River
Fluvius Cleusis
Chiese
Listen to the story
A winding line that springs from a small cluster of mountains beside Trento and runs down into the Po marks the Fluvius Cleusis, the river Chiese in northern Italy. In reality the Chiese rises about fifty kilometres west of Trento and flows into the Oglio, not the Po. The map leaves the Oglio out entirely and treats its lower course as part of the Chiese, a stretch it draws quite accurately. The Greek historian Polybius may have made the same swap: his river Clusius, which Roman troops crossed in 223 BC into the land of the Cenomani, was probably the Oglio itself.