Note 2795 — PORTUS ITIUS

It is quite true, as General Creuly observes (Rev. arch., nouv. sér., viii, 1863, p. 306) that the author of Bellum Africum (c. 10, § 1) applies the name of portus to a mere anchorage (cf. Col. Stoffel, Hist. de Jules César,—Guerre civile, ii, 110-1, and pl. 20). But Bellum Africum was not written by Caesar; and the question is, what Caesar meant by the word portus. Now there are certainly two instances in which he applies that word to a harbour very different from the estuary of a river. The harbour of Nymphaeum (now the bay of Medua) on the eastern coast of the Adriatic has a comparatively wide entrance, and is exposed to the full force of the south wind; but against all other winds it is perfectly safe, and it might fairly be called a portus and not a statio (B. C., iii, 26, § 4. Cf. Col. Stoffel, Hist. de Jules César, &c. pl. 14 bis). The harbour of Alexandria was formed, as Caesar says (B. C., iii, 112, § 2. Cf. Stoffel, pl. 19), by the island which extended opposite the city, and was divided into two portions by the mole which connected the island with the mainland: the western portion must have been exposed to south westerly winds, but the other offered complete shelter. The conclusion is that the word portus had a somewhat elastic signification, but would not have been applied by Caesar to Wissant unless the anchorage there had been protected, as Dr. Guest imagined, by sand-dunes.