NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY – BOOK III – Part IV.

Editors Note

This is Book III – Part IV of the thirty seven books in Plinys’ Natural History. In order to make the collection more accessible and easier to navigate, I have divided the books into several parts. This book has been divided into four parts.

Translated by John Bostock MD, F.R.S (1773-1846) and Henry T. Riley Esq., B.A. (1816-1878), first published 1855. No changes have been made to the text, however all footnotes have been removed.

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CHAP. 23. —ISTRIA, ITS PEOPLE AND LOCALITY.

Istria projects in the form of a peninsula. Some writers have stated its length to be forty miles, and its circumference 125; and the same as to Liburnia which adjoins it, and the Flanatic Gulf, while others make it 225; others again make the circumference of Liburnia 180 miles. Some persons too extend Iapydia, at the back of Istria, as far as the Flanatic Gulf, a distance of 130 miles, thus making Liburnia but 150 miles. Tuditanus, who subdued the Istri, had this inscription on his statue which was erected there: “From Aquileia to the river Titus is a distance of 1000 stadia.”

The towns of Istria with the rights of Roman citizens are Ægida, Parentium, and the colony of Pola, now Pietas Julia, formerly founded by the Colchians, and distant from Tergeste 100 miles: after which we come to the town of Nesactium, and the river Arsia, now the boundary of Italy. The distance across from Ancona to Pola is 120 miles. In the interior of the tenth region are the colonies of Cremona, Brixia in the territory of the Cenomanni, Ateste belonging to the Veneti, and the towns of Acelum, Patavium, Opitergium, Belunum, and Vicetia; with Mantua, the only city of the Tuscans now left beyond the Padus. Cato informs us that the Veneti are descendants of the Trojans, and that the Cenomanni dwelt among the Volcæ in the vicinity of Massilia. There are also the towns of the Fertini, the Tridentini, and the Beruenses, belonging to the Rhæti, Verona, belonging to the Rhæti and the Euganei, and

Julienses to the Carni. We then have the following peoples, whom there is no necessity to particularize with any degree of exactness, the Alutrenses, the Asseriates, the Flamonienses with those surnamed Vanienses, and the others called Culici, the Forojulienses surnamed Transpadani, the Foretani, the Nedinates, the Quarqueni, the Taurisani, the Togienses, and the Varvari. In this district there have disappeared—upon the coast—Iramene, Pellaon, and Palsatium, Atina and Cælina belonging to the Veneti, Segeste and Ocra to the Carni, and Noreia to the Taurisci. L. Piso also informs us that although the senate disapproved of his so doing, M. Claudius Marcellus razed to the ground a tower situate at the twelfth mile-stone from Aquileia.

In this region also and the eleventh there are some celebrated lakes, and several rivers that either take their rise in them or else are fed by their waters, in those cases in which they again emerge from them. These are the Addua, fed by the Lake Larius, the Ticinus by Lake Verbannus, the Mincius by Lake Benacus, the Ollius by Lake Sebinnus, and the Lambrus by Lake Eupilis—all of them flowing into the Padus.

Cælius states that the length of the Alps from the Upper Sea to the Lower is 1000 miles, a distance which Timagenes shortens by twenty-two. Cornelius Nepos assigns to them a breadth of 100 miles, and T. Livius of 3000 stadia; but then in different places. For in some localities they exceed 100 miles; where they divide Germany, for instance, from Italy; while in other parts they do not reach seventy, being thus narrowed by the providential dispensation of nature as it were. The breadth of Italy, taken from the river Var at the foot of these mountains, and passing along by the Vada Sabatia, the Taurini, Comum, Brixia, Verona, Vicetia, Opitergium, Aquileia, Tergeste, Pola, and Arsia, is 745 miles.

CHAP. 24. —THE ALPS, AND THE ALPINE NATIONS.

Many nations dwell among the Alps; but the more remarkable, between Pola and the district of Tergeste, are the Secusses, the Subocrini, the Catali, the Menocaleni, and near the Carni the people formerly called the Taurisci, but now the Norici. Adjoining to these are the Rhæti and the Vindelici, who are all divided into a multitude of states. It is supposed that the Rhæti are the descendants of the Tuscans, who were expelled by the Gauls and migrated hither under the command of their chief, whose name was Rhætus. Turning then to the side of the Alps which fronts Italy, we have the Euganean nations enjoying Latin rights, and of whom Cato enumerates thirty-four towns. Among these are the Triumpilini, a people who were sold with their territory; and then the Camuni, and several similar tribes, each of them in the jurisdiction of its neighbouring municipal town. The same author also considers the Lepontii and the Salassi to be of Tauriscan origin, but most other writers, giving a Greek interpretation to their name, consider the Lepontii to have been those of the followers of Hercules who were left behind in consequence of their limbs being frozen by the snow of the Alps. They are also of opinion that the inhabitants of the Grecian Alps are descended from a portion of the Greeks of his army, and that the Euganeans, being sprung from an origin so illustrious, thence took their name. The head of these are the Stœni. The Vennonenses and the Sarunetes, peoples of the Rhæti, dwell about the sources of the river Rhenus, while the tribe of the Lepontii, known as the Uberi, dwell in the vicinity of the sources of the Rhodanus, in the same district of the Alps. There are also other native tribes here, who have received Latin rights, such as the Octodurenses, and their neighbours the Centrones, the Cottian states, the Ligurian Vagienni, descended from the Caturiges, as also those called Montani; besides numerous nations of the Capillati, on the confines of the Ligurian Sea.

It may not be inappropriate in this place to subjoin the inscription now to be seen upon the trophy erected on the Alps, which is to the following effect:—“To the Emperor Cæsar—The son of Cæsar now deified, Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, and emperor fourteen years, in the seventeenth year of his holding the tribunitial authority, the Senate and the Roman people, in remembrance that under his command and auspices all the Alpine nations which extended from the upper sea to the lower were reduced to subjection by the Roman people—The Alpine nations so subdued were: the Triumpilini, the Camuni, the Venostes, the Vennonenses, the Isarci, the Breuni, the Genaunes, the Focunates, four nations of the Vindelici, the Consuanetes, the Rucinates, the Licates, the Catenates, the Ambisontes, the Rugusci, the Suanetes, the Calucones, the Brixentes, the Lepontii, the Uberi, the Nantuates, the Seduni, the Varagri, the Salassi, the Acitavones, the Medulli, the Uceni, the Caturiges, the Brigiani, the Sogiontii, the Brodiontii, the Nemaloni, the Edenates, the Esubiani, the Veamini, the Gallitæ, the Triulatti, the Ecdini, the Vergunni, the Eguituri, the Nementuri, the Oratelli, the Nerusi, the Velauni, and the Suetri.”

The twelve states of the Cottiani were not included in the list, as they had shown no hostility, nor yet those which had been placed by the Pompeian law under the jurisdiction of the municipal towns.

Such then is Italy, sacred to the gods, such are the nations, such the cities of her peoples; to which we may add, that this is that same Italy, which, when L. Æmilius Paulus and C. Attilius Regulus were Consuls, on hearing of the rising in Gaul, unaided, and without any foreign assistance whatever, without the help even of that portion which lies beyond the Padus, armed 80,000 horse and 700,000 foot. In abundance of metals of every kind Italy yields to no land whatever; but all search for them has been prohibited by an ancient decree of the Senate, who gave orders thereby that Italy shall be exempted from such treatment.

CHAP. 25. —LIBURNIA AND ILLYRICUM.

The nation of the Liburni adjoins the river Arsia, and extends as far as the river Titus. The Mentores, the Hymani, the Encheleæ, the Buni, and the people whom Callimachus calls the Peucetiæ, formerly formed part of it; but now the whole in general are comprised under the one name of Illyricum. But few of the names of these nations are worthy of mention, or indeed very easy of pronunciation. To the jurisdiction of Scardona resort the Iapydes and fourteen cities of the Liburni, of which it may not prove tedious if I mention the Lacinienses, the Stlupini, the Burnistæ, and the Olbonenses. Belonging to the same jurisdiction there are, in the enjoyment of Italian rights, the Alutæ, the Flanates, from whom the Gulf takes its name, the Lopsi, and the Varvarini; the Assesiates, who are exempt from tribute; and upon the islands, the Fertinates and the Curictæ.

Besides these, there are on the coast, after leaving Nesactium, Alvona, Flanona, Tarsatica, Senia, Lopsica, Ortopula, Vegium, Argyruntum, Corinium, Ænona, the city of Pasinum, and the river Tedanius, at which Iapydia terminates. The islands of this Gulf, with their towns, besides those above mentioned, are Absyrtium, Arba, Crexa, Gissa, and Portunata. Again, on the mainland there is the colony of Iadera, distant from Pola 160 miles; then, at a distance of thirty miles, the island of Colentum, and of eighteen, the mouth of the river Titus.

CHAP. 26. —DALMATIA.

Scardona, situate upon the river, at a distance of twelve miles from the sea, forms the boundary of Liburnia and the beginning of Dalmatia. Next to this place comes the ancient country of the Autariatares and the fortress of Tariona, the Promontory of Diomedes, or, as others call it, the peninsula of Hyllis, 100 miles in circuit. Then comes Tragurium, a place with the rights of Roman citizens, and celebrated for its marble, Sicum, a place to which Claudius, the emperor lately deified, sent a colony of his veterans, and Salona, a colony, situate 112 miles from Iadera. To this place resort for legal purposes, having the laws dispensed according to their divisions into decuries or tithings, the Dalmatæ, forming 342 decuries, the Deurici 22, the Ditiones 239, the Mazæi 269, and the Sardiates 52. In this region are Burnum, Andetrium, and Tribulium, fortresses ennobled by the battles of the Roman people. To the same jurisdiction also belong the Issæi, the Colentini, the Separi, and the Epetini, nations inhabiting the islands. After these come the fortresses of Peguntium and of Rataneum, with the colony of Narona, the seat of the third jurisdiction, distant from Salona eighty-two miles, and situate upon a river of the same name, at a distance of twenty miles from the sea. M. Varro states that eighty-nine states used to resort thither, but now nearly the only ones that are known are the Cerauni with 24 decuries, the Daorizi with 17, the Dæsitiates with 103, the Docleatæ with 33, the Deretini with 14, the Deremistæ with 30, the Dindari with 33, the Glinditiones with 44, the Melcomani with 24, the Naresii with 102, the Scirtarii with 72, the Siculotæ with 24, and the Vardæi, once the scourges of Italy, with no more than 20 decuries. In addition to these, this district was possessed by the Ozuæi, the Partheni, the Hemasini, the Arthitæ, and the Armistæ. The colony of Epidaurum is distant from the river Naron 100 miles. After Epidaurum come the following towns, with the rights of Roman citizens:—Rhizinium, Acruvium, Butua, Olcinium, formerly called Colchinium, having been founded by the Colchians; the river Drilo, and, upon it, Scodra, a town with the rights of Roman citizens, situate at a distance of eighteen miles from the sea; besides in former times many Greek towns and once powerful states, of which all remembrance is fast fading away. For in this region there were formerly the Labeatæ, the Enderini, the Sasæi, the Grabæi, properly called Illyrii, the Taulantii, and the Pyræi. The Promontory of Nymphæum on the sea-coast still retains its name; and there is Lissum, a town enjoying the rights of Roman citizens, at a distance from Epidaurum of 100 miles.

At Lissum begins the province of Macedonia, the nations of the Parthini, and behind them the Dassaretæ. The mountains of Candavia are seventy-eight miles from Dyrrhachium. On the coast lies Denda, a town with the rights of Roman citizens, the colony of Epidamnum, which, on account of its inauspicious name, was by the Romans called Dyrrhachium, the river Aöus, by some called Æas, and Apollonia, formerly a colony of the Corinthians, at a distance of four miles from the sea, in the vicinity of which the celebrated Nymphæum is inhabited by the barbarous Amantes and Buliones. Upon the coast too is the town of Oricum, founded by the Colchians. At this spot begins Epirus, with the Acroceraunian mountains, by which we have previously mentioned this Gulf of Europe as bounded. Oricum is distant from the Promontory of Salentinum in Italy eighty miles.

CHAP. 27. —THE NORICI.

In the rear of the Carni and the Iapydes, along the course of the great river Ister, the Rhæti touch upon the Norici: their towns are Virunum, Celeia, Teurnia, Aguntum, Vianiomina, Claudia, and Flavium Solvense. Adjoining to the Norici is Lake Peiso, and the deserts of the Boii; they are however now inhabited by the people of Sabaria, a colony of the now deified emperor Claudius, and the town of Scarabantia Julia.

CHAP. 28. —PANNONIA.

Next to them comes acorn-bearing Pannonia, along which the chain of the Alps, gradually lessening as it runs through the middle of Illyricum from north to south, forms a gentle slope on the right hand and the left. The portion which looks towards the Adriatic Sea is called Dalmatia and Illyricum, above mentioned, while Pannonia stretches away towards the north, and has the Danube for its extreme boundary. In it are the colonies of Æmona and Siscia. The following rivers, both known to fame and adapted for commerce, flow into the Danube; the Draus, which rushes from Noricum with great impetuosity, and the Savus, which flows with a more gentle current from the Carnic Alps, there being a space between them of 120 miles. The Draus runs through the Serretes, the Serrapilli, the Iasi, and the Andizetes; the Savus through the Colapiani and the Breuci; these are the principal peoples. Besides them there are the Arivates, the Azali, the Amantini, the Belgites, the Catari, the Cornacates, the Eravisci, the Hercuniates, the Latovici, the Oseriates, the Varciani, and, in front of Mount Claudius, the Scordisci, behind it the Taurisci. In the Savus there is the island of Metubarris, the greatest of all the islands formed by rivers. Besides the above, there are these other rivers worthy of mention:—the Colapis, which flows into the Savus near Siscia, where, dividing its channel, it forms the island which is called Segestica; and the river Bacuntius, which flows into the Savus at the town of Sirmium, where we find the state of the Sirmienses and the Amantini. Forty-five miles thence is Taurunum, where the Savus flows into the Danube; above which spot the Valdanus and the Urpanus, themselves far from ignoble rivers, join that stream.

CHAP. 29. —MŒSIA.

Joining up to Pannonia is the province called Mœsia, which runs, with the course of the Danube, as far as the Euxine. It commences at the confluence previously mentioned. In it are the Dardani, the Celegeri, the Triballi, the Timachi, the Mœsi, the Thracians, and the Scythians who border on the Euxine. The more famous among its rivers are the Margis, which rises in the territory of the Dardani, the Pingus, the Timachus, the Œscus which rises in Mount Rhodope, and, rising in Mount Hæmus, the Utus, the Asamus, and the Ieterus.

The breadth of Illyricum at its widest part is 325 miles, and its length from the river Arsia to the river Drinius 530; from the Drinius to the Promontory of Acroceraunia Agrippa states to be 175 miles, and he says that the entire circuit of the Italian and Illyrian Gulf is 1700 miles. In this Gulf, according to the limits which we have drawn, are two seas, the Ionian in the first part, and the Adriatic, which runs more inland and is called the Upper Sea.

CHAP. 30.—ISLANDS OF THE IONIAN SEA AND THE ADRIATIC.

In the Ausonian Sea there are no islands worthy of notice beyond those which we have already mentioned, and only a few in the Ionian; those, for instance, upon the Calabrian coast, opposite Brundusium, by the projection of which a harbour is formed; and, over against the Apulian coast, Diomedia, remarkable for the monument of Diomedes, and another island called by the same name, but by some Teutria.

The coast of Illyricum is clustered with more than 1000 islands, the sea being of a shoaly nature, and numerous creeks and æstuaries running with their narrow channels between portions of the land. The more famous are those before the mouths of the Timavus, with warm springs that rise with the tides of the sea, the island of Cissa near the territory of the Istri, and the Pullaria and Absyrtides, so called by the Greeks from the circumstance of Absyrtus, the brother of Medea, having been slain there. Some islands near them have been called the Electrides, upon which amber, which they call “electrum,” was said to be found; a most assured instance however of that untruthfulness which is generally ascribed to the Greeks, seeing that it has never yet been ascertained which of the islands were meant by them under that name. Opposite to the Iader is Lissa, and other islands whose names have been already mentioned. Opposite to the Liburni are some islands called the Crateæ, and no smaller number styled Liburnicæ and Celadussæ. Opposite to Surium is Bavo, and Brattia, famous for its goats, Issa with the rights of Roman citizens, and Pharia with a town. At a distance of twenty-five miles from Issa is Corcyra, surnamed Melæna, with a town founded by the Cnidians; between which and Illyricum is Melite, from which, as we learn from Callimachus, a certain kind of little dogs were called Melitæi; fifteen miles from it we find the seven Elaphites. In the Ionian Sea, at a distance of twelve miles from Oricum, is Sasonis, notorious from having been a harbour of pirates.

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