Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

460

CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. XHL

ft then gave its name to a bay which extended
from the promontory of Populonia, now Piom·
bino, to that of Luna or of Venus, still Porlo de
Venere, and was called the Sinus Pisanus. Ac-
cording to Strabo the Ausar flowed into the
Arno at Pisa, though it now falls into the sea
at the distance of at least ten miles from it. At
what time a new bed was opened for this river,
though an undertaking of some labor and im-
portance, is not known; nor is the slightest
mention made of the alteration in any records,
at least if we may believe the learned Cluverius.
The inundations caused in a flat country, by the
union of two such rivers, and the difficulty of
stemming a stream so rapid as their united cur-
rent never counteracted by the tide, might in
the flourishing ages of the republic have induced
the Pisans to divert the course of one of the two,

Sed procera suo praetexitur alga profundo,
Molliter offensae non nocitura rati:
Et tamen insanas cedendo interligat undas,
Nec sinit ex alto grande volumen agi.
Rutilius Itin. 532, &c.
I do not know whether the port of Pisa still enjoys the ad«
vantage of so extraordinary a barrier; as it is totally unfre-
quented, it would be difficult and indeed useless to ascertain
the fact,