Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/280

246, all of which originate in the overflow of the waters in the Philistinian Canal, swollen by the streams of the Atesis, descending from the Tridentine Alps, and of the Togisonus , flowing from the territory of the Patavini. A portion of them also forms the adjoining port of Brundulum, in the same manner as Edron is formed by the two rivers Meduacus and the Clodian Canal. With the waters of these streams the Padus unites, and with them discharges itself into the sea, forming, according to most writers, between the Alps and the sea-shore a triangular figure, 2000 stadia in circumference, not unlike the Delta formed by the Nile in Egypt. I feel somewhat ashamed to have to borrow from the Greeks any statement in reference to Italy; Metrodorus of Scepsos, however, informs us that this river has obtained its name of Padus from the fact, that about its source there are great numbers of pine-trees, which in the Gallic language are called "padi." In the tongue of the Ligurians this river is called "Bodincus," which signifies "the bottomless." This derivation is in some measure supported by the fact that near this river there is the town of Industria, of which the ancient name was Bodincomagum, and where the river begins to be of greater depth than in other parts.

CHAP. 21. (17.) — THE ELEVENTH REGION OF ITALY; ITALIA TRANSPADANA.

From the river Padus the eleventh region receives its name of Transpadana; to which, situate as it is wholly in the interior, the river, by its bounteous channel, conveys the gifts of all the seas. The towns are Vibî Forum and