208 PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTORY. [Book III. 



have been possessed by tlie Pelasgi, the CEnotrii, the Itali, 

 the Morgetes, the Siculi, and more especially by people who 

 emigrated from Grreece\ and, last of all, by the Leucani, a 

 people sprung from the Samnites, who took possession under 

 the command of Lucius. We find here the town of Psestum^, 

 which received from the Grreeks the name of Posidonia, the 

 Gulf of P£estum^ the town of Elea, now known as Velia ^ 

 and the Promontory of Palinurum^, a point at which the land 

 falls inwards and forms a bay^ the distance across which to 

 the pillar^ of Rhegium is 100 miles. Next after Palinurum 

 comes the river Melpes^ then the to^mi of Buxentum^, 

 called in [Magna] G-raecia Pyxus, and the river Laus ; there 

 was formerly a town^° also of the same name. 



At this spot begins the coast of Bruttium, and we come 

 to the town of Blanda^\ the river Batum^^ Parthenius, a 

 port of the Phocians, the bay of Yibo^^ the place ^^ where 



1 " Grrsecise maxime popiili." This may also be rendered " a people 

 who mostly emigrated from Grreece," in reference to the Siculi or Sici- 

 lians, but the other is probably the correct translation. 



- A town of Lucania, colonized by the Sybarites about B.C. 524. In 

 the time of Augustus it seems to have been prmcipally famous for the 

 exquisite beauty of its roses. Its ruins are extremely magnificent. 



3 Now the Golfo di Salerno. 



< A Grreek town fomided by the Phocseans. It was the birth-place of 

 the philosophers Parmenides andZeno, who founded a school of philosophy 

 known as the Eleatic. CasteU' a Mare della Brucca stands on its site. _ 



s Now Capo di Pahnuro ; said to have received its name from Pati- 

 nurus, the pilot of JEneas, who fell into the sea there and was murdered 

 by the natives. See Vu^gil, ^neid, B. vi. 1. 381 et seq. 



6 Now the Golfo di Pohcastro. 



7 This tower or column was erected iu the vicuiity of Ehegium on the 

 Straits of Sicily. It was 100 stadia, or about eight miles, from the town, 

 and at it passengers usually embarked for Sicily. The spot is now called 

 Torre di Carallo. ^ Now the Paraone. 



9 A Greek colony. The present Pohcastro occupies very nearly its 

 site. It seems to have received its name from the cultivation of box 

 trees in its vicinity. 



10 Or more properly Laos, originally a Greek colony. In the vicinity 

 is the modern town of Laino, and the river is called the Lao. 



" Ptolemy mentions it as an inland town, and Livy speaks of it as a 

 Lucanian city. It probably stood near the modern Maratea, twelve miles 

 south-east of Pohcastro. ^' The modern Bato. 



13 The bay of Bivona, formerly Yibo, the Itahan name for the Greek 

 oity of Hippo or Hippona. On its site stands the modern Bivona. 



^'^ " Locus Clampetise." Clampetia or Lampetia stood in the vicinity 



