Chap. 16.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 225 



CHJlP. 16. — THE SECOND EEGION OF ITALY. 



Adjoining to this district is the second region of Italy, which 

 embraces the Hirpini, Calabria, Apulia, and the Salentini, ex- 

 tending a distance of 250 miles along the Gulf of Tarentum, 

 which receives its name from a town of the Laconians so 

 called, situate at the bottom of the Gulf; to which was annexed 

 the maritime colony which had previously settled there. 

 Tarentum ' is distant from the promontory of Lacinium 136 

 miles, and throws out the territory of Calabria opposite to it 

 in the form of a penmaula. The Greeks called this territory 

 Messapia, from their leader^ ; before which it was called Peu- 

 cetia, from Peucetius', the brother of (Enotrius, and was 

 comprised in the territory of Salentinum. Between the 

 two promontories^ there is a distance of 100 miles. The 

 breadth across the peninsula from Tarentum' to Brundusium 

 by land is 35 miles, considerably less if measured from the 

 port of Sasina'. The towns inland from Tarentum are Vana' 

 sumamed Apulia, Messapia, and Aletium*; on the coast, 

 Senum, and Callipolis', now known as Anxa, 75 miles from 



year B.C. 326) was obliged to engage under unfavourable circumstanoes 

 near Pandosia, on the Acheron, and fell as he was crossing the river; 

 thus accomplisliing a prophecy of Dodona which had warned him to 

 beware of Pandosia and the Acheron. He was \uicle to Alexander the 

 Great, being the brother of Olympias. The site of Pandosia is supposed 

 to have been the modem Castro Franco. 



* This word is understood in the text, and Ansart would have it to 

 mean that the " Gulf of Tarentum is distant," &c., but, as he says, such 

 an assertion would be very indefinite, it not being stated what part of 

 the Gulf is meant. He therefore suggests that the most distant point 

 from Laeinium is meant ; which however, according to him, would make 

 but 117 miles straight across, and 160 by land. The city of Tarentum 

 would be the most distant point. 



' Messapus, a Bceotian, mentioned by Strabo, B. ix. 

 3 A son of Lycaon. 



* Of Laciniiun and Acra lapygia. About seventy miles seems to be 

 the real distance ; certainly not, as Pliny aays, 100. 



' The modem Taranto to Brindisi. 



^ Probably situate at the further extremity of the bay on which Ta- 

 rentum stood. 



7 According to D'Anville and Mannert, the modem Oria. Messapia 

 is the modem Mesagna. 



8 The modem Santa Maria deU' Alizza, according to D'Anville. 



5 The modem GtiUipoli, in the Terra di Otranto. The real distance 

 from Tarentum is between fifty and sixty miles. 



VOL. I. Q 



