The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Geography of Strabo Vol. I., translated by H. C. Hamilton.

1539 The limits of these barbarous nations were continually varying according to their success in war, in general, however, the Rhæti possessed the country of the Grisons, the Tyrol, and the district about Trent. The Lepontii possessed the Val Leventina. The Camuni the Val Camonica. The Vindelici occupied a portion of Bavaria and Suabia; on their west were the Helvetii or Swiss, and on the north the Boii, from whom they were separated by the Danube; these last people have left their name to Bohemia. The Norici possessed Styria, Carinthia, a part of Austria and Bavaria to the south of the Danube. The Breuni have given their name to the Val Braunia north of the Lago Maggiore; and the Genauni appear to have inhabited the Val Agno, between Lake Maggiore and the Lake of Como, although Strabo seems to place these people on the northern side of the Alps, towards the confines of Illyria.

1540 The people of Franche Comté.

1541 The Germans of Wirtemberg and Suabia.

1542 The Licattii appear to have inhabited the country about the Lech, and the Clautinatii that about the Inn; the Vennones the Val Telline.

1543 This disgusting brutality however is no more barbarous than the intention put by Homer into the mouth of Agamemnon, “the king of men,” which Scholiasts have in vain endeavoured to soften or excuse—

τῶν μήτις ὑπεκφύγοι αἰπὺν ὄλεθρον,
χεῖράς θ’ ἡμετέρας· μηδ’ ὅντινα γαστέρι μήτηρ
κοῦρον ἐόντα φέροι, μηδ’ ὃς φύγοι· ἀλλ’ ἅμα πάντες
Ἰλίου ἐξαπολοίατ’, ἀκήδεστοι καὶ ἄφαντοι.
Iliad vi. 57-60.

1544 This expedition of Tiberius took place in the eleventh year of the Christian era; Strabo therefore must have written his fourth book in the 44th year.

1545 The Carnic, or Julian Alps, is intended.

1547 There is, remarks Gosselin, a palpable mistake in this passage. We neither know of a river named the Isar nor yet the Atax discharging themselves into the Adriatic. Atesinus or Athesis are the ancient names of the Adige, but this river flows into the Adriatic, and not, as Strabo seems to say, into the Danube. The error of the text appears to result from a transposition of the two names made by the copyists, and to render it intelligible we should read thus:—“There is a lake from which proceeds the Atesinus, (or the Adige,) and which, after having received the Atax, (perhaps the Eisack, or Aicha, which flows by Bolzano,) discharges itself into the Adriatic. The Isar proceeds from the same lake, and [passing by Munich] discharges itself into the Danube.”

1548 Apparently the lake of Constance.

1549 The Black Forest.

1550 These two chains are in Murlaka, they are now named Telez and Fliez.

1551 The Traun or Würm.

1552 The Glan in Bavaria.

1553 The Julian Alps, and Birnbaumerwald.

1554 Probably Mödling.

1555 Auersperg, or the Flecken Mungava.

1556 Möttnig or Mansburg.

1557 Windisch Grätz, or Brindjel.

1559 The text reads Rhine, but we have, in common with Gosselin, followed the correction of Cluvier, Xylander, and Tyrwhitt.

1560 The Dacians occupied a part of Hungary, Transylvania, Wallachia, and a portion of Moldavia.

1561 Coray suggests Nauportus, now Ober-Laibach in Krain. This suggestion is extremely probable, however Pamportus occurs twice in the text.

1562 The river Laibach.

1563 The Pannonians occupied a portion of Austria and Hungary. The Taurisci, who formed part of the former people, inhabited Styria.

1565 The ancient Colapis.

1566 This is a description of the elk (cervus alces of Linn.). This animal no longer exists either in France or in the Alps.

1572 From Lyons this route passed by Vienne, Valence, Orange, and Avignon; here it separated, leading on one side to Tarascon, Nîmes, Beziers, and Narbonne, and on the other to Ailes, Aix, Marseilles, Fréjus, Antibes, &c.

1573 This other route, says Gosselin, starting from Aouste, traversed the Great Saint Bernard, Valais, the Rhone, a portion of the Vaud, Mount Jura, and so to Besançon and Langres, where it separated, the road to the right passing by Toul, Metz, and Trèves, approached the Rhine at Mayence; while that to the left passed by Troies, Châlons, Rheims, and Bavai, where it again separated and conducted by various points to the sea-coast.

1574 The Italians also went into Spain, and there engaged in working the mines. Vide Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. c. 36, 38.

1575 A mountain of Laconia.

1576 In Arcadia, some suppose it to be the modern Tetragi, others Diaphorti, and others Mintha.

1577 In Phocis, Iapara, or Liokura.

1578 Olympus is a mountain range of Thessaly, bordering on Macedonia, its summit is thirty miles north of Larissa, in lat. 40° 4′ 32″ N., long. 22° 25′ E. Its estimated height is 9745 feet.

1579 Petras or Zagora.

1580 Now Kissovo; it is situated to the east of the river Peneus, immediately north of Mount Pelion, and bounds the celebrated vale of Tempe on one side.

1581 Gosselin observes, both Polybius and Strabo extended the Alps from the neighbourhood of Marseilles to beyond the Adriatic Gulf, a distance twice 2200 stadia. It appeals probable from the words of Polybius himself, (lib. ii c. 14,) that he merely intended to state the length of the plains situated at the foot of the mountains, which bound Italy on the north, and in fact the distance in a right line from the foot of the Alps about Rivoli or Pignerol to Rovigo, and the marshes formed at the mouths of the Adige and Po, is 63 leagues, or 2200 stadia of 700 to a degree.

1582 This route passes from Tortona, by Vadi, Albinga, Vintimille, and Monaco, where it crosses the maritime Alps, and thence to Nice, Antibes, &c. Gosselin.

1583 This route passes by Briançon, Mont Genèvre, the Col de Sestrière, and the Val Progelas.

1584 The passage by the Val Aouste.

1585 This route, starting from Milan, passed east of the lake of Como by Coire, and then by Bregentz to the Lake of Constance.

1586 The Lago di Garda.

1588 Ticinus. We have followed the example of the French translators in making the Ticino to flow from the Lago Maggiore, and the Adda from the Lake of Como; by some inexplicable process the text of Strabo has been corrupted and these rivers transposed. Kramer notices the inconsistency of the text.

1589 The Lake of Como.

1590 The Gulf of Salerno.

1595 The peninsula occupied by the people named Brettii, or Bruttii.

1596 The peninsula now designated Terra di Lecce, and called by the ancients sometimes Iapygia, at others Messapia, Calabria, and Salentina. The isthmus of this peninsula was supposed to be formed by a line drawn from Brindisi to Taranto.

1597 The Gulf of Venice.

1598 The Sea of Tuscany.

1599 The Gulf of Salerno.

1601 The Mediterranean.

1602 Capo dell’ Armi.

1604 From the Heneti, whence is the race of wild mules. Iliad ii. 857.

1606 The Mediterranean.

1607 The whole of the coast from Ravenna to Aquileia at the bottom of the Gulf of Venice is still covered with marshes and lagoons, as it was in the time of Strabo. The largest of these lagoons are at the mouths of the Po, the others at the mouths of the torrents which descend from the Alps.

1609 Apparently a mistake for Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus; we are unacquainted with any Caius Scipio.

1610 The Lake of Como.

1611 The source of the Adda is at the foot of Mount Braulio; the three sources of the Rhine issue from Mounts St. Bernardin, St. Barnabé, and Crispalt, at a considerable distance from the source of the Adda.

1613 This appears to have been the last census of the three taken under the reign of Augustus. The first occurred in the year of Rome 726, twenty-eight years before the Christian era; the number of citizens then amounted to 4,064,000, or, according to Eusebius, 4,011,017. The second was in the year of Rome 746, eight years before the Christian era; the number of citizens was then found to be 4,163,000. The third census was in the year of Rome 767, in the fourteenth year of the Christian era; the number of citizens at this time was 4,037,000, according to the monument of Ancyra, but according to Eusebius, 9,070,000.

1615 The Bacchiglione.

1616 ξυλοπαγὴς ὅλη. We have followed the rendering of the French translators; however, Guarini, Buonaccivoli, Xylander, Siebenkees, and Bréquigny, all understand Strabo to mean that the city was built entirely of wood.

1623 About the year 186 before the Christian era.

1624 Friesach in Steiermark.

1625 113 years before the Christian era.

1626 S. Giovanni del Carso.

1627 The present Timavo.

1629 The three islands of Tremiti, namely Domenico, Nicola, and Caprara, opposite Monte Gargano.

1631 Phaethusa, Lampetie, and Lampethusa. See Virg. Ecl. vi. 62; Æn. x. 190; Ovid Met. ii.

1632 Either this passage has undergone alteration, or else Strabo is the only writer who informs us that certain mythological traditions distinguished the Eridanus from the Po, placing the former of these rivers in the vicinity of the latter. The père Bardetti thinks the Greeks originally confounded the Eretenus, a tributary of the Po, with the name Eridanus.

1633 Probably Guinea-hens.

1634 Strabo seems here to doubt that the Electrides islands ever existed, but the French translators, in a very judicious note, have explained that the geographical features of the country about the mouths of the Po had undergone very considerable changes on account of the immense alluvial deposit brought down from the mountains by that river, and suggest that these islands had been united to the mainland long before Strabo’s time, for which reason he would not be able to verify the ancient traditions. Even at the present day the Cavalier Negrelli is employing his celebrated engineering science in making the communication between the Po and the Adriatic navigable, and so rendering the countries bordering on the Ticino, Adda, Mincio, Trebbia, Panono, and the adjacent lakes accessible to steam-boats from the Adriatic.

1635 The Timavum, or temple consecrated to Diomede.

1636 The Isola di Brioni, Conversara, and S. Nicolo. Pliny calls them Insulæ Pullariæ.

1637 This name is probably corrupt; Coray proposes to read Insubri.

1639 The Umbrians, or Umbri, of Roman History.

1644 Probably corrupt.

1645 Reggio in Modena.

1646 Between Parma and Modena, the Val di Montirone and Orte Magrada.

1651 Probably Pisatello.

1657 Acqui, on the left bank of the Bormia.

1659 Δουρίας.

1660 The ancient Druentia.

1661 Transalpine Gaul.

1662 From here to the word Derthon the text appears to be corrupt.

1664 Cluvier proposes to read “from Placentia to Parma;” he has been followed throughout the passage by the French translators.

1665 M. Æmilius Scaurus.

1666 Strabo here falls into a mistake in attributing to C. Flaminius Nepos, who was consul in the year of Rome 567, 187 years before the Christian era, the construction of the Via Flaminia which led from the Portus Flumentana to the city of Ariminum. According to most Latin authors, this grand route was formed by C. Flaminius Nepos, censor in the year of Rome 534, and 220 years before the Christian era (the same who three years afterwards was slain at the battle of Thrasymenus). Livy, whose authority is certainly of great weight, speaking of the grand road made by C. Flaminius Nepos, consul in the year of Rome 567, states expressly that it led from Bologna to Arezzo. Hist. lib. xxxix. § 2.

1668 Maffei proposes to substitute Placentia for Aquileia.

1669 Cisalpine Gaul.

1670 The ancient Æsis, now Esino, named also Fiumesino.

1671 Probably the Pisatello.

1673 The Scultanna of antiquity.

1675 A kind of cassock with long hair.

1676 Probably Victimolo.

1678 Gallia Cispadana.

1679 Ὀμβρικὴ, now Ombria.

1680 Or nearest to the Adriatic.

1682 Larcher calculates that it was about the year of Rome 91, or 663 years before the Christian era, that Demaratus, flying from the tyranny of Cypselus at Corinth, established himself in Tyrrhenia.

1683 Strabo here mentions only one son of Demaratus, to whom he gives the name of Lucumo; in this latter statement he is supported by Dionysius Halicarnassius. Livy also mentions a young citizen of Clusium named Lucumo. But there is reason to believe that these three writers were deceived by the writers whom they followed. It seems to be incontestable that Lucumo was the designation of the chief of each of the twelve cities of Etruria.

1684 Dionysius Halicarnassius relates that after a brisk war the cities of Etruria submitted to Tarquinius Priscus, and that the Romans permitted him to accept this foreign royalty, and still hold the throne of Rome. No historian that we are aware of, with the exception of Strabo, mentions the benefits received by Etruria from that prince.

1687 The people of Cerveteri.

1688 This is also related by Livy and Valerius Maximus.

1689 A Grecian form of salutation, equivalent to our “good-morning.”

1690 Cæri, according to Holstenius, the Bagni di Sasso, Cluvier considered it Bagni di Stigliano.

1691 Odyssey xix. 175. And there is a different language of different men mixed together; there are in it Achaians, and magnanimous Eteocretans, and Cydonians, and crest-shaking Dorians, and divine Pelasgians.