphrodisias, and by the natives the Isle of Juno. Timaeus says, that the larger island used to be called Cotinusa, from its olives; the Romans call it Tartessos; the Carthaginians Gadir, that word in the Punic language signifying a hedge. It was called Erythia because the Tyrians, the original ancestors of the Carthaginians, were said to have come from the Erythraean, or Red Sea. In this island Geryon is by some thought to have dwelt, whose herds were carried off by Hercules. Other persons again think, that his island is another one, opposite to Lusitania, and that it was there formerly called by that name.

§ 4.37.1  THE GENERAL MEASUREMENT OF EUROPE: Having thus made the circuit of Europe, we must now give the complete measurement of it, in order that those who wish to be acquainted with this subject may not feel themselves at a loss. Artemidorus and Isidorus have given its length, from the Tanais to Gades, as 8214 miles. Polybius in his writings has stated the breadth of Europe, in a line from Italy to the ocean, to be 1150 miles. But, even in his day, its magnitude was but little known. The distance of Italy, as we have previously stated, as far as the Alps, is 1120 miles, from which, through Lugdunum to the British port of the Morini, the direction which Polybius seems to follow, is 1168 miles. But the better ascertained, though greater length, is that taken from the Alps through the Camp of the Legions in Germany, in a north-westerly direction, to the mouth of the Rhine, being 1543 miles. We shall now have to speak of Africa and Asia.

§ 5.1.1  THE TWO MAURITANIAS: The Greeks have given the name of Libya to Africa, and have called the sea that lies in front of it the Libyan Sea. It has Egypt for its boundary, and no part of the earth is there that has fewer gulfs or inlets, its shores extending in a lengthened line from the west in an oblique direction. The names of its peoples, and its cities in especial, cannot possibly be pronounced with correctness, except by the aid of their own native tongues. Its population, too, for the most part dwells only in fortresses.

§ 5.1.2  On our entrance into Africa, we find the two Mauritanias, which, until the time of Caius Caesar, the son of Germanicus, were kingdoms; but, suffering under his cruelty, they were divided into two provinces. The extreme promontory of Africa, which projects into the ocean, is called Ampelusia by the Greeks. There were formerly two towns, Lissa and Cotte, beyond the Pillars of Hercules; but, at the present day, we only find that of Tingi, which was formerly founded by Antaeus, and afterwards received the name of Traducta Julia, from Claudius Caesar, when he established a colony there. It is thirty miles distant from Belon, a town of Baetica, where the passage across is the shortest. At a distance of twenty-five miles from Tingi, upon the shores of the ocean, we come to Julia Constantia Zilis, a colony of Augustus. This place is exempt from all subjection to the kings of Mauritania, and is included in the legal jurisdiction of Baetica. Thirty-two miles distant from Julia Constantia is Lixos, which was made a Roman colony by Claudius Caesar, and which has been the subject of such wondrous fables, related by the writers of antiquity. At this place, according to the story, was the palace of Antaeus; this was the scene of his combat with Hercules, and here were the gardens of the Hesperides. An arm of the sea flows into the land here, with a serpentine channel, and, from the nature of the locality, this is interpreted at the present day as having been what was really represented by the story of the dragon keeping guard there. This tract of water surrounds an island, the only spot which is never overflowed by the tides of the sea, although not quite so elevated as the rest of the land in its vicinity. Upon this island, also, there is still in existence the altar of Hercules; but of the grove that bore the golden fruit, there are no traces left, beyond some wild olive-trees. People will certainly be the less surprised at the marvellous falsehoods of the Greeks, which have been related about this place and the river Lixos, when they reflect that some of our own countrymen as well, and that too very recently, have related stories in reference to them hardly less monstrous; how that this city is remarkable for its power and extensive influence, and how that it is even greater than Great Carthage ever was; how, too, that it is situate just opposite to Carthage, and at an almost immeasurable distance from Tingi, together with other details of a similar nature, all of which Cornelius Nepos has believed with the most insatiate credulity.

§ 5.1.3  In the interior, at a distance of forty miles from Lixos, is Babba, surnamed Julia Campestris, another colony of Augustus; and, at a distance of seventy-five, a third, called Banasa, with the surname of Valentia. At a distance of thirty-five miles from this last is the town of Volubilis, which is just that distance also from both seas. On the coast, at a distance of fifty miles from Lixos, is the river Subur, which flows past the colony of Banasa, a fine river, and available for the purposes of navigation. At the same distance from it is the city of Sala, situate on a river which bears the same name, a place which stands upon the very verge of the desert, and though infested by troops of elephants, is much more exposed to the attacks of the nation of the Autololes, through whose country lies the road to Mount Atlas, the most fabulous locality even in Africa.

§ 5.1.4  It is from the midst of the sands, according to the story, that this mountain raises its head to the heavens; rugged and craggy on the side which looks toward the shores of the ocean to which it has given its name, while on that which faces the interior of Africa it is shaded by dense groves of trees, and refreshed by flowing streams; fruits of all kinds springing up there spontaneously to such an extent, as to more than satiate every possible desire. Throughout the daytime, no inhabitant is to be seen; all is silent, like that dreadful stillness which reigns in the desert. A religious horror steals imperceptibly over the feelings of those who approach, and they feel themselves smitten with awe at the stupendous aspect of its summit, which reaches beyond the clouds, and well nigh approaches the very orb of the moon. At night, they say, it gleams with fires innumerable lighted up; it is then the scene of the gambols of the Aegipans and the Satyr crew, while it re-echoes with the notes of the flute and the pipe, and the clash of drums and cymbals. All this is what authors of high character have stated, in addition to the labours which Hercules and Perseus there experienced. The space which intervenes before you arrive at this mountain is immense, and the country quite unknown.

§ 5.1.5  There formerly existed some Commentaries written by Hanno, a Carthaginian general, who was commanded, in the most flourishing times of the Punic state, to explore the sea-coast of Africa. The greater part of the Greek and Roman writers have followed him, and have related, among other fabulous stories, that many cities there were founded by him, of which no remembrance, nor yet the slightest vestige, now exists.

§ 5.1.6  While Scipio Aemilianus held the command in Sicily, Polybius the historian received a fleet from him for the purpose of proceeding on a voyage of discovery in this part of the world. He relates, that beyond Mount Atlas, proceeding in a westerly direction, there are forests filled with wild beasts, peculiar to the soil of Africa, as far as the river Anatis, a distance of 485 miles, Lixos being distant from it 205 miles. Agrippa says, that Lixos is distant from the Straits of Gades 112 miles. After it we come to a gulf which is called the Gulf of Saguti, a town situate on the Promontory of Mulelacha, the rivers Subur and Salat, and the port of Rutubis, distant from Lixos 213 miles. We then come to the Promontory of the Sun, the port of Risardir, the Gaetulian Autololes, the river Cosenus, the nations of the Selatiti and the Masati, the river Masathat, and the river Darat, in which crocodiles are found. After this we come to a large gulf, 616 miles in extent, which is enclosed by a promontory of Mount Barce, which runs out in a westerly direction, and is called Surrentium. Next comes the river Salsus, beyond which lie the Aethiopian Perorsi, at the back of whom are the Pharusii, who are bordered upon by the Gaetulian Darae, lying in the interior. Upon the coast again, we find the Aethiopian Daratitae, and the river Bambotus, teeming with crocodiles and hippopotami. From this river there is a continuous range of mountains till we come to the one which is known by the name of Theon Ochema, from which to the Hesperian Promontory is a voyage of ten days and nights; and in the middle of this space he has placed Mount Atlas, which by all other writers has been stated to be in the extreme parts of Mauritania.

§ 5.1.7  The Roman arms, for the first time, pursued their conquests into Mauritania, under the Emperor Claudius, when the freedman Aedemon took up arms to avenge the death of King Ptolemy, who had been put to death by Caius Caesar; and it is a well-known fact, that on the flight of the barbarians our troops reached Mount Atlas. It became a boast, not only among men of consular rank, and generals selected from the senate, who at that time held the command, but among persons of equestrian rank as well, who after that period held the government there, that they had penetrated as far as Mount Atlas. There are, as we have already stated, five Roman colonies in this province; and it may very possibly appear, if we listen only to what report says, that this mountain is easily accessible. Upon trial, however, it has been pretty generally shown, that all such statements are utterly fallacious; and it is too true, that men in high station, when they are disinclined to take the trouble of inquiring into the truth, through a feeling of shame at their ignorance arc not averse to be guilty of falsehood; and never is implicit credence more readily given, than when a falsehood is supported by the authority of some personage of high consideration. For my own part, I am far less surprised that there are still some facts remaining undiscovered by men of the equestrian order, and even those among them who have attained senatorial rank, than that the love of luxury has left anything unascertained; the impulse of which must be great indeed, and most powerfully felt, when the very forests are ransacked for their ivory and citron-wood, and all the rocks of Gaetulia are searched for the murex and the purple.

§ 5.1.8  From the natives, however, we learn, that on the coast, at a distance of 150 miles from the Salat, the river Asanapresents itself; its waters are salt, but it is remarkable for its fine harbour. They also say that after this we come to a river known by the name of Fut, and then, after crossing another called Vior which lies on the road, at a distance of 200 miles we arrive at Dyris, such being the name which in their language they give to Mount Atlas. According to their story there are still existing in its vicinity many vestiges which tend to prove that the locality was once inhabited; such as the remains of vineyards and plantations of palm-trees.

§ 5.1.9  Suetonius Paulinus, whom we have seen Consul in our own time, was the first Roman general who advanced a distance of some miles beyond Mount Atlas. He has given us the same information as we have received from other sources with reference to the extraordinary height of this mountain, and at the same time he has stated that all the lower parts about the foot of it are covered with dense and lofty forests composed of trees of species hitherto unknown. The height of these trees, he says, is remarkable; the trunks are without knots, and of a smooth and glossy surface; the foliage is like that of the cypress, and besides sending forth a powerful odour, they are covered with a flossy down, from which, by the aid of art, a fine cloth might easily be manufactured, similar to the textures made from the produce of the silk-worm. He informs us that the summit of this mountain is covered with snow even in summer, and says that having arrived there after a march of ten days, he proceeded some distance beyond it as far as a river which bears the name of Ger; the road being through deserts covered with a black sand, from which rocks that bore the appearance of having been exposed to the action of fire, projected every here and there; localities rendered quite uninhabitable by the intensity of the heat, as he himself experienced, although it was in the winter season that he visited them. We also learn from the same source that the people who inhabit the adjoining forests, which are full of all kinds of elephants, wild beasts, and serpents, have the name of Canarii; from the circumstance that they partake of their food in common with the canine race, and share with it the entrails of wild beasts.

§ 5.1.10  It is a well-known fact, that adjoining to these localities is a nation of Aethiopians, which bears the name of Perorsi. Juba, the father of Ptolemy, who was the first king who reigned over both the Mauritanias, and who has been rendered even more famous by the brilliancy of his learning than by his kingly rank, has given us similar information relative to Mount Atlas, and states that a certain herb grows there, which has received the name of 'euphorbia'from that of his physician, who was the first to discover it. Juba extols with wondrous praises the milky juice of this plant as tending to improve the sight, and acting as a specific against the bites of serpents and all kinds of poison; and to this subject alone he has devoted an entire book. Thus much, if indeed not more than enough, about Mount Atlas.

§ 5.1.11  The province of Tingitana is 170 miles in length. Of the nations in this province the principal one was formerly that of the Mauri, who have given to it the name of Mauritania, and have been by many writers called the Maurusii. This nation has been greatly weakened by the disasters of war, and is now dwindled down to a few families only. Next to the Mauri was formerly the nation of the Massaesyli; they in a similar manner have become extinct. Their country is now occupied by the Gaetulian nations, the Baniurae, the Autololes, by far the most powerful people among them all, and the Vesuni, who formerly were a part of the Autololes, but have now separated from them, and, turning their steps towards the Aethiopians, have formed a distinct nation of their own. This province, in the mountainous district which lies on its eastern side produces elephants, as also on the heights of Mount Abyla and among those elevations which, from the similarity of their height, are called the Seven Brothers. Joining the range of Abyla these mountains overlook the Straits of Gades. At the extremity of this chain begin the shores of the inland sea and we come to the Tamuda, a navigable stream, with the site of a former town of the same name, and then the river Laud, which is also navigable for vessels, the town and port of Rhysaddir, and Malvane, a navigable stream.

§ 5.1.12  The city of Siga, formerly the residence of King Syphax, lies opposite to that of Malaca in Spain: it now belongs to the second Mauritania. But these countries, I should remark, for a long time retained the names of their respective kings, the further Mauritania being called the "land of Bogud," while that which is now called Caesariensis was called the "country of Bocchus." After passing Siga we come to the haven called "Portus Magnus" from its great extent, with a town whose people enjoy the rights of Roman citizens, and then the river Mulucha, which served as the limit between the territory of Bocchus and that of the Massaesyli. Next to this is Quiza Xenitana, a town founded by strangers, and Arsenaria, a place with the ancient Latin rights, three miles distant from the sea. We then come to Cartenna, a colony founded under Augustus by the second legion, and Gunugum, another colony founded by the same emperor, a praetorian cohort being established there; the Promontory of Apollo, and a most celebrated city, now called Caesarea, but formerly known by the name of Iol; this place was the residence of King Juba, and received the rights of a colony from the now deified Emperor Claudius. Oppidum Novum is the next place; a colony of veterans was established here by command of the same emperor. Next to it is Tipasa, which has received Latin rights, as also Icasium, which has been presented by the Emperor Vespasianus with similar rights; Rusconiae, a colony founded by Augustus; Rusucurium, honoured by Claudius with the rights of Roman citizens; Ruzacus, a colony founded by Augustus; Salde, another colony founded by the same emperor; Igilgili, another; and the town of Tucca, situate on the sea-shore and upon the river Ampsaga. In the interior are the colony of Augusta, also called Succabar, Tubusuptus, the cities of Timici and Tigavae, the rivers Sardabal, Aves, and Nabar, the nation of the Macurebi, the river Usar, and the nation of the Nababes. The river Ampsaga is distant from Caesarea 322 miles. The length of the two Mauritanias is 1038, and their breadth 467 miles.

§ 5.2.1  NUMIDIA: At the river Ampsaga Numidia begins, a country rendered illustrious by the fame of Masinissa. By the Greeks this region was called Metagonitis; and the Numidians received the name of "Nomades" from their frequent changes of pasturage; upon which occasions they were accustomed to carry their mapalia, or in other words, their houses, upon waggons. The towns of this country are Cullu and Rusicade; and at a distance of forty-eight miles from the latter, in the interior, is the colony of Cirta, surnamed "of the Sitiani;" still more inland is another colony called Sicca, with the free town of Bulla Regia. On the coast are Tacatua, Hippo Regius, the river Armua, and the town of Tabraca, with the rights of Roman citizens. The river Tusca forms the boundary of Numidia. This country produces nothing remarkable except its marble and wild beasts.

§ 5.3.1  AFRICA: Beyond the river Tusca begins the region of Zeugitana, and that part which properly bears the name of Africa. We here find three promontories; the White Promontory, the Promontory of Apollo, facing Sardinia, and Promontory of Mercury, opposite to Sicily. Projecting into the sea these headlands form two gulfs, the first of which bears the name of "Hipponensis" from its proximity to the city called Hippo Dirutus, a corruption of the Greek name Diarrhytus, which it has received from the channels made for irrigation. Adjacent to this place, but at a greater distance from the sea-shore, is Theudalis, a town exempt from tribute. We then come to the Promontory of Apollo, and upon the second gulf, we find Utica, a place enjoying the rights of Roman citizens, and famous for the death of Cato; the river Bagrada, the place called Castra Cornelia, the colony of Carthage, founded upon the remains of Great Carthage, the colony of Maxula, the towns of Carpi, Misua, and Clypea, the last a free town, on the Promontory of Mercury; also Curubis, a free town, and Neapolis.

§ 5.3.2  Here commences the second division of Africa properly so called. Those who inhabit Byzacium have the name of Libyphoenices. Byzacium is the name of a district which is 250 miles in circumference, and is remarkable for its extreme fertility, as the ground returns the seed sown by the husbandman with interest a hundred-fold. Here are the free towns of Leptis, Adrumetum, Ruspina, and Thapsus; and then Thenae, Macomades, Tacape, and Sabrata which touches on the Lesser Syrtis; to which spot, from the Ampsaga, the length of Numidia and Africa is 580 miles, and the breadth, so far as it has been ascertained, 200. That portion which we have called Africa is divided into two provinces, the Old and the New; these are separated by a dyke which was made by order of the second Scipio Africanus and the kings, and extended to Thenae, which town is distant from Carthage 216 miles.

§ 5.4.1  THE SYRTES: A third Gulf is divided into two smaller ones, those of the two Syrtes, which are rendered perilous by the shallows of their quicksands and the ebb and flow of the sea. Polybius states the distance from Carthage to the Lesser Syrtis, the one which is nearest to it, to be 300 miles. The inlet to it he also states to be 100 miles across, and its circumference 300. There is also a way to it by land, to find which we must employ the guidance of the stars and cross deserts which present nothing but sand and serpents. After passing these we come to forests filled with vast multitudes of wild beasts and elephants, then desert wastes, and beyond them the Garamantes, distant twelve days' journey from the Augylae. Above the Garamantes was formerly the nation of the Psylli, and above them again the Lake of Lycomedes, surrounded with deserts. The Augylae themselves are situate almost midway between Aethiopia which faces the west, and the region which lies between the two Syrtes, at an equal distance from both. The distance along the coast that lies between the two Syrtes is 250 miles. On it are found the city of Oea, the river Cinyps, and the country of that name, the towns of Neapolis, Graphara, and Abrotonum, and the second, surnamed the Greater, Leptis.

§ 5.4.2  We next come to the Greater Syrtis, 625 miles in circumference, and at the entrance 312 miles in width; next after which dwells the nation of the Cisippades. At the bottom of this gulf was the coast of the Lotophagi, whom some writers have called the Alachroae, extending as far as the Altars of the Philaeni; these Altars are formed of heaps of sand. On passing these, not far from the shore there is a vast swamp which receives the river Triton and from it takes its name: by Callimachus it is called Pallantias, and is said by him to be on the nearer side of the Lesser Syrtis; many other writers however place it between the two Syrtes. The promontory which bounds the Greater Syrtis has the name of Borion; beyond it is the province of Cyrene.

§ 5.4.3  Africa, from the river Ampsaga to this limit, includes 516 peoples, who are subject to the Roman sway, of which six are colonies; among them Uthina and Tuburbi, besides those already mentioned. The towns enjoying the rights of Roman citizens are fifteen in number, of which I shall mention, as lying in the interior, those of Assurae, Abutucum, Aborium, Canopicum, Cilma, Simithium, Thunusidium, Tuburnicum, Tynidrumum, Tibiga, the two towns called Ucita, the Greater and the Lesser, and vaga. There is also one town with Latin rights, Uzalita by name, and one town of tributaries, Castra Cornelia. The free towns are thirty in number, among which we may mention, in the interior, those of Acholla, Aggarita, Avina, Abzirita, Canopita, Melizita, Matera, Salaphita, Tusdrita, Tiphica, Tunica, Theuda, Tagasta, Tiga, Ulusubrita, a second Vaga, Visa, and Zama. Of the remaining number, most of them should be called, in strictness, not only cities, but nations even; such for instance as the Natabudes, the Capsitani, the Musulami, the Sabarbares, the Massyli, the Nisives, the Vamacures, the Cinithi, the Musuni, the Marchubii, and the whole of Gaetulia, as far as the river Nigris, which separates Africa proper from Aethiopia.

§ 5.5.1  CYRENAICA: The region of Cyrenaica, also called Pentapolis, is rendered famous by the oracle of Hammon, which is distant 400 miles from the city of Cyrene; also by the Fountain of the Sun there, and five cities in especial, those of Berenice, Arsinoe, Ptolemais, Apollonia, and Cyrene itself. Berenice is situate upon the outer promontory that bounds the Syrtis; it was formerly called the city of the Hesperides (previously mentioned), according to the fables of the Greeks, which very often change their localities. Not far from the city, and running before it, is the river Lethon, and with it a sacred grove, where the gardens of the Hesperides are said to have formerly stood; this city is distant from Leptis 375 miles. From Berenice to Arsinoe, commonly called Teuchira, is forty-three miles; after which, at a distance of twenty-two, we come to Ptolemais, the ancient name of which was Barce; and at a distance of forty miles from this last the Promontory of Phycus, which extends far away into the Cretan Sea, being 350 miles distant from Taenarum, the promontory of Laconia, and from Crete 225. After passing this promontory we come to Cyrene, which stands at a distance of eleven miles from the sea. From Phycus to Apollonia is twenty-four miles, and from thence to the Chersonesus eighty-eight; from which to Catabathmos is a distance of 216 miles. The Marmaridae inhabit this coast, extending from almost the region of Paraetonium to the Greater Syrtis; after them the Ararauceles, and then, upon the coasts of the Syrtis, the Nasamones, whom the Greeks formerly called Mesammones, from the circumstance of their being located in the very midst of sands. The territory of Cyrene, to a distance of fifteen miles from the shore, is said to abound in trees, while for the same distance beyond that district it is only suitable for the cultivation of corn: after which, a tract of land, thirty miles in breadth and 250 in length, is productive of nothing but laser [or silphium].

§ 5.5.2  After the Nasamones we come to the dwellings of the Asbystae and the Macae, and beyond them, at eleven days' journey to the west of the Greater Syrtis, the Amantes, a people also surrounded by sands in every direction. They find water however without any difficulty at a depth mostly of about two cubits, as their district receives the overflow of the waters of Mauritania. They build houses with blocks of salt, which they cut out of their mountains just as we do stone. From this nation to the Troglodytae the distance is seven days' journey in a south-westerly direction, a people with whom our only intercourse is for the purpose of procuring from them the precious stone which we call the carbuncle, and which is brought from the interior of Aethiopia. Upon the road to this last people, but turning off towards the deserts of Africa, of which we have previously made mention as lying beyond the Lesser Syrtis, is the region of Phazania; the nation of Phazanii, belonging to which, as well as the cities of Alele and Cilliba, we have subdued by force of arms, as also Cydamus, which lies over against Sabrata. After passing these places a range of mountains extends in a prolonged chain from east to west: these have received from our people the name of the Black Mountains, either from the appearance which they naturally bear of having been exposed to the action of fire, or else from the fact that they have been scorched by the reflection of the sun's rays. Beyond it is the desert, and then Talgae, a city of the Garamantes, and Debris, at which place there is a spring, the waters of which, from noon to midnight, are at boiling heat, and then freeze for as many hours until the following noon; Garama too, that most famous capital of the Garamantes; all which places have been subdued by the Roman arms. It was on this occasion that Cornelius Balbus was honoured with a triumph, the only foreigner indeed that was ever honoured with the triumphal chariot, and presented with the rights of a Roman citizen; for, although by birth a native of Gades, the Roman citizenship was granted to him as well as to the elder Balbus, his uncle by the father's side. There is also this remarkable circumstance, that our writers have handed down to us the names of the cities above-mentioned as having been taken by Balbus, and have informed us that on the occasion of his triumph, besides Cydamus and Garama, there were carried in the procession the names and models of all the other nations and cities, in the following order: the town of Tabudium, the nation of Niteris, the town of Nigligemella, the nation or town of Bubeium, the nation of Enipi, the town of Thuben, the mountain known as the Black Mountain, Nitibrum, the towns called Rapsa, the nation of Discera, the town of Debris, the river Nathabur, the town of Thapsagum, the nation of Nannagi, the town of Boin, the town of Pege, the river Dasibari; and then the towns, in the following order, of Baracum, Buluba, Alasit, Galia, Balla, Maxalla, Zizama, and Mount Gyri, which was preceded by an inscription stating that this was the place where precious stones were produced.

§ 5.5.3  Up to the present time it has been found impracticable to keep open the road that leads to the country of the Garamantes, as the predatory bands of that nation have filled up the wells with sand, which do not require to be dug for to any great depth, if you only have a knowledge of the locality. In the late war however, which, at the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, the Romans carried on with the people of Oea, a short cut of only four days' journey was discovered; this road is known as the "Paeter Caput Saxi." The last place in the territory of Cyrenaica is Catabathmos, consisting of a town, and a valley with a sudden and steep descent. The length of Cyrenean Africa, up to this boundary from the Lesser Syrtis, is 1060 miles; and, so far as has been ascertained, it is 800 in breadth.

§ 5.6.1  LIBYA MAREOTIS: The region that follows is called Libya Mareotis, and borders upon Egypt. It is held by the Marmaridae, the Adyrmachidae, and, after them, the Mareotoe. The distance from Catabathmos to Paraetonium is eighty-six miles. In this district is Apis, a place rendered famous by the religious belief of Egypt. From this town Paraetonium is distant sixty-two miles, and from thence to Alexandria the distance is 200 miles, the breadth of the district being 169. Eratosthenes says that it is 525 miles by land from Cyrene to Alexandria; while Agrippa gives the length of the whole of Africa from the Atlantic Sea, and including Lower Egypt, as 3040 miles. Polybius and Eratosthenes, who are generally considered as remarkable for their extreme correctness, state the length to be, from the ocean to Great Carthage 1100 miles, and from Carthage to Canopus, the nearest mouth of the Nile, 1628 miles; while Isidorus speaks of the distance from Tingi to Canopus as being 3599 miles. Artemidorus makes this last distance forty miles less than Isidorus.

§ 5.7.1  THE ISLANDS IN THE VICINITY OF AFRICA: These seas contain not so very many islands. The most famous among them is Meninx, twenty-five miles in length and twenty-two in breadth: by Eratosthenes it is called Lotophagitis. This island has two towns, Meninx on the side which faces Africa, and Troas on the other; it is situate off the promontory which lies on the right-hand side of the Lesser Syrtis, at a distance of a mile and a half. One hundred miles from this island, and opposite the promontory that lies on the left, is the free island of Cercina, with a city of the same name. It is twenty-five miles long, and half that breadth at the place where it is the widest, but not more than five miles across at the extremity: the diminutive island of Cercinitis, which looks towards Carthage, is united to it by a bridge. At a distance of nearly fifty miles from these is the island of Lopadusa, six miles in length; and beyond it Gaulos and Galata, the soil of which kills the scorpion, that noxious reptile of Africa. It is also said that the scorpion will not live at Clypea; opposite to which place lies the island of Cosyra, with a town of the same name. Opposite to the Gulf of Carthage are the two islands known as the Aegimuri; the Altars, which are rather rocks than islands, lie more between Sicily and Sardinia. There are some authors who state that these rocks were once inhabited, but that they have gradually subsided in the sea.

§ 5.8.1  COUNTRIES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF AFRICA: If we pass through the interior of Africa in a southerly direction, beyond the Gaetuli, after having traversed the intervening deserts, we shall find, first of all the Liby-Egyptians, and then the country where the Leucaethiopians dwell. Beyond these are the Nigritae, nations of Aethiopia, so called from the river Nigris, which has been previously mentioned, the Gymnetes, surnamed Pharusii, and, on the very margin of the ocean, the Perorsi, whom we have already spoken of as lying on the boundaries of Mauritania. After passing all these peoples, there are vast deserts towards the east until we come to the Garamantes, the Augylae, and the Troglodytae; the opinion of those being exceedingly well founded who place two Aethiopias beyond the deserts of Africa, and more particularly that expressed by Homer, who tells us that the Aethiopians are divided into two nations, those of the east and those of the west. The river Nigris has the same characteristics as the Nile; it produces the calamus, the papyrus, and just the same animals, and it rises at the same seasons of the year. Its source is between the Tarraelian Aethiopians and the Oecalicae. Magium, the city of the latter people, has been placed by some writers amid the deserts, and, next to them the Atlantes; then the Aegipani, half men, half beasts, the Blemmyae, the Gamphasantes, the Satyri, and the Himantopodes.

§ 5.8.2  The Atlantes, if we believe what is said, have lost all characteristics of humanity; for there is no mode of distinguishing each other among them by names, and as they look upon the rising and the setting sun, they give utterance to direful imprecations against it, as being deadly to themselves and their lands; nor are they visited with dreams, like the rest of mortals. The Troglodytae make excavations in the earth, which serve them for dwellings; the flesh of serpents is their food; they have no articulate voice, but only utter a kind of squeaking noise; and thus are they utterly destitute of all means of communication by language. The Garamantes have no institution of marriage among them, and live in promiscuous concubinage with their women. The Augylae worship no deities but the gods of the infernal regions. The Gamphasantes, who go naked, and are unacquainted with war, hold no intercourse whatever with strangers. The Blemmyae are said to have no heads, their mouths and eyes being seated in their breasts. The Satyri, beyond their figure, have nothing in common with the manners of the human race, and the form of the Aegipani is such as is commonly represented in paintings. The Himantopodes are a race of people with feet resembling thongs, upon which they move along by nature with a serpentine, crawling kind of gait. The Pharusii, descended from the ancient Persians, are said to have been the companions of Hercules when on his expedition to the Hesperides. Beyond the above, I have met with nothing relative to Africa worthy of mention.

§ 5.9.1  EGYPT AND THEBAIS: Joining on to Africa is Asia, the extent of which, according to Timosthenes, from the Canopic mouth of the Nile to the mouth of the Euxine, is 2639 miles. From the mouth of the Euxine to that of Lake Maeotis is, according to Eratosthenes, 1545 miles. The whole distance to the Tanais, including Egypt, is, according to Artemidorus and Isidorus, 6375 miles. The seas of Egypt, which are several in number, have received their names from those who dwell upon their shores, for which reason they will be mentioned together.

§ 5.9.2  Egypt is the country which lies next to Africa; in the interior it runs in a southerly direction, as far as the territory of the Aethiopians, who lie extended at the back of it. The river Nile, dividing itself, forms on the right and left the boundary of its lower part, which it embraces on every side. By the Canopic mouth of that river it is separated from Africa, and by the Pelusiac from Asia, there being a distance between the two of 170 miles. For this reason it is that some persons have reckoned Egypt among the islands, the Nile so dividing itself as to give a triangular form to the land which it encloses: from which circumstance also many persons have named Egypt the Delta, after that of the Greek letter so called. The distance from the spot where the channel of the river first divides into branches, to the Canopic mouth, is 146 miles, and to the Pelusiac, 166.

§ 5.9.3  The upper part of Egypt, which borders on Aethiopia, is known as Thebais. This district is divided into prefectures of towns, which are generally designated as "Nomes." These are Ombites, Apollopolites, Hermonthites, Thinites, Phaturites, Coptites, Tentyrites, Diopolites, Antaeopolites, Aphroditopolites, and Lycopolites. The district which lies in the vicinity of Pelusium contains the following Nomes, Pharbaethites, Bubastites, Sethroites, and Tanites. The remaining Nomes are those called the Arabian; the Hammonian, which lies on the road to the oracle of Jupiter Hammon; and those known by the names of Oxyrynchites, Leontopolites, Athribites, Cynopolites, Hermopolites, Xoites, Mendesian, Sebennytes, Cabasites, Latopolites, Heliopolites, Prosopites, Panopolites, Busirites, Onuphites, Saites, Ptenethu, Phthemphu, Naucratites, Metelites, Gynaecopolites, Menelaites, — all in the region of Alexandria, besides Mareotis in Libya.

§ 5.9.4  Heracleopolites is a Nome on an island of the Nile, fifty miles in length, upon which there is a city, called the 'City of Hercules.' There are two places called Arsinoites: these and Memphites extend to the apex of the Delta; adjoining to which, on the side of Africa, are the two Nomes of Oasite. Some writers vary in some of these names and substitute for them other Nomes, such as Heroopolites and Crocodilopolites. Between Arsinoites and Memphites, a lake, 250 miles, or, according to what Mucianus says, 450 miles in circumference and fifty paces deep, has been formed by artificial means: after the king by whose orders it was made, it is called by the name of Moeris. The distance from thence to Memphis is nearly sixty-two miles, a place which was formerly the citadel of the kings of Egypt; from thence to the oracle of Hammon it is twelve days' journey. Memphis is fifteen miles from the spot where the river Nile divides into the different channels which we have mentioned as forming the Delta.

§ 5.10.1  THE RIVER NILE: The sources of the Nile are unascertained, and, travelling as it does for an immense distance through deserts and burning sands, it is only known to us by common report, having neither experienced the vicissitudes of warfare, nor been visited by those arms which have so effectually explored all other regions. It rises, so far indeed as King Juba was enabled to ascertain, in a mountain of Lower Mauritania, not far from the ocean; immediately after which it forms a lake of standing water, which bears the name of Nilides. In this lake are found the several kinds of fish known by the names of alabeta, coracinus, and silurus; a crocodile also was brought thence as a proof that this really is the Nile, and was consecrated by Juba himself in the temple of Isis at Caesarea, where it may be seen at the present day. In addition to these facts, it has been observed that the waters of the Nile rise in the same proportion in which the snows and rains of Mauritania increase. Pouring forth from this lake, the river disdains to flow through arid and sandy deserts, and for a distance of several days' journey conceals itself; after which it bursts forth at another lake of greater magnitude in the country of the Massaesyli, a people of Mauritania Caesariensis, and thence casts a glance around, as it were, upon the communities of men in its vicinity, giving proofs of its identity in the same peculiarities of the animals which it produces. It then buries itself once again in the sands of the desert, and remains concealed for a distance of twenty days' journey, till it has reached the confines of Aethiopia. Here, when it has once more become sensible of the presence of man, it again emerges, at the same source, in all probability, to which writers have given the name of Niger, or Black. After this, forming the boundary-line between Africa and Aethiopia, its banks, though not immediately peopled by man, are the resort of numbers of wild beasts and animals of various kinds. Giving birth in its course to dense forests of trees, it travels through the middle of Aethiopia, under the name of Astapus, a word which signifies, in the language of the nations who dwell in those regions, "water issuing from the shades below." Proceeding onwards, it divides innumerable islands in its course, and some of them of such vast magnitude, that although its tide runs with the greatest rapidity, it is not less than five days in passing them. When making the circuit of Meroe, the most famous of these islands, the left branch of the river is called Astobores, or, in other words, "an arm of the water that issues from the shades," while the right arm has the name of Astosapes, which adds to its original signification the meaning of "side." It does not obtain the name of "Nile" until its waters have again met and are united in a single stream; and even then, for some miles both above and below the point of confluence, it has the name of Siris. Homer has given to the whole of this river the name of Egyptus, while other writers again have called it Triton. Every now and then its course is interrupted by islands which intervene, and which only serve as so many incentives to add to the impetuosity of its torrent; and though at last it is hemmed in by mountains on either side, in no part is the tide more rapid and precipitate. Its waters then hastening onwards, it is borne along to the spot in the country of the Aethiopians which is known by the name of "Catadupi;" where, at the last Cataract, the complaint is, not that it flows, but that it rushes, with an immense noise between the rocks that lie in its way: after which it becomes more smooth, the violence of its waters is broken and subdued, and, wearied out as it were by the length of the distance it has travelled, it discharges itself, though by many mouths, into the Egyptian sea. During certain days of the year, however, the volume of its waters is greatly increased, and as it traverses the whole of Egypt, it inundates the earth, and, by so doing, greatly promotes its fertility.

§ 5.10.2  There have been various reasons suggested for this increase of the river. Of these, however, the most probable are, either that its waters are driven back by the Etesian winds, which are blowing at this season of the year from an opposite direction, and that the sea which lies beyond is driven into the mouths of the river; or else that its waters are swollen by the summer rains of Aethiopia, which fall from the clouds conveyed thither by the Etesian winds from other parts of the earth. Timaeus the mathematician has alleged a reason of an occult nature: he says that the source of the river is known by the name of Phiala, and that the stream buries itself in channels underground, where it sends forth vapours generated by the heat among the steaming rocks amid which it conceals itself; but that, during the days of the inundation, in consequence of the sun approaching nearer to the earth, the waters are drawn forth by the influence of his heat, and on being thus exposed to the air, overflow; after which, in order that it may not be utterly dried up, the stream hides itself once more. He says that this takes place at the rising of the Dog-Star, when the sun enters the sign of Leo, and stands in a vertical position over the source of the river, at which time at that spot there is no shadow thrown. Most authors, however, are of opinion, on the contrary, that the river flows in greater volume when the sun takes his departure for the north, which he does when he enters the signs of Cancer and Leo, because its waters then are not dried up to so great an extent; while on the other hand, when he returns towards the south pole and re-enters Capricorn, its waters are absorbed by the heat, and consequently flow in less abundance. If there is any one inclined to be of opinion, with Timaeus, that the waters of the river may be drawn out of the earth by the heat, it will be as well for him to bear in mind the fact, that the absence of shadow is a phaenomenon which lasts continuously in these regions.

§ 5.10.3  The Nile begins to increase at the next new moon after the summer solstice, and rises slowly and gradually as the sun passes through the sign of Cancer; it is at its greatest height while the sun is passing through Leo, and it falls as slowly and gradually as it arose while he is passing through the sign of Virgo. It has totally subsided between its banks, as we learn from Herodotus, on the hundredth day, when the sun has entered Libra. While it is rising it has been pronounced criminal for kings or prefects even to sail upon its waters. The measure of its increase is ascertained by means of wells. Its most desirable height is sixteen cubits; if the waters do not attain that height, the overflow is not universal; but if they exceed that measure, by their slowness in receding they tend to retard the process of cultivation. In the latter case the time for sowing is lost, in consequence of the moisture of the soil; in the former, the ground is so parched that the seed-time comes to no purpose. The country has reason to make careful note of either extreme. When the water rises to only twelve cubits, it experiences the horrors of famine; when it attains thirteen, hunger is still the result; a rise of fourteen cubits is productive of gladness; a rise of fifteen sets all anxieties at rest; while an increase of sixteen is productive of unbounded transports of joy. The greatest increase known, up to the present time, is that of eighteen cubits, which took place in the time of the Emperor Claudius; the smallest rise was that of five, in the year of the battle of Pharsalia, the river by this prodigy testifying its horror, as it were, at the murder of Pompeius Magnus. When the waters have reached their greatest height, the people open the embankments and admit them to the lands. As each district is left by the waters, the business of sowing commences. This is the only river in existence that emits no vapours.

§ 5.10.4  The Nile first enters the Egyptian territory at Syene, on the frontiers of Aethiopia; that is the name of a peninsula a mile in circumference, upon which Castra is situate, on the side of Arabia. Opposite to it are the four islands of Philae, at a distance of 600 miles from the place where the Nile divides into two channels; at which spot, as we have already stated, the Delta, as it is called, begins. This, at least, is the distance, according to Artemidorus, who also informs us that there were in it 250 towns; Juba says, however, that the distance between these places is 400 miles. Aristocreon says that the distance from Elephantis to the sea is 750 miles; Elephantis being an inhabited island four miles below the last Cataract, sixteen beyond Syene, 585 from Alexandria, and the extreme limit of the navigation of Egypt. To such an extent as this have the above-named authors been mistaken! This island is the place of rendezvous for the vessels of the Aethiopians: they are made to fold up, and the people carry them on their shoulders whenever they come to the Cataracts.

§ 5.11.1  THE CITIES OF EGYPT: Egypt, besides its boast of extreme antiquity, asserts that it contained, in the reign of King Amasis, 20,000 inhabited cities: in our day they are still very numerous, though no longer of any particular note. Still however we find the following ones mentioned as of great renown — the City of Apollo; next, that of Leucothea; then Great Diospolis, otherwise Thebes, known to fame for its hundred gates; Coptos, which from its proximity to the Nile, forms its nearest emporium for the merchandise of India and Arabia; then the city of Venus, and then another of city of Jupiter. After this comes Tentyris, below which is Abydus, the royal abode of Memnon, and famous for a temple of Osiris, which is situate in Libya, at a distance from the river of seven miles and a half. Next to it comes Ptolemais, then Panopolis, and then another city of Venus, and, on the Libyan side, Lycon, where the mountains form the boundary of the province of Thebais. On passing these, we come to the city of Mercury, Alabastron, city of Dogs, and city of Hercules already mentioned. We next come to Arsinoe, and Memphis, which has been previously mentioned; between which last and the Nome of Arsinoites, upon the Libyan side, are the towers known as the Pyramids, the Labyrinth on Lake Moeris, in the construction of which no wood was employed, and the town of Crialon. Besides these, there is one place in the interior, on the confines of Arabia, of great celebrity, the City of the Sun.

§ 5.11.2  With the greatest justice, however, we may lavish our praises upon Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great on the shores of the Egyptian Sea, upon the soil of Africa, at twelve miles' distance from the Canopic Mouth and near Lake Mareotis; the spot having previously borne the name of Rhacotes. The plan of this city was designed by the architect Dinochares, who is memorable for the genius which he displayed in many ways. Building the city upon a wide space of ground fifteen miles in circumference, he formed it in the circular shape of a Macedonian chlamys, uneven at the edge, giving it an angular projection on the right and left; while at the same time he devoted one-fifth part of the site to the royal palace.

§ 5.11.3  Lake Mareotis, which lies on the south side of the city, is connected by a canal which joins it to the Canopic mouth, and serves for the purposes of communication with the interior. It has also a great number of islands, and is thirty miles across, and 150 in circumference, according to Claudius Caesar. Other writers say that it is forty schoeni in length, making the schoenum to be thirty stadia; hence, according to them, it is 150 miles in length and the same in breadth.

§ 5.11.4  There are also, in the latter part of the course of the Nile, many towns of considerable celebrity, and more especially those which have given their names to the mouths of the river — I do not mean, all the mouths, for there are no less than twelve of them, as well as four others, which the people call the False Mouths. I allude to the seven more famous ones, the Canopic Mouth, next to Alexandria, those of Bolbitine, Sebennys, Phatnis, Mendes, Tanis, and, last of all, Pelusium. Besides the above there are the towns of Butos, Pharbaethos, Leontopolis, Athribis, the town of Isis, Busiris, Cynopolis, Aphrodites, Sais, and Naucratis, from which last some writers call that the Naucratitic Mouth, which is by others called the Heracleotic, and mention it instead of the Canopic Mouth, which is the next to it.

§ 5.12.1  THE COASTS OF ARABIA, SITUATE ON THE EGYPTIAN SEA: Beyond the Pelusiac Mouth is Arabia, which extends to the Red Sea, and joins the Arabia known by the surname of Happy, so famous for its perfumes and its wealth. This is called Arabia of the Catabanes, the Esbonitae, and the Scenitae; it is remarkable for its sterility, except in the parts where it joins up to Syria, and it has nothing remarkable in it except Mount Casius. The Arabian nations of the Canchlaei join these on the east, and, on the south the Cedrei, both of which peoples are adjoining to the Nabataei. The two gulfs of the Red Sea, where it borders upon Egypt, are called the Heroopolitic and the Aelanitic. Between the two towns of Aelana and Gaza upon our sea there is a distance of 150 miles. Agrippa says that Arsinoe, a town on the Red Sea, is, by way of the desert, 125 miles from Pelusium. How different the characteristics impressed by nature upon two places separated by so small a distance!

§ 5.13.1  SYRIA: Next to these countries Syria occupies the coast, once the greatest of lands, and distinguished by many names; for the part which joins up to Arabia was formerly called Palaestina, Judaea, Coele Syria, and Phoenice. The country in the interior was called Damascena, and that further on and more to the south, Babylonia. The part that lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris was called Mesopotamia, that beyond Taurus Sophene, and that on this side of the same chain Comagene. Beyond Armenia was the country of Adiabene, anciently called Assyria, and at the part where it joins up to Cilicia, it was called Antiochia. Its length, between Cilicia and Arabia, is 470 miles, and its breadth, from Seleucia Pieria to Zeugma, a town on the Euphrates, 175. Those who make a still more minute division of this country will have it that Phoenice is surrounded by Syria, and that first comes the maritime coast of Syria, part of which is Idumaea and Judaea, after that Phoenice, and then Syria. The whole of the tract of sea that lies in front of these shores is called the Phoenician Sea. The Phoenician people enjoy the glory of having been the inventors of letters, and the first discoverers of the sciences of astronomy, navigation, and the art of war.

§ 5.14.1  IDUMAEA, PALAESTINA, AND SAMARIA: On leaving Pelusium we come to the Camp of Chabrias, Mount Casius, the temple of Jupiter Casius, and the tomb of Pompeius Magnus. Ostracine, at a distance of sixty-five miles from Pelusium, is the frontier town of Arabia. After this, at the point where the Sirbonian Lake becomes visible, Idumaea and Palaestina begin. This lake, which some writers have made to be 150 miles in circumference, Herodotus has placed at the foot of Mount Casius; it is now an inconsiderable fen. The towns are Rhinocolura, and, in the interior, Rhaphea, Gaza, and, still more inland, Anthedon: there is also Mount Argaris. Proceeding along the coast we come to the region of Samaria; Ascalon, a free town, Azotus, the two Iamniae, one of them in the interior; and Joppe, a city of the Phoenicians, which existed, it is said, before the deluge of the earth. It is situate on the slope of a hill, and in front of it lies a rock, upon which they point out the vestiges of the chains by which Andromeda was bound. Here the fabulous goddess Ceto is worshipped. Next to this place comes Apollonia, and then the Tower of Strato, otherwise Caesarea, built by King Herod, but now the Colony of Prima Flavia, established by the Emperor Vespasianus: this place is the frontier town of Palaestina, at a distance of 188 miles from the confines of Arabia; after which comes Phoenice. In the interior of Samaria are the towns of Neapolis, formerly called Mamortha, Sebaste, situate on a mountain, and, on a still more lofty one, Gamala.

§ 5.15.1  JUDAEA: Beyond Idumaea and Samaria, Judaea extends far and wide. That part of it which joins up to Syria is called Galilaea, while that which is nearest to Arabia and Egypt bears the name of Peraea. This last is thickly covered with rugged mountains, and is separated from the rest of Judaea by the river Jordanes. The remaining part of Judaea is divided into ten Toparchies, which we will mention in the following order: That of Hiericus, covered with groves of palm-trees, and watered by numerous springs, and those of Emmaus, Lydda, Joppe, Acrabatena, Gophna, Thamna, Bethleptephene, Orina, in which formerly stood Hierosolyma, by far the most famous city, not of Judaea only, but of the East, and Herodium, with a celebrated town of the same name.

§ 5.15.2  The river Jordanes rises from the spring of Panias, which has given its surname to Caesarea, of which we shall have occasion to speak. This is a delightful stream, and, so far as the situation of the localities will allow of, winds along in its course and lingers among the dwellers upon its banks. With the greatest reluctance, as it were, it moves onward towards Asphaltites, a lake of a gloomy and unpropitious nature, by which it is at last swallowed up, and its be praised waters are lost sight of on being mingled with the pestilential streams of the lake. For this reason it is that, as soon as ever the valleys through which it runs afford it the opportunity, it discharges itself into a lake, by many writers known as Genesara, sixteen miles in length and six wide; which is skirted by the pleasant towns of Julias and Hippo on the east, of Tarichea on the south (a name which is by many persons given to the lake itself), and of Tiberias on the west, the hot springs of which are so conducive to the restoration of health.

§ 5.15.3  Asphaltites produces nothing whatever except bitumen, to which indeed it owes its name. The bodies of animals will not sink in its waters, and even those of bulls and camels float there. In length it exceeds 100 miles being at its greatest breadth twenty-five, and at its smallest six. Arabia of the Nomades faces it on the east, and Machaerus on the south, at one time, next to Hierosolyma, the most strongly fortified place in Judaea. On the same side lies Callirrhoe, a warm spring, remarkable for its medicinal qualities, and which, by its name, indicates the celebrity its waters have gained.

§ 5.15.4  Lying on the west of Asphaltites, and sufficiently distant to escape its noxious exhalations, are the Essenes, a people that live apart from the world, and marvellous beyond all others throughout the whole earth, for they have no women among them; to sexual desire they are strangers; money they have none; the palm-trees are their only companions. Day after day, however, their numbers are fully recruited by multitudes of strangers that resort to them, driven thither to adopt their usages by the tempests of fortune, and wearied with the miseries of life. Thus it is, that through thousands of ages, incredible to relate, this people eternally prolongs its existence, without a single birth taking place there; so fruitful a source of population to it is that weariness of life which is felt by others. Below this people was formerly the town of Engadda, second only to Hierosolyma in the fertility of its soil and its groves of palm-trees; now, like it, it is another heap of ashes. Next to it we come to Masada, a fortress on a rock, not far from Lake Asphaltites. Thus much concerning Judaea.

§ 5.16.1  DECAPOLIS. On the side of Syria, joining up to Judaea, is the region of Decapolis, so called from the number of its cities; as to which all writers are not agreed. Most of them, however, agree in speaking of Damascus as one, a place fertilized by the river Chrysorroos, which is drawn off into its meadows and eagerly imbibed; Philadelphia, and Rhaphana, all which cities fall back towards Arabia; Scythopolis (formerly called Nysa by Father Liber, from his nurse having been buried there), its present name being derived from a Scythian colony which was established there; Gadara, before which the river Hieromix flows; Hippo, which has been previously mentioned; Dion, Pella, rich with its waters; Galasa, and Canatha. The Tetrarchies lie between and around these cities, equal, each of them, to a kingdom, and occupying the same rank as so many kingdoms. Their names are, Trachonitis, Panias, in which is Caesarea, with the spring previously mentioned, Abila, Arca, Ampeloessa, and Gabe.

§ 5.17.1  PHOENICE: We must now return to the coast and to Phoenice. There was formerly a town here known as Crocodilon; there is still a river of that name: Dorum and Sycaminon are the names of cities of which the remembrance only exists. We then come to the Promontory of Carmelus, and, upon the mountain, a town of that name, formerly called Acbatana. Next to this are Getta, Jeba, and the river Pacida, or Belus, which throws up on its narrow banks a kind of sand from which glass is made: this river flows from the marshes of Cendebia, at the foot of Mount Carmelus. Close to this river is Ptolemais, formerly called Ace, a colony of Claudius Caesar; and then the town of Ecdippa, and the promontory known as the White Promontory. We next come to the city of Tyre, formerly an island, separated from the mainland by a channel of the sea, of great depth, 700 paces in width, but now joined to it by the works which were thrown up by Alexander when besieging it, the Tyre so famous in ancient times for its offspring, the cities to which it gave birth, Leptis, Utica, and Carthage, — that rival of the Roman sway, that thirsted so eagerly for the conquest of the whole earth; Gades, too, which she founded beyond the limits of the world. At the present day, all her fame is confined to the production of the murex and the purple. Its circumference, including therein Palaetyrus, is nineteen miles, the place itself extending twenty-two stadia. The next towns are Sarepta and Ornithon, and then Sidon, famous for its manufacture of glass, and the parent of Thebes in Boeotia.

§ 5.17.2  In the rear of this spot begins the chain of Libanus, which extends 1500 stadia, as far as Simyra; this district has the name of Coele Syria. Opposite to this chain, and separated from it by an intervening valley, stretches away the range of Antilibanus, which was formerly connected with Libanus by a wall. Beyond it, and lying in the interior, is the region of Decapolis, and, with it, the Tetrarchies already mentioned, and the whole expanse of Palaestina. On the coast, again, and lying beneath Libanus, is the river Magoras, the colony of Berytus, which bears the name of Felix Julia, the town of Leontos, the river Lycos, Palaebyblos, the river Adonis, and the towns of Byblos, Botrys, Gigarta, Trieris, Calamos, Tripolis, inhabited by the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Aradians; Orthosia, the river Eleutheros the towns of Simyra and Marathos; and opposite, Arados, a town seven stadia long, on an island, distant 200 paces from the mainland. After passing through the country in which the before-named mountains end and the plains that lie between, Mount Bargylus is seen to rise.

§ 5.18.1  SYRIA ANTIOCHIA: Here Phoenicia ends, and Syria recommences. The towns are, Carne, Balanea, Paltos, and Gabale; then the promontory upon which is situate the free town of Laodicea; and then Diospolis, Heraclea, Charadrus, and Posidium.

§ 5.18.2  We then come to the Promontory of Syria Antiochia. In the interior is the free city of Antiochia itself, surnamed Epidaphnes, and divided by the river Orontes. On the promontory is Seleucia Pieria, a free city. Beyond it lies Mount Casius, a different one from the mountain of the same name which we have already mentioned. The height of this mountain is so vast, that, at the fourth watch of the night, you can see from it, in the midst of the darkness, the sun rising on the east; and thus, by merely turning round, we may at one and the same time behold both day and night. The winding road which leads to its summit is nineteen miles in length, its perpendicular height four. Upon this coast there is the river Orontes, which takes its rise near Heliopolis, between the range of Libanus and Antilibanus. The towns are, Rhosos, and, behind it, the Gates of Syria, lying in the space between the chain of the Rhosian mountains and that of Taurus. On the coast there is the town of Myriandros, and Mount Amanus, upon which is the town of Bomitae. This mountain separates Cilicia from Syria.

§ 5.19.1  THE REMAINING PARTS OF SYRIA: We must now speak of the interior of Syria. Coele Syria has the town of Apamea, divided by the river Marsyas from the Tetrarchy of the Nazerini; Bambyx, the other name of which is Hierapolis, but by the Syrians called Mabog, (here the monster Atargatis, called Derceto by the Greeks, is worshipped); and the place called Chalcis on the Belus, from which the region of Chalcidene, the most fertile part of Syria, takes its name. We here find also Cyrrhestice, with Cyrrhum, the Gazatae, the Gindareni, the Gabeni, the two Tetrarchies called Granucomatae, the Emeseni, the Hylatae, the nation of the Ituraei, and a branch of them, the people called the Baetarreni; the Mariamnitani, the Tetrarchy known as Mammisea, Paradisus, Pagrae, the Pinelitae, two cities called Seleucia, besides the one already mentioned, the one Seleucia on the Euphrates, and the other Seleucia on the Belus, and the Tardytenses. The remaining part of Syria (except those parts which will be spoken of in conjunction with the Euphrates) contains the Arethusii, the Beroeenses, and the Epiphanaeenses; and on the east, the Laodiceni, who are called the Laodiceni on the Libanus, the Leucadii, and the Larissaei, besides seventeen other Tetrarchies, divided into kingdoms and bearing barbarous names.

§ 5.20.1  THE EUPHRATES: This place, too, will be the most appropriate one for making some mention of the Euphrates. This river rises in Caranitis, a praefecture of Greater Armenia, according to the statement of those who have approached the nearest to its source. Domitius Corbulo says, that it rises in Mount Aba; Licinius Mucianus, at the foot of a mountain which he calls Capotes, twelve miles above Zimara, and that at its source it has the name of Pyxurates. It first flows past Derxene, and then Anaitica, shutting out the regions of Armenia from Cappadocia. Dascusa is distant from Zimara seventy-five miles; from this spot it is navigable as far as Sartona, a distance of fifty miles, thence to Melitene, in Cappadocia, distant seventy-four miles, and thence to Elegia, in Armenia, distant ten miles; receiving in its course the rivers Lycus, Arsanias, and Arsanus. At Elegia it meets the range of Mount Taurus, but no effectual resistance is offered to its course, although the chain is here twelve miles in width. At its passage between the mountains, the river bears the name of Omma; but afterwards, when it has passed through, it receives that of Euphrates. Beyond this spot it is full of rocks, and runs with an impetuous tide. It then divides that part of Arabia which is called the country of the Orei, on the left, by a channel three schoeni in width, from the territory of the Commageni on the right, and it admits of a bridge being thrown across it, even where it forces a passage through the range of Taurus. At Claudiopolis, in Cappadocia, it takes an easterly direction; and here, for the first time in this contest, Taurus turns it out of its course; though conquered before, and rent asunder by its channel, the mountain-chain now gains the victory in another way, and, breaking its career, compels it to take a southerly direction. Thus is this warfare of nature equally waged, the river proceeding onward to the destination which it intends to reach, and the mountains forbidding it to proceed by the path which it originally intended. After passing the Cataracts, the river again becomes navigable; and, at a distance of forty miles from thence, is Samosata, the capital of Commagene.

§ 5.21.1  SYRIA UPON THE EUPHRATES. Arabia, above mentioned, has the cities of Edessa, formerly called Antiochia, and, from the name of its fountain, Callirhoe, and Carrhae, memorable for the defeat of Crassus there. Adjoining to this is the praefecture of Mesopotamia, which derives its origin from the Assyrians, and in which are the towns of Anthemusia and Nicephorium; after which come the Arabians, known by the name of Praetavi, with Singara for their capital. Below Samosata, on the side of Syria, the river Marsyas flows into the Euphrates. At Cingilla ends the territory of Commagene, and the state of the Immei begins. The cities which are here washed by the river are those of Epiphania and Antiochia, generally known as Epiphania and Antiochia on the Euphrates; also Zeugma, seventy-two miles distant from Samosata, famous for the passage there across the Euphrates. Opposite to it is Apamia, which Seleucus, the founder of both cities, united by a bridge. The people who join up to Mesopotamia are called the Rhoali. Other towns in Syria are those of Europus, and what was formerly Thapsacus, now Amphipolis. We then come to the Arabian Scenitae. The Euphrates then proceeds in its course till it reaches the place called Ura, at which, taking a turn to the east, it leaves the Syrian Deserts of Palmyra, which extend as far as the city of Petra and the regions of Arabia Felix.

§ 5.21.2  Palmyra is a city famous for the beauty of its site, the riches of its soil, and the delicious quality and abundance of its water. Its fields are surrounded by sands on every side, and are thus separated, as it were, by nature from the rest of the world. Though placed between the two great empires of Rome and Parthia, it still maintains its independence; never failing, at the very first moment that a rupture between them is threatened, to attract the careful attention of both. It is distant 337 miles from Seleucia of the Parthians, generally known as Seleucia on the Tigris, 203 from the nearest part of the Syrian coast, and twenty-seven less from Damascus.

§ 5.21.3  Below the deserts of Palmyra is the region of Stelendene, and Hierapolis, Beroea, and Chalcis, already mentioned. Beyond Palmyra, Emesa takes to itself a portion of these deserts; also Elatium, nearer to Petra by one-half than Damascus. At no great distance from Sura is Philiscum, a town of the Parthians, on the Euphrates. From this place it is ten days' sail to Seleucia, and nearly as many to Babylon. At a distance of 594 miles beyond Zeugma, near the village of Massice, the Euphrates divides into two channels, the left one of which runs through Mesopotamia, past Seleucia, and falls into the Tigris as it flows around that city. Its channel on the right runs towards Babylon, the former capital of Chaldaea, and flows through the middle of it; and then through another city, the name of which is Otris, after which it becomes lost in the marshes. Like the Nile, this river increases at stated times, and at much about the same period. When the sun has reached the twentieth degree of Cancer, it inundates Mesopotamia; and, after he has passed through Leo and entered Virgo, its waters begin to subside. By the time the sun has entered the twenty-ninth degree of Virgo, the river has fully regained its usual height.

§ 5.22.1  CILICIA AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS: But let us now return to the coast of Syria, joining up to which is Cilicia. We here find the river Diaphanes, Mount Crocodilus, the Gates of Mount Amanus, the rivers Androcus, Pinarus, and Lycus, the Gulf of Issos, and the town of that name; then Alexandria, the river Chlorus, the free town of Aegae, the river Pyramus, the Gates of Cilicia, the towns of Mallos and Magarsos, and, in the interior, Tarsus. We then come to the Aleian Plains, the town of Cassipolis, Mopsos, a free town on the river Pyramus, Thynos, Zephyrium, and Anchiale. Next to these are the rivers Saros and Cydnus, the latter of which, at some distance from the sea, runs through the free city of Tarsus, the region of Celenderitis with a town of similar name, the place where Nymphaion stood, Soli of Cilicia, now called Pompeiopolis, Adana, Cibyra, Pinare, Pedalie, Ale, Selinus, Arsinoe, Iotape, Doron, and, near the sea, Corycus, there being a town, port, and cave all of the same name. Passing these, we come to the river Calycadnus, the Promontory of Sarpedon, the towns of Holmoe and Myle, and the Promontory and town of Venus, at a short distance from the island of Cyprus. On the mainland there are the towns of Myanda, Anemurium, and Coracesium, and the river Melas, the ancient boundary of Cilicia. In the interior the places more especially worthy of mention are Anazarbus, now called Caesarea, Augusta, Castabala, Epiphania, formerly called Oeniandos, Eleusa, Iconium, Seleucia upon the river Calycadnus, surnamed Tracheotis, a city removed from the sea-shore, where it had the name of Holmia. Besides those already mentioned, there are in the interior the rivers Liparis, Bombos, Paradisus, and Mount Imbarus.

§ 5.23.1  ISAURIA AND THE HOMONADES: All the geographers have mentioned Pamphylia as joining up to Cilicia, without taking any notice of the people of Isauria. Its cities are, in the interior, Isaura, Clibanus, and Lalasis; it runs down towards the sea by the side of Anemurium already mentioned. In a similar manner also, all who have treated of this subject have been ignorant of the existence of the nation of the Homonades bordering upon Isauria, and their town of Homona in the interior. There are forty-four other fortresses, which lie concealed amid rugged crags and valleys.

§ 5.24.1  PISIDIA. The Pisidae, formerly called the Solymi, occupy the higher parts of the mountains. In their country there is the colony of Caesarea, also called Antiochia, and the towns of Oroanda and Sagalessos.

§ 5.25.1  LYCAONIA. These people are bounded by Lycaonia, which belongs to the jurisdiction of the province of Asia, to which also resort the people of Philomelium, Tymbrium, Leucolithium, Pelta, and Tyrium. To this jurisdiction is also added a Tetrarchy of Lycaonia in that part which joins up to Galatia, containing fourteen states, with the famous city of Iconium. In Lycaonia itself the most noted places are Thebasa on Taurus, and Hyde, on the confines of Galatia and Cappadocia. On the [western] side of Lycaonia, and above Pamphylia, come the Milyae, a people descended from the Thracians; their city is Arycanda.

§ 5.26.1  PAMPHYLIA: The former name of Pamphylia was Mopsopia. The Pamphylian Sea joins up to that of Cilicia. The towns of Pamphylia are Side, Aspendus, situate on the side of a mountain, Pletenissum, and Perga. There is also the Promontory of Leucolla, the mountain of Sardemisus, and the rivers Eurymedon, which flows past Aspendus, and Catarractes, near to which is Lyrnesus: also the towns of Olbia, and Phaselis, the last on this coast.

§ 5.27.1  MOUNT TAURUS: Adjoining to Pamphylia is the Sea of Lycia and the country of Lycia itself, where the chain of Taurus, coming from the eastern shores, terminates the vast Gulf by the Promontory of Chelidonium. Of immense extent, and separating nations innumerable, after taking its first rise at the Indian Sea, it branches off to the north on the right-hand side, and on the left towards the south. Then taking a direction towards the west, it would cut through the middle of Asia, were it not that the seas check it in its triumphant career along the land. It accordingly strikes off in a northerly direction, and forming an arc, occupies an immense tract of country, nature, designedly as it were, every now and then throwing seas in the way to oppose its career; here the Sea of Phoenicia, there the Sea of Pontus, in this direction the Caspian and Hyrcanian, and then, opposite to them, the Lake Maeotis. Although somewhat curtailed by these obstacles, it still winds along between them, and makes its way even amidst these barriers; and victorious after all, it then escapes with its sinuous course to the kindred chain of the Riphaean mountains. Numerous are the names which it bears, as it is continuously designated by new ones throughout the whole of its course. In the first part of its career it has the name of Imaus, after which it is known successively by the names of Emodos, Paropanisus, Circius, Cambades, Paryadres, Choatras, Oreges, Oroandes, Niphates, Taurus, and, where it even out-tops itself, Caucasus. Where it throws forth its arms as though every now and then it would attempt to invade the sea, it bears the names of Sarpedon, Coracesius, Cragus, and then again Taurus. Where also it opens and makes a passage to admit mankind, it still claims the credit of an unbroken continuity by giving the name of "Gates" to these passes, which in one place are called the "Gates of Armenia," in another the "Gates of the Caspian," and in another the "Gates of Cilicia." In addition to this, when it has been cut short in its onward career, it retires to a distance from the seas, and covers itself on the one side and the other with the names of numerous nations, being called, on the right-hand side the Hyrcanian and the Caspian, and on the left the Parvadrian, the Moschian, the Amazonian, the Coraxican, and the Scythian chain. Among the Greeks it bears the one general name of Ceraunian.

§ 5.28.1  LYCIA: In Lycia, after leaving its promontory, we come to the town of Simena, Mount Chimaera, which sends forth flames by night, and the city of Hephaestium, the heights above which are also frequently on fire. Here too formerly stood the city of Olympus; now we find the mountain places known as Gagae, Corydalla, and Rhodiopolis. Near the sea is Limyra with a river of like name, into which the Arycandus flows, Mount Masycites, the state of Andriaca, Myra, the towns of Aperrae and Antiphellos, formerly called Habessus, and in a corner Phellos, after which comes Pyrrha, and then the city of Xanthus, fifteen miles from the sea, as also a river known by the same name. We then come to Patara, formerly Pataros, and Sidyma, situate on a mountain. Next comes the Promontory of Cragus, and beyond it a gulf, equal to the one that comes before it; upon it are Pinara, and Telmessus, the frontier town of Lycia.

§ 5.28.2  Lycia formerly contained seventy towns, now it has but thirty-six. Of these, the most celebrated, besides those already mentioned, are Canas, Candyba, so celebrated for the Oenian/Eunian Grove, Podalia, Choma, past which the river Aedesa flows, Cyaneae, Ascandia, [Lisa? ], Amelas, Noscopium, Tlos, and Telandrus. It includes also in the interior the district of Cabalia, the three cities of which are Oenianda, Balbura, and Bubon.

§ 5.28.3  On passing Telmessus we come to the Asiatic or Carpathian Sea, and the district which is properly called Asia. Agrippa has divided this region into two parts; one of which he has bounded on the east by Phrygia and Lycaonia, on the west by the Aegean Sea, on the south by the Egyptian Sea, and on the north by Paphlagonia, making its length to be 473 miles and its breadth 320. The other part he has bounded by the Lesser Armenia on the east, Phrygia, Lycaonia, and Pamphylia on the west, the province of Pontus on the north, and the Sea of Pamphylia on the south, making it 575 miles in length and 325 in breadth.

§ 5.29.1  CARIA. Upon the adjoining coast is Caria, then Ionia, and beyond it Aeolis. Caria surrounds Doris, which lies in the middle, and runs down on both sides of it to the sea. In it is the Promontory of Pedalium, the river Glaucus, into which the Telmedium discharges itself, the towns of Daedala, Crya, peopled by fugitives, the river Axon, and the town of Calynda.

§ 5.29.2  The river Indus, which rises in the mountains of the Cibyratae, receives sixty-five rivers which are constantly flowing, besides upwards of 100 mountain torrents. Here is the free town of Caunos, then the town of Pyrnos, the port of Cressa, from which the island of Rhodes is distant twenty miles; the place where Loryma formerly stood, the towns of Tisanusa, Paridion, and Larymna, the Gulf of Thymnias, the Promontory of Aphrodisias, the town of Hyda, the Gulf of Schoenus, and the district of Bubasus. There was formerly the town of Acanthus here, another name of which was Dulopolis. We then come to Cnidos, a free town, situate on a promontory, Triopia, and after that the towns of Pegusa and Stadia.

§ 5.29.3  At this last town Doris begins; but, first, it may be as well to describe the districts that lie to the back of Caria and the several jurisdictions in the interior. The first of these is called Cibyratica; Cibyra being a town of Phrygia. Twenty-five states resort to it for legal purposes, together with the most famous city of Laodicea.

§ 5.29.4  This place at first bore the name of Diospolis, and after that of Rhoas, and is situate on the river Lycus, the Asopus and the Caprus washing its sides. The other people belonging to the same jurisdiction, whom it may be not amiss to mention, are the Hydrelitae, the Themisones, and the Hierapolitae. The second jurisdiction receives its title from Synnas; to it resort the Lycaones, the Appiani, the Eucarpeni, the Dorylaei, the Midaei, the Julienses, and fifteen other peoples of no note. The third jurisdiction has its seat at Apamea, formerly called Celaenae, and after that Cibotos. This place is situate at the foot of Mount Signia, the Marsyas, the Obrima, and the Orga, rivers which fall into the Maeander, flowing past it. Here the Marsyas, rising from the earth, again makes its appearance, but soon after buries itself once more at Aulocreneae, the spot where Marsyas had the musical contest with Apollo as to superiority of skill in playing on the flute. Aulocrenae is the name given to a valley which lies ten miles on the road towards Phrygia from Apamea. As belonging to this jurisdiction, it may be as well to mention the Metropolitae, the Dionysopolitae, the Euphorbeni, the Aemonenses, the Pelteni, and the Silbiani, besides nine other nations of no note.

§ 5.29.5  Upon the Gulf of Doris we have Leucopolis, Hamaxitos, Eleus, and Euthene. We then come to Pitaium, Eutane, and Halicarnassus, towns of Caria. To the jurisdiction of this last place six towns were appended by Alexander the Great, Theangela, Sibde, Medmassa, Uranium [ms. Euralium], Pedasus, and Telmissus. [Halicarnassus] lies between two gulfs, those of Ceramus and Iasus. We then come to Myndos, and the former site of Palaeomyndos; also Nariandos, Neapolis, Caryanda, the free town of Termera, Bargyla, and the town of Iasus, from which the Iasian Gulf takes its name.

§ 5.29.6  Caria is especially distinguished for the fame of its places in the interior; for here are Mylasa, a free town, and that of Antiochia, on the site of the former towns of Symmaethos and Cranaos: it is now surrounded by the rivers Maeander and Morsynos [Orsinus]. In this district also was formerly Maeandropolis; we find also Eumenia, situate on the river Cludros, the river Glaucus, the town of Lysias and Orthosa, the district of Berecynthus, Nysa, and Tralles, also called Euanthia, Seleucia, and Antiochia: it is washed by the river Eudon, while the Thebais runs through it. Some authors say that a nation of Pygmies formerly dwelt here. Besides the preceding towns, there are Thydonos, Pyrrha, Eurome, Heraclea, Amyzon, the free town of Alabanda, which has given name to that jurisdiction, the free town of Stratonicea, Hynidos, Ceramus, Troezene, and Phorontis. At a greater distance, but resorting to the same place of jurisdiction, are the Orthronienses, the Alindienses or Hippini, the Xystiani, the Hydissenses, the Apolloniatae, the Trapezopolitae, and the Aphrodisienses, a free people. Besides the above, there are the towns of Coscinus, and Harpasa, situate on the river Harpasus, which also passed the town of Trallicon when it was in existence.