Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/314

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300
STRABO.
CASAUB. 201.

zone would be destitute of cultivated fruits, and almost deprived of the domestic animals; that their food would consist of millet, herbs, fruits, and roots; and that where there was corn and honey they would make drink of these. That having no bright sun, they would thresh their corn, and store it in vast granaries, threshing-floors being useless on account of the rain and want of sun.

CHAPTER VI.
THE ALPS.

1. HAVING described Keltica beyond the Alps,[p 1] and the nations who inhabit the country, we must now speak of the Alps themselves and their inhabitants, and afterwards of the whole of Italy; observing in our description such arrangement as the nature of the country shall point out.

The Alps do not commence at Monœci Portus,[p 2] as some have asserted, but from the region whence the Apennines take their rise about Genoa, a mercantile city of the Ligurians, and at the marshes named Sabatorum Vada;[p 3] for the Apennines take their rise near Genoa, and the Alps near Sabatorum Vada. The distance between Genoa and the Sabatorum Vada is about 260 stadia. About 370 stadia farther on is the little city of Albingaunum,[p 4] inhabited by Ligurians who are called Ingauni. From thence to the Monœci Portus is 480 stadia. In the interval between is the very considerable city of Albium Intemelium,[p 5] inhabited by the Intemelii. These names are sufficient to prove that the Alps commence at the Sabbatorum Vada. For the Alps were formerly called Albia and Alpionia,[1] and at the present day the high mountain in the country of the Iapodes,[2] next to Ocra and the Alps, is named Albius, showing that the Alps extend so far.

  1. ↑ Transalpine Gaul.
  2. ↑ Port Monaco.
  3. ↑ Vadi.
  4. ↑ Albinga.
  5. ↑ Vintimille.
  1. ↑ Kramer conjectures that instead of Ἀλπιόνια, we should read Ἀλπεινὰ.
  2. ↑ These people occupied the borders of the province of Murlaka, near to Istria, on the Gulf of Venice. Mount Albius is still called Alben.
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