Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/437

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B. VI. C. III. § 1.
ITALY. IAPYGIA.
423

the whole region beyond the Calabri, Apulia. Some of these people are called Pœdicli,[1] especially the Peucetii. Messapia forms a peninsula; the isthmus extending from Brentesium[p 1] to Tarentum, which bounds it, being 310 stadia, and the circumnavigation round the Iapygian promontory[p 2] about [one thousand][2] four hundred. [Tarentum[3]] is distant from Metapontium[p 3] about two hundred and [twenty[3]] stadia. The course to it by sea runs in an easterly direction. The Gulf of Tarentum is for the most part destitute of a port, but here there is a spacious and commodious [harbour[p 4]], closed in by a great bridge. It is 100 stadia[4] in circuit. This port, at the head of its basin which recedes most inland, forms, with the exterior sea, an isthmus which connects the peninsula with the land. The city is situated upon this peninsula. The neck of land is so low that ships are easily hauled over it from either side. The site of the city likewise is extremely low; the ground, however, rises slightly towards the citadel. The old wall of the city has an immense circuit, but now the portion towards the isthmus is deserted, but that standing near the mouth of the harbour, where the citadel is situated, still subsists, and contains a considerable city. It possesses a noble gymnasium and a spacious forum, in which there is set up a brazen colossus of Jupiter, the largest that ever was, with the exception of that of Rhodes. The citadel is situated between the forum and the entrance of the harbour, it still preserves some slight relics of its ancient magnificence

    the mouth of the river Fortore, thence to Civitate, (the ancient Teanum Apulum,) which was included, and from Civitate to Lucera; this district would answer to the northern portion of La Puglia, which the Fortore separates from La Capitanata.

  1. ↑ The name of Pœdiculi was given to the inhabitants of that portion of Peucetia which was more particularly situated on the coast between the Aufidus and the confines of the Calabri. Pliny (iii. 11) states that this particular tribe derived their origin from Illyria.
  2. ↑ We have followed Groskurd’s example in introducing this thousand. The French translators thought it too hardy to venture, and Kramer was fearful to insert it in his text, but he approves of it in his notes.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Manuscripts here have blanks.
  4. ↑ Or twelve miles and a half. This computation does not agree with modern measurements, which reckon the circuit at sixteen miles. See Swinburne’s Travels, tom. i. sect. 32. Gagliardi, Topogr. di Taranto.
  1. ↑ Brindisi.
  2. ↑ Capo di Leuca.
  3. ↑ Ruins near Torre a Mare.
  4. ↑ Mare-piccolo.
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