MACRA
MACRA (
ὁ Μάκρης, Strab.; Ptolemy has the corrupt form
Μακράλλα Magra), a considerable river of Northern Italy, rising in the Apennines and flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea near Luna.
It was under the Roman dominion the established limit between Liguria and Etruria (
Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 7;
Flor. 2.3.4;
Strab. v. p.222; Vib. Seq. p. 14); but at an earlier period the Ligurian tribe of the Apuani occupied the country on both sides of it, and it was not till after a long struggle with that people that the Romans were able to carry their arms as far as the banks of the Macra. (
Liv. 39.32,
40.41.) The Macra is one of the most considerable of the rivers on the Ligurian coast, but it still retains the character of a mountain torrent, at times very violent and impetuous, at others so shallow as to be wholly unfit for navigation (
Lucan 2.426).
The ruins of Luna are situated on the
left bank of the
Magra, about a mile from the sea, while the celebrated Port of Luna (the Gulf of
Spezia) is some miles distant to the W., and separated from it by an intervening range of hills [
LUNA]. About 10 miles from its mouth the
Magra receives from its W. bank the waters of the
Vara, also a formidable torrent, which is in all probability the
BOACTES of Ptolemy (
3.1.3).
[
E.H.B]
