Etymologies & Works 14 part 2/3

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.