MŒSIA

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Pannoniae iungitur provincia quae Moesia appellatur, ad Pontum usque cum Danuvio decurrens. incipit a confluente supra dicto. in ea Dardani, Celegeri, Triballi, Timachi, Moesi, Thraces Pontoque contermini Scythae. flumina clara e Dardanis Margus, Pingus, Timachus, ex Rhodope Oescus, ex Haemo Vtus, Asamus, Ieterus.

Illyrici latitudo qua maxima est CCCXXV p. colligit, longitudo a flumine Arsia ad flumen DriniumDXXX. a Drinio ad promunturium Acroceraunium CLXXV Agrippa prodidit, universum autem sinum Italiae et Illyrici ambitu |XVII|. in eo duo maria quo distinximus fine, Ionium in prima parte, interius Hadriaticum, quod Superum vocant.

Insulae in Ausonio mari praeter iam dictas memoratu dignae nullae, in Ionio paucae Calabro litore ante Brundisium, quarum obiectu portus efficitur, contra Apulum litus Diomedia, conspicua monumento Diomedis, et altera eodem nomine, a quibusdam Teutria appellata. Illyrici ora mille amplius insulis frequentatur, natura vadoso mari aestuariisque tenui alveo intercursantibus. clarae ante ostia Timavi calidorum fontium cum aestu maris crescentium, iuxta Histrorum agrum Cissa, Pullariae et absyrtides Grais dictae a fratre Medeae ibi interfecto. iuxta eas Electridas vocavere in quibus proveniret sucinum, quod illi electrum appellant, vanitatis Graecae certissimum documentum, adeo ut quas earum designent haut umquam constiterit. contra Iader est Lissa et quae appellata est, contra Liburnos Crateae aliquot nec pauciores Liburnicae, Celadussae, contra Tragurium Bova et capris laudata Brattia, Issa civium Romanorum et cum oppido Pharia. ab Issa Corcyra Melaena cognominata cum Cnidiorum oppido distat XXV, inter quam et Illyricum Melite, unde catulos Melitaeos appellari Callimachus auctor est. XV ab ea VII Elaphites, in Ionio autem mari ab Orico MM p. Sasonis, piratica statione nota.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

Joining up to Pannonia is the province called Mœsia, which runs, with the course of the Danube, as far as the Euxine. It commences at the confluence previously mentioned. In it are the Dardani, the Celegeri, the Triballi, the Timachi, the Mœsi, the Thracians, and the Scythians who border on the Euxine. The more famous among its rivers are the Margis, which rises in the territory of the Dardani, the Pingus, the Timachus, the Œscus which rises in Mount Rhodope, and, rising in Mount Hæmus, the Utus, the Asamus, and the Ieterus.

The breadth of Illyricum at its widest part is 325 miles, and its length from the river Arsia to the river Drinius 530; from the Drinius to the Promontory of Acroceraunia Agrippa states to be 175 miles, and he says that the entire circuit of the Italian and Illyrian Gulf is 1700 miles. In this Gulf, according to the limits which we have drawn, are two seas, the Ionian in the first part, and the Adriatic, which runs more inland and is called the Upper Sea.

In the Ausonian Sea there are no islands worthy of notice beyond those which we have already mentioned, and only a few in the Ionian; those, for instance, upon the Calabrian coast, opposite Brundusium, by the projection of which a harbour is formed; and, over against the Apulian coast, Diomedia, remarkable for the monument of Diomedes, and another island called by the same name, but by some Teutria.

The coast of Illyricum is clustered with more than 1000 islands, the sea being of a shoaly nature, and numerous creeks and æstuaries running with their narrow channels between portions of the land. The more famous are those before the mouths of the Timavus, with warm springs that rise with the tides of the sea, the island of Cissa near the territory of the Istri, and the Pullaria and Absyrtides, so called by the Greeks from the circumstance of Absyrtus, the brother of Medea, having been slain there. Some islands near them have been called the Electrides, upon which amber, which they call “electrum,” was said to be found; a most assured instance however of that untruthfulness which is generally ascribed to the Greeks, seeing that it has never yet been ascertained which of the islands were meant by them under that name. Opposite to the Iader is Lissa, and other islands whose names have been already mentioned. Opposite to the Liburni are some islands called the Crateæ, and no smaller number styled Liburnicæ and Celadussæ. Opposite to Surium is Bavo, and Brattia, famous for its goats, Issa with the rights of Roman citizens, and Pharia with a town. At a distance of twenty-five miles from Issa is Corcyra, surnamed Melæna, with a town founded by the Cnidians; between which and Illyricum is Melite, from which, as we learn from Callimachus, a certain kind of little dogs were called Melitæi; fifteen miles from it we find the seven Elaphites. In the Ionian Sea, at a distance of twelve miles from Oricum, is Sasonis, notorious from having been a harbour of pirates.