Pliny: Natural History, Vol. II

PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY | BOOK III. i. 8–10

8

...Lusitania, and that Pan was the governor of the whole of it. The stories related of Hercules, Pyrene, or Saturn I regard as absolutely mythical.

The river Guadalquivir. 9 The Guadalquivir rises in the province of Tarragon, not at the town of Mentesa, as some authorities have said, but in the Tugiensian Forest near which flows the Segura river that waters the territory of Cartagena; at Lorca it avoids the Sepulchre of Scipio and, turning westward, makes for the Atlantic Ocean, giving its name to the province; it is first of moderate size, but it receives many tributaries, from which it takes their glory as well as their waters. It first enters Baetica at Ossigetania, gliding gently in a picturesque channel past a series of towns situated on both its banks.

10 Between this river and the ocean coast the most famous places inland are: Segida surnamed Augurina; Julia or Fidentia; Urgao or Alba; Ebura or Cerialis; Iliberri or Liberini; Ilipula or Laus; Artigi or Julienses; Vesci or Faventia; Singili, Ategua, Arialdunum, Agla Minor, Baebro, Castra Vinaria, Cisimbrium, New Hippo, Illurco, Osca, Oscua, Sucaelo, Unditanum, Old Tucci—all of which are places in that part of Bastetania which stretches towards the sea. In the jurisdiction of Cordova in the neighbourhood of the actual river are Ossigi surnamed Latonium, Iliturgi or Forum Julium, Ipra, Isturgi or Triumphale, Sucia, and 17 miles inland Obulco or Pontificense, then Ripa, Epora (a treaty town), Sacili Martialium, Onuba, and on the right bank the colony of Cordova surnamed Patricia. At this point the Guadalquivir first becomes navigable, and there are the towns of Carbula and Detunda, the river Xenil flowing into the Guadalquivir on the same side.