Greek Texts & Translations

that of Scylletium. ^note The circumnavigation of the peninsula, which is comprised between this isthmus and the strait, is 2000 stadia. He says that afterwards the names of Italy and of the Oenotrians were extended as far as Metapontium and the Siritis; the Chones, a people of Oenotrian descent, and highly civilized, inhabited these districts, and called their country Chone. However, this author has written in a very loose and old-fashioned manner, without giving any definite boundaries to the Leucani and Bruttii. Now Leucania is situated on the Tyrrhenian and Sicilian Seas, extending on one coast from the Silaro ^note to the river Lao, and on the other from Metapontium ^note to Thurii. Along the continent it stretches from the country of the Samnites, as far as the isthmus between Thurii and Cerilli, ^note near the Lao. This isthmus is 300 stadia ^note across. Beyond are the Bruttii, who dwell on the peninsula; in this is included another peninsula, which is bounded by the isthmus between Scylletium ^note and the Hipponiate gulf. ^note The nation received its appellation from the Leucani, for they call runaways Bruttii, and they say that formerly they ran away from them when employed as shepherds, and that afterwards their independence was established through the weakness [of the Leucani], when Dion [of Syracuse] was prosecuting a war against [the younger] Dionysius, and fomented hostilities amongst all. ^note This is all we shall remark as to the Leucani and Bruttii.