BOOK III. xviii. 127-XIX. 129 



authors, even including Nepos, who Hved on the 

 banks of the Po, that Istria takes its name from the 

 stream called Ister flowing out of the river Danube 

 (which also has the name of Ister) into the Adriatic, 

 opposite the mouths of the Po, and that their currents, 

 colhding from contrary directions, turn the interven- 

 ing sea into a pool of fresh water ; but these state- 

 ments are erroneous, for no river flows out of the 

 Danube into the Adriatic. I beheve that they have 

 been misled by the fact that the ship Argo came down 

 a river into the Adriatic not far from Trieste, but it 

 has not hitherto been decided what river this was. 

 More careful writers say that the Argo Avas portaged 

 on men's shoulders across the Alps, but that she had 

 come up the Ister and then the Save and then the 

 Nauportus,'' a stream rising between Emona and the 

 Alps, that has got its name from this occurrence. 



XIX. Istria projects in the form of a peninsula. istna. 

 Some authorities have given its breadth as 40 miles 

 and its circuit as 125 miles, and the same dimensions 

 for the adjoining territory of Liburnia and the 

 Flanatic Gulf;'' othcrs make it 225 miles, and 

 others give the circuit of Liburnia as 180 miles. 

 Some carry lapudia, at the back of Istria, as far as 

 the Flanatic Gulf, a distance of 130 miles, and 

 then make the circuit of Liburnia 150 miles. 

 Tuditanus,*^ who conquered the Istrians, inscribed 

 the following statement on his statue there : From 

 Aquileia to the river Keriko 2000 furlongs.^ Towns in 

 Istria with. the Roman citizenship are Aegida,* 

 Parenzo and the colony of Pola, the present Pietas 

 Juha, originally founded by the Colchians, and 105 

 miles from Trieste. Then comes the town of 

 Nesactium,/ and the river Arsa, now the frontier of 



95 



