THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, IN SO FAR AS IT IS SUBSERVIENT OF THE CLASSICS. I. HISPANIA, Graece et Poetice IBERIA, WAS the name given by the Romans to a peninsula of quadrangular shape, in length and in breadth about 600 miles, which occupies the S. W. extremity of Europe, and is wholly contained within the lines of 36° and 44° N. latitude, and of 31o E., and 91° W. longitude. PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE PENINSULA. An elevated ridge of Mountain and Table-land extends from N. to S., forming the water-shed of the country, and giving origin to all the great rivers, some of which find their way to the Mediterranean, and some to the Atlantic. To this crest, or backbone as it were of the peninsula, are attached, on the side facing the West, ranges of mountains and B high ground, running in a S. W. direction and nearly parallel to each other; and these enclose, on two sides, the Basins or tracts of country through which the rivers and their tributaries flow. The main rivers that rise on the Western slope of the central ridge and fall into the Atlantic, are four in number:-1. DURIUS, the Duèro (in Spanish,) Douro (in Portuguese), the vast basin of which, bounded by the Cantabrian and Asturian Mountains on the North side, and by those of Castille on the South, includes the less considerable valley of Minius, the Minho; 2. TAGUS, famed for the gold found in its sand;1 3. ANAS, the Guadiana; and 4. BAETIS, the Guadalquivir, (pronounced Wad-al-keveer, i. e. in Arabic," the great river.")" The main rivers that rise on the Eastern slope of the water-shed and fall into the Mediterranean are also four, but, excepting the last, of much shorter course:-1. TADER, the Segura; 2. SUCRO, the Xucar; 3. TURIA, the Guadalaviar; and 4. IBERUS, the Ebro: and the basins of these rivers are enclosed in like manner by lateral ranges of hills which start off, like spinal processes, from the side of the central range fronting the East. In tracing the rivers just enumerated, secundo flumine, from fountain-head to the mouth or embouchure, 1 auriferi ripa beata Tagi.-Ov. AM. I. 15, 34. 2 The beauty and fertility of the Baetis and its banks are finely alluded to in Mart. XII. 99: Bætis, olivifera crinem redimite corona, Aurea qui nitidis vellera tingis aquis, Quem Bromius, quem Pallas amat !— The favourite of Bacchus and of Minerva :' i. e. abounding in wine and oil. we fall in successively with the following towns and localities: 3 1. On the DURIUS, near the source, and not far from the modern town of Soria, stood Numantia, which Florus calls Hispaniae decus. It sustained a fourteen years' siege against the Romans, and was taken at last by Scipio Africanus Minor. At the mouth stood Calle, or Portus Calensis, whence the kingdom of Portugal derives its name. Calle is now Oporto; and from this comes the word 'Port,' as applied to wine shipped from that harbour. In the basin of the DURIUS were also, on the North side, Asturica Augusta, Astorga, and Legio VII gemina, Leon. On the South side of the basin, Salmantica, Salamanca, and Segovia, famed for an aqueduct said to have been the work of Trajan, and still, with its double tier of arches, in good preservation. 2. On the TAGUS, Tolētum, Toledo, Norba Caesarea, where was a famous bridge over the river, now Alcantara, Scalăbis, Santarem, a corruption of St. Irene; Olisipo, (a word which probably suggested the fable of its having been founded by Ulysses) now LISBON, the Capital of Portugal. In the basin of the Tagus, North side, were Complūtum, Alcala, on the Henares, where Cardinal Ximenes founded a University, and where he published in 1515 the famous Polyglot Bible commonly called Biblia Complutensis; Mantua, supposed to be the site of the modern Capital of Spain, MADRID : and not far from the river, Libora, Talavera. ILLE Numantina traxit ab urbe notam.-OVID, Fast. I. 596. longa ferae bella Numantiae.-HOR. Od. II. 12. 1. 3. On the ANAS, half-way down, Metellinum, founded by Caecilius Metellus, now Medellin, birthplace of Fernando Cortez; Emerita Augusta, a settlement provided by Augustus for his disbanded veterans (emeriti), once the Capital of Lusitania, now Merida; and Pax Augusta, which the Moors corrupted into Badajoz. 4. On the BAETIS, near the source, Castulo,* of which Hannibal's wife Imilce was a native, now Cazlona; the forest-land around-the saltus Castulonensis of Livy--is part of Mons Marianus, the great table-land now called the Sierra Morena, the scene of the fabulous adventures of Don Quixote. Farther down the river Corduba (Cordova) birthplace of Lucan and the two Senecas; Italica, birthplace of the Emperor Trajan, and some think, of Hadrian also and the poet Silius Italicus; Hispălis, SEVILLE, which ranks as the second city of modern Spain. The basin of the BAETIS was occupied in the dark ages by the Vandals, and was then called Vandalitia, --a name which appears now in the altered form of Andalusia. ✦ Castulo, urbs Hispaniae valida ac nobilis, et adeo conjuncta societate Poenis, ut uxor inde Hannibali esset.-Liv. XXIV, 41. 5 In the poem which Statius dedicates to the memory of his friend Lucan, (Sylv. 11. 7.) he raises him in the following lines above Homer and Virgil; a compliment which might have appeared less extravagant, had Lucan, instead of dying at 26, lived to a maturer age : Attollat refluos in astra fontes, Graio nobilior Melete, Baetis! Baetin, Mantua, provocare noli.—STAT. Silv. 11. 7, 33. Duosque Senecas unicumque Lucanum, Facunda loquitur Corduba.-MART. 1. 62. |