Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/255

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B. III. C. IV. § 10.
SPAIN.
241

of the quantity of fennel growing there. From Tarraco [the road runs] towards the passage of the Ebro at the city of Dertossa;[p 1] from thence having traversed the city of Saguntum,[p 2] and Setabis,[p 3] it follows a course more and more distant from the sea, till it approaches the Plain of Spartarium, which signifies the Plain of Rushes. This is a vast arid plain, producing the species of rush from which cords are made, and which are exported to all parts, but particularly to Italy.[1] Formerly the road passed on through the midst of the plain, and [the city of] Egelastæ,[p 4] which was both difficult and long, but they have now constructed a new road close to the sea, which merely touches upon the Plain of Rushes, and leads to the same places as the former, [viz.] Castlon,[p 5] and Obulco,[p 6] through which runs the road to Corduba and Gades,[p 7] the two greatest emporia of Iberia. Obulco is distant about 300 stadia from Corduba. Historians report that Cæsar came from Rome to Obulco, and to his army there, within the space of twenty-seven days, when about to fight the battle of Munda.[2]

10. Such is the whole sea-coast from the Pillars to the confines of the Iberians and Kelts. The interior of the country lying above, and included between the mountains of the Pyrenees and the northern side [of Iberia], as far as the Astures, is principally divided by two mountain chains; the one of these is parallel to the Pyrenees, and takes its commencement from the country of the Cantabri, terminating at the Mediterranean. This is called the Idubeda.[3] The second, springing from the middle [of this first], runs towards the west, inclining however to the south and the sea-coast towards the Pillars. At the commencement it consists of bare hills, but after traversing the Plain of Spartarium, falls in with the forest lying above Carthage,[p 8] and the regions round Malaca.[p 9] It is named Orospeda.[p 10] The river Ebro flows between the Pyrenees and Idubeda, and parallel to both these mountains. It is fed by the rivers and other waters carried down

  1. ↑ Tortosa.
  2. ↑ Murviedro.
  3. ↑ Xativa.
  4. ↑ Yniesta.
  5. ↑ Caslona.
  6. ↑ Porcuna.
  7. ↑ Cordova and Cadiz.
  8. ↑ Carthagena.
  9. ↑ Malaga.
  10. ↑ The Sierra de Toledo.
  1. ↑ The cordage of the famous vessel built by Hiero of Syracuse was formed from the spartum of Iberia. Vid. Athenæus, lib. v. p. 206.
  2. ↑ Fought against Pompey.
  3. ↑ The mountains of Burgos and Cuenca, the Sierras of Oca, Lorenzo, and Moncayo.
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