BOOK III.] History of Nature. 167 



go : as Tinia and Glanis, which run into him ; and which 

 require nine Days for the collection of Waters, and so are kept 

 in for running if they have no Help from Rain. But Tiber, 

 hy reason of the rough and rugged Channel, notwithstanding 

 that Device, holdeth on no long Course together, but only 

 for Troughs, more truly than Boats ; and thus it doth for 

 150 Miles, to not far from Tifernum, Perusia, and Otriculum : 

 dividing as it passeth Hetruria from the Umbri and Sa- 

 bini : and presently, within thirteen Miles of the City 

 (Rome), it parteth the Veientian country from the Crustu- 

 mine: and soon after, the Fidenate and Latin Territories from 

 the Labican. But, besides Tinia and Glanis, it is augmented 

 with forty-two Rivers ; and especially with Nar and Anio : 

 which River being also itself Navigable, encloseth Latium 

 from behind, and that notwithstanding so many Waters 

 and Fountains are brought thereby into the City ; whereby 

 it is able to receive large Ships from the Italian Sea, being 

 the kindest Merchant of Things growing in the whole World : 

 it is the only River of all others to speak of, and more Vil- 

 lages stand upon it and see it, than all other Rivers in any 

 lands soever. No River hath less Liberty than it, as having 

 the Sides thereof enclosed on both Hands ; and yet he doth 

 not resist, although he hath many and sudden Swellings, 

 and in no Place more than in the City itself do his Waters 

 overflow : yet is he taken to be a Prophet rather, and a 

 Counsellor, and in Swelling more truly Religious than Cruel. 

 Old Latium, from Tiber to Circeios, was observed to be in 

 Length fifty Miles; so slender were at first the Roots of 

 this Empire. The Inhabitants thereof changed often, and 

 held it, some one time, some another; that is, the Abo- 

 rigines, Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, Aurunci, and Rutili. And 

 beyond Circeios, the Volsci, Osci, Ausones, from whence the 

 Name of Latium reached soon after, as far as to the River 

 Liris. In the beginning of it standeth Ostia, a Colony, 

 brought thither by a Roman King : the Town Laurentum, 

 the Grove of Jupiter Indiges, the River Numicius, and Ardea, 

 built by Dande, the Mother of Perseus. Then the Colony 

 Antium, once Aphrodisium ; Astura, the River and the 



