| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
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Bætica, so called from the river which divides it in the middle, excels all the other provinces in the richness of its cultivation and the peculiar fertility and beauty of its vegetation.
It consists of four jurisdictions, those of Gades [Note], of Corduba [Note], of Astigi [Note], and of Hispali [Note]. The total number of its towns is 175; of these nine are colonies [Note], and eight muni-
cipal towns [Note]; twenty-nine have been long since presented with the old Latin rights [Note]; six are free towns [Note], three federate [Note], and 120 tributary.
In this district, the things that more especially deserve notice, or are more easily explained in the Latin tongue, are the following, beginning at the river Ana, along the line of the seashore; the town of Onoba, surnamed Æstuaria [Note]; the rivers Luxia and Urium [Note], flowing through this territory between the Ana and the Bætis; the Marian [Note] Mountains; the river Bætis; the coast of Corum [Note], with its winding bay; opposite
to which is Gades, of which we shall have occasion to speak among the islands [Note]. Next comes the Promontory of Juno [Note], and the port of Bæsippo [Note]; the towns of Bœlo [Note] and Mellaria [Note], at which latter begin the Straits of the Atlantic; Carteia [Note], called by the Greeks Tartessos [Note]; and the mountain of Calpe.
Along the coast of the inland sea [Note] is the town of Barbesula [Note] with its river; also Salduba [Note]; the town of Suel [Note]; and then Malaca [Note], with its river, one of the federate towns. Next to this comes Mænoba [Note], with its river; then Sexifirmum [Note], surnamed
Julium; Selambina [Note]; Abdera [Note]; and Murci [Note], which is at the boundary of Bætica. M. Agrippa supposed that all this coast was peopled by colonists of Punic origin. Beyond the Anas, and facing the Atlantic, is the country of the Bastuli [Note] and the Turditani. M. Varro informs us, that the Iberians, the Persians, the Phœnicians, the Celts, and the Carthaginians spread themselves over the whole of Spain; that the name "Lusitania" is derived from the games (lusus) of Father Bacchus, or the fury (lyssa [Note]) of his frantic attendants, and that Pan [Note] was the governor of the whole of it. But the traditions respecting Hercules [Note] and Pyrene, as well as Saturn, I conceive to be fabulous in the highest degree.
The Bætis does not rise, as some writers have asserted, near the town of Mentisa [Note], in the province of Tarraco, but in the Tugiensian Forest [Note]; and near it rises the river Tader [Note], which waters the territory of Carthage [Note]. At Ilorcum [Note] it
turns away from the Funeral Pile [Note] of Scipio; then taking a sweep to the left, it falls into the Atlantic Ocean, giving its name to this province: at its source it is but small, though during its course it receives many other streams, which it deprives as well of their waters as their renown. It first enters Bætica in Ossigita-nia [Note], and glides gently, with a smooth current, past many towns situate on either side of its banks.
Between this river and the sea-shore the most celebrated places inland are Segida [Note], also surnamed Augurina; Julia [Note], called Fidentia; Urgao [Note] or Alba, Ebora [Note] or Cerealis, Iliberri [Note] or Liberini, Ilipula [Note] or Laus, Artigi [Note] or Julienses, Vesci [Note] or Faventia, Singili [Note], Attegua [Note], Arialdunum, Agla Minor [Note], Bæbro [Note], Castra Vinaria [Note], Cisimbrium [Note], Hippo
Nova or New Hippo [Note], Ilurco [Note], Osca [Note], Escua [Note], Sucubo [Note], Nuditanum, Old Tuati [Note]; all which towns are in that part of Bastitania which extends towards the sea, but in the jurisdiction [Note] of Corduba. In the neighbourhood of the river itself is Ossigi [Note], also surnamed Laconicum, Iliturgi [Note] or Forum Julium, Ipasturgi [Note] or Triumphale, Setia, and, fourteen miles inland, Obulco [Note], which is also called Pontificense.
Next to these comes Epora [Note], a federate town, Sacili [Note] Martialium, and Onoba [Note]. On the right bank is Corduba, a Roman colony, surnamed Patricia [Note]; here the Bætis first becomes navigable. There are also the towns of Carbula
and Detunda [Note], and the river Singulis [Note], which falls into the Bætis on the same side.
The towns in the jurisdiction of Hispalis are the following: Celti, Arua [Note], Canama [Note], Evia, Ilipa [Note], surnamed Illa, and Italica [Note]. On the left of the river is the colony of Hispalis [Note] named Romuliensis, and, on the opposite side [Note], the town of Osset [Note], surnamed Julia Constantia, Vergentum, or Juli Genius [Note], Orippo, Caura [Note], Siarum, and the river Menoba [Note], which enters the Bætis on its right bank. Between the æstuaries of the Bætis lie the towns of Nebrissa [Note], surnamed Veneria, and of Colobona [Note]. The colonies are, Asta [Note], which is also called Regia, and, more inland, that of Asido [Note], surnamed Cæsariana.
The river Singulis, discharging itself into the Bætis at the place already mentioned, washes the colony of Astigi [Note], sur-
named Augusta Firma, at which place it becomes navigable. The other colonies in this jurisdiction which are exempt from tribute are Tucci, surnamed Augusta Gemella [Note], Itucci called Virtus Julia [Note], Attubi or Claritas Julia [Note], Urso [Note] or Genua Urbanorum; and among them in former times Munda [Note], which was taken with the son of Pompey. The free towns are Old Astigi [Note] and Ostippo [Note]; the tributary towns are Callet, Callecula, Castra Gemina, the Lesser Ilipula, Merucra, Sacrana, Obulcula [Note], and Oningis. As you move away from the sea-coast, near where the river Menoba is navigable, you find, at no great distance, the Alontigiceli and the Alostigi [Note].
The country which extends from the Bætis to the river Anas, beyond the districts already described, is called Bæturia, and is divided into two parts and the same number of nations; the Celtici [Note], who border upon Lusitania, in the ju-
risdiction of Hispalis, and the Turduli, who dwell on the verge [Note] of Lusitania and Tarraconensis, and are under the protection of the laws of Corduba. It is evident that the Celtici have sprung from the Celtiberi, and have come from Lusitania, from their religious rites, their language, and the names of their towns, which in Bætica are distinguished by the following epithets [Note], which have been given to them. Seria has received the surname of Fama Julia [Note], Nertobriga that of Concordia Julia [Note], Segida that of Restituta Julia [Note], and Contributa [Note] that of Julia. What is now Curiga was formerly Ucultuniacum, Constantia Julia [Note] was Laconimurgis, the present Fortunales were the Tereses [Note], and the Emanici were the Callenses [Note]. Besides these, there are in Celtica the towns of Acinippo [Note], Arunda [Note], Aruci [Note], Turobriga, Lastigi, Salpesa, Sæpone, and Serippo.
The other Bæturia, which we have mentioned, is inhabited by the Turduli, and, in the jurisdiction of Corduba, has some towns which are by no means inconsiderable; Arsa [Note],
Mellaria [Note], Mirobriga [Note], and Sisapo [Note], in the district of Osintias.
To the jurisdiction of Gades belongs Regina, with Roman citizens; and Læpia, Ulia [Note], Carisa [Note] surnamed Aurelia, Urgia [Note] or Castrum Julium, likewise called Cæsaris Salutariensis, all of which enjoy the Latian rights. The tributary towns are Besaro, Belippo [Note], Barbesula, Lacippo, Bæsippo, Callet, Cappacum, Oleastro, Ituci, Brana, Lacibi, Saguntia [Note], and Audorisæ.
M. Agrippa has also stated the whole length of this province to be 475 miles [Note], and its breadth 257; but this was at a time when its boundaries extended to Carthage [Note], a circumstance which has often caused great errors in calculations; which are generally the result either of changes effected in the limits of provinces, or of the fact that in the reckoning of distances the length of the miles has been arbitrarily increased or diminished. In some parts too the sea has been long making encroachments upon the land, and in others again the shores have advanced; while the course of rivers in this place has become more serpentine, in that more direct. And then, besides, some writers begin their measurements at one place,
and some at another, and so proceed in different directions; and hence the result is, that no two accounts agree.
(2.) At the present day the length of Bætica, from the town of Castulo [Note], on its frontier, to Gades is 250 miles, and from Murci, which lies on the sea-coast, twenty-five miles more. The breadth, measured from the coast of Carteia, is 234 miles. Who is there that can entertain the belief that Agrippa, a man of such extraordinary diligence, and one who bestowed so much care on his subject, when he proposed to place before the eyes of the world a survey of that world, could be guilty of such a mistake as this, and that too when seconded by the late emperor the divine Augustus ? For it was that emperor who completed the Portico [Note] which had been begun by his sister, and in which the survey was to be kept, in conformity with the plan and descriptions of M. Agrippa.
| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 3.2 | Plin. Nat. 3.3 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 3.4 |
