The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
History
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
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[1903], while
others make it 225[1904]; 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[1905], 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[1906],
Parentium, and the colony of Pola[1907], now Pietas Julia, formerly
founded by the Colchians, and distant from Tergeste 100 miles:
after which we come to the town of Nesactium[1908], and the river
Arsia, now[1909] 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[1910], Ateste[1911] belonging to the Veneti, and the towns
of Acelum[1912], Patavium[1913], Opitergium, Belunum[1914], and
Vicetia; with Mantua[1915], the only city of the Tuscans now left
beyond the Padus. Cato informs us that the Veneti are descendants
of the Trojans[1916], and that the Cenomanni[1917] dwelt among
the Volcæ in the vicinity of Massilia. There are also the towns
of the Fertini[1918], the Tridentini[1919], and the Beruenses,
belonging to the Rhæti, Verona[1920], belonging to the Rhæti and
the Euganei, and Julienses[1921] 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[1922] with those surnamed Vanienses, and the others called
Culici, the Forojulienses[1923] surnamed Transpadani, the Foretani,
the Nedinates[1924], the Quarqueni[1925], the Taurisani[1926],
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[1927] 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[1928], 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[1929], 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.
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