NAUPORTUS
NAUPORTUS (
Ναύπορτος).
1.
（
Laybach), a small but navigable river in the south-west of Pannonia, flowing by the town of Nauportus, and emptying itself into the Savus a little below Aemona. (
Strab. iv. p.207, comp vii. p. 314, where some read
Ναύποντος; Plin. Nat. 3.23.)
2.
A town in the south-west of Pannonia, on the small river of the same name, was an ancient and once flourishing commercial town of the Taurisci, which carried on considerable commerce with Aquileia. (
Strab. vii. p.314;
Tac. Ann. 1.10;
Plin. Nat. 3.22 ; Vell. Paterc. 2.110.)
But after the
[p. 2.404]foundation of Aemona, at a distance of only 15 miles from Nauportus, the latter place lost its former importance and decayed. During the insurrection of the Pannonian legions after the death of Augustus, the town was plundered and destroyed. (Tac.
l.c.) The place is now called
Ober-Lay-bach; its Roman name Nauportus (from navis and porto) was connected with the story of the Argonauts, who were believed on their return to have sailed up the Ister to this place, and thence to have carried their ships on their shoulders across the Alps to the Adriatic. [
L.S]
