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PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.
[Book III.

Tarentum. Thence, at a distance of 32 miles, is the Promontory of Acra Iapygia[1], at which point Italy projects the greatest distance into the sea. At a distance of 19 miles from this point is the town of Basta[2], and then Hydruntum[3], the spot at which the Ionian is separated from the Adriatic sea, and from which the distance across to Greece is the shortest. The town of the Apolloniates[4] lies opposite to it, and the breadth of the arm of the sea which runs between is not more than fifty miles. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was the first who entertained the notion of uniting these two points and making a passage on foot, by throwing a bridge across, and after him M. Varro[5], when commanding the fleet of Pompey in the war against the Pirates. Other cares however prevented either of them from accomplishing this design. Passing Hydruntum, we come to the deserted site of Soletum[6], then Fratuertium, the Portus Tarentinus, the haven of Miltopa, Lupia[7], Balesium[8], Cælia[9], and then Brundusium[10], fifty miles from Hydruntum. This last place is

  1. The "Iapygian Point," the present Capo di Santa Maria di Leuca.
  2. Its site is occupied by the little village of Vaste near Poggiordo, ten miles S.W. of Otranto. In the sixteenth century considerable remains of Basta were still to be seen.
  3. The modern Otranto stands on its site. In the fourth century it became the usual place of passage from Italy to Greece, Apollonia, and Dyrrhachium. Few vestiges of the ancient city are now to be seen.
  4. Anciently Apollonia, in Illyria, now called Pallina or Pollona.
  5. This was M. Terentius Varro, called "the most learned of the Romans." His design, here mentioned, seems however to have evinced neither learning nor discretion.
  6. Now called Soleto. The ruins of the ancient city, described by Galateo as existing at Muro, are not improbably those of Fratuertium, or, perhaps more rightly, Fratuentum.
  7. The modern Lecce is supposed to occupy its site.
  8. Called Valetium by Mela. Its ruins are still to be seen near San Pietro Vernotico, on the road from Brindisi to Lecce. The site is still called Baleso or Valesio.
  9. Ansart takes this to be the modern village of Cavallo, on the promontory of that name; but it is more probably the modern Ceglie, situate on a hill about twelve miles from the Adriatic, and twenty-seven miles west of Brindisi. Extensive ruins still exist there. There was another town of the same name in the south of Apulia.
  10. Now Brindisi. Virgil died here. The modern city, which is an impoverished place, presents but few vestiges of antiquity. The distance to Dyrrhachium is in reality only about 100 miles.