River
Fluvius Aufidus
Ofanto
Listen to the story
The map draws a river labelled Fluvius Aufidus, yet the label seems to sit in the wrong spot: the bridge station named after the river and the town of Canusium, which it flowed past, appear further along beside a nameless stream. This is the Ofanto, the main river of Apulia, which runs past the battlefield of Cannae. The Greek geographer Strabo tells of boats sailing upstream to the trading place of Canusium. The poet Horace called it bull-shaped, since it splits into two arms before reaching the sea. On the parchment, even its source looks as if it may have been scraped away.