Kitap 5
2.5
They say that the greatest length of Tyrrhenia, which is along the coast from Luna to Ostia, is about 2500 stadia; and that its breadth in the direction of the mountains is less than half that number. Then from Luna to Pisa there are more than 400 stadia; from thence to VolaterraeVolterra. 280; thence to Poplonium 270; and from Poplonium to CossaRuins near Ansedonia. near 800, or as some say, 600. Polybius, however, says that there are notCoray here reads αὐκ. Kramer considers the passage corrupt. in all 1330.The French translation here gives 1460, and a note by Gosselin. Of these Luna is a city and harbour; it is named by the Greeks, the harbour and city of Selene.σελήνη, the moon. The city is not large, but the harbourThe bay of Spezia. is very fine and spacious, containing in itself numerous harbours, all of them deep near the shore; it is in fact an arsenal worthy of a nation holding dominion for so long a time over so vast a sea. The harbour is surrounded by lofty mountains,The mountains of Carrara. from whence you may view the seaThe Mediterranean. and Sardinia, and a great part of the coast on either side. Here are quarries of marble, both white and marked with green, so numerous and large, as to furnish tablets and columns of one block; and most of the material for the fine works, both in Rome and the other cities, is furnished from hence. The transport of the marble is easy, as the quarries lie near to the sea, and from the sea they are conveyed by the Tiber. Tyrrhenia likewise supplies most of the straightest and longest planks for building, as they are brought direct from the mountains to the river. Between Luna and Pisa flows the Macra,Other writers mention a river Macra, but none of them, as it appears, a district in Italy bearing that name. Kramer supposes that Strabo wrote ποτάμιον, and not χωοͅίον, the reading of all MSS. a division which many writers consider the true boundary of Tyrrhenia and Liguria. Pisa was founded by the Pisatae of the Peloponnesus, who went under Nestor to the expedition against Troy, but in their voyage home wandered out of their course, some to Metapontium,Near the mouth of the river Basiento. others to the Pisatis; they were, however, all called Pylians. The city lies between the two rivers ArnoThe ancient Arnus. and Aesar,Corresponding to the present Serchio, which discharges itself into the sea, and not into the Arno. The time when this change of direction took place is not recorded, but traces of the ancient name and course of the river remain in the Osari, which, after flowing a short distance through a marshy district, falls into the sea between the Serchio and Arno. at their point of confluence; the former of which, though very full, descends from ArretiumArezzo. not in one body, but divided into three; the second flows down from the Apennines. Where they fall into one current, the shock between them is so great as to raise the water to that height, that people standing on either bank are not able to see each other; so that necessarily the voyage up from the sea is difficult. This voyage is about 20 stadia. There is a tradition, that when these rivers first descended from the mountains they were impeded by the inhabitants of the district, lest falling together they should inundate the country; however, they promised not to inundate it, and they have kept their word. This city appears to have been formerly flourishing, and at the present day it still maintains its name, on account of its fertility, its marble-quarries, and its wood for building ships, which formerly they employed to preserve themselves from danger by sea; for they were more warlike than the Tyrrheni, and were constantly irritated by the Ligurians, troublesome neighbours, who dwelt on the coast. At the present day the wood is mostly employed for building houses in Rome, and in the country villas [of the Romans], which resemble in their gorgeousness Persian palaces.
