1.

Having previously passed over the regions of ancient Italy as far as Metapontium, we must now proceed to describe the rest. After it Iapygia2383 comes next in order; the Greeks call it Messapia, but the inhabitants, dividing it into cantons, call one the Salentini,2384 that in the neighbourhood of the Cape2385 Iapygia, and another the Calabri;2386 above these towards the north lie the Peucetii,2387 and those who are called Daunii2388 in the Greek language, but the inhabitants call the whole region beyond the Calabri, Apulia. Some of these people are called Pœdicli,2389 especially the Peucetii. Messapia forms a peninsula; the isthmus extending from Brentesium2390 to Tarentum, which bounds it, being 310 stadia, and the circumnavigation round the Iapygian promontory2391 about [one thousand]2392 four hundred. [Tarentum2393] is distant from Metapontium2394 about two hundred and [twenty2393] stadia. The course to it by sea runs in an easterly direction. The Gulf of Tarentum is for the most part destitute of a port, but here there is a spacious and commodious [harbour2395], closed in by a great bridge. It is 100 stadia2396 in circuit. This port, at the head of its basin which recedes most inland, forms, with the exterior sea, an isthmus which connects the peninsula with the land. The city is situated upon this peninsula. The neck of land is so low that ships are easily hauled over it from either side. The site of the city likewise is extremely low; the ground, however, rises slightly towards the citadel. The old wall of the city has an immense circuit, but now the portion towards the isthmus is deserted, but that standing near the mouth of the harbour, where the citadel is situated, still subsists, and contains a considerable city. It possesses a noble gymnasium and a spacious forum, in which there is set up a brazen colossus of Jupiter, the largest that ever was, with the exception of that of Rhodes. The citadel is situated between the forum and the entrance of the harbour, it still preserves some slight relics of its ancient magnificence [Pg 424]
[CAS. 278] and gifts, but the chief of them were destroyed either by the Carthaginians2397 when they took the city, or by the Romans2398 when they took it by force and sacked it. Amongst other booty taken on this occasion2399 was the brazen colossus of Hercules, the work of Lysippus, now in the Capitol, which was dedicated as an offering by Fabius Maximus, who took the city.