Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/217

 Chap. 6.] ACCOrNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 183 ing on for the purpose of giving a general description of everything that is known to exist tlironghout the wliole earth. I may premise by observing that this hind very much re- sembles in shape an oak leaf, being much longer than it is broad ; towards the top it incHnes to the left', wldle it termi- nates in the form of an Amazonian buckler"*', in w hich the spot at the central projection is the place called Cocinthos, while it sends forth two horns at the end of its crescent-shaped bays, Leucopetra on the right and Lacinium on the left. It ex- tends in length 1020 miles, if we measure from the foot of the Alps at Prsetoria Augusta, through the city of Home and Capua to the town of Khegium, which is situate on the shoulder of the Peninsula, just at the bend of the neck as it were. The distance would be much greater if measured to Lacinium, but in that case the line, being draw^n obliquely, would incline too much to one side. Its breadth is variable ; being 410 miles between the two seas, the Lower and ihe Upper^, and the rivers Varus andArsia"* : at about the middle, and in the vicinity of the city of Rome, from the spot where the river Aternus^ flows into the Adriatic sea, *:i the mouth of the Tiber, the distance is 136 miles, and a little less from Castrum-novum on the Adriatic sea to Alsium" on the Tus- can ; but in no place does it exceed 200 miles in breadth. ^ The comparison of its shape to an oak leaf Bsenis rather fanciful ; more common-place observers have comj)ared it to a boot : by the top (cacumen) he seems to mean the southern part of Calabria about iJrun- disium and Tarentum ; which, to a person facing the south, would in- cUne to the coast of Epirus on the left hand. - The ' Parma' or shiold here alluded to, would be one shaped like a crescent, Avith the exception that the inner or concave side wouUl be formed of two crescents, the extremities of which join at the central jiro- jection. He says that Cocmthos (now Capo di Stilo) would in such case form the central projection, while Lacinium (now Capo deUe Colonnc) ■would form the horn at the extreme right, and Leucopetra (now Capo deU' Armi) the horn on the extreme left. 3 The Tuscan or Etrurian sea, and the Adriatic. ■* The Varus, as already mcntionod, was in Gallia Narbonensis, while the Arsia, now the Arsa, is a small river of Istria, which became the boundary between Italy and lllyricum, when Istria was annexed by order of Au- gustus to the former country. It flows into the Flanaticus Sinus, now Golfo di Quamero, on the eastern coast of Istria, beyond the town of Castel Nuovo, formerly Nesactium. * Now the Pescara. ^ Now Palo, a city on the coast of Etruria, eighteen miles from Portua Augusti, at the mouth of the Tiber.