Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/244

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STRABO.
CASAUB. 153.

this is the Bænis, (some call it the Minius,[p 1]) by far the largest river of Lusitania,[1] being navigable for a distance of 800 stadia. Posidonius says this too rises amongst the Cantabrians.[2] An island[3] lies before its outlet, and two moles affording anchorage for vessels. A natural advantage [of this country] well deserving of commendation is, that the banks of the rivers are so lofty as to be capable of containing the entire of the water raised by the high tides of the sea, without either being overfilled, or overflowing the plains. This was the limit of Brutu’s expedition. Beyond there are many other rivers parallel to those I have named.

5. The Artabri are the last of the people [on this coast]. They inhabit the promontory called Nerium,[p 2] which is the boundary [of Iberia] on its western and northern sides. Around it dwell the Keltici, a kindred race to those who are situated along the Guadiana.[p 3] They say that these latter, together with the Turduli, having undertaken an expedition thither, quarrelled after they had crossed the river Lima,[p 4] and, besides the sedition, their leader having also died, they remained scattered there, and from this circumstance the river was called the Lethe.[4] The Artabri have besides many cities established round the Gulf, which mariners and those familiar with the places designate as the Port of the Artabri. At the present day the Artabri are denominated the Arotrebæ. About thirty[5] different nations occupy the country between the Tagus and the Artabri. Notwithstanding the fertility of the country in corn, cattle, gold, silver, and

  1. ↑ The Minho is far surpassed in size, both by the Duero and the Tagus.
  2. ↑ The text here is evidently incorrect. In the first place, the καὶ αὐτὸν, which we have rendered this too, evidently sustained some relation, no longer subsisting, to what preceded; and in the second, the sources of the Minho were not in Cantabria, but Gallicia.
  3. ↑ Strabo here appears to confound the mouth of the Minho with a small bay about five leagues distant, near to the city of Bayona in Gallicia, and before which there is still the small island of Bayona.
  4. ↑ Or the river of Oblivion, apparently because they forgot to return to their own country.
  5. ↑ A few of the MSS. read fifty, which number seems to be countenanced by the statement of Pliny, that forty-six nations inhabited Lusitania: but then the limits he set to the country were more extended than those allowed by Strabo.
  1. ↑ The Minho of the present day.
  2. ↑ Cape Finisterre.
  3. ↑ Anas.
  4. ↑ Limæa.
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