Latin Texts & Translations

At the Silarus begins the third region of Italy, consisting of the territory of Lucania and Bruttium; here too there have been no few changes of the population. These districts

have been possessed by the Pelasgi, the Œnotrii, the Itali, the Morgetes, the Siculi, and more especially by people who emigrated from Greece ^[Note], and, last of all, by the Leucani, a people sprung from the Samnites, who took possession under the command of Lucius. We find here the town of Pæstum ^[Note], which received from the Greeks the name of Posidonia, the Gulf of Pæstum ^[Note], the town of Elea, now known as Velia ^[Note], and the Promontory of Palinurum ^[Note], a point at which the land falls inwards and forms a bay ^[Note], the distance across which to the pillar ^[Note] of Rhegium is 100 miles. Next after Palinurum comes the river Melpes ^[Note], then the town of Buxentum ^[Note], called in [Magna] Græcia Pyxus, and the river Laus; there was formerly a town ^[Note] also of the same name.

At this spot begins the coast of Bruttium, and we come to the town of Blanda ^[Note], the river Batum ^[Note], Parthenius, a port of the Phocians, the bay of Vibo ^[Note], the place ^[Note] where

Clampetia formerly stood, the town of Temsa ^[Note], called Temese by the Greeks, and Terina founded by the people of Crotona ^[Note], with the extensive Gulf of Terina; more inland, the town of Consentia ^[Note]. Situate upon a peninsula ^[Note] is the river Acheron ^[Note], from which the people of Acherontia derive the name of their town; then Hippo, now called Vibo Valentia, the Port of Hercules ^[Note], the river Metaurus ^[Note], the town of Tauroentum ^[Note], the Port of Orestes, and Medma ^[Note]. Next, the town of Scyllæum ^[Note], the river Cratæis ^[Note], the mother of Scylla it is said; then the Pillar of Rhegium, the Straits of Sicily, and the two promontories which face each other, Cænys ^[Note] on the Italian, and Pelorus ^[Note] 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 ^[Note], after which begins Sila ^[Note], a forest of the Apennines, and then the pro-

montory of Leucopetra ^[Note], at a distance of fifteen miles; after which come the Locri ^[Note], who take their surname from the promontory of Zephyrium ^[Note], being distant from the river Silarus 303 miles.

At this spot ends the first ^[Note] 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 ^[Note] 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 ^[Note], by others the Tyrrhenian, while many of our people call it the Lower Sea. Beyond Sicily, as far as the country of the Salentini, it is styled by Polybius the Ausonian Sea. Eratosthenes however gives to the whole expanse that lies between the inlet of the ocean and the island of Sardinia, the name of the Sardoan Sea; thence to Sicily, the Tyrrhenian; thence to Crete, the Sicilian; and beyond that island, the Cretan Sea.