Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/227

Chap. 9.] the Pelasgi, the Arcades, the Seculi, the Aurunci, the Rutuli, and, beyond Circeii, the Volsci, the Osci, and the Ausones whence the name of Latium came to be extended as far as the river Liris.

We will begin with Ostia, a colony founded by a king of Rome, the town of Laurentum , the grove of Jupiter Indiges , the river Numicius , and Ardea , founded by Danaë, the mother of Perseus. Next come the former site of Aphrodisium, the colony of Antium , the river and island called Astura , the river Nymphæus , the Clostra Romana , and Circeii , formerly an island, and, if we are to believe Homer, surrounded by the open sea, though now by an extensive plain. The circumstances which we are enabled to publish on this subject for the information of the world are very remarkable. Theophrastus, the first foreigner who treated of the affairs of Rome with any degree of accuracy (for Theopompus, before whose time no Greek writer had made mention of us, only