Geography

​As testimonies of the dominion of Diomedes around this sea, there are both the Diomedean Islands and the things recorded concerning the Daunians and Argos Hippium; about which we shall speak as far as is useful for history, but we must let go of most of the mythical or otherwise fabricated stories, such as those concerning Phaethon and the Heliades who were turned into poplars around the Eridanus, which exists nowhere on earth, though said to be near the Padus, and the Electrides Islands which lie in front of the Padus and the meleagrides in them; for none of these is in those places. But certain honors are recorded as having been established for Diomedes among the Heneti; for indeed a white horse is sacrificed to him, and two groves are shown, one of Argive Hera and the other of Aetolian Artemis. And they add to the myth, as is likely, that in these groves the wild beasts become tame, and deer herd together with wolves, and they endure when men approach and stroke them, and those pursued by dogs, whenever they flee here, are no longer pursued. And they say that a certain man who was very well known for being fond of giving security and was mocked for this, fell in with hunters who had a wolf in their nets; and when they said in jest that if he would give security for the wolf to pay for the damages it had done, they would release it from the nets, he agreed. And the wolf, having been released, drove away a sufficient herd of unbranded horses and brought them to the stable of the security-lover; and he, having received the favor, branded the horses with a wolf, and they were called Lycophori, differing in speed rather than beauty; and those who succeeded him kept both the brand and the name for the breed of horses, and made it a custom not to alienate a female, so that the genuine breed might remain among themselves alone, the horsemanship from this place having become famous. But now, as we said, all such training has ceased. After the Timavum is the coast of the Istrians as far as Pola, which is adjacent to Italy. And between them is the fortress Tergeste, distant from Aquileia one hundred and eighty stadia; and Pola is situated in a harbor-like gulf which has islands easy to anchor in and fruitful, and it is an ancient foundation of the Colchians who were sent out after Medea, but having failed in their enterprise and condemned themselves to exile— “A Greek would call it the city of exiles, as Callimachus has said, but their tongue named it Pola.” Now the regions beyond the Padus are inhabited by both the Heneti and those as far as Pola. And above the Heneti are the Carni, Cenomani, Medoaci, and Insubres, of whom some were enemies to the Romans, but the Cenomani and Heneti were allies both before the expedition of Hannibal, when they fought the Boii and Insubres, and after these things.

​And those on this side of the Padus hold all the land which the Apennine mountains encircle towards the Alps as far as Genua and Sabata. And the Boii, Ligurians, Senones, and Gaesatae held the greater part; but since the Boii were expelled, and the Gaesatae and Senones also disappeared, there remain the Ligurian tribes and the colonies of the Romans. And the tribe of the Umbrians is also mixed with the Romans, and in some places also that of the Tyrrhenians. For both of these nations, before the greater rise of the Romans, had a certain rivalry with each other for supremacy, and having the Tiber River in the middle, they easily crossed over into each other’s territory. And if either made any campaigns against others, there was a rivalry for the others not to be left behind in setting out for the same places; and indeed, when the Tyrrhenians sent an army against the barbarians around the Padus and fared well, but quickly fell out again because of their luxury, the others campaigned against those who had expelled them; then, disputing the places in succession, they made many of the settlements Tyrrhenian and others Umbrian; and more of them Umbrian, because they were nearer. And the Romans, having taken them over and sent colonists, preserved also in many places the races of those who had previously settled. And now they are all Romans, but nonetheless some are still called Umbrians and Tyrrhenians, just as the Heneti, Ligurians, and Insubres.