| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 3.14 | Plin. Nat. 3.15 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 3.16 |
At Locri begins the fore-part of Italy, called Magna Græcia, whose coast falls back in three bays [Note] 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 [Note], and the ruins of the town of Caulon, Mystiæ [Note], Consilinum Castrum [Note], Cocinthum [Note], in the opinion of some, the longest headland of Italy, and then the Gulf of Scylacium [Note], and Scylacium [Note] itself,
which was called by the Athenians, when they founded it, Scylletium. This part of Italy is nearly a peninsula, in consequence of the Gulf of Terinæum [Note] running up into it on the other side; in it there is a harbour called Castra Hannibalis [Note]: 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 [Note] 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 [Note], the Crotalus, the Semirus, the Arocas, and the Targines. In the interior is the town of Petilia [Note], and there are besides, Mount Clibanus [Note], the promontory of Lacinium, in front of which lies the island of Dioscoron [Note], ten miles from the main-land, and another called the Isle of Calypso, which Homer is supposed to refer to under the name of Ogygia; as also the islands of Tiris, Eranusa, and Meloessa. According to Agrippa, the promontory of Lacinium [Note] is seventy miles from Caulon.
(11.) 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 [Note] seventy-five miles. We first come to the town of Croton [Note], and then the river
Neæthus [Note], and the town of Thurii [Note], situate between the two rivers Crathis and Sybaris, upon the latter of which there was once a city [Note] of the same name. In a similar manner Heraclia [Note], sometimes called Siris, lies between the river of that name and the Aciris. We next come to the rivers Acalandrus and Casuentum [Note], and the town of Metapontum [Note], with which the third region of Italy terminates. In the interior of Bruttium, the Aprustani [Note] are the only people; but in Lucania we find the Atinates, the Bantini, the Eburini [Note], the Grumentini, the Potentini, the Sontini [Note], the Sirini, the Tergilani, the Ursentini, and the Volcentani [Note], whom the Numestrani join. Besides these, we learn from Cato [Note] that Thebes in Lucania has disappeared, and Theopompus informs us that there was formerly a city of the Lucani called Pandosia [Note], at which Alexander, the king of Epirus, died.
| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 3.14 | Plin. Nat. 3.15 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 3.16 |
