Pliny: Natural History, Vol. II

subject also I must do what I did when I spoke about the heavens—touch upon particular points and only a few of the stars. I merely ask my readers to remember that I am hastening on for the purpose of setting forth in detail all the contents of the entire world.

Geography of Italy.

In shape, then, Italy much resembles an oak leaf, being far longer than it is broad, bending towards the left at its top and ending in the shape of an Amazon's shield A crescent shape with a central projection., the projection in the centre being called Cocynthos, while it sends out two horns along bays of crescent shape, Leucopetra on the right and Lacinium on the left. Its length extends for 1020 miles, beginning from Aosta at the foot of the Alps and passing through Rome and Capua in a winding course to the town of Reggio situated on its shoulder, where begins the curve, as it were, of the neck. The measure would be much greater if the line were carried on to Lacinium, but with that bend the line would seem to diverge to one side. The breadth varies, being four hundred and ten miles between the rivers Var and Arsa where they flow into the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, but about at the middle, in the neighbourhood of the city of Rome, from the mouth of the river Pescara, which flows into the Adriatic Sea, to the mouths of the Tiber, its breadth is 136 miles, and a little less from Castrum Novum on the Adriatic Sea to Palo on the Tuscan Sea, in no place exceeding a width of 200 miles. The circuit of the entire coast from the Var round to the Arsa is 2049 miles. Its distances from the countries that surround it are as follows: from Istria and Liburnia in certain places 100 miles, from Epirus and Illyricum, 50 miles, from Africa, according to Marcus Varro, less than 200, from Sardinia 120, from