248 
PLIIfX'S NATUEAL HISTORY. 
[Book III. 
From Cato we also learn that Comum, Bergomuin\ and 
Liciniforum^, and some other peoples in the vicinity, origin- 
ated with the Orobii, but he admits that he is ignorant as 
to the origin of that nation. Cornelius Alexander however 
informs us that they came from Greece, interpreting their 
name as meaning "those who live upon the mountains^." 
In this district, Parra has disappeared, a town of the Orobii, 
from whom, according to Cato, the people of Bergomum are 
descended ; its site even yet shows that it was situate in a 
position more elevated than fruitful. The Caturiges have 
also perished, an exiled race of the Insubres, as also Spina 
previously mentioned; Melpum too, a place distinguished 
for its opulence, which, as we are informed by Cornelius 
Nepos, was destroyed by the Insubres, the Boii, and the 
Senones, on the very day on which Camillus took Yeii, 
CHAP. 22. (18.) — THE TEIS^TH BEGIOTT OE ITALY. 
"We now come to the tenth region of Italy, situate on the 
Adriatic Sea. In this district are Venetia*^ the river Silis^, 
rising in the Tarvisanian^ mountains, the town of Alti- 
residence of his colleague Maximianus, and continued to be the abode of 
the Emperors of the West till it was plundered by Attila, who transferred 
the seat of government to Ravenna. It afterwards became the capital of 
the kingdom of the Ostro-Groths, and was again sacked by the Goths in 
A.D. 539, and its inhabitants put to the sword. The present city, known 
to us as Milan, contains no remains of antiquity. 
1 The modern Como and Bergamo stand on their sites. 
2 From its name, signifying the " market of Licinius," it would appear 
to be of Roman origin. Its site is supposed to have been at a place 
called Incino, near the town of Erba, between Como and Lecco, where 
inscriptions and other antiquities have been found. 
^ Deriving it from the Grreek opos, "a mountain," and /3/os, "life." 
* " Etiamnum prodente se altius quam fortunatius situm." Hardouin. 
seems to think that " se" refers to Cato, and that he informs us to that 
effect ; but to all appearance, it relates rather to the town, which even 
yet, by its ruins, showed that it was perched too high among the moun- 
tains to be a fertile spot. 
^ The district of the Yeneti. These people, taking refuge in the ad- 
joining islands in the fifth century to escape the Huns under Attila, 
founded the modern city of Venice. 
^ Now called the Sile, which flows past Trevigio or Treviso. 
^ The mountainous district in the vicinity of Tarvisium, the modern 
Treviso. 
