Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/285

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Chap. 23.] ACCOUNT OP COUNTRIES, ETC. 251 CHAP. 23. (19.) ISTEIA, ITS PEOPLE AND LOCALITY. Istria projects in the form of a peninsula. Some writers have stated its length to be forty miles, and its circumference 125 ; and the same as to Liburnia which adjoins it, and the Flanatic Gulf^, while others -make it 225^'; others again make the circumference of Liburnia 180 miles. Some per- sons too extend lapydia, at the back of Istria, as far as the Flanatic Gidf, a distance of 130 miles, thus making Liburnia but 150 miles. Tuditanus^, who subdued the Istri, had this inscription on his statue which was erected there : " From Aquileia to the river Titus is a distance of 1000 stadia." The towns of Istria with the rights of Eoman citizens are ^gida"*, Parentium, and the colony of Pola^, now Pietas Juha, formerly founded by the Colchians, and distant from Ter- geste 100 miles : after which we come to the town of jN'esac- tium", and the river Arsia, now' the boundary of Italy. The distance across from Ancona to Pola is 120 miles. In ^ Now the Golfo di Quarnaro. Liburnia was separated from Istria on the north- west by the river Aj'sia, and from Dahnatia on the south by the river Titus or Kerka, corresponding to the western part of mo- dern Croatia, and the northern pai't of modern Dahnatia. lapydia was situate to the north of Dahnatia and east of Libm'uia, or the present mditary frontier of Croatia, between the rivers Kulpa and Korana to the north and east, and the Yelebich momitains to the south. Istria con- sisted of the peninsula which still bears the same appellation. ^ This passage, " while others make it 225," is omitted in many of the MSS. and most of the editions. If it is retained, it is not impro- bable that liis meanhig is, " and the circumference of Liburnia which joins it, with the Flanatic Gulf, some make 225, while others make the com- pass of Libm-nia to be 180 miles." It depends on the pimctuation and the force of " item," and the question whether the passage is not in a corrupt state ; and it is not at all clear what his meaning really is. 3 He aUudes to C. Sempronius Tuditanus, Consul B.C. 129. He gained his victory over the lapydes chiefly tlu'ough the skill of his legatus, D. Junius Brutus. He was a distinguished orator and liistoriaai. He waa the maternal grandfather of the orator Hortensius.

  • Tliis place is only mentioned by Pliny, but from an inscription found,

it appears that the emperor Justin II. confei'red on it the title of Justi- nopoUs. It is thought that it occupied the site of the present town of Capo d' Istria. — Parentivun stood on the site of the present Pareuzo. ^ It still retains its name.

  • " Supposed to have occupied the site of the modern Custel Xuovo, past

which the Arsia, now the Arsa, flows. 7 Since Istria had been added to it by Augustus,