Praeterea grandes effosso marmore sulci saucia longinquo limite saxa secant. 25 [85] _perfodit_ Koch; codd. (Birt) _perforat_. * * * * * Page 217 XXVI. (XLIX.) _Aponus._[86] Fount that prolongest life for the dwellers in Antenor’s city, banishing by thy neighbouring waters all harmful fates, seeing that thy marvels stir utterance even in the dumb, that a people’s love bids poets to honour thee in song, and that there is no hand whose fingers have not traced for thee some lines in thankful witness of prayers granted, shall I not be held guilty alike by the Muses and the Nymphs if I alone sing not thy praises? How can a spot whose fame is on so many lips rightly be passed over by me in slighting silence? Lower than a lofty hill yet higher than the level plain rises a gentle eminence, clear to see from all around. Prolific is it in hot springs, for wherever water penetrates its recesses encountering fires drive it forth. The crumbling ground exhales vapours, and the water, closed down in its prison of burning rock, forces its way out by many a fissured channel. ’Tis a region of liquid fire where Vulcan’s flames spring forth from earth’s breast, a land of burning and of sulphur. Who would not think it barren? Yet are those fiery fields green with verdure; grass grows o’er the burning marl and, though the very rocks melt at the heat, plants, mocking at the flames, boldly flourish. Beyond this are vast furrows cut in the rock, scarring and cleaving it in long lines. Traces are [86] Aponus (mod. Abano) near Padua, famous for its hot mineral springs (_cf._ Mart. vi. 42. 4; Lucan, vii. 193; Sil. Ital. xii. 218, etc.). Padua (Patavinum) is said to have been founded by Antenor. * * * * * Page 218 Herculei (sic fama refert) monstratur aratri semita, vel casus vomeris egit opus, in medio pelagi late flagrantis imago caerulus inmenso panditur ore lacus ingenti fusus spatio; sed maior in altum intrat et arcanae rupis inane subit: 30 densus nube sua tactuque inmitis et haustu, sed vitreis idem lucidus usque vadis. consuluit natura sibi, ne tota lateret, admisitque oculos, quo vetat ire calor: turbidus impulsu venti cum spargitur aër 35 glaucaque fumiferae terga serenat aquae, tunc omnem liquidi vallem mirabere fundi, tunc veteres hastae, regia dona, micant (quas inter, nigrae tenebris obscurus harenae, discolor abruptum flumen hiatus agit; 40 adparent infra latebrae, quas gurges opacus implet et abstrusos ducit in antra sinus); tunc montis secreta patent, qui flexus in arcum aequora pendenti margine summa ligat.