Note 2032 — BOOK III. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED. INTRODUCTION. (continued 2)

More properly “Diomedeæ,” being a group of small islands off the coast of Apulia now called Isole di Tremiti, about eighteen miles from the mouth of the Fortore. They were so called from the fable that here the companions of Diomedes were changed into birds. A species of sea-fowl (which Pliny mentions in B. x. c. 44) were said to be the descendants of these Greek sailors, and to show a great partiality for such persons as were of kindred extraction. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, B. xiv. l. 500. The real number of these islands was a matter of dispute with the ancients, but it seems that there are but three, and some mere rocks. The largest of the group is the island of San Domenico, and the others are San Nicola and Caprara. The small island of Pianosa, eleven miles N.E., is not considered one of the group, but is not improbably the Teutria of Pliny. San Domenico was the place of banishment of Julia, the licentious daughter of Augustus.