266 PLI2« r S K^ATUEAL HISTOET. [Book III. 



The coast of lUyricum is clustei«ed with more than 1000 

 islands, the sea being of a shoaly nature, and numerous 

 creeks and sestuaries running with their narrow channels 

 between portions of the land. The more famous are those 

 before the mouths of the Timayus, with warm springs^ that 

 rise with the tides of the sea, the island of Cissa near the 

 territory of the Istri, and the Pullaria" and Absyrtides^, so 

 called by the Greeks from the circumstance of Absyrtus, 

 the brother of Medea, having been slain there. Some islands 

 near them have been called the Electrides'', upon which 

 amber, which they call "electrum," was said to be found; 

 a most assured instance however of that untruthful- 

 ness^ which is generally ascribed to the Glreeks, seeing 

 that it has never j^et been ascertained which of the islands 

 were meant by them under that name. Opposite to the lader 

 is Lissa, and other islands whose names have been already 

 mentioned^ Opposite to the Liburni are some islands 

 called the Cratese, and no smaller number styled Liburnicse 

 and Celadussse''. Opposite to Surium is Bavo, and Brattia^, 



^ Now called the Bagni di Monte Falcone. See B. ii. c. 106. 



2 Now called Cherso and Osero, oiF the lUyrian coast. Ptolemy 

 mentions only one, Apsorrus, on which he places a town of that name 

 and another called Crepsa. The Pullaria are now called Li Brioni, in 

 the Sinus Flanaticus, opposite the city of Pola. ^ gee p. 258. 



^ In B. xxxvu. c. 11, he again mentions this chcumstance, and states 

 that some writers have placed them in the Adi-iatic opposite the mouths 

 of the Padus. Scymnus of Chios makes mention of them in conjunction 

 with the Absyrtides. This confusion probably arose from the fact pre- 

 viously noted that the more ancient writers had a confused idea that the 

 Ister communicated with the Adriatic, at the same tune mistaking it pro- 

 bably for the Vistula, which flows into the Baltic. At the mouth of this 

 last-mentioned river, there were Electrides or " amber- bearing " islands. 



^ " Yanitatis." ^ Crexa, Grissa, and Coleutum, in c. 25. 



^ According to Brotier, these are situate between the islands of Zuri 

 and Sebenico, and are now called Kasvan, Capri, Smolan, Tihat, Sestre, 

 Pai'vich, Zlarin, &c. Some writers however suggest that there were 

 no islands called Celadu.ss8e, and that the name in Phny is a corruption of 

 Dyscelados inPomponiusMela; which in its turn is supposed to have been 

 invented from what was really an epithet of Issa, in a line of Apollonius 

 E-hodius, B. iv. 1. 565. 'lo-crd re dvaKcXados, " and inauspicious Issa." 

 See Brunck's remarks on the passage. 



^ Now Brazza. According to Brotier the island is stiU celebrated 

 for the delicate flavour of tbe flesh of its goats and lambs. Issa is now 

 called Lissa, and Pharia is the modern Lesina. Baro, now Bua, lies ofi" 



