20R PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTOEY. [Book III. 



have been possessed by the Pelasgi, the (Enotrii, the Itali, 

 the Morgetes, the Siculi, and more especially by people who 

 emigrated from Greece \ and, last of all, by the Lencani, a 

 people sprung from the Samnites, who took possession under 

 the command of Lucius. We find here the town of Paestum", 

 which received from the Greeks the name of Posidonia, the 

 Gulf of Psestum^, the town of Elea, now known as Velia ^, 

 and the Promontory of Palinurum*, a point at which the land 

 falls inwards and forms a bay®, the distance across which to 

 the pillar' of Rhegium is 100 miles. Next after Palinurum 

 comes the river Melpes*, then the town of Buxentum', 

 called in [Magna] Graecia Pyxus, and the river Laus ; there 

 was formerly a town*" also of the same name. 



At this spot begins the coast of Bruttium, and we come 

 to the town of Blanda", the river Batum*^, Parthenius, a 

 port of the Phocians, the bay of Vibo", the place *^ where 



* " OrcBcisB maxime populi." This may also be rendered " a people 

 who mostly emigrated from Greece," in reference to the Sicxili or Sici- 

 lians, but the other is probably the correct translation. 



^ A town of Lucania, colonized by the Sybarites about B.C. 524. In 

 the time of Augustus it seems to have been principally famous for the 

 exquisite beauty of its roses. Its ruins are extremely magnificent. 



3 Now the Golfo di Salerno. 



* A Greek town foundcjd by the Phocajans. It was the birth-place of 

 tha philosophers Parmenides andZeno, who founded a school of philosophy 

 known as the Eleatic. Castell' a Mare della Brucca stands on its site. 



^ Now Capo di Palinuro ; said to have received its name from Pah- 

 nurus, the pilot of jEneas, who fell into the sea there and was murdered 

 by the natives. See Virgil, ^neid, B. vi. 1. 381 ei seq. 



^ Now the Golfo di PoUcastro. 



7 This tower or column was erected in the vicinity of Rhegium on the 

 Straits of Sicily. It was 100 stadia, or about eight miles, from the town, 

 and at it passengers usually embarked for Sicily. The spot is now called 

 Torre di Carallo. ^ Now the Faraone. 



9 A Greek colony. The present PoUcastro occupies very nearly its 

 site. It seems to have received its name from the cultivation of box 

 tre3s in its vicinity. 



10 Or more properly Laos, originally a Greek colony. In the vicinity 

 is the modern town of Laino, and the river is called the Lao. 



1' Ptolemy mentions it as an inland town, and Livy speaks of it as a 

 Lucanian city. It probably stood near the modem Maratea, twelve miles 

 south-east of PoUcastro. ^^ xhe modem Bato. 



13 The bay of Bivona, formerly Vibo, the Italian name for the Greek 

 oity of Hippo or Hippona. On its site stands the modem Bivona. 



" '* Locus Clampetiffi." Clampetia or Lampetia stood in the vicinity 



