Latin Texts & Translations

The eighth region is bounded by Ariminum, the Padus, and the Apennines. Upon the coast we have the river Crustumium ^[Note], and the colony of Ariminum ^[Note], with the rivers Ariminus and Aprusa. Next comes the river Rubico ^[Note], once the boundary of Italy, and after it the Sapis ^[Note], the Vitis, and the Anemo, and then, Ravenna, a town of the Sabines ^[Note], with the river Bedesis, 105 miles from Ancona; and, not far from the sea, Butrium ^[Note], a town of the Umbri. In the interior there are the colonies of Bononia ^[Note], formerly called Felsina, when

it was the chief place of Etruria ^[Note], Brixillum ^[Note], Mutina ^[Note], Parma ^[Note], and Placentia ^[Note]. There are also the towns of Cæsena ^[Note], Claterna, Forum Clodî ^[Note], Forum Livî, Forum Popilî, Forum Truentinorum ^[Note], Forum Cornelî, Forum Licinî, the Faventini ^[Note], the Fidentini ^[Note], the Otesini, the Padinates ^[Note], the Regi-

enses ^[Note], who take their name from Lepidus, the Solonates ^[Note], the Saltus Galliani ^[Note], surnamed Aquinates, the Tannetani ^[Note], the Veliates ^[Note], who were anciently surnamed Regiates, and the Urbanates ^[Note]. In this district the Boii ^[Note] have disappeared, of whom there were 112 tribes according to Cato; as also the Senones, who captured Rome.

(16.) The Padus ^[Note] 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 ^[Note], 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 Phaëton ^[Note]. 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.

Of these the best known are the following—flowing from the range of the Apennines, the Jactus, the Tanarus ^[Note], the Trebia which passes Placentia, the Tarus, the Incia, the Gabellus, the Scultenna, and the Rhenus: from the chain of the Alps, the Stura ^[Note], the Orgus, the two Duriæ, 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 ^[Note], 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.

By the Augustan Canal the Padus is carried to Ravenna, at which place it is called the Padusa ^[Note], having formerly borne the name of Messanicus. The nearest mouth to this spot

forms the extensive port known as that of Vatrenus, where Claudius Cæsar ^[Note], 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 ^[Note], which flows from the territory of Forum Corneli, swells the waters of the Padus.

The next mouth to this is that of Caprasia ^[Note], then that of Sagis, and then Volane, formerly called Olane; all of which are situate upon the Flavian Canal ^[Note], 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 ^[Note], a city of the Tuscans, from which place the sea was formerly called the Atriatic, though now the Adriatic.

We next come to the overflowing mouths of Carbonaria, and the Fosses of Philistina ^[Note], by some called Tarta-

rus ^[Note], 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 ^[Note], flowing from the territory of the Patavini. A portion of them also forms the adjoining port of Brundulum ^[Note], in the same manner as Edron ^[Note] 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 Scepsos, 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 ^[Note], of which the ancient name was Bodincomagum, and where the river begins to be of greater depth than in other parts.