Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/277

Chap. 20.], who take their name from Lepidus, the Solonates , the Saltus Galliani , surnamed Aquinates, the Tannetani , the Veliates , who were anciently surnamed Regiates, and the Urbanates. In this district the Boii have disappeared, of whom there were 112 tribes according to Cato; as also the Senones, who captured Rome.

(16.) The Padus descends from the bosom of Mount Vesulus, one of the most elevated points of the chain of the Alps, in the territories of the Ligurian Vagienni, and rises at its source in a manner that well merits an inspection by the curious; after which it hides itself in a subterranean channel until it rises again in the country of the Forovibienses. It is inferior in fame to none whatever among the rivers, being known to the Greeks as the Eridanus and famous as the scene of the punishment of Phaëton. At the rising of the Dog-star it is swollen by the melted snows; but, though it proves more furious in its course to the adjoining fields

7 These and the Senones were nations of Cisalpine Gaul. The Boii emigrated originally from Transalpine Gaul, by the Penine Alps, or the Pass of Great St. Bernard. They were completely subdued by Scipio Nasica in B.C. 191, when he destroyed half of their population, and deprived them of nearly half of their lands. They were ultimately driven from their settlements, and established themselves in the modern Bohe- mia, which from them takes its name. The Senones, who had taken the city of Rome in B.C. 390, were conquered and the greater part of them destroyed by the Consul Dolabella in B.C. 283.