The earth of Ebusus has the effect of driving away serpents, while that of Colubraria produces them; hence the latter spot is dangerous to all persons who have not brought with them some of the earth of Ebusus. The Greeks have given it the name of Ophiusa[1486]. Ebusus too produces no[1487] rabbits to destroy the harvests of the Baleares. There are also about twenty other small islands in this sea, which is full of shoals. Off the coast of Gaul, at the mouth of the Rhodanus, there is Metina[1488], and near it the island which is known as Blascon[1489], with the three Stœchades, so called by their neighbours the Massilians[1490], on account of the regular order in which they are placed; their respective names are Prote[1491], Mese[1492], also called Pomponiana, and Hypæa[1493]. After these come Sturium[1494], Phœnice, Phila, Lero, and, opposite to Antipolis[1495], Lerina[1496], where there is a remembrance of a town called Vergoanum having once existed. CHAP. 12. (6.)—CORSICA. In the Ligurian Sea, but close to the Tuscan, is Corsica, by the Greeks called Cyrnos, extending, from north to south 150 miles, and for the most part 50 miles in breadth, its circumference being 325. It is 62 miles distant from the Vada Volaterrana[1497]. It contains thirty-two states, and two colonies, that of Mariana[1498], founded by C. Marius, and that of Aleria, founded by the Dictator Sylla. On this side of it is Oglasa[1499], and, at a distance of less than sixty miles from Corsica, Planaria[1500], so called from its appearance, being nearly level with the sea, and consequently treacherous to mariners. We next have Urgo[1501], a larger island, and Capraria, which the Greeks have called Ægilion[1502]; then Igilium[1503] and Dianium[1504], which they have also called Artemisia, both of them opposite the coast of Cosa; also Barpana[1505], Mænaria, Columbaria, and Venaria. We then come to Ilva[1506] with its iron mines, an island 100 miles in circumference, 10 miles distant from Populonium, and called Æthalia by the Greeks: from it the island of Planasia[1507] is distant 28 miles. After these, beyond the mouths of the Tiber, and off the coast of Antium, we come to Astura[1508], then Palmaria and Sinonia, and, opposite to Formiæ, Pontiæ. In the Gulf of Puteoli are Pandateria[1509], and Prochyta, so called, not from the nurse of Æneas, but because it has been poured forth[1510] or detached from Ænaria[1511], an island which received its name from having been the anchorage of the fleet of Æneas, though called by Homer Inarime[1512]; it is also called Pithecusa, not, as many have fancied, on account of the multitudes of apes found there, but from its extensive manufactories of pottery. Between Pausilipum[1513] and Neapolis lies the island of Megaris[1514], and then, at a distance of eight miles from Surrentum, Capreæ[1515], famous for the castle of the emperor Tiberius: it is eleven miles in circumference. CHAP. 13.—SARDINIA.