Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/348

 334 STRABO. CASATJB. 225. sessors of the island, who were Tyrrhenians. Afterwards the Phoenicians of Carthage became masters of the island, and, "assisted by the inhabitants, carried on war against the Romans ; but after the subversion of the Carthaginians, the Romans became masters of the whole. There are four nations of moun- taineers, the Parati, Sossinati, Balari, and the Aconites. These people dwell in caverns. Although they have some arable land, they neglect its cultivation, preferring rather to plunder what they find cultivated by others, whether on the island or on the continent, where they make descents, especially upon the Pisatse. The prefects sent [into Sardinia] sometimes resist them, but at other times leave them alone, since it would cost too dear to maintain an army always on foot in an unhealthy place : they have, however, recourse to the arts of stratagem, and taking advantage of the custom of the barbarians, who always hold a great festival for several days after returning from a plundering expedition, they then fall upon them, and capture many. There are rams here which, instead of wool, have hair resembling that of a goat ; they are called musmones, and the inhabitants make corselets of their hides. They like- wise arm themselves with a pelta and a small sword. 8. Along the whole coast between Poplonium and Pisa these islands are clearly visible ; they are oblong, and all three nearly parallel, 1 running towards the south and Libya. JEtha- lia is by far smaller than either of the other two. The chorographer says that the shortest passage from Libya to Sardinia is 300 2 miles. After Poplonium is the city of Cossae, situated at a short distance from the sea : there is at the head of the bay a high hill upon which it is built ; below it lies the port of Hercules, 3 and near to it a marsh formed by the sea. 4 At the summit of the cape which commands the gulf is a look- out for thunnies ; for the thunny pursues his course along the coast, from the Atlantic Ocean as far as Sicily, in search not only of acorns, but also of the fish which furnishes the purple dye. As one sails along the coast from Cossse to Ostia 1 That is, Corsica and Sardinia run in a line north and south, and Elba lies to one side ; the Trapa'XXqXoi <rx^ov at rptig is an example showing how happily a circumstance may be expressed in Greek, while no amount of labour will adapt an English equivalent. 2 The real distance, according to Gosselin, is 1 1 5 miles. 3 Porto Ercole. * The Stagno d'Orbitello.