Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/277

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Chap. 20.]
ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC.
243

enses[1], who take their name from Lepidus, the Solonates[2], the Saltus Galliani[3], surnamed Aquinates, the Tannetani[4], the Veliates[5], who were anciently surnamed Regiates, and the Urbanates[6]. In this district the Boii[7] have disappeared, of whom there were 112 tribes according to Cato; as also the Senones, who captured Rome.

(16.) The Padus[8] descends from the bosom of Mount Vesulus, one of the most elevated points of the chain of the Alps, in the territories of the Ligurian Vagienni[9], and rises at its source in a manner that well merits an inspection by the curious; after which it hides itself in a subterranean channel until it rises again in the country of the Forovibienses. It is inferior in fame to none whatever among the rivers, being known to the Greeks as the Eridanus and famous as the scene of the punishment of Phaëton[10]. At the rising of the Dog-star it is swollen by the melted snows; but, though it proves more furious in its course to the adjoining fields


7 These and the Senones were nations of Cisalpine Gaul. The Boii emigrated originally from Transalpine Gaul, by the Penine Alps, or the Pass of Great St. Bernard. They were completely subdued by Scipio Nasica in B.C. 191, when he destroyed half of their population, and deprived them of nearly half of their lands. They were ultimately driven from their settlements, and established themselves in the modern Bohe- mia, which from them takes its name. The Senones, who had taken the city of Rome in B.C. 390, were conquered and the greater part of them destroyed by the Consul Dolabella in B.C. 283.

  1. So named after Æmilius Lepidus. The people of Regium Lepidum, the site of whose town is occupied by the modern Reggio.
  2. Solonatium is supposed to have had the site of the modern Citta di Sole or Torre di Sole.
  3. Nothing certain is known of this people or their town, but it is thought by Rezzonico that by this name were meant those who occupied the wood-clad heights of the Apennines, above Modena and Parma. Cicero mentions a Saltus Gallicanus as being a mountain of Campania, but that is clearly not the spot meant here.
  4. Their town is thought to have stood on the same site as the modern Tenedo.
  5. Their town was perhaps on the same site as the modern Villae, on the river Nura.
  6. The modern city of Ombria probably stands on the site of Urbana, their town, of which considerable remains are still to be seen.
  7. 7
  8. The Po, which rises in Monte Viso in Savoy.
  9. Already mentioned in C. 7 of the present Book.
  10. Ovid in his account of the adventure of Phaëton (Met. B. ii.) states that he fell into the river Padus.