Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/281

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Chap. 21.]
ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC.
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Segusio; and, at the foot of the Alps, the colony of Augusta Taurinorum[1], at which place the Padus becomes navigable, and which was founded by the ancient race of the Ligurians, and of Augusta Prætoria[2] of the Salassi, near the two passes of the Alps, the Grecian[3] and the Penine (by the latter it is said that the Carthaginians passed into Italy, by the Grecian, Hercules) — the town of Eporedia[4], the foundation of which by the Roman people was enjoined by the Sibylline books; the Gauls call tamers of horses by the name of "Eporediæ" — Vercellæ[5], the town of the Libici, derived its origin from the Salluvii, and Novaria[6], founded by the Vertacomacori, is at the present day a district of the Vocontii, and not, as Cato supposes, of the Ligurians; of whom two nations, called the Lævi and the Marici, founded Ticinum[7], not far from the Padus, as the Boii, descended from the Transalpine nations, have founded Laus Pompeia[8] and the Insubres Mediolanum[9].

    modern Saluzzo, on the north bank of the Po. Segusio occupied the site of the modern Susa.

  1. Augusta of the Taurini. The present city of Turin stands on its site. It was made a Roman colony by Augustus. With the exception of some inscriptions, Turin retains no vestiges of antiquity.
  2. The present city of Aosta occupies its site. This was also a Roman colony founded by Augustus, after he had subdued the Salassi. It was, as Pliny says in C. 5, the extreme point of Italy to the north. The remains of the ancient city are of extreme magnificence.
  3. The Grecian pass of the Alps was that now known as the Little St. Bernard; while the Penine pass was the present Great St. Bernard. Livy in his History, B. xxi. c. 38, points out the error of taking these mountains to have derived their name from the Pœni or Carthaginians. There is no doubt that they took their name from the Celtic word signifying a mountain, which now forms the "Pen" of the Welsh and the "Ben" of the Scotch.
  4. Now called Ivrea or Lamporeggio, at the entrance of the valley of the Salassi, the present Val d'Aosta. There are some remains of the ancient town to be seen.
  5. The present town of Vercelli stands on its site.
  6. Now called Novara, in the Duchy of Milan.
  7. It became a Roman municipal town, but owes its greatness to the Lombard kings who made it their capital, and altered the name to Papia, now Pavia.
  8. "Pompey's Praises." The present Lodi Vecchio marks its site.
  9. It was the capital of the Insubres, a Gallic nation, and was taken by the Romans in B.C. 222, on which it became a municipium and Roman colony. On the division of the empire by Diocletian, it became the