Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

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  CHAP. 21. (17.)

  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 Vibî 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 Prætoria 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 “Epore- diæ” — Vercellæ, the town of the Libici, derived its origin from the Salluvii, and Novaria, founded by the Vertacoma- cori, is at the present day a district of the Vocontii, and not, as Cato supposes, of the Ligurians; of whom two nations, called the Lævi 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 Me- diolanum.

  From Cato we also learn that Comum, Bergomum, and Licinîforum, 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.

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  CHAP. 22. (18.)

  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 Alti- num, 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 lapydes, 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 Æmona and the Alps, from that circumstance derives its name.

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  CHAP. 23. (19.)

  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.”

  The towns of Istria with the rights of Roman citizens are Ægida, 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 Volcæ in the vicinity of Massilia. There are also the towns of the Fertini, the Tridentini, and the Beruenses, belonging to the Rhæti, Verona, belonging to the Rhæti and the Euganei, and Ju- lienses 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 Cælina 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 situate at the twelfth mile-stone from Aquileia.

  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.

  Cælius 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.

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  CHAP. 24. (20.)

  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 Rhæti and the Vindelici, who are all divided into a multitude of states. It is supposed that the Rhæti are the descendants of the Tuscans, who were expelled by the Gauls and migrated hither under the command of their chief, whose name was Rhætus. 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 Stœni. The Vennonenses and the Sarunetes, peoples of the Rhæti, 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 lhodanus, 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.

  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 Cæsar — The son of Cæsar now deified, Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, and emperor fourteen years, in the seventeenth year of his holding the tribuni- tial 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 sub- dued were: the Triumpilini, the Camuni, the Ve- nostes, 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 Ru- gusci, 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 Bri- giani, the Sogiontii, the Brodiontii, the Nemaloni, the Edenates, the Esubiani, the Veamini, the Gal- litæ, the Triulatti, the Ecdini, the Vergunni, the Eguituri, the Nementuri, the Oratelli, the Nerusi, the Velauni, and the Suetri.”

  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.

  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. Æmilius 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.

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  CHAP. 25. (21.)

  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 Encheleæ, the Buni, and the people whom Callimachus calls the Peucetiæ, 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 Burnistæ, and the Olbonenses. Belonging to the same jurisdiction there are, in the enjoyment of Italian rights, the Alutæ, 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 Curicttæ.

  Besides these, there are on the coast, after leaving Nesactium, Alvona, Flanona, Tarsatica, Senia, Lopsica, Ortopula, Vegium, Argyruntum, Corinium, Ænona, 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.

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  CHAP. 26. (22.)

  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 ladera. To this place resort for legal purposes, having the laws dispensed according to their divisions into decuries or tithings, the Dahmatæ, forming 342 decuries, the Deurici 22, the Ditiones 239, the Mazæi 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 Issæi, 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 Dæsitiates with 103, the Docleatæ with 33, the Deretini with 14, the Deremistæ with 30, the Dindari with 33, the Glinditiones with 44, the Melcomani with 24, the Naresii with 102, the Scirtarii with 72, the Siculotæ with 24, and the Vardæi, once the scourges of Italy, with no more than 20 decuries. In addition to these, this district was possessed by the Ozuæi, the Partheni, the Hemasini, the Arthitæ, and the Armistæ. 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 remem- brance is fast fading away. For in this region there were formerly the Labeatæ, the Enderini, the Sasæi, the Grabæi, properly called Illyrii, the Taulantii, and the Pyrei. The Promontory of Nymphæum on the sea-coast still retains its name; and there is Lissum, a town enjoying the rights of Roman citizens, at a distance from Epidaurum of 100 miles.

  (23.) At Lissum begins the province of Macedonia, the nations of the Parthini, and behind them the Dassaretæ. 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 Aöus, by’ some called Æas, and Apollonia, formerly a colony of the Corinthians, at a distance of four miles from the sea, in the vicinity of which the celebrated Nymphæum 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 Promontory of Salentinum in Italy eighty miles.

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  CHAP. 27. (24.)

  THE NORICI.

  In the rear of the Carni and the Iapydes, along the course of the great river Ister, the Rhæti 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.

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sp; CHAP. 28. (25.)

  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 Æmona 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.