[1203] Still called Alba; a town near the northern foot of the Apennines. It probably had its appellation from Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of Pompey the Great, who conferred many privileges on the Cisalpine Gauls. It was the birth-place of the Emperor Helvius Pertinax.
[1204] The modern Aste.
[1205] The modern Acqui, so called from its mineral springs. It is again mentioned by Pliny in B. XXXI. Numerous remains of the ancient town have been discovered.
[1206] Ansart observes that this measurement is nearly correct.
[1207] For an account of this see Herodotus, B. i. c. 94, Tacitus, Ann. B. iv. c. 55, and Velleius Paterculus, B. i. c. 1. These writers all agree as to the fact of the migration of a colony of Lydians under the conduct of Tyrrhenus to the part of Italy afterwards called Etruria. This subject however, as well as the migrations of the Pelasgi, is involved in the greatest obscurity.
[1208] From the Greek verb θύειν “to sacrifice,” he implies:—from their custom of frequently sacrificing, says Servius, on the Xth Book of the Æneid. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says that they were from their frequent sacrifices called θυόσκοοι. These are probably fanciful derivations; but there is no doubt that the people of Etruria were for several centuries the instructors of the Romans in the arts of sacrifice, augury, and divination.
[1209] The ruins of Luna, which was destroyed by the Normans in the middle ages, are still visible on the banks of the Magra. The modern name of the port is Golfo della Spezzia.
[1210] The modern city of Lucca has its site and name.—Livy, B. xli. c. 13, informs us that this colony was founded in the year of the city 576, during the Consulship of Claudius Pulcher and Sempronius Gracchus.
[1211] The modern city of Pisa. See Virgil, B. x. l. 179, as to the origin of this place.
[1212] The modern Serchio.