Etymologies & Works 14

I. ON THE EARTH. The earth is placed in the middle region of the world, standing at an equal interval from all parts of the sky in the manner of a center; which, in the singular number, signifies the whole globe, but in the plural the individual parts. Its various names reason assigns; for it is called 'terra' (earth) from its upper part, by which it is trodden (teritur); 'humus' (ground) from its lower part, or moist earth (humida terra), as under the sea; 'tellus' (soil), because we take up (tollimus) its fruits; this is also called 'Ops,' because it brings help (opem fert) to the crops; the same is also called 'arva' (fields), named from plowing (arando) and cultivating. Properly, moreover, 'earth' (terra) is named 'dry land' (arida) for distinction from water, as Scripture says (Genesis 1,10): 'that God called the dry land Earth.' For dryness is the natural property of lands; for that it is moist, this it obtains by the affinity of the waters.

As for its movement, some say it is a wind in its hollows, which movement moves it. Sallust (Histories 2, fr. 28): 'The winds, broken loose through the hollows of the earth by their swift motion, several mountains and hillocks subsided.' Others say that a generative water is moved within the earth, and shakes it all together, like a vessel, as Lucretius says (6,555). Others hold the earth to be SPOGGOEIDES (sponge-like), whose largely hidden collapses shake all that is set upon them. A cleft of the earth, too, is made either by the movement of the water below, or by frequent thunders, or by winds bursting out from the hollows of the earth. II. ON THE GLOBE. The 'globe' (orbis) is so called from the roundness of a circle, because it is like a wheel (rota); whence too a small wheel is called a little disk (orbiculus). For the Ocean, flowing around everywhere, encircles its bounds in a circle.

It is divided, moreover, in three ways: of which one part is called Asia, the second Europe, the third Africa. These three parts of the globe the ancients did not divide equally. For Asia extends from the south, through the east, all the way to the north; Europe, however, from the north as far as the west; and thence Africa from the west as far as the south. Whence it is evident that two hold half the globe, Europe and Africa, but the other half Asia alone holds; but these two parts were made because between them the Great Sea enters from the Ocean, which cuts them apart. Wherefore, if you divide the globe into two parts, of east and west, Asia will be in one, but in the other Europe and Africa. III. ON ASIA.

Asia is named after a certain woman who among the ancients held the empire of the East. This, set in the third part of the globe, is bounded on the east by the rising of the sun, on the south by the Ocean, on the west by our sea, and on the north is terminated by the Maeotic lake and the river Tanais. It has, moreover, many provinces and regions, whose names and locations I shall briefly set forth, taking the beginning from Paradise. Paradise is a place set in the eastern parts, whose name is translated from Greek into Latin as 'garden' (hortus); further, in Hebrew it is called 'Eden,' which in our tongue is interpreted 'delights' (deliciae). The two joined together make 'garden of delights'; for it is planted with every kind of tree and fruit-bearing trees, having also the tree of life:

there is no cold there, no heat, but a perpetual temperateness of the air. From its midst a spring bursting forth waters the whole grove, and is divided into four rising rivers. The access to this place, after the sin of man, was shut off; for it is fenced about on every side by a flaming sword (romphea), that is, girt with a wall of fire, so that its blaze almost joins with the sky. The Cherubim also, that is, the garrison of angels, were appointed above the flaming of the sword to ward off evil spirits, so that angels might drive off men from the flames and evil angels, lest to any flesh or spirit of transgression the access of Paradise should lie open. India (India) is named from the river Indus, by which it is closed off on its western side.

This, stretched out from the southern sea all the way to the rising of the sun, and from the north extends as far as Mount Caucasus; having many peoples and towns, and also the island Taprobane (Ceylon), crammed with gems and elephants, Chryse and Argyre, fruitful in gold and silver, and Thule too, whose trees never lack foliage. It has also the rivers Ganges and Indus and Hypanis, ennobling the Indians. The land of India, most healthful by the breath of the west wind, reaps its crops twice in the year: in place of winter it endures the Etesian winds. It produces, moreover, men of a dyed color, huge elephants, the beast the monoceros (unicorn), the parrot bird, ebony wood too, and cinnamon and pepper and aromatic reed. It sends forth ivory too, and precious stones:

beryls, chrysoprases and the diamond, carbuncles, lychnites, pearls and unions, for which the ambition of noble women burns. There too are golden mountains, which it is impossible to approach on account of dragons and griffins and the monsters of huge men. Parthia is generally named from the borders of India all the way to Mesopotamia. For on account of the unconquered valor of the Parthians, both Assyria and the remaining neighboring regions passed over into its name. For in it are Aracusia, Parthia, Assyria, Media, and Persis, which regions, joined mutually to one another, take their beginning from the river Indus and are closed off by the Tigris, situated in mountainous and rather rugged places, having the rivers Hydaspes and Arbis.

For they are distinguished among themselves by their own boundaries, drawing their names from their own founders thus. Aracusia is named from its own town. The Parthians, coming from Scythia, occupied Parthia, and named it from their own name. On its south is the Red Sea, on its north the Hyrcanian brine (sea), on the region of the setting sun Media. There are eighteen kingdoms in it, stretched out from the Caspian shore all the way to the lands of the Scythians. Assyria is named from Assur, son of Shem, who first inhabited that region after the Flood. This touches India on the east, Media on the south, the Tigris on the west, and on the north Mount Caucasus, where the Caspian Gates are.

In this region the use of purple was first discovered; hence too the first ointments and perfumes for hair and body came forth, together with the scents by which the luxury of the Romans and Greeks poured itself out. Media and Persia were named after their kings Medus and Persus, who assailed those provinces in war. Of these, Media, stretching crosswise from the west, embraces the realms of Parthia, is encircled on the north by Armenia, looks upon the Caspians from the east, and upon Persia from the south. Its land brings forth the Median tree (the citron), which no other region produces at all. There are two Medias, the greater and the lesser. Persia, extending from the east as far as the Indians, has the Red Sea on the west, touches Media on the north, and Carmania on the south, which is joined to Persia; among these lies Susa, its most renowned town.

In Persia the magic art first arose, to which the giant Nimrod betook himself after the confusion of tongues, and there he taught the Persians to worship fire. For all in those parts worship the sun, which in their tongue is called El. Mesopotamia possesses a Greek etymology, because it is encircled by two rivers; for on the east it has the Tigris, on the west the Euphrates. It begins in the north between Mount Taurus and Caucasus; to the south of it follows Babylonia, then Chaldaea, and last of all Arabia Eudaemon (the Blessed). The chief city of the Babylonian region is the city of Babylon, from which it is also named, so noble that Chaldaea, Assyria, and Mesopotamia once passed over into its name. Arabia is so called, that is, 'sacred,' for this is what its interpretation is said to signify;

because it is a frankincense-bearing region, producing scents: hence the Greeks called it Eudaemon and our people 'the Blessed.' In its groves both myrrh and cinnamon are produced; there is born the phoenix bird, the gem sardonyx, and the iris, and there are found the molochites and the paederos. This too is Saba, named from the son of Cush who was called Saba. It extends by a narrow strip of land eastward toward the Persian Gulf; Chaldaea closes off its northern parts, and the Arabian Gulf its western. Syria is said to have been named by a certain Syrus, a native, from his own name. It is bounded on the east by the river Euphrates, on the west by our sea and Egypt, touching Armenia and Cappadocia on the north, and the Arabian Gulf on the south.

Its situation is stretched to an immense length but is narrower in breadth. It contains within it the provinces of Commagene, Phoenicia, and Palestine, of which Judaea is a part, besides the Saracens and the Nabateans. Commagene, the first province of Syria, is named from the city of Commaga, which was once held there as the metropolis. To its north is Armenia, on the east Mesopotamia, on the south Syria, on the west the Great Sea. Phoenix, brother of Cadmus, having set out from Egyptian Thebes into Syria, reigned at Sidon, and named that province Phoenicia from his own name. It is here that Tyre lies, to which Isaiah speaks (ch. 23). It has Arabia on the east and the Red Sea on the south.

The province of Palestine had as its metropolis the city Philistim, which is now called Ascalon, and from this city the whole region around it was named Palestine. On the east the Red Sea meets it, on the southern side it is bordered by Judah, on the northern quarter it is closed off by the boundaries of the Tyrians, and on the west it is limited by the Egyptian frontier. The region of Judaea, a part of Palestine, is named from the name of Judah, from whose tribe it had its kings. It was formerly called Canaan, after the son of Ham, or from the ten Canaanite peoples, after whose expulsion the Jews took possession of that same land. Its length in extent runs from the village of Arfa as far as the village of Julias, in which is a settlement shared alike by Jews and Tyrians.

Its breadth extends from Mount Lebanon as far as the Lake of Tiberias. In the middle of Judaea lies the city of Jerusalem, as it were the navel of the whole region. Its land is rich in various riches, fertile in crops, made bright with waters, abounding in balsam. Hence, according to the favor of the elements, the Jews reckoned it to be the land promised to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, whereas here God was pledging to them the prerogative of the resurrection. Samaria, a region of Palestine, took its name from a certain town called Samaria, once a royal city in Israel, which is now called Sebaste from the name of Augustus. This region lies midway between Judaea and Galilee, beginning at a village whose name is Eleas and ending in the land of Agrabatha.

Its situation is of a like nature and differs in nothing from Judaea. Galilee, a region of Palestine, is so called because it produces fairer-skinned people than Palestine. It is twofold, upper and lower, yet joined together, adjoining Syria and Phoenicia. Their land is rich and fruitful and quite fertile in produce. The Pentapolis is a region set on the border of Arabia and Palestine, named from the five cities of the ungodly which were consumed by fire from heaven. This land, once most fertile beyond that around Jerusalem, is now deserted and burnt up; for on account of the wickedness of its inhabitants a fire came down from heaven which dissolved that region into everlasting ashes. Some shadow and appearance of this is still seen even now in the embers and in the very trees.

For there grow fruits, green under so great an appearance of ripeness that they beget a desire to eat; but if you pluck them, they crumble and dissolve into ash, and breathe out smoke as though they were still burning. The Nabatean region is named from Nabeth, son of Ishmael. It lies between Judaea and Arabia, and, rising from the Euphrates, extends to the Red Sea, and is a part of Arabia. Egypt, which was formerly called Aeria, received its name from Aegyptus, brother of Danaus, who afterward reigned there. It is joined on the east to Syria and the Red Sea, on the west it has Libya, on the north the Great Sea, and on the south it recedes inland, reaching as far as the Ethiopians; a region unaccustomed to showers from heaven and ignorant of rains.

The Nile alone, flowing round it, irrigates it and makes it fruitful with its flooding; whence, being fertile in crops, it feeds a great part of the world with grain; and it is likewise so abundant in other kinds of trade that it fills even the whole earth with necessary wares. The boundary of Egypt is Canopus, named from Canopus, the pilot of Menelaus, buried on that island which forms the beginning of Libya and the mouth of the Nile. Seres is a town of the East, from which both the Seric fabric (silk) and the region are named. This bends from the Scythian Ocean and the Caspian Sea to the eastern Ocean, fertile in noble foliage, from which fleeces are plucked, which the Seres sell to other nations for the use of clothing. The proper river of the Bactrian region, the Bactros, gave it its name.

Its parts that lie behind are surrounded by the ridges of the Paropanisus; those that face them are bounded by the sources of the river Indus; the rest is enclosed by the river Ochus. Bactria sends forth the strongest camels, which never wear down their feet. Scythia, like Gothia, is said to be named from Magog, son of Japheth. Its land was once vast; for on the east it stretched to India, on the north through the Maeotic marshes between the Danube and the Ocean as far as the borders of Germany. But afterward, being made smaller, from the right-hand part of the east, where the Seric Ocean extends, as far as the Caspian Sea, which is to the west;

thence from the south it is drawn down as far as the ridge of Caucasus, beneath which lies Hyrcania on the west, having likewise many peoples who, on account of the barrenness of their lands, wander far and wide. Of these, some cultivate fields, some are monstrous and savage, living on human flesh and their blood. Many of the lands of Scythia are wealthy, yet more are uninhabitable; for while in very many places they abound in gold and gems, the approach of men is rare because of the ferocity of the griffins. This land is the homeland of the finest emeralds; the dark-blue stone too and the purest crystal belong to Scythia. It also has the great rivers of the Moschi, the Phasis and the Araxes.

Hyrcania is named from the Hyrcanian forest, which lies beneath Scythia, having on the east the Caspian Sea, on the south Armenia, on the north Albania, on the west Iberia. It is rough with forests, abounding in huge wild beasts, tigers and panthers and leopards. Of it Virgil says (Aeneid 4.367): 'And the Hyrcanian tigresses gave you suck.' Albania is named from the color of its people, because they are born with white hair. This, rising on the east beneath the Caspian Sea, extends along the shores of the northern Ocean as far as the Maeotic marshes, through deserts and untilled lands. This land has huge dogs, of such ferocity that they crush bulls and slay lions.

Armenia is named from Armenus, a companion of Jason of Thessaly, who, having lost his king Jason, gathered the multitude of his followers who were wandering here and there, took Armenia, and named it from his own name. It is situated between Taurus and Caucasus, stretched from Cappadocia as far as the Caspian Sea, having on the north the Ceraunian mountains, from whose hills the river Tigris rises, and on whose mountains the ark is said to have settled after the flood. Armenia is twofold, upper and lower, like the two Pannonias. Iberia is a region of Asia, near Pontus, joined to Armenia. In it grow herbs useful for dyeing. Cappadocia took its name from its own city.

Situated at the head of Syria, it touches Armenia on the east, Asia Minor on the west, on the north the Cimmerian Sea and the plains of Themiscyra, which the Amazons held; and on the south Mount Taurus, beneath which lie Cilicia and Isauria as far as the Cilician Gulf, which faces the island of Cyprus. Its land is a nurse of horses beyond all others. The river Halys flows through it, which once separated the realms of Lydia from the Persians. Asia Minor is girded on the east by Cappadocia, and on the other sides it is surrounded on every hand by the sea; for on the north it has the Euxine Sea, on the west the Propontis, on the south the Egyptian Sea. It has the provinces of Bithynia, Phrygia, Galatia, Lydia, Caria, Pamphylia, Isauria, Lycia, and Cilicia.

The first of Asia Minor, Bithynia, lies at the beginning of Pontus, toward the part of the rising sun, opposite Thrace, and was called by many names before. For it was first called Bebrycia, then Mygdonia, and soon Bithynia from King Bithynus. This is also Greater Phrygia. In it is the city Nicomedia, where Hannibal, fleeing, breathed out his life by a draught of poison. Galatia is named from the ancient peoples of the Gauls, by whom it was occupied. For the Gauls, summoned to his aid by the king of Bithynia, divided the kingdom with him when victory was won, and thus afterward, mingled with the Greeks, were first called Gallograeci, and now, from the ancient name of the Gauls, are called Galatians; and their region is named Galatia. Phrygia is named from Phrygia, daughter of Europs. This is also called Dardania, from Dardanus, son of Jupiter.

Of whom Homer says (cf. Iliad 20.215): 'Whom Jupiter first begot from his heavenly citadel.' For this man, setting out from the city of Corytus, first came into Phrygia. This region lies above the Troad on the northern side of Galatia; on the south it is near Lycaonia; on the east it adjoins Lydia; on the west it is bounded by the Hellespont sea. Its region is Troy, which Tros, king of the Trojans and father of Ganymede, named from his own name. There are two Phrygias, greater and lesser. Greater Phrygia has Smyrna, but the lesser has Ilium. The river Hermus divides Lycaonia and Caria from Phrygia. Lydia is an ancient seat of kingdoms, which the wave of the Pactolus raised into riches by its golden torrents.

This was formerly called Maeonia, which, since for its smallness it could not bear the two brother-kings Lydus and Tyrrhenus, from here Tyrrhenus, chosen by lot, set out with a great multitude, occupied the lands of Gaul (Italy), and named it Tyrrhenia. But Lydia was named after Lydus, the king's brother, who had remained in the province. It is joined on the west to Lesser Phrygia, and on the east it has the city Smyrna, which the river Helles encircles; whose plains the Pactolus and the Hermus flow around, most rich in golden sands. Pamphylia. Isauria is said to be named from the situation of the place, because on every side it lies open to the blowings of the breezes. It has Seleucia as its metropolis.

Cilicia drew its name from a certain Cilix, whom they say was sprung from Phoenix, and assert to have been older than Jupiter. It lies mostly in plains, receiving on the west Lycia, on the south the Issican Sea, and at its back the ridges of Mount Taurus. The river Cydnus cuts through it. It has as mother of its cities Tarsus. In it too is the town Corycus, from which comes very much and very fine saffron, of a more fragrant breath and a more golden color. Lycia is so called because on the east it is joined to Cilicia. For it has Cilicia on the east, the sea on the west and south, and Caria on the north. There is Mount Chimaera, which by night breathes out fire in its heats: just as in Sicily Etna and Vesuvius in Campania. IV. ON EUROPE. After Asia the pen must be turned to Europe.

Europa indeed was the daughter of Agenor, king of Libya, whom Jupiter, having carried her off from Africa, brought to Crete, and named the third part of the world from her name. This Agenor was the son of Libya, from whom also Libya, that is Africa, is said to be named; whence it appears that Libya received its name first, and Europe afterward. Europe, divided into the third part of the world, begins at the river Tanais, descending westward through the northern Ocean as far as the borders of Spain; its eastern and southern part, rising from Pontus, is wholly joined to the Great Sea, and ends at the islands of Gades. The first region of Europe is Lower Scythia, which, beginning from the Maeotic marshes, extends between the Danube and the northern Ocean as far as Germany;

which land is generally called Barbaria, on account of the barbarous peoples by whom it is inhabited. Its first part is Alania, which reaches to the Maeotic marshes; after this Dacia, where Gothia also is; then Germania, where the Suebi have inhabited the greatest part. Germany, after Lower Scythia, enclosed by the Danube between the river Rhine and the Ocean, is girded on the north and west by the Ocean, on the east by the Danube, and is divided on the south by the river Rhine. It is a land rich in men and in numerous and huge peoples; whence too, on account of its fruitfulness in begetting peoples, it is called Germania (from 'germinare,' to sprout). It produces the Hyrcanian birds, whose feathers shine by night; it also brings forth bison and wild oxen and elks.

It also sends forth gems, crystal and amber, the green callaica too, and the white ceraunium. There are two Germanies: the upper, near the northern Ocean, and the lower, around the Rhine. Now the provinces which the Danube shuts off from Barbaria toward the Mediterranean Sea: the first is Moesia, named from the yield of harvests; whence too the ancients called it the granary of Ceres. It is joined on the east to the mouths of the Danube, on the southeast to Thrace, on the south to Macedonia, and on the west it is coupled with Istria. After Moesia is Pannonia. Thence the Norican territory, cold and rather sparingly fruitful. After it the Raetian, fertile in crops, which borders Belgic Gaul. Thiras, son of Japheth, coming there, is said to have given his name to Thrace;

others have said that Thrace was named from the savagery of its inhabitants. On its east lie the Propontis and the city Constantinople opposite; on the north the Ister stretches before it; on the south it adjoins the Aegean Sea; on the west Macedonia lies beneath it. Its region was once inhabited by the people of the Bessi, the Massagetae, the Sarmatians, the Scythians, and very many other nations; for it is ample, and therefore held very many peoples. Thrace pours forth the river Hebrus, which also touches very many barbarian peoples. Greece is named from King Graecus, who inhabited that whole region with his realm. There are seven provinces of Greece:

of which the first from the west is Dalmatia, then Epirus, then Hellas, then Thessaly, then Macedonia, then Achaia, and two in the sea, Crete and the Cyclades. But Illyricum is generally all Greece. Dalmatia is thought to have drawn its name from Delminium, the greatest city of that same province. It adjoins Macedonia on the east, Moesia on the north, is bounded by Istria on the west, and closed on the south by the Adriatic gulf. Epirus is named from Pyrrhus, son of Achilles. A part of it is Chaonia, which was formerly called Molossia, from Molossus, son of Pyrrhus, whom he had by Andromache. But after Pyrrhus was slain by the treachery of Orestes, Helenus took Andromache and held the kingdom of his stepson who had succeeded his father;

from whom a part of Epirus was called Molossia, which Helenus afterward named Chaonia from his brother Chaon, whom he is said to have killed through ignorance while hunting, as if for the consolation of his slain brother. Hellas is named from King Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, from whom also the Greeks were formerly called Hellenes. This is also the Attic land, formerly called Acte. For there was a certain Granus, a native of Greece, from whose daughter, by the name of Attis, the Attic land was called. It lies midway between Macedonia and Achaia, joined to Arcadia on the northern side. This is also the true Greece, where was the city of Athens, mother of the liberal arts and nurse of philosophers, than which Greece had nothing more famous and noble.

In it too is the plain of Marathon, once most bloody in the reputation of its battle. There are two provinces of Hellas: Boeotia and the Peloponnese. Now Boeotia is so called for this cause. When Cadmus, son of Agenor, was seeking his sister Europa, carried off by Jupiter, by his father's command, and could not find her, dreading his father's wrath, with resolved mind he chose exile. For, having followed the tracks of an ox that he happened to catch sight of, he embraced as his seat the place where it had lain down, and thus named the place Boeotia from the name of the ox (bos); where too he built the city of Thebes, in which civil wars once thundered, and where were born Apollo and the greater Hercules, that Theban. The same is called Aonia, from a certain spring consecrated to Apollo and the Muses, which is in that same Boeotia.

The Peloponnese, the second part of Hellas, was ruled over and named by Pelops. Thessaly is named from King Thessalus, and is joined to the southern quarter of Macedonia, at whose back is Pieria. There are many rivers in Thessaly, and cities and towns, among which especially Thessalonica: there too is Mount Parnassus, once consecrated to Apollo. Thessaly was the homeland of Achilles and the origin of the Lapiths, of whom it is told that they first tamed horses with bridles, whence too they were called Centaurs. In Thessaly the solid gold coins were first made, and the use of taming horses was there first discovered.

Macedonia at its beginning had the name of Emathia, from King Emathius, but Macedo, the maternal grandson of Deucalion, after he had received the principate there, changed the name and called it Macedonia from his own name. It borders on the east the Aegean Sea, on the south Achaia, on the west Dalmatia, on the north Moesia; the homeland of Alexander the Great, and a region rich in golden and silver veins. It produces the stone which they call paeanites. Mount Olympus is in it, which rises so great with its lofty peak that on its summit neither clouds nor winds are felt. Achaia is named as both a city and a province from King Achaeus. It is almost an island; for except on the northern side, where it is joined to Macedonia, it is on every side hemmed in by the sea.

For on the east it has the Myrtoan Sea, on the southeast the Cretan, on the south the Ionian, on the southwest and west the Cassiopian islands, and only on the northern side is it joined to the land of Macedonia or Attica. Its capital is the city Corinth, the ornament of Greece. The Inachus is a river of Achaia. Arcadia, however, is a gulf of Achaia, set out like a plane-tree leaf between the Ionian and the Aegean sea, which Arcas, son of Jupiter and Callisto, after the Pelasgians were brought under his sway, named Arcadia from his own name. This is also Sicyonia, from King Sicyon, from whom the kingdom of the Sicyonians is also named. Arcadia has the great river Erymanthus; also the stone asbestos, which, once kindled, is never extinguished: there too are born the whitest blackbirds.

Lacedaemonia. Pannonia is named from the Apennine Alps, by which it is separated from Italy, a region brave in men and glad in soil, walled about by two rather swift rivers, the Drave and the Save. It is joined to Noricum and Raetia; having on the east Moesia, on the southeast Istria; on the southwest they have the Apennine Alps, on the west Belgic Gaul, on the north the source of the Danube, or the boundary which separates Germany and Gaul. The river Ister named Istria, which flows through its land. It is the Danube itself. Istria has Pannonia on the north. Italy, once occupied by Greek peoples, was called Magna Graecia, then Saturnia from the name of a king;

soon it was also called Latium, because the same Saturn, driven from his seat by Jupiter, lay hidden there (latuerit); and at last it was named Italy from Italus, king of the Siculi, reigning there. Its site extends more in length than in breadth, from the northwest into the southeast; on the south it is closed by the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the north by the Adriatic, on the west it is bounded by the ridges of the Alps; a land most beautiful in all things, most pleasing in the fertility of its soil and the abundance of its pasture. It has the lakes Benacus, Avernus, and Lucrinus; the rivers Eridanus and Tiber; and Baiae, warm with its springs. It produces the gems syrtites, lyncurium, and coral; also the serpent boa, the wild lynx, and the Diomedean birds.

Italy and Spain are called Hesperia for this reason: because the Greeks sail by the star Hesperus both to Italy and to Spain. These are distinguished thus: for either you say Hesperia alone and mean Italy, or you add 'the farthest' (ultima) and mean Spain, because it is at the end of the west. Tuscia is a part of Italy; Umbria a part of Tuscia. Tuscia is named from the frequency of sacred rites and incense (tus), 'apo tou thyaxein.' But Umbria, the histories relate, is so called because in the time of the watery calamity it survived the rains (imbres), and on this account was named 'Ombria' in Greek. For it is set on the ridges of the Apennine mountain, in the part of Italy toward the south. Etruria is called a part of Italy because its borders extended as far as the bank of the Tiber, as if 'eterouria.'

For 'eteron' means 'other,' and 'oros' is called a boundary. For the borders of Rome formerly held only one bank of the Tiber. Others think Etruria was named from Etruscus, a chieftain. Likewise Tyrrhenia too from Tyrrhenus, brother of Lydus, who by lot came with a part of the people from Maeonia to Italy. This is also Tuscia; but we ought not to say 'Tuscia,' because we nowhere read it. Tuscia, however, is named from the frequency of sacrifice and incense (tus), 'apo tou thysai.' There too, they say, augury by entrails was discovered. Apulia [where is Brundusium, which the Aetolians who followed their leader Diomedes founded]. Campania [has lands that grow green in the winter of the year and in the summer. The sun there is mild, the temperature pleasant, the air pure and gentle]. Gaul is named from the whiteness of its people; for 'gala' in Greek means milk.

For the mountains and the harshness of the sky on that side shut out the heat of the sun, whence it comes that the whiteness of their bodies is not colored. On the east the ridges of the Alps guard it, on the west the Ocean encloses it, on the south the crags of the Pyrenees, on the north the streams of the Rhine and Germany; its beginning is Belgica, its end Aquitania; a region of rich and grassy soil, apt for the use of living creatures, watered too with rivers and springs, flooded by two great rivers, the Rhine and the Rhone. Belgis, however, is a city of Gaul, from which the province Belgica is named. Cisalpine, because it is on this side of the Alps. Transalpine, that is, across the Alps, facing the north. Raetia, because it is beside the Rhine.

Aquitania, however, is named from the winding waters (aquae) of the river Liger (Loire), which for the greater part is its boundary, and encircles it almost in a ring. Spain, formerly named Iberia from the river Iberus (Ebro), was afterward named Hispania from Hispalus. It is also the true Hesperia, named from the western star Hesperus. It is situated between Africa and Gaul, closed on the north by the Pyrenean mountains, on the remaining sides enclosed on every hand by the sea, of a climate uniform in wholesomeness, fruitful in all kinds of crops, most rich in stores of gems and metals. Great rivers flow through it: the Baetis, the Minius, the Iberus, and the Tagus, which draws gold like the Pactolus. It has six provinces:

Tarraconensis, Carthaginensis, Lusitania, Gallicia, Baetica, and, across the straits in the region of Africa, Tingitania. There are two Spains: the Nearer (Citerior), which extends toward the northern quarter from the Pyrenees as far as Carthage; and the Farther (Ulterior), which extends toward the south from the Celtiberians as far as the Gaditanian strait. It is called Citerior and Ulterior, as it were 'this side' and 'beyond'; but Citerior as if 'around the lands' (circa terras), and Ulterior either because it is the farthest, or because there is no other, that is, no land, beyond this. V. ON LIBYA. Libya is so named because the Libs blows from there, that is, the southwest wind (Africus). Others say that Epaphus, son of Jupiter, who founded Memphis in Egypt, begot from his wife Cassiope a daughter Libya, who afterward possessed a kingdom in Africa.

From her name the land Libya was called. But some think Africa was so named as if 'aprica' (sunny), because it is open to the sky or the sun and without the horror of cold. Others say Africa is named from one of the descendants of Abraham by Keturah, who was called Afer, of whom we made mention above (9.2.115). It begins at the borders of Egypt, going along the south through Ethiopia as far as Mount Atlas. On the northern side it is joined and closed by the Mediterranean Sea, and ends at the Gaditanian strait, having the provinces Libya Cyrenensis, Pentapolis, Tripolis, Byzacium, Carthage, Numidia, Mauretania Sitifensis, Mauretania Tingitana, and, around the burning of the sun, Ethiopia.

Libya Cyrenensis is the first part of Africa, named from Cyrene, the metropolis city which is within its borders. On its east is Egypt, on the west the Greater Syrtes and the Trogodytae, on the north the Libyan Sea, on the south Ethiopia and various nations of barbarians and inaccessible solitudes, which even breed the basilisk serpents. Pentapolis is named in the Greek tongue from five cities: that is, Berenice, Ceutria, Apollonia, Ptolomais, Cyrene; of which Ptolomais and Berenice are named from kings. Pentapolis is joined to Libya Cyrenensis, and reckoned within its borders. The Greeks also mark out in their tongue the province Tripolitana from the number of three great cities: Oea, Sabrata, and Leptis Magna.

This has on the east the Greater Syrtes and the Trogodytae, on the north the Adriatic Sea, on the west Byzacium, on the south the Gaetuli and Garamantes, extending as far as the Ethiopic Ocean. The region of Byzacena obtained its name from two most noble towns, one of which is called Hadrumetum. It is beneath Tripolis, extending two hundred miles or more, fruitful in olives, and with soil so rich that seeds cast there are reborn with an increase of nearly a hundredfold. Zeugis, where is great Carthage. This is also the true Africa, situated between Byzacium and Numidia, joined on the north to the Sicilian Sea, and stretched on the south as far as the region of the Gaetuli;

of which the nearer parts are fruit-bearing, but the farther are full of wild beasts and serpents, and of great wild asses wandering in the desert. Gaetulia, however, is an inland part of Africa. Numidia is so called from its inhabitants wandering here and there, because they had no fixed abode. For in their tongue uncertain and wandering seats are called 'numidia.' It begins at the river Amsiga and ends at the Zeugitane boundary, having on the east the Lesser Syrtes, on the north the sea which faces Sardinia, on the west Mauretania Sitifensis, on the south the peoples of the Ethiopians: a region very rich in plains. But where it is wooded, it rears wild beasts; where it is steep with ridges, it produces horses and wild asses; it is also praised for its choice marble, which is called Numidian.

It has chief cities: Hippo, Regium, and Rusicada. Mauretania is named from the color of its peoples; for the Greeks call black 'mauron.' For just as Gaul is named from the whiteness of its people, so Mauretania obtained its name from their blackness. Its first province is Mauretania Sitifensis, which had the town Sitifis; from which the region is said to have drawn its name. But Mauretania Caesariensis: there was the city of the colony Caesarea, and the name of the province was given from it. Both provinces, therefore, joined to each other, have Numidia on the east, the Great Sea on the north, the river Malva on the west, and on the south Mount Astrix, which divides between the fruitful land and the sands lying as far as the Ocean.

Mauretania Tingitana is named from Tingi, the metropolitan city of this province. It is the farthest part of Africa and rises up from seven mountains, having on the east the river Malva, on the north the Strait of Gades, on the west the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south the Gaulali peoples who roam as far as the Hesperian Ocean. It is a region that breeds wild beasts, apes, dragons, and ostriches. Formerly it was also full of elephants, which now India alone brings forth. The chief town of the region of the Garamantes was the stronghold of Garama. It lies between Cyrenaica and Ethiopia, where there is a spring that grows cold with the heat of day and warm with the cold of night. Ethiopia is so called from the color of its peoples, whom the nearness of the sun scorches. Indeed the color of the men betrays the power of that star; for there the heat is unbroken.

For whatever belongs to it lies beneath the southern pole. Toward the west it is mountainous, sandy in the middle, and toward the eastern quarter a desert. Its situation stretches from the Atlas mountain in the west eastward as far as the borders of Egypt; on the south it is bounded by the Ocean, on the north by the river Nile. It has very many peoples, of varied countenance and horrible in monstrous appearance. It is also crammed with a multitude of wild beasts and serpents. There indeed are the rhinoceros beast and the giraffe, the basilisk, and huge dragons, from whose brains gems are drawn out. The jacinth also and the chrysoprase are found there; cinnamon is gathered there. There are, moreover, two Ethiopias: one toward the rising of the sun, the other toward its setting in Mauretania.

Beyond the three parts of the world, however, there is a fourth part across the Ocean, lying inland to the south, which because of the sun's blaze is unknown to us; within its borders the Antipodes are fabulously reported to dwell. Nearest to Spain is Mauretania, then Numidia, then the region of Carthage; after these we reckon Gaetulia, after it Ethiopia, and then the places burnt up by the sun's heat. It should indeed be known that certain provinces were first named from the name of their founder, and afterward the name of the people was formed from the province. For Italy is named from Italus, and again Italus from Italy; and thus we use the very names of the people just as the name of the founder was, from which the name of the province was derived. Whence it comes about that from one name are named both a city, a region, and a people.

Provinces, moreover, received their name from a cause. For the chief authority over peoples, which belonged to other kings, the Romans, by conquering, reduced under their own jurisdiction, and they called the far-off regions 'provinces.' A fatherland (patria) is so called because it is common to all who are born in it. By 'earth' (terra), as we said before (13,3,1), the element is signified; but 'lands' (terrae) are the individual parts, such as Africa and Italy. These are also called 'places'; for places and the spaces of the earth contain within themselves many provinces in the circle of the lands, just as in the body a place is one part containing within itself many members; and just as a house has within itself many chambers: so the spaces of the earth are called lands and places, of which the parts are provinces.

Just as in Asia there is Phrygia, in Gaul Raetia, in Spain Baetica. For Asia is a place, Phrygia is a province of Asia, Troy is a region of Phrygia, and Ilium is a city of Troy. Likewise regions are the parts of provinces, which the common people call 'assemblies' (conventus), as Troy in Phrygia; and as Cantabria and Asturia in Gallaecia. A region (regio) is named from its rulers (rectores), whose parts are territories. A territory (territorium) is so called as though 'tauritorium,' that is, worn down by oxen and the plow. For the ancients marked out the boundaries of both possessions and territories by a drawn furrow. VI. ON ISLANDS. Islands (insulae) are so called because they are 'in the sea-brine' (in salo), that is, in the sea. Of these too the best known and greatest, which very many of the ancients tracked out with skillful zeal, are to be noted.

Britain, an island of the Ocean divided from the whole world by the sea flowing between, is named after the word of its own people. It lies opposite the part of the Gauls, in view of Spain; its circuit is forty-eight times seventy-five miles. In it are many great rivers, hot springs, and a large and varied abundance of metals: there is very much jet-stone there, and pearls. Thanatos is an island of the Ocean in the Gallic strait, separated from Britain by a narrow estuary, rich in grain-bearing fields and fertile soil. It is called Thanatos from the death of serpents; for although the island itself has none, if earth carried from there is conveyed to any nation whatsoever, it instantly destroys snakes.

Thule is the farthest island of the Ocean, between the northern and western quarter, beyond Britain, having its name from the sun, because there the sun makes the summer solstice, and beyond it there is no day. Hence too its sea is sluggish and frozen solid. The Orcades are islands of the Ocean set within Britain, thirty-three in number, of which twenty are deserted and thirteen are inhabited. Scotia, which is also Hibernia, is an island nearest to Britain, narrower in the extent of its lands, but more fruitful in its situation. It stretches from the southwest toward the north. Its forward parts face the Iberian and Cantabrian Ocean, whence too it is called Hibernia; and it is called Scotia because it is inhabited by the peoples of the Scoti.

There no snake exists, birds are rare, and there is no bee, so much so that if anyone should scatter among the hives the dust or little stones carried from there, the swarms would abandon their combs. Gades is an island situated at the end of the province of Baetica, which divides Europe from Africa, on which the Pillars of Hercules are seen, and from which the tide of the Ocean is let into the jaws of the Tyrrhenian sea. It is separated from the mainland by a hundred and twenty paces, and the Tyrians, setting out from the Red Sea and occupying it, named it in their own tongue Gadir, that is, 'a hedge,' because it is hedged about by the sea. In it grows a tree like a palm, whose gum, staining glass, renders the ceraunium gem.

The Fortunate Isles signify by their own name that they bear all good things, as though they were happy and blessed with an abundance of fruits. For, well suited by their own nature, they bring forth the apples of precious woods; the ridges of the hills are clothed with unbidden vines; instead of grass, the harvest and the herb are common everywhere. Hence the error of the heathen and the songs of secular poets supposed, because of the fertility of the soil, that these same isles were Paradise. They lie in the Ocean opposite the left of Mauretania, nearest to the west, and separated from one another by a sea set between. The Gorgades are islands of the Ocean facing the promontory called Hesperu Ceras, which the Gorgon women, of winged swiftness and with shaggy and rough bodies, inhabited; and from these the islands took their name.

They are distant from the mainland by two days' navigation. The Hesperides islands are named from the city of Hesperis, which was on the borders of Mauretania. For they lie beyond the Gorgades beneath the Atlantic shore, in the innermost recesses of the sea; in whose gardens fables invent a wakeful dragon guarding golden apples. For it is reported that there an estuary from the sea is so winding with sinuous sides that from afar to those who behold it, it imitates the gliding of a serpent. Chryse and Argyre are islands situated in the Indian Ocean, so fertile in an abundance of metals that most have reported them to have a surface of gold and silver; whence too they obtained their names.

Taprobane is an island lying beneath India toward the southeast, from which the Indian Ocean begins, extending in length eight hundred and seventy-five thousand paces, and in breadth six hundred and twenty-five thousand stadia. It is cleft by a river flowing through it; the whole is filled with pearls and gems: part of it is filled with beasts and elephants, but part men hold. On this island they say that in one year there are two summers and two winters, and that the place blossoms twice with flowers. Tiles is an island of India, green in leaf at every season. Thus far the islands of the Ocean. Likewise there are the islands set in the Great Sea from the Hellespont as far as Gades. Cyprus is an island that took its name from the city of Cyprus which is in it.

It is also Paphos, consecrated to Venus, in the Carpathian sea, near the south wind, once famous for its riches, and especially for copper. For there was the first discovery and use of this metal. Crete is a part of Greece adjoining opposite the Peloponnese. It was first called Macaronnesos from the mildness of its climate; then it was called Crete from a certain Cres, a native, who they say was one of the Curetes, by whom Jupiter was there hidden and reared. It is an island of Greece stretched out in a very long extent between east and west, washed on the north by the waves of Greece, on the south by the Egyptian waters. It was once renowned for a hundred cities; whence too it was called Hecatompolis.

It was first also famous for oars and arrows; it first framed laws with letters, first taught squadrons of horsemen; the study of music began there from the Idaean Dactyls. It is well supplied with goats, but lacks deer; it nowhere breeds wolves and foxes and other harmful beasts; no serpent is there, no owl, and if one be found, it straightway dies. But it is generous in vines and trees: the herb dittany (dictamnus) grows in Crete, and the alimos, which when chewed wards off a day's hunger. It brings forth venomous spiders, however, and the stone called the Idaean Dactyl.

Abydos is an island set in Europe above the Hellespont, separated by a narrow and dangerous sea, and it is called Abydos in Greek because it is the entrance of the Hellespont sea, over which Xerxes made a bridge out of ships and crossed into Greece. Cos is an island adjoining the province of Attica, on which the physician Hippocrates was born; and which, as Varro testifies, first became renowned in the adornment of women by the art of woolworking. The Cyclades islands anciently belonged to Greece, and they suppose them to be called Cyclades because, although flung out at rather long distances from Delos, they are nevertheless set in a circle around Delos; for the Greeks call a circle 'kyklon.' Some, however, think them called Cyclades not because arranged in a circle, but on account of the rocks that are around them.

These, set in the Hellespont between the Aegean and Malean sea, are also surrounded by the Myrtoan main. They are fifty-three in number, extending from north to south five hundred miles, from east to west two hundred miles. Their capital is Rhodes. Delos is an island situated in the middle of the Cyclades. And it is reported to be called Delos because, after the flood which is marked in the times of Ogyges, when unbroken night had for many months darkened the world, it was lit up by the rays of the sun before all other lands; and it obtained its name from this, that it was first made manifest to sight; for the Greeks call what is manifest 'delon.' It is also Ortygia, because there were first seen the quail-birds, which the Greeks call 'ortygas.'

On this island Latona gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Delos, moreover, is called both a city and an island. Rhodes is the first of the Cyclades from the east, on which they say the head of a rose (rosa) was found when a city was being founded there, from which both the city and the island were called Rhodes. In this city there was a bronze Colossus of the Sun, seventy cubits in height; and there were also a hundred other smaller colossi on the same island. Tenedos is one of the Cyclades set to the north, on which a city was once founded by a certain Tenes. Whence came the name of that city, or rather of the island; for this Tenes, defamed because he had lain with his stepmother, and fleeing, took possession of this island empty of inhabitants; whence too it was called Tenedos. Thus Cicero (2 Verr. 1,49):

'Tenes himself, from whose name Tenedos was named.' Carpathos is one of the Cyclades set to the south opposite Egypt; from it the Carpathian sea was named, and it is so called on account of the swift ripening of its fruits. For it is between Egypt and Rhodes. From this island also the 'carpasian' ships are named, great and spacious. Cytherea is one of the Cyclades set on the western side, whose name before was Porphyris. And it is called Cytherea because there Venus was born. Icaria is one of the Cyclades, which gave its name to the Icarian sea. This, with its rocks running out between Samos and Myconus, is inhospitable, and harborless with no bays. It is said that Icarus of Crete perished there by shipwreck, and that from the man's death the name was imposed upon the place.

Naxos is an island named from Dionysus, as though 'Dionaxos,' because in the fertility of its vines it surpasses the rest. It is separated from Delos by eighteen thousand paces, and from it Jupiter is said once to have set out against the Titans. Melos, of the number of the Cyclades, is the roundest of all islands; whence too it was named. History says that from Iasion were born Philomelus and Plutus, and from Philomelus was begotten Pareas, who from his own name called the island and town Paros: it was first called Minoia, then Paros. Of which Virgil (Aen. 3,126): 'and snowy Paros.' For it produces the whitest marble, which they call Parian. It also sends forth the sardan stone, more excellent indeed than the marbles, but of the cheapest among gems.

Chios is an island so called in the Syrian tongue because mastic grows there; for the Syrians call mastic 'chio.' Samos is an island in the Aegean sea, where Juno was born; from it came the Sibyl of Samos and Pythagoras of Samos, from whom the name of philosophy was invented. On this island the first earthenware vessels are said to have been discovered; whence too Samian vessels were named. Sicily was named Sicania from king Sicanus, then Sicilia from Siculus, brother of Italus. But before, it was called Trinacria on account of its three 'akra,' that is, promontories: Pelorus, Pachynus, and Lilybaeum. For Trinacria is Greek, which in Latin is called 'triquetra,' as though divided into three sides.

This island, separated from Italy by a narrow strait, looking out upon the African sea, is fruitful in its lands, abounding in gold, yet penetrable with caverns and channels, and full of winds and sulphur; whence too there are the fires of Mount Aetna. In its strait are Scylla and Charybdis, by which ships are either swallowed up or dashed together. It was once the fatherland of the Cyclopes, and afterward the nurse of tyrants; fruitful in grain, and the first of all lands to be cut open by the plow, when seeds were entrusted to it. It has for its chief among cities Syracuse, the spring Arethusa, and the river Alpheus, 'the begetter of great horses' (cf. Virg. Aen. 3,704). On this island comedy was first invented. It itself first gave the agate stone from the river Achates. Its sea also brings forth coral.

It also produces Agrigentine salts, which dissolve in fire and crackle in water. Its whole circuit is enclosed by three thousand stadia. Sallust (Hist. 4,26), moreover, says that Sicily was once joined to Italy, but that the middle space was divided by the force of the sea and split through a narrow passage. Thapsus is an island lying ten stadia distant from Sicily and rather flat, whence too it was named. Of which Virgil (Aen. 3,689): 'and Thapsus lying low.' The Aeolian islands of Sicily were named from Aeolus, son of Hippotes, whom the poets feigned to have been king of the winds: but as Varro says, he was ruler of those islands, and because from their mists and smoke he foretold the coming blasts of the winds, he was thought by the ignorant to have held the winds in his own power.

These same islands are also called Vulcanian, because they too, like Aetna, burn. There are nine of them, having their own proper names. The first of them a certain Liparus called Lipare, who ruled it before Aeolus; another is called Hiera, because it is of the loftiest hills; but the rest, that is, Strongyle, Didyme, Eriphusa, Hephaestia, Phaenicusa, Euonymos, Tripodes, Sonores, are called Aeolian or Vulcanian, since they burn by night. Of these some did not exist from the beginning; afterward, brought up out of the sea, they remain even until now. The Stoechades are islands of the Massilians, at a distance of sixty miles from the mainland in front of the Narbonese province, where the river Rhone goes out into the sea. They are called in Greek 'Stoechades,' as though they were set in order as by a work.

Sardus, begotten of Hercules, setting out from Libya with a great multitude, occupied Sardinia, and from his own name gave the island its name. This island, in the African sea, in the shape of a human footprint, projects broader to the east than to the west, with sides nearly equal that turn to the south and north; from which, before there was commerce, it was called by Greek navigators 'Ichnos.' The land extends in length a hundred and forty thousand paces, in breadth forty thousand. In it neither serpent is bred nor wolf, but only the solifuga, a tiny creature destructive to men.

Poison also is not produced there, except a herb recorded by very many writers and poets, similar to balm-mint, which draws the mouths of men into a grimace and destroys them as though laughing. Sardinia has hot springs, offering healing to the sick, and blindness to thieves, if, an oath having been given, they touch their eyes with its waters. The inhabiting Ligures gave the beginning to the island of Corsica, calling it from the name of their leader. For a certain Ligurian woman named Corsa, when she saw a bull from the herd which she was tending near the shores accustomed to swim across and to return at intervals with its body increased, and desiring to know the pasture unknown to her, followed the bull as it went apart from the rest, all the way to the island by ship.

When it returned, the Ligures, learning of the island's fertility, set out there on rafts, and named it from the name of the woman who was its author and leader. This island is in Greek called Kyrne, inhabited by Cyrnus, son of Hercules. Of which Virgil (Ecl. 9,30): 'Cyrnean yews.' It is separated from Sardinia by a strait of twenty miles, girded by a bay of the Ligurian sea in view of Italy. It is angular with many promontories, producing the most abundant pasture and the stone which the Greeks call 'catochites.' Ebusus is an island of Spain, so called because it is not far from Zanius, as though 'abozus'; for it is distant seventy stadia from it. Serpents flee from its soil. Opposite to it is Colubraria, which teems with snakes.

There are two Balearic islands of Spain: Aphrosiades and Gymnaside, the greater and the lesser; whence too the common people call them Maiorica and Minorica. On these islands the sling with which stones are hurled was first invented, whence too they are called Baleares; for 'ballein' in Greek means 'to throw'; whence also the ballista, as though a 'thrown thing,' and the sling-catapult (fundibalum). Virgil (Georg. 1,309): 'the lashes of the Balearic sling.' VII. ON PROMONTORIES. It is common to islands that they jut out. Hence too their places are called promontories. Thus Sallust concerning Sardinia (Hist. 2, fr. 2): 'It projects broader to the East than to the West.' Sigeum is a promontory of Asia, where the Hellespont opens out more widely.

It is called Sigeum on account of the silence of Hercules, because, being refused hospitality by Laomedon, king of the Trojans, he feigned departure, and from there came against Troy in silence, which is called 'sige.' Maleum is a promontory of Greece, which enters the sea and stretches out for fifty miles; where the wave is so savage that it seems to pursue those sailing. This promontory took its name from Maleus, king of the Argives. Pelorum is a promontory of Sicily looking toward the North wind, named, according to Sallust (Hist. 4,39), from the helmsman of Hannibal buried there. Pachynum is a promontory of Sicily facing the South wind, named from the thickness of the air, for 'pachys' is 'fat and thick': for it is blown through by the South wind.

Lilybaeum is a promontory of Sicily facing the sun's setting, named from the city of the same name that is situated there. Borion is a promontory of Numidia, so called because it faces the North wind. This was afterward called Hippo Regius, because it is interrupted by the sea. Calpe is a promontory of Spain. VIII. ON MOUNTAINS AND THE OTHER TERMS OF THE EARTH. Mountains (montes) are the highest swellings of the lands, so called because they are eminent (eminentes). Some, moreover, have been named from their own particular causes, of which those are to be noted which are celebrated by report as the greatest. Mount Caucasus, stretched from India as far as Taurus, is called by different names wherever it goes, according to the variety of peoples and languages.

But where it rises up to a loftier height toward the east, it is called Caucasus from the whiteness of its snows. For in the eastern tongue 'caucasum' means 'white,' that is, whitening with the densest snows. Whence too the Scythians, who are joined to this same mountain, called it 'Croacasim.' For 'casim' among them means whiteness or snow. Mount Taurus is called by very many the same as Caucasus. Libanus is the highest mountain of the Phoenicians, of which the prophets made mention; it is named from frankincense (tus), because it is gathered there. That part of it which is above it, looking toward the eastern quarter, is called Antilibanus, that is, 'opposite Libanus.' Ararat is a mountain of Armenia, on which historians testify that the ark settled after the flood.

Whence even to this day the traces of its timbers are seen in that same place. The Acroceraunian mountains are so called on account of their height and the strokes of lightning; for in Greek lightning is called 'keraunos.' They are between Armenia and Iberia, beginning from the Caspian Gates as far as the source of the river Tigris. The Hyperborean mountains of Scythia are so called because above, that is, beyond them, blows Boreas. The Riphaean mountains are at the head of Germany, named from the perpetual blast of the winds; for 'riphe' in Greek means force and 'orme,' 'apo tou riptein' ('from hurling'). Olympus is a mountain of Macedonia, exceedingly lofty, so that the clouds are said to be beneath it. Of which Virgil (Lucan 2,271): 'Olympus rose above the clouds.' It is called Olympus as though 'Ololampus,' that is, as though heaven.

This mountain divides Macedonia from Thrace. Athos is a mountain of Macedonia, and it too higher than the clouds, and so lofty that its shadow reaches to Lemnos, which is separated from it by seventy-six miles. Parnassus is a mountain of Thessaly next to Boeotia, which is raised into the sky with a twin peak. It is split into two ridges, Cyrrha and Nissa; whence too it was named, because on each ridge Apollo and Liber were worshipped. These ridges are called from the two brothers Cithaeron and Helicon. For Helicon is named from Helicon, brother of Cithaeron. Likewise the Ceraunia are mountains of Epirus, named from the frequent lightning-strikes. For in Greek lightning is called 'keraunos.'

The Apennine mountain is so named as though 'the Poenine Alps,' because Hannibal, coming to Italy, opened these same Alps. Whence too Virgil (Aen. 10,13): 'he sends in the opened Alps'; for these Hannibal, after the wars of Spain, broke open with vinegar; Juvenal (10,153): 'and broke the mountain with vinegar.' And thence the very places which he broke open are called the Apennine Alps. Mount Aetna is named from fire and sulphur; whence too 'Gehenna.' It is agreed, moreover, that on that side where the East wind or the African wind blows, it has caves full of sulphur and drawn down as far as the sea, which caves, receiving the waves into themselves, create a wind, which, when agitated, begets fire from the sulphur; whence it is that a conflagration is seen. The Pyrenees too are named from the frequent fires of lightning.