BOOK III. \i. 100-103 



crossing to Greece, opposite to the town of Apol- 

 lonia," separated by an arm of the sea * not more 

 than 50 miles wide. King Pyrrhus of Epirus first 

 conceived the plan of canying a causeway over 

 this gap by throwing bridges across it, and after 

 him Marcus Varro had the same idea when command- 

 ing the fleets of Pompey in the Pirate War ; but both 

 were prevented by other commitments. After 

 Otranto comes the deserted site of Soletum, then 

 Fratuertium, the harbour of Taranto, the roadstead 

 of Miltope, Lecce, Baleso, Cavallo, and then Brindisi, 

 50 miles from Otranto, one of the most famous places 

 in Italy for its harbour and as offering a more certain 

 crossing albeit a longer one, ending at the city of 

 Durazzo in Illyria, a passage of 225 miles. 



Adjacent to Brindisi is the territory of the 

 PaedicuH,'^ whose tweh-e tribes were the descendants 

 of nine youths and nine maidens from the Illyrians. 

 The towns of the Paediculi are Ruvo, Agnazzo and 

 Bari ; thcir rivers are the lapyx, named from the son 

 of Daedalus, the king who also gives his name to the 

 lapvgian Point, the Pactius and the Aufidus, which 

 runs down from the Hirpini mountains and past 

 Canossa. 



Here begins Apuha, called Apuha of the Daunii, ApuHa, 

 who were named after their chief, the father-in-law 

 of Diomede ; in Apuha is the tovm of Salpi, famous 

 as the scene of Hannibars amour with a courtezan, 

 Sipontum, Uria, the river Cervaro marking the 

 boundaiy of the Daunii, the iiarbour of Porto 

 Greco, the promontory of Monte Gargano (the 

 distance round Gargano from the promontory of 

 Sallentinum or lapygia being 234 miles), the port of 

 Varano, the lake of Lesiiia, the river Frcnto which 



75 



