BOOK III. V. 59-62 



Sinuessa, the last tovn in the Extension of Latium, 

 and stated by some authorities to have becn once 

 styled Sinope. 



Thcn comcs the favoured country of Campania ; Campania. 

 in this valley begin those vine-clad hills with their 

 glorious ^^nne and wassail, famous all the world over, 

 and (as old writers have said) the scene of the severest 

 competition between Father Liber and Ceres. From 

 this point stretch the territories of Sezza and Caecu- 

 bum, with which march the Falernian and those of 

 Cahi. Then rise up Monte Massico, Monte Barbaro 

 and the hills of Sorrento. Here spread the plains of 

 Leborium. where the wheat crop is sedulously tended 

 to produce dcHcious frumity. These shores are 

 watered by hot springs, and are noted beyond all 

 others throughout the whole of the sea for their 

 famous shell and other fish. Nowhere is there nobler 

 ohve oil — another competition to gratify man's 

 pleasure. Its occupants have been Oscans, Greeks, 

 Umbrians, Tuscans and Campanians. On the coast 

 are the river Saove, the town of Volturno with the 

 river of the same name, Liternum, the Chalcidian 

 colony of Ciunae, Miseno, the port of Baiae, Bacolo, 

 the Lucrine lake, Lake Averno near which fonnerly 

 stood the to^^Ti of Cimmerium, then PozzuoH, formerly 

 called the Colony of Dicaearchus ; after which come 

 the plains of Salpatara and the Lago di Fusaro near 

 Cumae. On the coast stands Naples, itself also a 

 colony of the Chalcidians, named Parthenope from 

 the tomb of one of the Sirens, Herculaneum, Pompei 

 with Mount Vesuvius in view not far off and watered 

 by the river Sarno, the Nucerian territory and nine 

 miles from the sea Nocera itself, and Sorrento with 

 the promontory of Minerva that once was the abode 



47 



