Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/282

248 From Cato we also learn that Comum, Bergomum, and Licinîforum, and some other peoples in the vicinity, origin- ated with the Orobii, but he admits that he is ignorant as to the origin of that nation. Cornelius Alexander however informs us that they came from Greece, interpreting their name as meaning “those who live upon the mountains ." In this district, Parra has disappeared, a town of the Orobi, from whom, according to Cato, the people of Bergomum are descended; its site even yet shows that it was situate in a position more elevated than fruitful . The Caturiges have also perished, an exiled race of the Insubres, as also Spina previously mentioned; Melpum too, a place distinguished for its opulence, which, as we are informed by Cornelius Nepos, was destroyed by the Insubres, the Boii, and the Senones, on the very day on which Camillus took Veii.

CHAP. 22. (18.) — THE TENTH REGION OF ITALY.

We now come to the tenth region of Italy, situate on the Adriatic Sea. In this district are Venetia, the river Silis , rising in the Tarvisanian mountains, the town of

1 The modern Como and Bergamo stand on their sites.

2 From its name, signifying the "market of Licinius," it would appear to be of Roman origin. Its site is supposed to have been at a place called Incino, near the town of Erba, between Como and Lecco, where inscriptions and other antiquities have been found.

3 Deriving it from the Greek ὄρος, "a mountain," and βίος, "life."

4 "Etiamnum prodente se altius quam fortunatius situm." Hardouin seems to think that "se" refers to Cato, and that he informs us to that effect; but to all appearance, it relates rather to the town, which even yet, by its ruins, showed that it was perched too high among the moun- tains to be a fertile spot.

5 The district of the Veneti. These people, taking refuge in the ad- joining islands in the fifth century to escape the Huns under Attila, founded the modern city of Venice.

6 Now called the Sile, which flows past Trevigio or Treviso.

7 The mountainous district in the vicinity of Tarvisium, the modern Treviso.