250 PLTIfT's IS'ATTJEAL HISTORY. [Book III. 



fortress of Pucinum^ famous for its wines, the Gulf of Ter- 

 geste", and the colony of that name, thirty-three miles from 

 Aquileia. Six miles beyond this place lies the river Formio^, 

 189 miles distant from Eavenna, the ancient boundary^ of 

 enlarged Italy, and now the frontier of Istria. That this 

 region takes its name from the river Ister which flows from 

 the Danube, also called the Ister, into the Adriatic opposite 

 the mouth of the Padus, and that the sea which lies between 

 them is rendered fresh by their waters running from opposite 

 directions, has been erroneously asserted by many, and among 

 them by Nepos even, who dwelt upon the banks of the Padus. 

 Por it is the fact that no river which runs from the Danube 

 discharges itself into the Adriatic. They have been misled, 

 I think, by the circumstance that the ship Argo came down 

 some river into the Adriatic sea, not far from Tergeste ; 

 but what river that was is now unknown. The most careful 

 ■writers say that the ship was carried across the Alps on 

 men's shoulders, having passed along the Ister, then along 

 the SavLis, and so from Nauportus% which place, lying be- 

 tween ^mona*^ and the Alps, from that circumstance derives 

 its name. 



1 Castel Duino stands on its site. It wiU be found again mentioned 

 in B. xi^. C. 8, for the excellence of its wines. 



2 Now the Gulf of Trieste. Tergeste was previously an insignificant 

 place, but made a Boman colony by Yespasian. The modern city of 

 Trieste occupies its site. 



3 Most probably the modem Bisano. Cluver and D'AnvUle are of 

 that opmion, but Walckenaer tliinks that it was a small stream near 

 Muja Vecchia ; wliich seems however to be too near Trieste. 



"* In the time of Augustus, and before Istria was added as a province 

 to Italy. 



5 He alludes to an old tradition that the Argonauts sailed mto the 

 Ister or Danube, and then into the Save, till they oame to the spot where 

 the modern town of Upper Laybach stands, and that here they built 

 Nauportus, after which they carried their ship across the mountains on 

 men's shoulders into the Adriatic. He intends to suggest therefore that 

 the place had its name from the G-reek vavs "a sliip" and TropOnos "a 

 passage." 



^ The modern town of Laybach stands on its site. It is situate on 

 the Save, and on the road from Aquileia to Celeia. The Boman remains 

 prove that the ancient city exceeded the modern one in magnitude. Ac- 

 tjording to tradition it was founded by the Argonauts. It subsequently 

 became a Boman colony, with the title of Julia Augusta. It is again 

 mentioned in C. 28. 



