Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/401

 Cliap. 36.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 3G7 cienses tlie Mirobrigenses, siimamed^ Celtici, the Medu- brigenses^, suriianied Plumbarii, the Ocelenses"* or Lauci- enses, the Turduli, also called Barduli, and the Tapori. Agrippa states, that Lusitaiiia, with Asturia and Galhecia, is 540 miles in length, and 536 in breadth. The pro- vinces of Spain, measiu'ed from the two extreme* promontories of the P^Tcnees, along the sea-line of the entire coast, are thought to be 3922 miles in circumference ; while some writers make them to be but 2600. CHAP. 36. — THE ISLANDS IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. Opposite to Celtiberia are a number of islands, by the Greeks called Cassiterides^in consequence of their abounding in tin : and, facing the Promontory^ of the Arrotreba?, are the six Islands of the Gods, which some persons have called the Fortunate Islands^. At the very commencement ^ Mannert is of opinion that the city of Lancia was situate in the north of Lusitania, on the river Durius, or Douro, near the modern Zamora. 2 To distinguish them from the IMirobrigenses, sumamcd Turduli, mentioned in B. iii. c. 3. Some writers think that this Mii-obriga is the present Ciudad Eodrigo ; but Ambrose Morales takes it to be the place called Malabriga, in the vicinity of that city. 3 The name of Medubriga was afterwards Aramenha, of which Har- douin says the ruins only were to be seen. They were probably called JPlumharii, from lead mines in their vicmity. ■* According to Hardouin, Ocelum was in the vicroity of the modem Capara. » From Cape de Creuz to the Promontory between the cities of Fon- tarabia and Saint Sebastian. ^ From the Greek jcacrcrtrepos, " tin." It is generally supposed that the " Tin Islands" were the Scilly Isles, in the vicinity of Cornwall. At the same time the Greek and Koman geographers, borrowing their knowlodgo from the accounts probably of the Phoenician merchants, soem to have had a very indistinct notion of their precise locality, antl to have thought them to be nearer to Spain than to Britain. Thus we fhid Strabo, in B. iii., saying, that " the Cassiterides are ten in number, lying near eacli other in the ocean, towards the rxorih. from the haven of the Ariabri." From a comparison of the accounts, it would almost ajjpear that the ancient geographers confused the Scilly Islands with the Azores, as those, who enter into any detail, attribute to the Cassiterides the characteristics almost as much of the Azores and the sea in their vicinity, aa of the Scilly Islands. 7 Capo Finisterre. 8 Or the " Islands of the Blest." Wo cannot do better than quote a