CHAP. 10.—THE THIRD REGION OF ITALY.
At the Silarus begins the third region of Italy, consisting
of the territory of Lucania and Bruttium; here too there
have been no few changes of the population. These districts
have been possessed by the Pelasgi, the Œnotrii, the Itali,
the Morgetes, the Siculi, and more especially by people who
emigrated from Greece[1], and, last of all, by the Leucani, a
people sprung from the Samnites, who took possession under
the command of Lucius. We find here the town of Pæstum[2],
which received from the Greeks the name of Posidonia, the
Gulf of Pæstum[3], the town of Elea, now known as Velia[4],
and the Promontory of Palinurum[5], a point at which the land
falls inwards and forms a bay[6], the distance across which to
the pillar[7] of Rhegium is 100 miles. Next after Palinurum
comes the river Melpes[8], then the town of Buxentum[9],
called in [Magna] Græcia Pyxus, and the river Laus; there
was formerly a town[10] also of the same name.
At this spot begins the coast of Bruttium, and we come
to the town of Blanda[11], the river Batum[12], Parthenius, a
port of the Phocians, the bay of Vibo[13], the place[14] where
Clampetia formerly stood, the town of Temsa[15], called Temese
by the Greeks, and Terina founded by the people of Crotona[16],
with the extensive Gulf of Terina; more inland, the town of
Consentia[17]. Situate upon a peninsula[18] is the river Acheron[19], from which the people of Acherontia derive the name
of their town; then Hippo, now called Vibo Valentia,
the Port of Hercules[20], the river Metaurus[21], the town of
Tauroentum[22], the Port of Orestes, and Medma[23]. Next, the
town of Scyllæum[24], the river Cratæis[25], the mother of Scylla
it is said; then the Pillar of Rhegium, the Straits of Sicily,
and the two promontories which face each other, Cænys[26] on
the Italian, and Pelorus[27] on the Sicilian side, the distance between them being twelve stadia. At a distance thence of
twelve miles and a half, we come to Rhegium[28], after which
begins Sila[29], a forest of the Apennines, and then the pro-
montory of Leucopetra[30], at a distance of fifteen miles; after
which come the Locri[31], who take their surname from the
promontory of Zephyrium[32], being distant from the river
Silarus 303 miles.
At this spot ends the first[33] great Gulf of Europe; the
seas in which bear the following names:—That from
which it takes its rise is called the Atlantic, by some the
Great Atlantic, the entrance of which is, by the Greeks,
called Porthmos, by us the Straits of Gades. After its
entrance, as far as it washes the coasts of Spain, it is called
the Hispanian Sea, though some give it the name of the
Iberian or Balearic[34] Sea. Where it faces the province of
Gallia Narbonensis it has the name of the Gallic, and after
that, of the Ligurian, Sea. From Liguria to the island of
Sicily, it is called the Tuscan Sea, the same which is called
by some of the Greeks the Notian[35], by others the Tyrrhenian, while many of our people call it the Lower Sea.
Beyond Sicily, as far as the country of the Salentini, it is
styled by Polybius the Ausonian Sea. Eratosthenes however gives to the whole expanse that lies between the inlet
of the ocean and the island of Sardinia, the name of the
Sardoan Sea; thence to Sicily, the Tyrrhenian; thence to
Crete, the Sicilian; and beyond that island, the Cretan Sea.
1. "Græciæ maxime populi." This may also be rendered "a people
who mostly emigrated from Greece," in reference to the Siculi or Sici-
lans, but the other is probably the correct translation.
2. A town of Lucania, colonized by the Sybarites about B.C. 524. In
the time of Augustus it seems to have been principally famous for the
exquisite beauty of its roses. Its ruins are extremely magnificent.
3. Now the Golfo di Salerno.
4. A Greek town founded by the Phocæans. It was the birth-place of
the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno, who founded a school of philosophy
known as the Eleatic. Castell' a Mare della Brucca stands on its site.
5. Now Capo di Palinuro; said to have received its name from Palinurus, the pilot of Æneas, who fell into the sea there and was murdered
by the natives. See Virgil, Æneid, B. vi. 1. 381 et seq.
6. Now the Golfo di Policastro.
7. This tower or column was erected in the vicinity of Rhegium on the
Straits of Sicily. It was 100 stadia, or about eight miles, from the town,
and at it passengers usually embarked for Sicily. The spot is now called
Torre di Carallo.
8. Now the Faraone.
9. A Greek colony. The present Policastro occupies very nearly its
site. It seems to have received its name from the cultivation of box
trees in its vicinity.
10. Or more properly Laos, originally a Greek colony. In the vicinity
is the modern town of Laino, and the river is called the Lao.
11. Ptolemy mentions it as an inland town, and Livy speaks of it as a
Lucanian city. It probably stood near the modern Maratea, twelve miles
south-east of Policastro.
12. The modern Bato.
13. The bay of Bivona, formerly Vibo, the Italian name for the Greek
city of Hippo or Hippona. On its site stands the modern Bivona.
14. "Locus Clampetiæ." Clampetia or Lampetia stood in the vicinity
of the modern Amantia. From other authors we find that it was still
existing at this time. If such is the fact, the meaning will be "the place
where the former municipal town of Clampetia stood," it being supposed
to have lost in its latter years its municipal privileges.
15. One of the ancient Ausonian towns, and afterwards colonized by the
Ætolians. Like its namesake in Cyprus it was famous for its copper.
Its site is now occupied by Torre di Lupi.
16. A Greek city, almost totally destroyed by Hannibal; Santa Eufemia
occupies its site.
17. One of the cities of the Bruttii; now Cosenza.
18. The part which now constitutes the Farther Calabria.
19. Supposed to be the same as the Arconte, which falls into the
Crathis near Consentia. Nothing is known of the town here alluded to,
but it must not be confounded with Acherontia, the modern Acerenza, in
Apulia, which was a different place.
20. Supposed to have been the same as the modern port of Tropea.
21. The modern Marro.
22. Its ruins are supposed to be those seen near Palmi.
23. Probably the modern Melia stands on its site.
24. A town on the promontory of the same name, now called Scilla or
Sciglio, where the monster Scylla was fabled to have dwelt.
25. Homer says (Odyssey, xii. 124), that it had its name from the nymph
Cratæis, the mother of Scylla. It is probably the small stream now called
Fiume di Solano or dei Pesci.
26. The modern Capo di Cavallo, according to the older commentators;
but more recent geographers think that the Punta del Pezzo was the point
so called.
27. Now called Capo di Faro, from the lighthouse there erected.
28. Originally a Greek colony; a Roman colony was settled there by
Augustus. The modern city of Reggio occupies its site.
29. It extended south of Consentia to the Sicilian Straits, a distance of
700 stadia. It produced the pitch for which Bruttium was so celebrated.
Its site still has the name of Sila.
30. Or White Rock, now Capo dell' Armi. It forms the extremity of
the Apennine Chain.
31. The site of the city of Locri is supposed to have been that of the
present Motta di Burzano.
32. He says that they were called Epizephyrii, from the promontory of
Zephyrium, now the Capo di Burzano; but according to others, they
had this name only because their colony lay to the west of their native
Greece. Strabo says that it was founded by the Locri Ozolæ, and not
the Opuntii, as most authors have stated.
33. This expression is explained by a reference to the end of the First
Chapter of the present Book.
34. Called by some the Canal de Baleares.
35. Or Southern Sea.