—meaning, as I conceive, that the waters of the Tiber were thrown back from the Etruscan shore, or right bank, which was the steep side, so as to flood the left bank, and do all the mischief. If this interpretation be correct, which Gesner supports by the following note, the question is settled by this single passage:
"Quod fere malim propter ea quæ sequuntur, littus ipsius Tiberis dextrum, quod spectat Etruriam: unde retortis undis sinistrâ ripâ Romam alluente, labitur."
Thus, at all events, I have the authority of Gesner's scholarship for "littus ipsius Tiberis."
There are two other passages in Horace's Odes where "littus" seems to bear a different sense from the sea-shore. The first, book iii. ode 4.:
"Insanientem navita Bosporum
Tentabo, et arentes arenas
Littoris Assyrii viator."
The next, book iii. ode 17.:
"Qui Formiarum mœnia dicitur
Princeps, et innantem Maricæ