164 History of Nature. [BooK III. 



we do in this Part : only I pray the Readers to remember 

 that I hasten to rehearse every particular Thing through 

 the whole Globe. 



Italy is fashioned like to an Oak leaf, being much larger 

 in Length than in Breadth: to the left Side bending with 

 the Top, and ending in the Figure of an Amazonian Shield : 

 and where, from the middle Extension, it is called Cocin- 

 thos, it putteth forth through two moonshaped Promontories 

 two Horns : the one, Leucopetra, on the right Hand ; the other, 

 Lacinium, on the left. In Length it reacheth from the Foot 

 of the Alps to Prsetoria Augusta, through the City of Rome, 

 and so to Capua, with a course leading to Rhegium, a Town 

 situated upon the Shoulder thereof: from which beginneth 

 the bending, as it were, of the Neck, and beareth 1020 

 Miles. And this Measure would be much more if it went 

 as far as Lacinium ; but such an Obliquity might seem to 

 decline out too much to one Side. Its Breadth is various ; 

 being 410 Miles between the two Seas, the Higher and 

 the Lower, and the Rivers Varus and Arsia. The middle 

 portions of this Breadth, which is much about the City of 

 Rome, from the Mouth of the River Aternus running into 

 the Adriatic Sea, unto the Mouths of Tiber, 136 Miles; and 

 somewhat less from Novum Castrum by the Adriatic Sea, to 

 Alsium, and so to the Tuscan Sea : and in no Place ex- 

 ceedeth it in Breadth 300 Miles. But the full Compass of 

 the whole, from Varus to Arsia, is 20,049 Miles. It is 

 distant by Sea from the Lands round about, that is, from 

 Istria and Liburnia, in some Places 100 Miles; from Epirus 

 and Illyricuni, 50 Miles ; from Africa, less than 200, as Varro 

 affirmeth ; from Sardinia, 120 Miles ; from Sicily, a Mile and 

 a half ; from Corey ra, less than 70 ; from tssa, 50. It goeth 

 along the Seas even to the Meridional Line of the Heaven ; 

 but if a Man examine it very exactly, it lieth between the 

 Sun-rising in Mid-winter, and the Point of the Meridian. 



Now we will describe the Circuit of this Country, and 

 reckon the Cities : wherein it is necessary to be premised, 

 that we shall follow our Author Divus Augustus, and the 

 Description by him made of all Italy ; arranged into eleven 



