Note 055 The lake, from the neighbouring towns of Etruria, was styled either Vulsiniensis (now of Bolsena) or Tarquiniensis. It is surrounded with white rocks, and stored with fish and wild-fowl. The younger Pliny (Epist. ii. 96 <95>) celebrates two woody islands that floated on its waters: if a fable, how credulous the ancients ! If a fact, how careless the moderns ! Yet, since Pliny, the island may have been fixed by new and gradual accessions.]

---

The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 41