Geography

​What need is there to speak of the fertility of the land, which is celebrated by everyone, who declare it to be in no way inferior to Italy? Indeed, in respect to grain, honey, saffron, and certain other things, one might even say it is superior. There is also the advantage of closeness; for the island is, as it were, a part of Italy, and supplies Rome with each of its products easily and without labor, just as if from Italian fields. And indeed, they call it the storehouse of Rome; for everything produced there, except for the few things consumed on the spot, is brought here. These are not only the fruits of the earth, but also livestock, hides, wool, and suchlike. Posidonius says that Syracuse and Eryx are established like two acropolises on the sea, and that Enna lies high above the surrounding plains, situated midway between both.

​Near Centuripa is the town of Aetna, mentioned a little earlier, which receives and sends on those who ascend the mountain; for from here is the beginning of the mountain ridge. The upper regions are bare, ashy, and full of snow in winter, while the lower parts are divided by forests and plantations of all kinds. The summits of the mountain seem to undergo many changes because of the distribution of the fire, which at one time gathers into one crater, and at another is divided, and at one time sends up lava-streams, and at another flames and thick smoke, and at other times also blows up glowing masses of stone; and it is necessary that by these occurrences the underground passages also change, and the openings at times become more numerous along the surrounding surface. At any rate, those who recently ascended related to us that they found at the top a flat plain about twenty stadia in circumference, enclosed by an ashy ridge having the height of a wall, so that those who wished to go forward into the plain had to leap down; and they saw in the middle a mound ashy in color, just as the surface of the plain also appeared to be, and above the mound a cloud rising straight up to a height of about two hundred feet, remaining still (for there was also a calm), and they compared it to smoke; and two men who dared to go forward into the plain, when they stepped upon hotter and deeper sand, turned back, having nothing more to tell than what was visible to those looking on from a distance. They think that from such an appearance many stories are made up, and especially such as some tell about Empedocles, that he leaped down into the crater and left behind, as a trace of his fate, one of the two bronze sandals which he used to wear; for it was found outside, a little distance from the lip of the crater, as if thrown up by the force of the fire; for they say that the place is neither accessible nor visible, and they conjecture that nothing can even be cast down into it because of the counter-blast of the winds from the depths and the heat, which it is reasonable to suppose meets one far off before approaching the mouth of the crater; and if it should be cast down, it would be destroyed before being thrown up again in the same condition as it was first received. That the winds and the fire should sometimes fail when the material fails is not unreasonable, but certainly not to such an extent that, instead of such great violence, an approach should become achievable for a human being. Aetna lies above the coast along the strait and the territory of Catana, but also above the coast along the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Liparian Islands. By night, indeed, bright lights are seen from the summit, but by day it is held by smoke and mist.