City
Pola
Pula
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Pola, today Pula in Croatia, lay on a deep, sheltered bay at the southern tip of Istria, a natural harbour the Greek geographer Strabo admired. The Roman writer Pliny repeats the legend that Colchians, the people of the Argonaut story, founded it, and gives its name as a Roman colony, Pietas Iulia. The map marks the town with a pair of towers but puts it in the wrong place: it stands where Parentium belongs, while Parentium in turn takes the spot of Tergeste. Its well preserved amphitheatre once seated about twenty-three thousand spectators.