Hercules, after he had gone through Liguria and Tuscany, encamped at Tiber, where Rome now stands, built many ages after by Romulus, the son of Mars. The natural inhabitants at that time inhabited a little town upon a hill, now called Mount Palatine. Here Potitius15 and Pinarius, the most eminent persons of quality among them, entertained Hercules with all the demonstrations of kindness imaginable, and presented him with many noble presents. There are now at Rome antient monuments of these men; for the most noble family, called the Pinarii, remains still among the Romans, and is accounted the most antient at this day. And there are Potitius’s stone stairs to go down from Mount Palatine, (called after his name), adjoining to that which was antiently his house.

Hercules being much pleased with the civil entertainment of the Palatines, foretold them, that whosoever should dedicate the tenth of their goods to him, after he was translated to the gods, should be ever after more prosperous; and this dedication has been ever since constantly used to this day: for many of the Romans, not only such as are of mean estates, but the great and rich men, (having experienced how riches have flowed in upon them after the decimation of their goods to Hercules), have dedicated the tenth part of their substances, which have been of the value of four thousand talents: for Lucullus (the richest almost of all the Romans in his time) valued his estate, and consecrated the tenths to this god, and feasted continually with prodigious charge and expence. The Romans afterwards built a magnificent temple near the river Tiber, in honour of this god, and instituted sacrifices to him out of the tenths.

Hercules marching from Mount Palatine, passed through the maritime coasts of Italy, as they are now called, and came into the champaign country of Cumae, where (it is said) there were men infamous for their outrages and cruelties, called giants. This place is also called the Phlegraean plain, from a hill which antiently vomited out fire, like unto Aetna in Sicily, now called Vesuvius, which retains many signs and marks of its antient irruptions.

These giants, hearing of Hercules’s approach, met him in battle array, and, fighting with the force and cruelty of giants, Hercules (with the assistance of the gods) overcame them, and cutting off most of them, quieted that country. These giants were called sons of the earth, by reason of the vast bulk of their bodies. These are the things that some report (whom Tiuneus follows) concerning the destruction of the giants of Phlegraea.