252
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.
[Book III.
the interior of the tenth region are the colonies of Cremona, Brixia in the territory of the Cenomanni[1], Ateste[2] belonging to the Veneti, and the towns of Acelum[3], Patavium[4], Opitergium, Belunum[5], and Vicetia; with Mantua[6], the only city of the Tuscans now left beyond the Padus. Cato informs us that the Veneti are descendants of the Trojans[7], and that the Cenomanni[8] dwelt among the Volcæ in the vicinity of Massilia. There are also the towns of the Fertini[9], the Tridentini[10], and the Beruenses, belonging to the Rhæti, Verona[11], belonging to the Rhæti and the Euganei, and Ju-
- ↑ Livy seems to imply that Cremona was originally included in the territory of the Insubres. A Roman colony being established there it became a powerful city. It was destroyed by Antonius the general of Vespasian, and again by the Lombard king Agilulfus in A.D. 605. No remains of antiquity, except a few inscriptions, are to be seen in the modern city.
- ↑ The modern city of Este stands on the site of Ateste. Beyond inscriptions there are no remains of this Roman colony.
- ↑ Asolo stands on its site.
- ↑ It was said to have been founded by the Trojan Antenor. Under the Romans it was the most important city in the north of Italy, and by its commerce and manufactures attained great opulence. It was plundered by Attila, and, by Agilulfus, king of the Lombards, was razed to the ground. It was celebrated as being the birth-place of Livy. Modern Padua stands on its site, but has no remains of antiquity.
- ↑ Now called Belluno. Vicetia has been succeeded by the modern Vicenza.
- ↑ Mantua was not a place of importance, but was famous as being the birth-place of Virgil; at least, the poet, who was born at the village of Andes, in its vicinity, regarded it as such. It was said to have had its name from Manto, the daughter of Tiresias. Virgil, in the Æneid, B. x., alludes to its supposed Tuscan origin.
- ↑ Led by Antenor, as Livy says, B. i.
- ↑ The Cenomanni, a tribe of the Cisalpine Gauls, seem to have occupied the country north of the Padus, between the Insubres on the west and the Veneti on the east. From Polybius and Livy we learn that they had crossed the Alps within historical memory, and had expelled the Etruscans and occupied their territory. They were signalized for their amicable feelings towards the Roman state.
- ↑ Their town was Fertria or Feltria, the modern Feltre.
- ↑ The modern city of Trento or Trent occupies the site of Tridentum, their town. It is situate on the Athesis or Adige. It became famous in the middle ages, and the great ecclesiastical council met here in 1545.
- ↑ It was a Roman colony under the name of Colonia Augusta, having originally been the capital of the Euganei, and then of the Ceno-
