Chap. 6.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 181 



whom we have Etniria, Umbria, Latiiim, Avhere the mouths of 

 tlie Tiber are situate, aud Eome, the Capital of the world, 

 sixteen miles distant from the sea. We then oouie to the 

 coasts of the Volsci and of Campania, and the districts of 

 Picenum, of Lucania, and of Bruttium, where Italy extends 

 the farthest in a southerly direction, and projects into the 

 [two] seas with the chain of the Alps', which tliere forms 

 pretty nearly the shape of a crescent. Leading Bruttium 

 we come to the coast of [Magna] Graecia, tiien the Salentini, 

 the Pediculi, the Apuli, the Peligni, the Frentani, the Mar- 

 rucini, the Vestini, the Sabini, the Picentes, the Galli, the 

 Umbri, the Tusci, the Veneti, the Carni, the lapydes, the 

 Histri, and the Liburni. 



1 am by no means unaware that I might be justly accused 

 of ingratitude and indolence, were I to describe thus briefly 

 and in so cursory a manner the land which is at once the 

 foster-child- and the parent of all lands; chosen by the pro- 

 vidence of the Gods to render even heaven itself more glori- 

 ous'', to unite the scattered empires of the earth, to bestow a 

 polish upon men's manners, to unite the discordant and un- 

 couth dialects of so many different nations by the powerful 

 ties of one common language, to confer the enjoyments of 

 discourse and of civilization upon mankind, to become, in 

 short, the mother-country of all nations of the Earth. 



But how shall I commence this undertaking ? So vast is 

 the ninnber of celebrated places (what man living could 

 eiumierate them all?), and so great the renown attached 

 to each individual nation and subject, that 1 feel myself quite 



sidcration when we proceed, in c. 7, to a more minute description of 

 Italy. 



^ This passage is somewhat confused, and may possibly be in a corrupt 

 state. He here speaks of the Apennine Alps. By the "lunata juga" 

 he means the two pi-omontorics or capes, which extend east and west 

 re<]iectively. 



2 This seems to be the meaning of " alumna," and not " nurse" or 

 "foster-mother," as Ajaisson's translation lias it. Pliny probably m\- 

 plies by this antithesis that Rome has been " twice blessed," in receiving 

 the bounties of all nations of the world, tjnd in lieing able to bestow a 

 connnensurate retiu'n. Compared whh tliis itiea, "at once the nui'se and 

 niotlier of the world" would be tame indeed! 



3 By adding its dt-ified emperors to tlie number of its divinities. After 

 what Pliny has said in his Second Book, tliis looks very much hke pure 

 adulation. 



