| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 3.10 | Plin. Nat. 3.11 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 3.12 |
The first islands that we meet with in all these seas are
the two to which the Greeks have given the name of Pityussæ [Note], from the pine-tree [Note], which they produce. These islands now bear the name of Ebusus, and form a federate state. They are separated by a narrow strait [Note] of the sea, and are forty-six [Note] miles in extent. They are distant from Dianium [Note] 700 stadia, Dianium being by land the same distance [Note] from New Carthage. At the same distance [Note] from the Pityussæ, lie, in the open sea, the two Baleares, and, over against the river Sucro [Note], Colubraria [Note]. The Baleares [Note], so formidable in war with their slingers [Note], have received from the Greeks the name of Gymnasiæ.
The larger island is 100 [Note] miles in length, and 475 in circumference. It has the following towns; Palma [Note] and Pollentia [Note], enjoying the rights of Roman citizens, Cinium [Note] 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 [Note] in circumference; it contains the states of Jamnon [Note], Sanisera, and Magon [Note].
In the open sea, at twelve miles' distance from the larger island, is Capraria [Note] with its treacherous coast, so notorious for its numerous shipwrecks; and, opposite to the city of Palma, are the islands known as the Mænariæ [Note], Tiquadra [Note], and Little Hannibalis [Note].
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 [Note]. Ebusus too produces no [Note] 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 [Note], and near it the island which is known as Blascon [Note], with the three Stœchades, so called by their neighbours the Massilians [Note], on account of the regular order in which they are placed; their respective names are Prote [Note], Mese [Note], also
called Pomponiana, and Hypæa [Note]. After these come Sturium [Note], Phœnice, Phila, Lero, and, opposite to Antipolis [Note], Lerina [Note], where there is a remembrance of a town called Vergoanum having once existed.
| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 3.10 | Plin. Nat. 3.11 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 3.12 |
