which smokes and flames continually erupt [Vesuvius]; there are many other bubbling pools and smokes arising from the ground all around, and the people say that this is not far from the entrance to the Underworld. I will have more to say about this matter when I speak of the provisions we have made for the worship of the gods.
But the poets say that Persephone, daughter of Ceres, was kidnapped and compelled to live in the underworld half the year, and this kidnapping might well have happened here, for the presence of Ceres, goddess of fertility, is as notable as the signs of the underworld. The country is very fertile, suitable for growing grain and establishing olive groves, and vinyards for wine grow on the hillsides, while there is also pasturage for cattle. It is especially for the fertility of the land that we have established Cumae here on the mainland. There is also fertile land further to the north, but no colony can be planted there, since the Etruscans have a federation of cities which is very powerful, and would dominate any colony planted north of the mountains around Cumae. I will speak more of the Etruscans and other natives later.
Now I must speak of the circumstances under which we established this colony here at Cumae, and I will speak frankly, even though I will say some things that you surely do not wish to hear. You know very well that the richest families in Chalchis, not content with their ancient honors and ancestral right to the best land, have continually been greedy in taking the land of the common people; and your judges have been bribe takers who favor the rich, not the cause of justice, and who ignore the plea and tears of the widow and the small farmer, taking their land and forcing them into bondage [Kitto, 1957: 81ff; 99]. Because of these misdeeds, which you, King Amphidamas no king any more, really, as in the time of the Trojan War, but a mere chief of the oligarchy have p...