The Siris (modern Sinni) flows from near the town of Grumentum into the Ionian Sea at Heraclea. It is an obstacle for travellers on the coastal road and by all appearances had to be forded.
The current coastal highway from Taranto to Reggio Calabria almost certainly follows the same route. At the Sinni, one encounters a wide pool (Google Street View) which was perhaps dug to avoid the danger of flash floods, but gives some impression of how the ford might have appeared in ancient times.
Back projection from the Tabula onto a geographic map suggests that the Siris is present, but in the erroneous form of a river-line which is marked at its mouth as Grater Fl. and at its source as Fl. Crate. The most important argument for this is that the true Crater is in fact marked on the Tabula a little to the right.
Talbert denotes this river-line no. 68 and comments: "To add to the confusion hereabouts, the river is shown as originating in one mountain range (#59) and then flowing through another (#15). In reality, the river of this name should be flowing to the other side of the peninsula (thus up on this map, not down)." However he was mistaken in supposing number 68 to be the Crater.
The current coastal highway from Taranto to Reggio Calabria almost certainly follows the same route. At the Sinni, one encounters a wide pool (Google Street View) which was perhaps dug to avoid the danger of flash floods, but gives some impression of how the ford might have appeared in ancient times.
Back projection from the Tabula onto a geographic map suggests that the Siris is present, but in the erroneous form of a river-line which is marked at its mouth as Grater Fl. and at its source as Fl. Crate. The most important argument for this is that the true Crater is in fact marked on the Tabula a little to the right.
Talbert denotes this river-line no. 68 and comments: "To add to the confusion hereabouts, the river is shown as originating in one mountain range (#59) and then flowing through another (#15). In reality, the river of this name should be flowing to the other side of the peninsula (thus up on this map, not down)." However he was mistaken in supposing number 68 to be the Crater.
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