Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/289

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Chap. 24]
CCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC.
255

the Salassi to be of Tauriscan origin, but most other writers, giving a Greek[1] interpretation to their name, consider the Lepontii to have been those of the followers of Hercules who were left behind in consequence of their limbs being frozen by the snow of the Alps. They are also of opinion that the inhabitants of the Grecian Alps are de- scended from a portion of the Greeks of his army, and that the Euganeans, being sprung from an origin so illustrious, thence took their name[2]. The head of these are the Stœni[3]. The Vennonenses[4] and the Sarunetes[5], peoples of the Ehseti, dwell about the sources of the river Ehenus, while the tribe of the Lepontii, known as the Uberi, dwell in the vicinity of the sources of the Ehodanus, in the same district of the Alps. There are also other native tribes here, who have received Latin rights, such as the Octodurenses[6], and their neighbours the Centrones[7], the Cottian[8] states, the Ligurian Yagienui, descended from the Caturiges[9], as also those called Montani[10]; besides numerous nations of the Capillati[11] on the confines of the Ligurian Sea.

  1. Making it to come from the Greek verb (Symbol missingGreek characters), "to leave behind."
  2. As though being (Symbol missingGreek characters) or (Symbol missingGreek characters), "of honourable descent," or "parentage."
  3. Strabo mentions the Stoni or Stœni among the minor Alpine tribes. Mannert thinks that they dwelt near the sources of the river Chiese, about the site of the modera village of Storo.
  4. It has been suggested that from them the modem Valtelline takes its name.
  5. Hardouin suggests that the Suanetes, who are again mentioned, are the people here meant.
  6. They are supposed to have dwelt in the present canton of Martignae in the Valais, and the Vaudois.
  7. They dwelt in the Tarantaise, in the duchy of Savoy. The village called Centron still retains their name.
  8. The states subject to Cottius, an Alpine chief, who having gained the favour of Augustus, was left by him m possession of this portion of tho Alps, with the title of Præfect. These states, in the vicinity of the modern Momit Cenis, seem to have extended from Ebrodunum or Embrun in Gaul, to Segusio, the modem Susa, in Italy, inclucding the Pass of Mont Genevre. The territory of Cottius was united by Nero to the Roman empire, as a separate province called the " Alpes Cottiæ."
  9. They dwelt in the vicinity of Ebrodunum or Embrun alroadymentioned.
  10. The "mountaineers." Some editions read here " Appuani," so called, from the town of Appua, now Pontromoli.
  11. The Vagienni, and the Capillati Ligures, or "Long-haired Ligurians," have been previously mentioned in Chap. 7.