The latest descendent in the line of Po and Lara was a girl called Potitia, daughter of Potitius. Growing up at the trading post, Potitia had been allowed from earliest childhood to roam the surrounding countryside. For a long distance upriver and down, she knew every steep embankment and muddy beach along the riverbank. She had waded across the Tiber when it was low, and had swum across when it was high.

She had also explored the Spinon, which ran in front of the settlement, following it up through a little valley flanked by steep hillsides to its source, a marshy lake surrounded by hills. The marsh teemed with living creatures-frogs, lizards, dragonflies, spiders, snakes, and all sort of birds. It was exhilarating to see a flock of startled geese take flight from the reeds, or to watch the swans make circles in the sky before landing on the water with effortless grace.

As she grew older, Potitia’s explorations had taken her farther and farther from the settlement. One day, venturing upriver, she had discovered the hot springs. Greatly excited, she had run all the way home to tell the others, and was chagrined to learn that her father already knew about the springs. Where did the bubbling water come from? Potitius said it flowed up from a fiery place deep underground. Curious, Potitia had searched all around the hot springs for an entrance to the underworld, but had never found one. On one occasion, the hot springs dried up, but then returned. Alarmed that such a thing might happen again, the settlers decided to build an altar at the springs, and to make offerings to appease the fiery numina in the earth. Potitius had built the altar himself, using oxen to drag a large stone to the spot, then chiseling the stone into a shape that seemed suitable to him. Once a year, an offering of salt was spread upon the altar, then scattered over the hot springs. So far, they had not run dry again.