Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/221

 Chap. 8.] ACCOUNT OF COTTNTEIES, ETC. 187 a district which begins at the river Macra, and has often changed its name. At an early period the Unibri were ex- pelled from it by the Pelasgi ; and these again by the Lydians, who from a king of theirs^ were named Tyrrheni, but after- wards, from the rites observed in their sacrifices, were called, in the Greek language', Tusci. The first toTi in Etruria is Luna^, with a noble harbour, then the colony of Luca"*, at some distance from the sea, and nearer to it again the colony of Pisae', between the rivers Auser^ and Arnus^, which owes its origin to Pelops and the Pisans^, or else to the Teu- tani, a people of Greece, Xext is Yada^ Yolaterrana, then the river Cecinna^", and Populonium" formerly belonging to the Etrurians, the only town they had on this coast. JS^ext to these is the river Prile^', then the Umbro^^, which is navigable, and where the district of Umbria begins, the port of Telamon^^, Cosa'^ of the Volcientes, founded by the Roman ^ For an account of tliis see Herodotus, B. i. c. 94, Tacitus, Ann. B. iv. c. 55, and Velleius Patercvilus, B. i. c. 1. These writers all agree as to the fact of the migration of a colony of Lydians under the conduct of Tyr- rhenus to the part of Italy afterwards called Etruria. This subject how- ever, as well as the migrations of the Pelasgi, is involved in the greatest obscurity. 2 From the Greek verb Oveiv " to sacrifice," he imphes : — from their custom of frequently sacrificing, says Servius, on the Xth Book of the ^neid. Dionysius of Hahcamassus says that they were from their frequent sacrifices called OvoffKooi. These are probably fanciful deriva- tions ; but there is no doubt that the people of Etruria were for several centuries the instructors of the Romans m the arts of sacrifice, augury, and divination. 3 The ruins of Luna, which was destroyed by the Normans in the middle ages, are still visible on the banks of the Magra. The modern name of the port is Gollb deUa Spezzia. ■* The modem city of Lucca has its site and name. — Livy, B. xli. c. 13, informs us that this colony was founded m tlic year of the city 576, during the Consulship of Claudius Pulcher and Sempronius Grracchus. 5 The modem city of Pisa. See Virgil, B. x. 1. 179, as to the origin of this place. ® The modem Serchio, ^ Now the Amo. ^ The people of Pisa or Pisse, a city of EUs in the Peloponnesus. ^ Now Vadi, a small village on the sca-sliore. ^° Still caUed the Cecina. It entered the Tyrrhenian sea, near the port of Yada Volatcrrana just mentioned. 11 The present Piorabino is supposed to have arisen from the ruins of this place. i* Now the Bruno. i^ The modem Ombroue. 1^ Now known as Telamone Vecchio. 1* There are ruins near lake Orbitello, which bear the name of Cosa :