Listed 100 (total found 109) sub titles with search on: Various locations for wider area of: "ITALY Country EUROPE" .
LAISTRYGONES (Mythical lands) ITALY
Homer mentions that the spring Artacia was in the land of the Laestrygones (Od. 10.108).
AETNA (Mountain) SICILY
Acis (Akis), a river of Sicily, on the eastern coast of the island,
and immediately at the foot of Aetna. It is celebrated on account of the mythological
fable connected with its origin, which was ascribed to the blood of the youthful
Acis, crushed under an enormous rock by his rival Polyphemus. (Ovid. Met. xiii.
750, &c.; Sil. Ital. xiv. 221-226; Anth. Lat. i. 148; Serv. ad Virg. Eel. ix.
39, who erroneously writes the name Acinius.) It is evidently in allusion to the
same story that Theocritus speaks of the sacred waters of Acis. (Akidos hieron
hudor, Idyll. i. 69.) From this fable itself we may infer that it was a small
stream gushing forth from under a rock; the extreme coldness of its waters noticed
by Solinus (Solin. 5. § 17) also points to the same conclusion. The last circumstance
might lead us to identify it with the stream now called Fiume Freddo, but there
is every appearance that the town of Acium derived its name from the river, and
this was certainly further south. There can be no doubt that Cluverius is right
in identifying it with the little river still called Fiume di Jaci, known also
by the name of the Acque Grandi, which rises under a rock of lava, and has a very
short course to the sea, passing by the modern town of Aci Reale (Acium). The
Acis was certainly quite distinct from the Acesines or Asines, with which it has
been confounded by several writers. (Cluver. Sicil. p. 115; Smyth's Sicily, p.
132; Ortolani, Diz. Geogr. p. 9; Ferrara, Descriz. dell' Etna, p. 32.)
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Acium, a small town on the E. coast of Sicily, mentioned only in the Itinerary
(Itin. Ant. p 87), which places it on the high road from Catana to Tauromenium,
at the distance of 9 M. P. from the former city. It evidently derived its name
from the little river Acis, and is probably identical with the modern Act Reale,
a considerable town, about a mile from the sea, in the neighbourhood of which,
on the road to Catania, are extensive remains of Roman Thermae. (Biscari, Viaggio
in Sicilia, p. 22; Ortolani, Diz. Geogr. p. 9.)
AGYRION (Ancient city) SICILY
Ameselum (to Ameselon) a town of Sicily, mentioned only by Diodorus (xxii. Exc.
Hoesch. p.499), from whom we learn that it was situated between Centuripi and
Agyrium, in a position of great natural strength. It was taken, in B.C. 269, by
Hieron king of Syracuse, who destroyed the city and fortress, and divided its
territory between its two neighbours the Centuripini and Agyrians. Its exact site
is unknown.
ARPINO (Town) LAZIO
Cereatae (Kereate, Strab.; Kirraiatai, Plut.: Eth. Cereatinus), a town of Latium, mentioned by Strabo (v. p. 238) among those which lay on the left of the Via Latina, between Anagnia and Sora. There is no doubt that it is the same place called by Plutarch Cirrhaeatae, which was the birth-place of. C. Marius. (Plut. Mar. 3.) He terms it a village in the territory of Arpinum; it appears to have been subsequently erected into a separate municipium, probably by Marius himself, who seems to have settled there a body of his relations and dependents. It subsequently received a fresh body of colonists from Drusus, the stepson of Augustus. Hence the Cereatini Mariani appear among the Municipia of Latium in the time of Pliny. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Lib. Colon. p. 233; Zumpt, de Colon. p. 361.) The passage of Strabo affords the only clue to its position; but an inscription bearing the name of the Cereatini Mariani has been discovered at the ancient monastery of Casa Mara or Casamari, about half way between Verulae and Arpinum, and 3 miles W. of the Liris. It is thus rendered probable that this convent (which is built on ancient foundations) occupies the site of Cereatae, and retains in its name some trace of that of Marius. (Bull. d. Inst. Arch. 1851, p. 11.) We learn from another inscription that there was a branch of the Latin way which communicated directly with Arpinum and Sora, passing apparently by Cereatae. (Ibid. p. 13.)
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An ancient town of the Ausones, near Menturnae and Vescia
CAMPANIA (Region) ITALY
Lactarius Mons (Galaktos oros: Monte S. Angelo), was the name given
by the Romans to a mountain in the neighbourhood of Stabiae in Campania. It was
derived from the circumstance that the mountain abounded in excellent pastures,
which were famous for the quality of the milk they produced; on which account
the mountain was resorted to by invalids, especially in cases of consumption,
for which a milk diet was considered particularly beneficial. (Cassiod. Ep. xi.
10.; Galen, de Meth. Med. v. 12.) It was at the foot of this mountain that Narses
obtained a great victory over the Goths under Teias in A.D. 553, in which the
Gothic king was slain. (Procop. B. G. iv. 35, 36.) The description of the Mons
Lactarius, and its position with regard to Stabiae, leave no doubt that it was
a part of the mountain range which branches off from the Apennines near Nocera
(Nuceria), and separates the Bay of Naples from that of Paestum. The nighest point
of this range, the Monte S. Angelo, attains a height of above 5000 feet; the whole
range is calcareous, and presents beautiful forests, as well as abundant pastures.
The name of Lettere, still borne by a town on the slope of the mountain side,
a little above Stabiae, is evidently a relic of the ancient name.
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Massicus Mons (Monte Massico), a mountain, or rather range of hills, in Campania, which formed the limit between Campania properly so called and the portion of Latium, south of the Liris, to which the name of Latium Novum or Adjectum was sometimes given. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) The Massican Hills form a range of inconsiderable elevation, which extends from the foot of the mountain group near Suessa (the Mte. di Sta. Croce), in a SW. direction, to within 2 miles of the sea, where it ends in the hill of Mondragone, just above the ancient Sinuessa. The Massican range is not, like the more lofty group of the Mte. di Sta. Croce or Rocca Monfina, of volcanic origin, but is composed of the ordinary limestone of the Apennines (Daubeny On Volcanoes, p. 175). But, from its immediate proximity to the volcanic formations of Campania, the soil which covers it is in great part composed of such products, and hence probably the excellence of its wine, which was one of the most celebrated in Italy, and vied with the still more noted Falernian. (Virg. Georg. ii. 143, Aen. vii. 724; Hor. Carm. i. 1. 19, iii. 21. 5; Sil. Ital. vii. 20; Martial, i. 27. 8, xiii. 111; Plin. xiv. 6. s. 8; Columell. iii. 8.) Yet the whole of this celebrated range of hills does not exceed 9 miles in length by about 2 in breadth.
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Nesis (Nisida), a small island on the coast of Campania, between Puteoli and Neapolis, and directly opposite to the extremity of the ridge called Mons Pausilypus (Seneca, Ep. 53). It may be considered as forming the eastern headland of the bay of Baiae or Puteoli, of which Cape Misenum is the western limit. The island is of small extent, but considerable elevation, and undoubtedly constituted at a remote period one side of the crater of a volcano, This must, however, have been extinct before the period of historical memory; but it appears that even in the days of Statius and Lucan it emitted sulphureous and noxious vapours, which has long ceased to be the case (Stat. Silv. ii. 2. 78; Lucan vi.90). It was nevertheless, like the adjoining hill of Pausilypus, a pleasant place of residence. Brutus had a villa there, where he was visited by Cicero shortly after the death of Caesar, and where they conferred, together with Cassius and Libo, upon their future plans (Cic. ad Att. xvi. 1-4). Pliny tells us that it was famous for its asparagus, a celebrity which it still retains (Plin. xix. 8. s. 42); but the wood which crowned it in the days of Statius (Silv. iii. 1. 148), has long since disappeared.
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Vulturnus (Ououltournos: Volturno), the most considerable river of
Campania, which has its sources in the Apennines of Samnium, about 5 miles S.
of Aufidena, flows within a few miles of Aesernia on its left bank. and of Venafrum
on its right, thence pursues a SE. course for about 35 miles, till it receives
the waters of the Calor (Calore), after which it turns abruptly to the WSW., passes
under the walls of Casilinum (Capoua), and finally discharges itself into the
Tyrrhenian sea about 20 miles below that city. Its mouth was marked in ancient
times by the town of the same name (Vulturnum), the site of which is still occupied
by the modern fortress of Castel Volturno. (Strab. v. pp. 238, 249; Plin. iii.
5. s. 9; Mel. ii. 4. § 9.) The Vulturnus is a deep and rapid, but turbid stream,
to which character we find many allusions in the Roman poets. (Virg. Aen. vii.
729; Ovid. Met. xv. 714; Lucan ii.423; Claudian. Paneg. Prob. et Ol. 256; Sil.
Ital. viii. 530.) A bridge was thrown over it close to its mouth by Domitian,
when he constructed the Via Domitia that led from Sinuessa direct to Cumae. (Stat.
Silv. iv. 3. 67, &c.) From the important position that the Vulturnus occupies
in Campania, the fertile plains of which it traverses in their whole extent from
the foot of the Apennines to the sea, its name is frequently mentioned in history,
especially during the wars of the Romans with the Campanians and Samnites, and
again during the Second Punic War. (Liv. viii. 11, x. 20, 31, xxii. 14, &c.; Polyb.
iii. 92.) Previous to the construction of the bridge above mentioned (the remains
of which are still visible near the modern Castel Volturno), there was no bridge
over it below Casilinum, where it was crossed by the Via Appia. It appears to
have been in ancient times navigable for small vessels at least as far as that
city. (Liv. xxvi. 9; Stat. Silv. iv. 3. 77.)
Its only considerable tributary is the Calor which brings with it
the waters of several other streams, of which the most important are the Tamarus
and Sabatus. These combined streams bring down to the Vulturnus almost the whole
waters of the land of the Hirpini; and hence the Calor is at the point of junction
nearly equal in magnitude to the Vulturnus itself.
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CATANI (Ancient city) SICILY
Pantagias (Pantakias, Thuc.; Pantachos, Ptol.: Porcari), a small river
on the E. coast of Sicily, flowing into the sea between Catania and Syracuse,
a few miles to the N. of the promontory of Sta Croce. It is alluded to both by
Virgil and Ovid, who agree in distinctly placing it to the N. of Megara, between
that city and the mouth of the Symaethus; thus confirming the authority of Ptolemy,
while Pliny inaccurately enumerates it after Megara, as if it lay between that
city and Syracuse. Its name is noticed both by Silius Italicus and Claudian, but
without any clue to its position; but the characteristic expression of Virgil,
vivo ostia saxo Pantagiae, leaves no doubt that the stream meant is the one now
called the Poredri, which flows through a deep ravine between calcareous rocks
at its mouth, affording a small but secure harbour for small vessels. (Virg. Aen.
iii. 689; Ovid, Fast. iv. 471; Sil. Ital. xiv. 231; Claudian, Rapt. Pros. ii.
58; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 9; Cluver. Sicil. p. 131.) It is but
a small stream and easily fordable, as described by Silius Italicus, but when
swollen by winter rains becomes a formidable torren<*>, whence Claudian calls
it saxa rotantem: but the story told by Servius and Vibius Sequester of its deriving
its name from the noise caused by its tumultuous waters, is a mere grammatical
fiction. (Serv. ad Aen. l. c.; Vib. Seq. p. 16.)
Thucydides tells us that the Megarian colonists in Sicily, previous
to the foundation of the Hyblaean Megara, established themselves for a short time
at a place called Trotilus, above the river Pantagias, or (as he writes it) Pantacias
(Thuc. vi. 4). The name is otherwise wholly unknown, but the site now occupied
by the village and castle of La Bruca, on a tongue of rock commanding the entrance
of the harbour and river, is probably the locality meant. (Smyth's Sicily, p.
159.)
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Terias (Terias: Fiume di S. Leonardo), a river of Sicily, on the E. coast of the island, flowing into the sea between Catana and Syracuse. It is mentioned by Pliny (iii. 8. s. 14) immediately after the Syimaethus; and Scylax tells us it was navigable for the distance of 20 stadia up to Leontini. (Scyl. p. 4. § 13.) Though this last statement is not quite accurate, inasmuch as Leontini is at least 60 stadia from the sea, it leaves little doubt that the river meant is that now called the Flume di S. Leonardo, which flows from the Lake of Lentini (which is not mentioned by any ancient author) to the sea. It has its outlet in a small bay or cove, which affords a tolerable shelter for shipping. Hence we find the mouth of the Terias twice selected by the Athenians as a halting-place, while proceeding with their fleet along the E. coast of Sicily. (Thuc. vi. 50, 96.) The connection of the Terias with Leontini is confirmed by Diodorus, who tells us that Dionysius encamped on the banks of that river near the city of Leontini. (Diod. xiv. 14.)
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Xiphonius portus (Xiphoneios limen, Scyl. p. 4: Bay of Augusta), a spacious harbour on the E. coast of Sicily, between Catana and Syracuse. It is remarkable that this, though one of the largest and most important natural harbours on the coasts of Sicily, is rarely mentioned by ancient authors. Scylax, indeed, is the only writer who has preserved to us its name as that of a port. Strabo speaks of the Xiphonian Promontory (to tes Hxiphonias akroterio, vi. p. 267), by which he evidently means the projecting headland near its entrance, now called the Capo di Santa Croce. Diodorus also mentions that the Carthaginian fleet, in B.C. 263 touched at Xiphonia on its way to Syracuse (eis ten, Xiphonian, xxiii. 4. p. 502). None of these authors allude to the existence of a town of this name, and it is probably a mistake of Stephanus of Byzantium, who speaks of Xiphonia as a city (s. v.). The harbour or bay of Augusta is a spacious gulf, considerably larger than the Great Harbour of Syracuse, and extending from the Capo di Santa Croce to the low peninsula or promontory of Magnisi (the ancient Thapsus). But it is probable that the port designated by Scylax was a much smaller one, close to the modern city of Augusta, which occupies a low peninsular point or tongue of land that projects from near the N. extremity of the bay, and strongly resembles the position of the island of Ortygia, at Syracuse, except that it is not quite separated from the mainland. It is very singular that so remarkable and advantageous a situation should not have been taken advantage of by the Greek colonists in Sicily; but we have no trace of any ancient town on the spot, unless it were the site of the ancient Megara. The modern town of Augusta, or Agosta, was founded in the 13th century by Frederic II.
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COMO (Town) LOMBARDIA
Larius Lacus (he Larios limne: Lago di Como), one of the largest of
the great lakes of Northern Italy, situated at the foot of the Alps, and formed
by the river Addua. (Strab. iv. p. 192; Plin. iii. 19. s. 23.) It is of a peculiar
form, long and narrow, but divided in its southern portion into two great arms
or branches, forming a kind of fork. The SW. of these, at the extremity of which
is situated the city of Como, has no natural outlet; the Addua, which carries
off the superfluous waters of the lake, flowing from its SE. extremity, where
stands the modern town of Lecco. Virgil, where he is speaking of the great lakes
of Northern Italy, gives to the Larius the epithet of maximus (Georg. ii. 159);
and Servius, in his note on the passage, tells us that, according to Cato, it
was 60 miles long. This estimate, though greatly overrated, seems to have acquired
a sort of traditionary authority: it is repeated by Cassiodorus (Var. Ep. xi.
14), and even in the Itinerary of Antoninus, and is at the present day still a
prevalent notion among the boatmen on the lake. The real distance from Como to
the head of the lake does not exceed 27 Italian, or 34 Roman miles, to which five
or six more may be added for the distance by water to Riva, the Lago di Riva being
often regarded as only a portion of the larger lake. Strabo, therefore, is not
far from the truth in estimating the Larius as 300 stadia (37 1/2 Roman miles)
in length, and 30 in breadth. (Strab. iv. p. 209.) But it is only in a few places
that it attains this width; and, owing to its inferior breadth, it is really much
smaller than the Benacus (Lago di Garda) or Verbanus (Lago Maggiore). Its waters
are of great depth, and surrounded on all sides by high mountains, rising in many
places very abruptly from the shore: notwithstanding which their lower slopes
were clothed in ancient times, as they still are at the present day, with rich
groves of olives, and afforded space for numerous villas. Among these the most
celebrated are those of the younger Pliny, who was himself a native of Comum,
and whose paternal estate was situated on the banks of the lake, of which last
he always speaks with affection as Larius noster. (Ep. ii. 8, vi. 24, vii. 11.)
But, besides this, he had two villas of a more ornamental character, of which
he gives some account in his letters (Ep. ix. 7): the one situated on a lofty
promontory projecting out into the waters of the lake, over which it commanded
a very extensive prospect, the other close to the water's edge. The description
of the former would suit well with the site of the modern Villa Serbelloni near
Bellaggio; but there are not sufficient grounds upon which to identify it. The
name of Villa Pliniana is given at the present day to a villa about a mile beyond
the village of Torno (on the right side of the lake going from Como), where there
is a remarkable intermitting spring, which is also described by Pliny (Ep. iv.
30) ; but there is no reason to suppose that this was the site of either of his
villas. Claudian briefly characterises the scenery of the Larius Lacus in a few
lines (B. Get. 319--322); and Cassiodorus gives an elaborate, but very accurate,
description of its beauties. The immediate banks of the lake were adorned with
villas or palaces (praetoria), above which spread, as it were, a girdle of olive
woods ; over these again were vineyards, climbing up the sides of the mountains,
the bare and rocky summits of which rose above the thick chesnut-woods that encircled
them. Streams of water fell into the lake on all sides, in cascades of snowy whiteness.
(Cassiod. Var. xi. 14.) It would be difficult to describe more correctly the present
aspect of the Lake of Como, the beautiful scenery of which is the theme of admiration
of all modern travellers.
Cassiodorus repeats the tale told by the elder Pliny, that the course
of the Addua could be traced throughout the length of the lake, with which it
did not mix its waters. (Plin. ii. 10b. s. 106; Cassiod. l. c.) The same fable
is told of the Lacus Lemannus, or Lake of Geneva, and of many other lakes formed
in a similar manner by the stagnation of a large river, which enters them at one
end and flows out at the other. It is remarkable that we have no trace of an ancient
town as existing on the site of the modern Lecco, where the Addua issues from
the lake. We learn, from the Itinerary of Antoninus (p. 278), that the usual course
in proceeding from Curia over the Rhaetian Alps to Mediolanum, was to take boat
at the head of the lake and proceed by water to Comum. This was the route by which
Stilicho is represented by Claudian as proceeding across the Alps (B. Get. l.
c.) ; and Cassiodorus speaks of Comum as a place of great traffic of travellers
(l. c.) In the latter ages of the Roman empire, a fleet was maintained upon the
lake, the head-quarters of which were at Comum. (Not. Dign. ii. p. 118.)
The name of Lacus Larius seems to have been early superseded in common
usage by that of Lacus Comacinus, which is already found in the Itinerary, as
well as in Paulus Diaconus, although the latter author uses also the more classical
appellation. (Itin. Ant. L. c.; P. Diac. Hist. v. 38, 39.)
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ETROURIA (Ancient country) ITALY
Aharna a town of Etruria, mentioned only by Livy (x. 25) during the campaign of
Fabius in that country, B.C. 295. He affords no clue to its position, which is
utterly unknown. Cluverius and other writers have supposed it to be the same with
Arna but this seems scarcely reconcilable with the circumstances of the campaign.
(Cluver. Ital p. 626.)
Albinia, a considerable river of Etruria, still called the Albegna, rising in
the mountains at the back of Saturnia, and flowing into the sea between the Portus
Telamonis and the remarkable promontory called Mons Argentarius. The name is found
only in the Tabula; but the Alminia or Almina of the Maritime Itinerary (p. 500)
is evidently the same river.
Caecina or Cecina, a river of Etruria, mentioned both by Pliny and
Mela, and still called Cecina. It flowed through the territory of Volaterrae,
and after passing within 5 miles to the S. of that city, entered the Tyrrhenian
sea, near the port known as the Vada Volaterrana. There probably was a port or
emporium at its mouth, and Mela appears to speak of a town of the same name. The
family name of Caecina, which also belonged to Volaterrae, was probably connected
with that of the river, and hence the correct form of the name in Latin would
be Caecina, though the MSS. both of Pliny and Mela have Cecina or Cecinna. (Plin.
iii. 5. s. 8; Mela, ii. 4; Muller, Etrusker, vol. i. p, 405.)
Argentarius mons, a remarkable mountain-promontory on the coast of Etruria, still called Monte Argentaro. It is formed by an isolated mass of mountains about 7 miles in length and 4 in breadth, which is connected with the mainland only by two narrow strips of sand, the space between which forms an extensive lagune. Its striking form and appearance are well described by Rutilius (Itin. i. 315-324); but it is remarkable that no mention of its name is found in any earlier writer, though i; is certainly one of the most remarkable physical features on the coast of Etruria. Strabo, however, notices the adjoining lagune (limnothalatta), and the existence of a station for the tunny fishery by the promontory (v. p. 225), but without giving the name of the latter. At its south-eastern extremity was the small but well-sheltered port mentioned by ancient writers under the name of Portus Hercults (Herakleous limen, Strab. l. c.; Rutil. i. 293), and still known as Porto d'Ercole. Besides this, the Maritime Itinerary mentions another port to which it gives the name of Incitaiia, which must probably be.the one now known as Porto S. Stefano, formed by the northern extremity of the headland; but the distances given are corrupt. (Itin. Marit. p. 499.) The name of Mons Argentarius points to the existence here of silver mines, of which it is said that some remains may be still discovered.
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Lauretanus Portus a seaport on the coast of Etruria, mentioned only by Livy (xxx.
39). From this passage it appears to have been situated between Cosa and Populonium;
but its precise position is unknown.
A river of Etruria, still called the Marta, which has its source in
the Lake of Bolsena (Lacus Vulsiniensis), of which it carries off the superfluous
waters to the sea. It flowed under the N. side of the hill on which stood Tarquinii;
but its name is known only from the Itineraries, from which we learn that it was
crossed by the Via Aurelia, 10 miles from Centumcellae (Civita Vecchia). (Itin.
Ant. p. 291; Tab. Peut.)
Clanis or Glanis (Klanis, Strab.; Glanis, App.: Chiana), a river of
Etruria, flowing through the territory of Clusium, and falling into the Tiber
about 14 miles below Tuder. It is mentioned by several ancient writers as one
of the principal tributaries of the Tiber (Strab. v. p. 235; Plin. iii. 5. s.
9; Tac. Ann. i. 79; Sil. Ital. viii. 455): but we learn from Tacitus that as early
as A.D. 15, the project was formed of turning aside its waters into the Arnus.
The Clanis is in fact the natural outlet that drains the remarkable valley now
called the Val di Chiana, which extends for above 30 miles in length from N. to
S., from the neighbourhood of Arezzo to beyond Chiusi, and is almost perfectly
level, so that the waters which descend into it from the hills on both sides would
flow indifferently in either direction. In ancient times they appear to have held
their course entirely towards the S., so that Pliny considers the river as proceeding
from Arretium, and calls it Glanis Arretinus: it formed, as it still does, a considerable
lake near Clusium (Strab. v. p. 226), now called the Lago di Chiusi, and had from
thence a course of about 30 miles to the Tiber. But repeated inundations having
rendered the Val di Chiana marshy and unhealthy, its waters are now carried off
by artificial channels; some, as before, into the lake of Chiusi, others to the
N. towards the Arno, which they join a few miles from Arezzo. The two arms thus
formed are called the Chiana Toscana and Chiana Romana. The latter falls into
a stream called the Paglia, about 5 miles above its confluence with the Tiber.
So slight is the difference of level, that it is even supposed that at one time
a part of the waters of the Arnus itself quitted the main stream near Arretium,
and flowed through the Val di Chiana to join the Tiber. It is, however, improbable
that this was the case in historical times. (Fossombroni, Mem. sopra la Val di
Chiana, 8vo. 1835; Rampoldi, Corogr. dell' Italia, vol. i. p. 656.)
Appian mentions that in B.C. 82, a battle was fought between Sulla
and Carbo, on the banks of the Clanis, near Clusium, in which the former was victorious
(B.C. i. 89).
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Sabatinus lacus (Sabata limne, Strab.: Lago di Bracciano), one of
the most considerable of the lakes of Etruria, which, as Strabo observes, was
the most southerly of them, and consequently the nearest to Rome and to the sea.
(Strab. v. p. 226.) It is, like most of the other lakes in the same region, formed
in the crater of an extinct volcano, and has consequently a very regular basin-like
form, with a circuit of about 20 miles, and is surrounded on all sides by a ridge
of hills of no great elevation. It is probable that it derived its name from a
town of the name of Sabate, which stood on its shores, but the rame is not found
in the geographers, and the only positive evidence of its existence is its mention
in the Tabula as a station on the Via Claudia. (Tab. Peut.) The lake itself is
called Sabata by Strabo, and Sabate by Festus, from whom we learn that it gave
name to the Sabatine tribe of the Roman citizens, one of those which was formed
out of the new citizens added to the state in B.C. 387. (Liv. vi. 4, 5; Fest.
s. v. Sabatina, pp. 342, 343.) Silius Italicus speaks of the Sabatia stagna in
the plural (viii. 492), probably including under the name the much smaller lake
in the same neighbourhood called the Lacus Alsietinus or Lago di Martignano. The
same tradition was reported of this lake as of the Ciminian, and of many others,
that there was a city swallowed up by it, the remains of which could still occasionally
be seen at the bottom of its clear waters. (Sotion, de Mir. Font. 41, where we
should certainly read Sabatos for Sakatos.) It abounded in fish and wild-fowl,
and was even stocked artificially with fish of various kinds by the luxurious
Romans of late times. (Columell. viii. 16.)
The Tabula places Sabate at the distance of 36 miles from Rome, but
this number is much beyond the truth. The true distance is probably 27 miles,
which would coincide with a site near the W. extremity of the lake about a mile
beyond the modern town of Bracciano, where there are some ruins of Roman date,
probably belonging to a villa. (Tab. Peut.; Holsten. Not. ad Cluver. p. 44; Westphal,
Rom. Kampagne, pp. 156, 158.) The town of Bracciano, which now gives name to the
lake, dates only from the middle ages and probably does not occupy an ancient
site.
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A forest of Etruria, in the territory of the Veientines, which was conquered from
them by Ancus Marcius. (Liv. i. 33.) Its site cannot be determined with certainty,
but it was probably situated on the right bank of the Tiber, between Rome and
the sea-coast. Pliny also notices it as abounding in dormice. (Plin. viii. 58.
s. 83.)
Soracte (Monte S. Oreste), a mountain of Etruria, situated between
Falerii and the Tiber, about 26 miles N. of Rome, from which it forms a conspicuous
object. It is detached from the chain of the Apennines, from which it is separated
by the intervening valley of the Tiber; yet in a geological sense it belongs to
the Apennine range, of which it is an outlying offset, being composed of the hard
Apennine limestone, which at once distinguishes it from the Mons Ciminus and the
other volcanic hills by which it is surrounded. Though of no great elevation,
being only 2420 feet in height, it rises in a bold and abrupt mass above the surrounding
plain (or rather table-land), which renders it a striking and picturesque object,
and a conspicuous feature in all views of the Campagna. Hence the selection of
its name by Horace in a well-known ode (Carm. i. 9) is peculiarly appropriate.
It was consecrated to Apollo, who had a temple on its summit, probably on the
same spot now occupied by the monastery of S. Silvestro, and was worshipped there
with peculiar religious rites. His priests were supposed to possess the power
of passing unharmed through fire, and treading on the hot cinders with their bare
feet. (Virg. Aen. vii. 696, xi. 785-790; Sil. Ital. v. 175-181, vii. 662; Plin.
vii. 2.) Its rugged and craggy peaks were in the days of Cato still the resort
of wild goats. (Varr. R. R. ii. 3. § 3.)
Soracte stands about 6 miles from Civita Castellana, the site of
the ancient Falerii, and 2 from the Tiber. It derives its modern appellation from
the village of Sant‘ Oreste, which stands at its S. extremity on a steep and rocky
hill, forming a kind of step or ledge at the foot of the more elevated peaks of
Soracte itself. This site, which bears evident signs of ancient habitation, is
supposed to be that of the ancient Feronia or Lucus Feroniae (Dennis's Etruria,
vol. i. p. 179.)
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HERAKLIA (Ancient city) ITALY
Aciris (Akiris), a river of Lucania, mentioned both by Pliny and Strabo,
as flowing near to Heraclea on the N. side, as the Siris did on the S. It is still
called the Acri or Agri, and has a course of above 50 miles, rising in the Apennines
near Marsico Nuovo, and flowing into the Gulf of Tarentum, a little to the N.
of Policoro, the site of the ancient Heraclea. (Plin. iii. 11. s. 15 ; Strab.
p. 264.) The Acidios of the Itinerary is supposed by Cluverius to be a corruption
of this name, but it would appear to be that of a town, rather than a river. (Itin.
Ant. p. 104.)
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IPPONION (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Thence (from Hipponium) one sails to the Harbor of Heracles, which is the point where the headlands of Italy near the Strait begin to turn towards the west.
IRAKLIA MINOA (Ancient city) SICILY
Halycus (Halukos). A river in the south of Sicily, flowing into the sea near Heraclea Minoa.
ITALY (Ancient country) EUROPE
Apenninus mons (ho Apenninos, to Apenninon oros. The singular form
is generally used, in Greek as well as Latin, but both Polybius and Strabo occasionally
have ta Apennina ore. In Latin the singular only is used by the best writers).
The Apennines, a chain of mountains which traverses almost the whole length of
Italy, and may be considered as constituting the backbone of that country, and
determining its configuration and physical characters. The name is probably of
Celtic origin, and contains the root Pen, a head or height, which is found in
all the Celtic dialects. Whether it may originally have been applied to some particular
mass or group of mountains, from which it was subsequently extended to the whole
chain, as the singular form of the name might lead us to suspect, is uncertain:
but the more extensive use of the name is fully established, when it first appears
in history. The general features and direction of the chain are well described
both by Polybius and Strabo, who speak of the Apennines as extending from their
junction with the Alps in an unbroken range almost to the Adriatic Sea; but turning
off as they approached the coast (in the neighbourhood of Ariminum and Ancona),
and extending from thence throughout the whole length of Italy, through Samnium,
Lucania, and Bruttium, until they ended at the promontory of Leucopetra, on the
Sicilian Sea. Polybius adds, that throughout their course from the plains of the
Padus to their southern extremity they formed the dividing ridge between the waters
which flowed respectively to the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. The same thing
is stated by Lucan, whose poetical description of the Apennines is at the same
time distinguished by geographical accuracy. (Pol. ii. 16, iii. 110;. Strab. ii.
p. 128, v. p. 211; Ptol. iii. 1. § 44; Lucan ii.396-438; Claudian. de VI. Cons.
Hon. 286.) But an accurate knowledge of the course and physical characters of
this range of mountains is so necessary to the clear comprehension of the geography
of Italy, and the history of the nations that inhabited the different provinces
of the peninsula, that it will be desirable to give in this place a more detailed
account of the physical geography of the Apennines.
There was much difference of opinion among ancient, as well as modern,
geographers, in regard to the point they assigned for the commencement of the
Apennines, or rather for their junction with the Alps, of which they may, in fact,
be considered only as a great offshoot. Polybius describes the Apennines as extending
almost to the neighbourhood of Massilia, so that he must have comprised under
this appellation all that part of the Maritime Alps, which extend along the sea-coast
to. the west of Genoa, and even beyond Nice towards Marseilles. Other writers
fixed on the port of Hercules Monoecus (Monaco) as the point of demarcation: but
Strabo extends the name of the Maritime Alps as far E. as Vada Sabbata (Vado),
and says that the Apennines begin about Genoa: a distinction apparently in accordance
with the usage of the Romans, who frequently apply the name of the Maritime Alps
to the country of the Ingauni, about Albenga. (Liv. xxviii. 46; Tac. Hist. ii.
12.) Nearly the same distinction has been adopted by the best modern geographers,
who have regarded the Apennines as commencing from the neighbourhood of Savona,
immediately at the back of which the range is so low that the pass between that
city and Carcare, in the valley of the Bormida, does not exceed the height of
1300 feet. But the limit must, in any case, be an arbitrary one: there is no real
break or interruption of the mountain chain. The mountains behind Genoa itself
are still of very moderate elevation, but after that the range increases rapidly
in height, as well as breadth, and extends in a broad unbroken mass almost in
a direct line (in an ESE. direction) till it approaches the coast of the Adriatic.
Throughout this part of its course the range forms the southern limit of the great
plain of Northern Italy, which extends without interruption from the foot of the
Apennines to that of the Alps. Its highest summits attain an elevation of 5000
or 6000 feet, while its average height ranges between 3000 and 4000 feet. Its
northern declivity presents a remarkable uniformity: the long ranges of hills
which descend from the central chain, nearly at right angles to its direction,
constantly approaching within a few miles of the straight line of the Via Aemilia
throughout its whole length from Ariminum to Placentia, but without ever crossing
it. On its southern side, on the contrary, it sends out several detached arms,
or lateral ranges, some of which attain to an elevation little inferior to that
of the central chain. Such is the lofty and rugged range which separates the vallies
of the Macra and Auser (Serchio), and contains the celebrated marble quarries
of Carrara; the highest point of which (the Pizzo d'Uccello) is not less than
5800 feet above the sea. Similar ridges, though of somewhat less elevation, divide
the upper and lower vallies of the Arnus from each other, as well as that of the
Tiber from the former.
But after approaching within a short distance of the Adriatic, so
as to send down its lower slopes within a few miles of Ariminum, the chain of
the Apennines suddenly takes a turn to the SSE., and assumes a direction parallel
to the coast of the Adriatic, which it preserves, with little alteration, to the
frontiers of Lucania. It is in this part of the range that all the highest summits
of the Apennines are found: the Monti della Sibilla, in which are the sources
of the Nar (Nera) rise to a height of 7200 feet above the sea, while the Monte
Corno, or Gran Sasso d'Italia, near Aquila, the loftiest summit of the whole chain,
attains to an elevation of 9500 feet. A little further S. is the Monte Majella,
a huge mountain mass between Sulmo and the coast of the Adriatic, not less than
9000 feet in height, while the Monte Velino, N. of the Lake Fucinus, and nearly
in the centre of the peninsula, attains to 8180 feet, and the Monte Terminillo,
near Leonessa, NE. of Rieti, to above 7000 feet. It is especially in these Central
Apennines that the peculiar features of the chain develope themselves. Instead
of presenting, like the Alps and the more northern Apennines, one great uniform
ridge, with transverse vallies leading down from it towards the sea on each side,
the Central Apennines constitute a mountain mass of very considerable breadth,
composed of a number of minor ranges and groups of mountains, which, notwithstanding
great irregularities and variations, preserve a general parallelism of direction,
and are separated by upland vallies, some of which are themselves of considerable
elevation and extent. Thus the basin of Lake Fucinus, in the centre of the whole
mass, and almost exactly midway between the two seas, is at a level of 2180 feet
above the sea; the upper valley of the Aternus, near Amiternum, not less than
2380 feet; while between the Fucinus and the Tyrrhenian Sea we find the upper
vallies of the Liris and the Anio running parallel to one another, but separated
by lofty mountain ranges from each other and from the basin of the Fucinus. Another
peculiarity of the Apennines is that the loftiest summits scarcely ever form a
continuous or connected range of any great extent, the highest groups being frequently
separated by ridges of comparatively small elevation, which afford in consequence
natural passes across the chain. Indeed, the two loftiest mountain masses of the
whole, the Gran Sasso, and the Majella, do not belong to the central or main range
of the Apennines at all, if this be reckoned in the customary manner along the
line of the water-shed between the two seas. As the Apennines descend into Samnium
they diminish in height, though still forming a vast mass of mountains of very
irregular form and structure.
From the Monte Nerone, near the sources of the Metaurus, to the valley
of the Sagrus, or Sangro, the main range of the Apennines continues much nearer
to the Adriatic than the Tyrrhenian Sea; so that a very narrow strip of low country
intervenes between the foot of the mountains and the sea on their eastern side,
while on the west the whole broad tract of Etruria and Latium separates the Apennines
from the Tyrrhenian. This is indeed broken by numerous minor ranges of hills,
and even by mountains of considerable elevation (such as the Monte Amiata, near
Radicofani), some of which may be considered as dependencies or outliers of the
Apennines; while others are of volcanic origin, and wholly independent of them.
To this last class belong the Mons Ciminus and the Alban Hills; the range of the
Volscian Mountains, on the contrary, now called Monti Lepini, which separates
the vallies of the Trerus and the Liris from the Pontine Marshes, certainly belongs
to the system of the Apennines, which here again descend to the shore of the western
sea between Tarracina and Gaieta. From thence the western ranges of the chain
sweep round in a semicircle around the fertile plain of Campania, and send out
in a SW. direction the bold and lofty ridge which separates the Bay of Naples
from that of Salerno, and ends in the promontory of Minerva, opposite to the island
of Capreae. On the E. the mountains gradually recede from the shores of the Adriatic,
so as to leave a broad plain between their lowest slopes and the sea, which extends
without interruption from the mouth of the Frento (Fortore) to that of the Aufidus
(Ofanto): the lofty and rugged mass of Mount Garganus, which has been generally
described from the days of Ptolemy to our own as a branch of the Apennines, being,
in fact, a wholly detached and isolated ridge. In the southern parts of Samnium
(the region of the Hirpini) the Apennines present a very confused and irregular
mass; the central point or knot of which is formed by the group of mountains about
the head of the Aufidus, which has the longest course from W. to E. of any of
the rivers of Italy S. of the Padus. From this point the central ridge assumes
a southerly direction, while numerous offshoots or branches occupy almost the
whole of Lucania, extending on the W. to the Tyrrhenian Sea, and on the S. to
the Gulf of Tarentum. On the E. of the Hirpini, and immediately on the frontiers
of Apulia and Lucania, rises the conspicuous mass of Mount Vultur, which, though
closely adjoining the chain of the Apennines, is geologically and physically distinct
from them, being an isolated mountain of volcanic origin. But immediately S. of
Mt. Vultur there branches off from the central mass of the Apennines a chain of
great hills, rather than mountains, which extends to the eastward into Apulia,
presenting a broad tract of barren hilly country, but gradually declining in height
as it approaches the Adriatic, until it ends on that coast in a range of low hills
between Egnatia and Brundusium. The peninsula of Calabria is traversed only by
a ridge of low calcareous hills of tertiary origin and of very trifling elevation,
though magnified by many maps and geographical writers into a continuation of
the Apennines. (Cluver. Ital. p. 30; Swinburne, Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol.
i. pp. 210, 211.) The main ridge of the latter approaches very near to the Tyrrhenian
Sea, in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Policastro (Buxentum), and retains this
proximity as it descends through Bruttium;. but E. of Consentia (Cosenza) lies
the great forest-covered mass of the Sila, in some degree detached from the main
chain, and situated between it and the coast near Crotona. A little further south
occurs a remarkable break in the hitherto continuous chain of the Apennines, which
appears to end abruptly near the modern village of Tiriolo, so that the two gulfs
of Sta Eusfemia and Squillace (the Sinus Terinaeus and Scylletinus) are separated
only by a low neck of land, less than 20 miles in breadth, and of such small elevation
that not only did the elder Dionysius conceive the idea of carrying a wall across
this isthmus (Strab. vi. p. 261), but in modern times Charles III., king of Naples,
proposed to cut a canal through it. The mountains which rise again to the S. of
this remarkable interruption, form a lofty and rugged mass (now called Aspromonte),
which assumes a SW. direction and continues to the extreme southern point of Italy,
where the promontory of Leucopetra is expressly designated, both by Strabo and
Ptolemy, as the extremity of the Apennines. (Strab. v. p. 211; Ptol. iii. 1. §
44.) The loftiest summit in the southern division of the Apennines is the Monte
Pollino, near the south frontier of Lucania, which rises to above 7000 feet: the
highest point of the Sila attains to nearly 6000 feet, and the summit of Aspromonte
to above 4500 feet. (For further details concerning the geography of the Apennines,
especially in Central Italy, the reader may consult Abeken, Mittel-Italien, pp.
10-17, 80-85; Kramer, Der Fuciner See, pp. 5-11.)
Almost the whole mass of the Apennines consists of limestone: primary
rocks appear only in the southernmost portion of the chain, particularly in the
range of the Aspromonte, which, in its geological structure and physical characters,
presents much more analogy with the range in the NE. of Sicily, than with the
rest of the Apennines. The loftier ranges of the latter are for the most part
bare rocks; none of them at. tain such a height as to be covered with perpetual
snow, though it is said to lie all the year round in the rifts and hollows of
Monte Majella and the Gran Sasso. But all the highest summits, including the Monte
Velino and Monte Terminillo, both of which are visible from Rome, are covered
with snow early in November, and it does not disappear before the end of May.
There is, therefore, no exaggeration in Virgil's expression,
nivali
Vertice se attollens pater Apenninus ad auras.
Aen. xii. 703; see also Sil. Ital. iv. 743.
The flanks and lower ridges of the loftier mountains are still, in
many places, covered with dense woods; but it is probable that in ancient times
the forests were far more extensive (see Plin. xxxi. 3. 26): many parts of the
Apennines which are now wholly bare of trees being known to have been covered
with forests in the middle ages. Pine trees appear only on the loftier summits:
at a lower level. are found woods of oak and beech, while chesnuts and holm-oaks
(ilices) clothe the lower slopes and vallies. The mountain regions of Samnium
and the districts to the N. of it afford excellent pasturage in summer both for
sheep and cattle, on which account they were frequented not only by their own
herdsmen, but by those of Apulia, who annually drove their flocks from their own
parched and dusty plains to the upland vallies of the neighbouring Apennines.
(Varr. de R. R. ii. 1. § 16.) The same districts furnished, like most mountain
pasturages, excellent cheeses. (Plin. xi. 42. s. 97.) We find very few notices
of any peculiar natural productions of the Apennines. Varro tells us that wild
goats (by which he probably means the Bouquetin, or Ibex, an animal no longer
found in Italy) were still numerous about the Montes Fiscellus and Tetrica (de
R. R. ii. 1. § 5.), two of the summits of the range.
Very few distinctive appellations of particular mountains or summits
among the Apennines have been transmitted to us, though it is probable that in
ancient, as well as modern, times, almost every conspicuous mountain had its peculiar
local name. The mons Fiscellus of Varro and Pliny, which, according to the latter,
contained the sources of the Nar, is identified by that circumstance with the
Monti della Sibilla, on the frontiers of Picenum. The mons Tetrica (Tetricae horrentes
rupes, Virg. Aen. vii. 713) must have been in the same neighbourhood, perhaps
a part of the same group, but cannot be distinctly identified, any more than the
mons Severus of Virgil, which he also assigns to the Sabines. The mons Cunarus,
known only from Servius (ad Aen. x. 185), who calls it a mountain in Picenum,
has been supposed by Cluver to be the one now called Il Gran Sasso d'Italia; but
this is a mere conjecture. The Gurgures, alti montes of Varro (de R. R. ii. 1.
§ 16) appear to have been in the neighbourhood of Reate. All these apparently
belong to the lofty central chain of the Apennines: a few other mountains of inferior
magnitude are noticed from their proximity to Rome, or other accidental causes.
Such are the detached and conspicuous height of Mount Soracte, the mons Lucretilis
(now Monte Genearo), one of the highest points of the range of Apennines immediately
fronting Rome and the plains of Latium; the mons Tifata, adjoining the plains
of Campania, and mons Callicula, on the frontiers of that country and Samnium,
both of them celebrated in the campaigns of Hannibal; and the mons Taburnus, in
the territory of the Caudine Samnites, near Beneventum, still called Monte Taburno.
In the more southern regions of the Apennines we find mention by name of the mons
Alburnus, on the banks of the Silarus, and the Sila in Bruttium, which still retains
its ancient appellation. The Mons Vultur and Garganus, as already mentioned, do
not properly belong to the Apennines, any more than Vesuvius, or the Alban hills.
From the account above given of the Apennines it is evident that the
passes over the chain do not assume the degree of importance which they do in
the Alps. In the northern part of the range from Liguria to the Adriatic, the
roads which crossed them were carried, as they still are, rather over the bare
ridges, than along the vallies and courses of the streams. The only dangers of
these passes arise from the violent storms which rage there in the winter, and
which even, on one occasion, drove back Hannibal when he attempted to cross them.
Livy's striking description of this tempest is, according to the testimony of
modern witnesses, little, if at all, exaggerated. (Liv. xxi. 58; Niebuhr, Vortrage
uiber Alte Lander, p. 336.) The passes through the more lofty central Apennines
are more strongly marked by nature, and some of them must have been frequented
from a very early period as the natural lines of communication from one district
to another. Such are especially the pass from Reate, by Interocrea, to the valley
of the Aternus, and thence to Teate and the coast of the Adriatic; and, again,
the line of the Via Valeria, from the upper valley of the Anio to the Lake Fucinus,
and thence across the passage of the Forca Caruso (the Mons Imeus of the Itineraries)
to Corfinium. The details of these and the other passes of the Apennines loftiest
will be best given under the heads of the respective regions or provinces to which
they belong.
The range of the Apennines is, as remarked by ancient authors, the
source of almost all the rivers of Italy, with the exception only of the Padus
and its northern tributaries, and the streams which descend from the Alps into
the upper part of the Adriatic. The numerous rivers which water the northern declivity
of the Apennine chain, from the foot of the Maritime Alps to the neighbourhood
of Ariminum, all unite their waters with those of the Padus; but from the time
it takes the great turn to the southward, it sends off its streams on both sides
direct to the two seas, forming throughout the rest of its course the watershed
of Italy. Few of these rivers have any great length of course, and not being fed,
like the Alpine streams, from perpetual snows, they mostly partake much of the
nature of torrents, being swollen and violent in winter and spring, and nearly
dry or reduced to but scanty streams, in the summer. There are, however, some
exceptions: the Arnus and the Tiber retain, at all seasons, a considerable body
of water, while the Liris and Vulturnus both derive their origin from subterranean
sources, such as are common in all limestone countries, and gush forth at once
in copious streams of clear and limpid water.
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Garganus (to Garganon, Strab.), a mountain and promontory on the E.
coast of Italy, still called Monte Gargano, which constitutes one of the most
remarkable features in the physical geography of the Italian peninsula, being
the only projecting headland of any importance that breaks the monotonous line
of coast along the Adriatic from Otranto to Ancona. It is formed by a compact
mass of limestone mountains, attaining in their highest point an elevation of
5120 feet above the sea, and extending not less than 35 miles from W. to E. Though
consisting of the same limestone with the Apennines, and therefore geologically
connected with them, this mountain group is in fact wholly isolated and detached,
being separated from the nearest slopes of the Apennines by a broad strip of level
country, a portion of the great plain of Apulia, which extends without interruption
from the banks of the Aufidus to those of the Frento. (Swinburne's Travels, vol.
i, pp. 151, 152; Zannoni, Carta del Regno di Napoli.) Its configuration is noticed
by many ancient writers. Strabo speaks of it as a promontory projecting out to
sea from Sipontum towards the E. for the space of 300 stadia; a distance which
is nearly correct, if measured along the coast to the extreme point near Viesti.
(Strab. vi. p. 284.) Lucan also well describes it as standing forth into the waves
of the Adriatic, and exposed to the N. wind from Dalmatia, and the S. wind from
Calabria. (Lucan v.379.) In ancient times it was covered with dense forests of
oak ( Querceta Gargani, Hor. Carm. ii. 9. 7; Garganum nemus, Id. Ep. ii. 1. 202;
Sil. Ital. iv. 563), which have of late years almost entirely disappeared, though,
according to Swinburne, some portions of them were still visible in his time (Travels,
vol. i. p. 155; Giustiniani, Diz. Geogr. del Reyno di Napoli, pt. ii. vol. iii.
pp. 92-98). Strabo mentions in this neighbourhood (but without directly connecting
it with the Garganus) a hill called Drium, about 100 stadia distant from the sea,
on which were two shrines of heroes (heroia), the one of Calchas, with an oracle
which was consulted in the same manner as that of Faunus in Latium; the other
of Podaleirius, from beneath which flowed a small stream gifted with extraordinary
healing powers. The same circumstances are alluded to by Lycophron, from whom
it would appear that the stream was named Althaena. (Strab. vi. p. 284; Lycophr.
Alex. 1047-1055.) The exact locality has been a subject of dispute; but as we
find a similar mention of a stream of limpid water which healed all diseases,
in the legend of the appearance of St. Michael that gave rise to the foundation
of the modern town of Monte S. Angelo, - on a lofty hill forming one of the offshoots
of the Garganus, about 6 miles from Manfredonia - it seems very probable that
this was no other than the Drium of Strabo, and that the sanctuary of the archangel
has succeeded, as is so often the case, to another object of local worship. The
whole range of Mt. Garganus is now frequently called Monte S. Angelo, from the
celebrity of this spot; and the name of Drium seems to have been sometimes used
with the, same extension among the Greeks, as there is very little doubt that
for Arion in Scylax we should read Drion, the promontory of which lie is there
speaking being evidently the same as the Garganus. (Scyl. § 14; Gronov. ad loc.)
On the southern slope of Mt. Garganus, about 4 miles E. of Monte St.
Angelo, a straggling village still called Mattinata, with a tower and small port,
has preserved the name of the Matinus of Horace, which is correctly described
by an old commentator as mons et promontorium in Apulia. The name appears to have
properly belonged to this southern offshoot of the Garganus; but in one passage
Horace would seem to apply the name of Matina cacumina to the loftiest summits
of the range. All these hills are covered with aromatic herbs, and produce excellent
honey, whence the well-known allusion of the same poet to the apis Matina. (Hor.
Carm. i. 28. 3, iv. 2. 27, Epod. 16. 28.) Lucan also speaks of the calidi buxeta
Matini as adjoining and overlooking the plains of Apulia (ix. 182). There is no
evidence of the existence of a town of this name, as supposed by one of the old
scholiasts of Horace; and certainly no authority for the change suggested by some
modern writers, that we should read in Pliny Matinates for Merinates ex Gargano.
Holstenius and others have clearly shown that an ancient town called Merinum stood
near the NE. point of the promontory, about 5 miles from the modern Viesti. It
continued to be a bishop's see until late in the middle ages, and the site is
still marked by an ancient church called Sta. Maria di Merino. (Holsten. Not.
in Cluver. p. 278; Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 214.)
The flanking ridges which extend down to the sea on both sides of
the Garganus afford several coves or small harbours well adapted for sheltering
small vessels. Of these the one now called Porto Greco, about 8. miles S. of Viesti,
is generally supposed to be the Agasus Portus of Pliny, which he appears to place
S. of the promontory. The Portus Garnae of the same author was situated between
the promontory and the Lacus Pantanus (Lago di Lesina): it cannot be identified
with certainty; but it seems probable that it was situated at the entrance of
the lake now called Lago di Varano.
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KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
A river by Sybaris, Italian river beside Crotona.
A river in Bruttium, separating the territories of Sybaris and
Croton.
A river of Bruttii in Lower Italy, in the neighborhood of Crotona, now Esaro.
A river in Bruttium, now the Trionto, near which the Sybarites were defeated by the troops of Crotona in B.C. 510
Lacinium, (Lakinion akron). A promontory on the eastern coast of Bruttium, a few miles south of Croton, and forming the western boundary of the Tarentine Gulf. It possessed a celebrated temple of Iuno, who was worshipped here under the surname of Lacinia. The ruins of this temple have given the modern name to the promontory, Capo delle Colonne.
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Lacinium : Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary
LAZIO (Region) ITALY
Melpis or Melfis (ho Melpis: Melfa), a small river of Latium, falling
into the Liris (Garigliano), about 4 miles below its junction with the Trerus
(Sacco). It crossed the Via Latina about 4 miles from Aquinum, though Strabo erroneously
speaks of it as flowing by that city. It is a still greater mistake that he calls
it a great river (potamos megas, Strab. v. p. 237), for it is in reality a very
inconsiderable stream: but the text of Strabo is, in this passage, very corrupt,
and perhaps the error is not that of the author. The name appears in the Tabula,
under the corrupt form Melfel, for which we should probably read Ad Melpem. (Tab.
Pent.)
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Sacriportus (d Hieros limen, Appian, B.C. i. 87), a place in Latium, between Signia and Praeneste, celebrated as the scene of the decisive battle between Sulla and the younger Marius, in which the latter was totally defeated, and compelled to take refuge within the walls of Praeneste, B.C. 82. (Liv. Epit. lxxxvii.; Appian, B.C. i. 87; Vell. Pat. ii. 26, 28; Flor. iii. 21. § 23; Vict. Vir. Ill. 68, 75; Lucan ii.134.) The scene of the battle is universally described as apud Sacriportum, but with no more precise distinction of the locality. The name of Sacriportus does not occur upon any other occasion, and we do not know what was the meaning of the name, whether it were a village or small town, or merely a spot so designated. But its loeality may be approximately fixed by the accounts of the battle; this is described by Appian as taking palce near Praeneste, and by Plutarch (Sull. 28) as near Signia. We learn moreover from Appian that Sulla having besieged and taken Setia, the younger Marius, who had in vain endeavoured to relieve it, retreated step by step before him until he arrived in the neighbourhood of Praeneste, when he halted at Sacriportus, and gave battle to his pursuer. It is therefore evident that it must have been situated in the plain below Praeneste, between that city and Signia, and probably not far from the opening between the Alban hills and the Volscian mountains, through which must have lain the line of retreat of Marius; but it is impossible to fix the site with more precision.
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Regillus Lacus (he Hpegille limne, Dionys.: Lago di Corsnufelle), a small lake in Latium, at the foot of the Tusculan hills, celebrated for the great battle between the Romans and the Latins under C. Mamilius, in B.C. 496. (Liv. ii. 19; Dionys. vi. 3; Cic. de Nat. D. ii. 2, iii. 5; Plin. xxxiii. 2. s. 11; Val. Max. i. 8. § 1; Vict. Vir. Ill. 16; Flor. i. 11.) Hardly any event in the early Roman history has been more disguised by poetical embellishment and fiction than the battle of Regillus, and it is impossible to decide what amount of historical character may be attached to it: but there is no reason to doubt the existence of the lake, which was assigned as the scene of the combat. It is expressly described by Livy as situated in the territory of Tusculum ( ad lacum, Regillum in agro Tusculano, Liv. ii. 19); and this seems decisive against the identification of it with the small lake called Il Laghetto di Sta Prassede, about a mile to the N. of La Colonna; for this lake must have been in the territory of Labicum, if that city be correctly placed at La Colonna [Labicum], and at all events could hardly have been in that of Tusculum. Moreover, the site of this lake being close to the Via Labicana would more probably have been indicated by some reference to that high-road than by the vague phrase in agro Tusculano. A much more plausible suggestion is that of Gell, that it occupied the site of a volcanic crater, now drained of its waters, but which was certainly once occupied by a lake, at a place called Cornufelle, at the foot of the hill on which stands the modern town of Frascati. This crater, which resembles that of Gabii on a much smaller scale, being not more than half a mile in diameter, was drained by an artificial emissary as late as the 17th century: but its existence seems to have been unknown to Cluverius and other early writers, who adopted the lake or pool near La Colonna for the Lake Regillus, on the express ground that there was no other in that neighbourhood. (Cluver. Ital. p. 946; Nibby, Dintorni, vol. iii. pp. 8-10; Gell, Top. of Rome, pp. 186, 371.) Extensive remains of a Roman villa and baths may be traced on the ridge which bounds the crater, and an ancient road from Tusculum to Labicum or Gabii passed close by it, so that the site must certainly have been one well known in ancient times.
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Numicius (Nomikios: Rio Torto), a small river of Latium, flowing into the sea between Lavinium and Ardea. It is mentioned almost exclusively in reference to the legendary history of Aeneas, who, according to the poetical tradition, adopted also by the Roman historians, was buried on its banks, where he was worshipped under the name of Jupiter Indiges, and had a sacred grove and Heroum. (Liv. i. 2; Dionys. i. 64; Vict. Orig. Gent. Rom. 14: Ovid. Met. xiv. 598-608; Tibull. ii. 5.39-44.) Immediately adjoining the grove of Jupiter Indiges was one of Anna Perenna, originally a Roman divinity, and probably the tutelary nymph of the river, but who was brought also into connection with Aeneas by the legends of later times, which represented her as the sister of Dido, queen of Carthage. The fables connected with her are related at full by Ovid (Fast. iii. 545-564), and by Silius Italicus (viii. 28-201). Both of these poets speak of the Numicius as a small stream, with stagnant waters and reedy banks: but they afford no clue to its situation, beyond the general intimation that it was in the Laurentine territory, an appellation which is some-times used, by the poets especially, with very vague latitude. But Pliny, in enumerating the places along the coast of Latium, mentions the river Numicius between Laurentum and Ardea; and from the narrative of Dionysius it would seem that he certainly conceived the battle in which Aeneas was slain to have been fought between Lavinium and Ardea, but nearer the former city. Hence the Rio Torto, a small river with a sluggish and winding stream, which forms a considerable marsh near its outlet, may fairly be regarded as the ancient Numicius. It would seem from Pliny that the Lucus Jovis Indigetis was situated on its right bank. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Dionys. i. 64; Nibby, Dintorni, vol. ii. p. 418.)
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Solonius ager (Solonion, Plut.), was the name given to a district
or tract in the plain of Latium, which appears to have bordered on the territories
of Ostia, Ardea, and Lanuvium. But there is some difficulty in determining its
precise situation or limits. Cicero in a passage in which he speaks of a prodigy
that happened to the infant Roscius, places it in Solonio, qui est campus agri
Lanuvini (de Div. i. 36); but there are some reasons to suspect the last words
to be an interpolation. On the other hand, Livy speaks of the Antiates as making
incursions in agrum Ostiensem, Ardeatem, Solonium (viii. 12). Plutarch mentions
that Marius retired to a villa that he possessed there, when he was expelled from
Rome in B.C. 88; and from thence repaired to Ostia. (Plut. Mar. 35.) But the most
distinct indication of its locality is afforded by a passage of Festus (s. v.
Pomonal, p. 250), where he tells us Pomonal est in agro Solonio, via Ostiensi,
ad duodecimum lapidem, diverticulo a miliario octavo. It is thence evident that
the ager Solonius extended westward as far as the Via Ostiensis, and probably
the whole tract bordering on the territories of Ostia, Laurentum, and Ardea, was
known by this name. It may well therefore have extended to the neighbourhood of
Lanuvium also. Cicero tells us that it abounded in snakes. (De Div. ii. 31.) It
appears from one of his letters that he had a villa there, as well as Marius,
to which he talks of retiring in order to avoid contention at Rome (ad Att. ii.
3).
The origin of the name is unknown; it may probably have been derived
from some extinct town of the name; but no trace of such is found. Dionysius,
indeed, speaks of an Etruscan city of Solonium, from whence the Lucumo came to
the assistance of Romulus (Dionys. ii. 37); but the name is in all probability
corrupt, and, at all events, cannot afford any explanation of the Latin district
of the name.
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LEONTINI (Ancient city) SICILY
Palicorum lacus (he ton Palikon limne: Lago di Naftia), a small volcanic
lake in the interior of Sicily, near Palagonia, about 15 miles W. of Leontini.
It is a mere pool, being not more than 480 feet in circumference, but early attracted
attention from the remarkable phenomena caused by two jets of volcanic gas, which
rise under the water, causing a violent ebullition, and sometimes throwing up
the water to a considerable height. On this account the spot was, from an early
period, considered sacred, and consecrated to the indigenous deities called the
Palici, who had a temple on the spot. This enjoyed the privileges of an asylum
for fugitive slaves, and was much resorted to also for determining controversies
by oaths; an oath taken by the holy springs, or craters as they are called, being
considered to possess peculiar sanctity, and its violation to be punished on the
spot by the death of the offender. The remarkable phenomena of the locality are
described in detail by Diodorus, as well as by several other writers, and notwithstanding
some slight discrepancies, leave no doubt that the spot was the same now called
the Lago di Naftia, from the naphtha with which, as well as sulphur, the sources
are strongly impregnated. It would, however, seem that in ancient times there
were two separate pools or craters, sometimes termed fountains (krenai), and that
they did not, as at the present day, form one more considerable pool or lake.
Hence they are alluded to by Ovid as Stagna Palicorum ; while Virgil notices only
the sanctuary or altar, pinguis et placabilis ara Palici. (Diod. xi. 89; Steph.
Byz. s. v. Palike; Pseud.-Arist. Mirab. 58; Macrob. Sat. v. 19; Strab. vi. p.
275; Ovid, Met. v. 406; Virg. Aen. ix. 585; Sil. Ital. xiv. 219; Nonn. Dionys.
xiii. 311.) The sacred character of the spot as an asylum for fugitive slaves
caused it to be selected for the place where the great servile insurrection of
Sicily in B.C. 102 was first discussed and arranged; and for the same reason Salvius,
the leader of the insurgents, made splendid offerings at the shrine of the Palici.
(Diod. xxxvi. 3, 7.)
There was not in early times any other settlement besides the sanctuary
and its appurtenances, adjoining the lake of the Palici; but in B.C. 453, Ducetius,
the celebrated chief of the Siculi, founded a city close to the lake, to which
he gave the name of Palica (Palike), and to which he transferred the inhabitants
of Menaenum and other neighbouring towns. This city rose for a short time to considerable
prosperity; but was destroyed again shortly after the death of Ducetius, and never
afterwards restored. (Diod. xi. 88, 90.) Hence the notices of it in Stephanus
of Byzantium and other writers can only refer to this brief period of its existence.
(Steph. B. l. c.; Polemon, ap. Macrob. l. c.) The modern town of Palagonia is
thought to retain the traces of the name of Palica, but certainly does not occupy
the site of the city of Ducetius, being situated on a lofty hill, at some distance
from the Lago di Naftia. Some remains of the temple and other buildings were still
visible in the days of Fazello in the neighbourhood of the lake. The locality
is fully described by him, and more recently by the Abate Ferrara. (Fazell. de
Reb. Sic. iii. 2; Ferrara, Campi Flegrei della Sicilia, pp. 48,105.)
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LILYBAEUM (Ancient city) SICILY
Aegithallus (Aighiphallos, Diod.; Aighithalos, Zonar.; Aighitharos,
Ptol.) a promontory on the W. coast of Sicily, near Lilybaeum, which was occupied
and fortified by the Roman consul L. Junius during the First Punic War (B.C. 249),
with a view to support the operations against Lilybaeum, but was recovered by
the Carthaginian general Carthalo, and occupied with a strong garrison. Diodorus
tells us it was called in his time Acellum, but it is evidently the same with
the Aighitharos akra of Ptolemy, which he places between Drepanum and Lilybaeum;
and is probably the headland now called Capo S. Teodoro, which is immediately
opposite to the island of Burrone. (Diod. xxiv. Exc. H. p. 50; Zonar. viii. 15:
Ptol. iii. 4. § 4; Cluver. Sicil. p. 248.)
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LOKRI EPIZEFIRIOI (Ancient city) ITALY
A promontory of Locri Epizephyrii, in Lower Italy
Now Pikraki; the chief town of the Locri Epicnemidii, on the river Boagrius, at a short distance from the sea, with a harbour upon the coast.
the city of Locri, founded in Lower Italy by the Ozolian Locrians
A small river in Magna Graecia, on the southeastern coast of Bruttium, falling into the sea between Caulonia and Locri.
The name of several promontories of the ancient world, not all
of which, however, faced the west. The chief of them were: Now C. di Brussano,
a promontory in Bruttium, forming the southeastern extremity of the country, from
which the Locri, who settled in the neighbourhood, are said to have obtained the
name of Epizephyrii.
MEDMA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Metaurus (Metauros), a river of Bruttium, flowing into the Tyrrhenian
sea, between Medma and the Scyllaean promontory. It is mentioned both by Pliny
and Strabo; and there can be no doubt that it is the river now called the Marro,
one of the most considerable streams in this part of Bruttium, which flows into
the sea about 7 miles S. of the Mesima, and 18 from the rock of Scilla. (Strab.
vi. p. 256; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Romanelli, vol. i. p. 66.) There was a town of
the same name at its mouth.
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MILAZZO (Town) SICILY
Longanus (Longanos), a river in the N. of Sicily, not far from Mylae
(Milazzo), celebrated for the victory of Hieron, king of Syracuse, over the Mamertines
in B.C. 270 (Pol. i. 9 ; Diod. xxii. 13; Exc. H. p. 499, where the name is written
Loitanos, but the same river is undoubtedly meant). Polybius describes it as in
the plain of Mylae (en toi Mulaioi pedioi), but it is impossible to say, with
certainty, which of the small rivers that flow into the sea near that town is
the one meant. The Fiume di Santa Lucia, about three miles southwest of Milazzo,
has perhaps the best claim; though Cluverius fixes on the Flume di Castro Reale,
a little more distant from that city. (Cluv. Sicil. p. 303.)
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MINTURNO (Town) LAZIO
Liris (Leiris: Garigliano), one of the principal rivers of central
Italy, flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea a little below Minturnae. It had its source
in the central Apennines, only a few miles from the Lacus Fucinus, of which it
has been sometimes, but erroneously, regarded as a subterranean outlet. It flows
at first in a SE. direction through a long troughlike valley, parallel to the
general direction of the Apennines, until it reaches the city of Sora, where it
turns abruptly to the SW., and pursues that course until after its junction with
the Trerus or Sacco, close to the site of Fregellae ; from thence, it again makes
a great bend to the SE., but ultimately resumes its SW. direction before it enters
the sea near Minturnae. Both Strabo and Pliny tell us that it was originally called
Clanis, a name which appears to have been common to many Italian rivers: the former
writer erroneously assigns its sources to the country of the Vestini; an opinion
which is adopted also by Lucan. (Strab. v. p. 233; Lucan ii.425.) The Liris is
noticed by several of the Roman poets, as a very gentle and tranquil stream (Hor.
Carm. i. 31. 8; Sil. Ital. iv. 348),- a character which it well deserves in the
lower part of its course, where it is described by a modern traveller as a wide
and noble river, winding under the shadow of poplars through a lovely vale, and
then gliding gently towards the sea. (Eustace's Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 320.)
But nearer its source it is a clear and rapid mountain river, and at the village
of Isola, about four miles below Sora, and just after its junction with the Fibrenus,
it forms a cascade of above 90 feet in height, one of the most remarkable waterfalls
in Italy. (Craven's Abruzzi, vol. i. p. 93.)
The Liris, which is still called Liri in the upper part of its course,
though better known by the name of Garigliano, which it assumes when it becomes
a more considerable stream, has a course altogether of above 60 geographical miles:
its most considerable tributary is the Trerus or Sacco, which joins it about three
miles below Ceprano. A few miles higher up it receives the waters of the Fibrenus,
so celebrated from Cicero's description (de Leg. ii. 3); which is, however, but
a small stream, though remarkable for the clearness and beauty of its waters.
The Melfis (Melfa), which joins it a few miles below the Sacco, but from the opposite
bank, is equally inconsiderable.
At the mouth of the Liris near Minturnae, was an extensive sacred
grove consecrated to Marica, a nymph or local divinity, who was represented by
a tradition, adopted by Virgil, as mother of Latinus, while others identified
her with Circe. (Virg. Aen. vii. 47; Lactant. Inst. Div. i. 21.) Her grove and
temple (LUCUS MARICAE: Marikas alsos, Plut. Mar. 39) were not only objects of
great veneration to the people of the neighbouring town of Minturnae, but appear
to have enjoyed considerable celebrity with the Romans themselves. (Strab. v.
p. 233; Liv, xxvii. 37; Serv. ad Aen. vii. 47.) Immediately adjoining its mouth
was an extensive marsh, formed probably by the stagnation of the river itself,
and celebrated in history in connection with the adventures of Marius.
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MORGANTINA (Ancient city) SICILY
Now Giaretta; a river on the east coast of Sicily and at the foot of Mount Aetna, forming the boundary between Leontini and Catana.
NAPLES (Town) CAMPANIA
Sarnus (ho Sarnos: Sarno), a river of Campania, flowing into the Bay
of Naples. It has its sources in the Apennines, above Nuceria (Nocera), near which
city it emerges into the plain, and, after traversing this, falls into the sea
a short distance S. of Pompeii. Its present mouth is about 2 miles distant from
that city, but we know that in ancient times it flowed under the walls of Pompeii,
and entered the sea close to its gates. The change in its course is doubtless
owing to the great catastrophe of A.D. 79, which buried Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Virgil speaks of the Sarnus as flowing through a plain (quae rigat aequora Sarnus,
Aen. vii. 738); and both Silius Italicus and Statius allude to it as a placid
and sluggish stream. (Sil. Ital. viii. 538; Stat. Silv. i. 2. 265; Lucan ii.422.)
According to Strabo it was navigable, and served both for the export and import
of the produce of the interior to and from Pompeii. (Strab. v. p. 247; Plin. iii.
5. s. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. § 7; Suet. Clar. Rhet. 4.) Vibius Sequester tells us (p.
18) that it derived its name as well as its sources from a mountain called Sarus,
or Sarnus, evidently the same which rises above the modern town of Sarno, and
is still called Monte Saro or Sarno. One of the principal sources of the Sarno
does, in fact, rise at the foot of this mountain, which is joined shortly after
by several confluents, the most considerable of these being the one which flows,
as above described, from the valley beyond Nuceria.
According to a tradition alluded to by Virgil (l. c.), the banks of
the Sarnus and the plain through which it flowed, were inhabited in ancient times
by a people called Sarrastes whose name is evidently connected with that of the
river. They are represented as a Pelasgian tribe, who settled in this part of
Italy, where they founded Nuceria, as well as several other cities. (Conon, ap.
Serv. ad Aen. l. c.; Sil. Ital. viii. 537.) But their name seems to have quite
disappeared in the historical period; and we find Nuceria occupied by the Alfaterni,
who were an Oscan or Sabellian race.
No trace is found in ancient authors of a town of the name of Sarnus; but
it is mentioned by the Geographer of Ravenna (iv. 32), and seems, therefore, to
have grown up soon after the fall of the Roman Empire.
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PANORMOS (Ancient city) SICILY
Nebrodes Mons (ta Neurode ore, Strab.: Monti di Madonia), one of the
most considerable ranges of mountains in Sicily. The name was evidently applied
to a part of the range which commences near Cape Pelorus, and extends along the
northern side of the island, the whole way to the neighbourhood of Panormus. Though
broken into various mountain groups, there is no real interruption in the chain
throughout this extent, and the names applied to different parts of it seem to
have been employed (as usual in such cases) with much vagueness. The part of the
chain nearest to Cape Pelorus, was called Mons Neptunius, and therefore the Mons
Nebrodes must have been further to the west. Strabo speaks of it as rising opposite
to Aetna, so that he would seem to apply the name to the mountains between that
peak and the northern coast, which are still covered with the extensive forests
of Caronia. Silius Italicus, on the other hand, tells us that it was in the Mons
Nebrodes the two rivers of the name of Himera had their sources, which can refer
only to the more westerly group of the Monti di Madonia, the most lofty range
in Sicily after Aetna, and this indentification is generally adopted. But, as
already observed, there is no real distinction between the two. Silius Italicus
speaks of the Mons Nebrodes as covered with forests, and Solinus derives its name
from the number of fawns that wandered through them; an etymology obviously fictitious.
(Strab. vi. p. 274; Solin. 5. §§ 11, 12; Sil. Ital. xiv. 236; Cluver. Sicil. p.
364; Fazell. de Reb. Sic. x. 2. p. 414.)
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PONTIROLO (Town) LOMBARDIA
Pons Aureoli (Pontirolo), a place on the highroad from Mediolanum to Bergomum, where that road crossed the river Addua (Adda) by a bridge. It is mentioned as a station by the Jerusalem Itinerary, which places it 20 M. P. from Mediolanum and 13 from Bergomum. (Itin. Hier.) It derived its name from the circumstance that it was here that the usurper Aureolus was defeated in a pitched battle by the emperor Gallienus, and compelled to take refuge within the walls of Milan, A.D. 268. (Vict. Caes. 33. Epit. 33.) After the death of Aureolus, who was put to death by the soldiers of Claudius, he was buried by order of that emperor close to the bridge, which ever after retained the name of Aureolus. (Treb. Poll. Trig. Tyr. 10)
Aureolus. After the defeat and captivity of Valerian, the legions in the different
provinces, while they agreed in scorning the feeble rule of Gallienus, could by
no means unite their suffrages in favour of any one aspirant to the purple; but
each army hastened to bestow the title of Augustus upon its favourite general.
Hence arose within the short space of eight years (A. D. 260--267) no less than
nineteen usurpers in the various dependencies of Rome, whose contests threatened
speedily to produce the complete dissolution of the empire. The biographies of
these adventurers, most of whom were of very humble origin, have been compiled
by Trebellius Pollio, who has collected the whole under the fanciful designation
of the Thirty Tyrants. But the analogy thus indicated will not bear examination.
No parallel can be established between those pretenders who sprung up suddenly
in diverse quarters of the world, without concert or sympathy, each struggling
to obtain supreme dominion for himself, and that cabal which united under Critias
and Theramenes with the common purpose of crushing the liberties of Athens. Nor
does even the number correspond, for the Augustan historian is obliged to press
in women and children and many doubtful names, in order to complete his tale.
Of the whole nineteen, one only, Odenathus the Palmyrene, in gratitude for his
successful valour against Sapor, was recognised by Gallienus as a colleague. It
has been remarked, that not one lived in peace or died a natural death.
Among the last of the number was Aureolus, a Dacian by birth, by occupation
originally a shepherd. His merits as a soldier were discovered by Valerian, who
gave him high military rank; and he subsequently did good service in the wars
waged against Ingenuus, Macrianus, and Postumus. He was at length induced to revolt,
was proclaimed emperor by the legions of Illyria in the year 267, and made himself
master of Northern Italy. Gallienus, having been recalled by this alarm from a
campaign against the Goths, encountered and defeated his rebellious general, and
shut him up in Milan; but, while prosecuting the siege with vigour, was assassinated.
This catastrophe, however, did not long delay the fate of the usurper, who was
the nearest enemy and consequently the first object of attack to his rival, the
new emperor Claudius. Their pretensions were decided by a battle fought between
Milan and Bergamo, in which Aureolus was slain; and the modern town of Pontirolo
is said to represent under a corrupt form the name of the bridge (Pons Aureoli)
thrown over the Adda at the spot where the victory was won. The records preserved
of this period are full of confusion and contradiction. In what has been said
above we have followed the accounts of Aurelius Victor and Zonaras in preference
to that of Pollio, who places the usurpation of Aureolus early in 261; but on
this supposition the relations which are known to have subsisted afterwards between
Gallienus and Aureolus become quite unintelligible.
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PUGLIA (Region) ITALY
A mountain in Apulia, mentioned only by Polybius, in his description of Hannibal's
march into that country, B.C. 217 (Pol. iii. 100), from which it appears to have
been the name of a part of the Apennines on the frontiers of Samnium and Apulia,
not far from Luceria; but it cannot be more precisely identified.
Vultur Mons (Monte Voltore), one of the most celebrated mountains
of Southern Italy, situated on the confines of Apulia, Lucania, and the country
of the Hirpini. It commences about 5 miles to the S. of the modern city of Melfi,
and nearly due W. of Venosa (Venusia), and attains an elevation of 4433 feet above
the level of the sea. Its regular conical form and isolated position, as well
as the crater-like basin near its summit, at once mark it as of volcanic origin;
and this is confirmed by the nature of the rocks of which it is composed. Hence
it cannot be considered as properly belonging to the range of the Apennines, from
which it is separated by a tract of hilly country, forming as it were the base
from which the detached cone of Monte Voltore rises. No ancient author alludes
to the volcanic character of Mount Vultur; but the mountain itself is noticed,
in a well known passage, by Horace, who must have been very familiar with its
aspect, as it is a prominent object in the view from his native city of Venusia.
(Carm. iii. 4. 9-16.) He there terms it Vultur Apulus, though he adds, singularly
enough, that he was without the limits of Apulia ( altricis extra limen Apuliae
) when he was wandering in its woods. This can only be explained by the circumstance
that the mountain stood (as above stated) on the confines of three provinces.
Lucan also incidentally notices Mt. Vultur as one of the mountains that directly
fronted the plains of Apulia. (Lucan ix.185.)
The physical and geological characters of Mount Vultur are noticed
by Romanelli (vol. ii. p. 233), and more fully by Daubeny (Description of Volcanoes,
chap. 11).
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As one sails from Rhegium towards the east, and at a distance of fifty stadia, one comes to Cape Leucopetra (so called from its color), in which, it is said, the Apennine Mountain terminates.
The Via Aquillia began at Capua, and ran south through Nola and Nuceria to Salernum; from thence, after sending off a branch to Paestum, it took a wide sweep inland through Eburi and the region of the Mons Alburnus up the valley of the Tanager; it then struck south through the very heart of Lucania and Bruttium, and, passing Nerulum, Interamnia, and Consentia, returned to the sea at Vibo, and thence through Medma to Rhegium.
A promontory of Italy north of Rhegium, facing the promontory of Pelorus in Sicily, and forming with it the narrowest part of the Fretum Siculum.
Then comes Heracleium, which is the last cape of Italy and inclines towards the south; for on doubling it one immediately sails with the southwest wind as far as Cape Iapygia, and then veers off, always more and more, towards the northwest in the direction of the Ionian Gulf.
ROME (Ancient city) ITALY
Marcius mons (to Markion oros) was, according to Plutarch, the name
of the place which was the scene of a great defeat of the Volscians and Latins
by Camillus in the year after the taking of Rome by the Gauls B.C. 389. (Plut.
Camill. 33, 34.) Diodorus, who calls it simply Marcius or Marcium (to kaloumenon
Markion, xiv. 107), tells us it was 200 stadia from Rome; and Livy, who writes
the name ad Mecium, says it was near Lanuvium. (Liv. vi. 2.) The exact site cannot
be determined. Some of the older topographers speak of a hill called Colle Marzo,
but no such place is found on modern maps; and Gell suggests the Colle di Due
Torri as the most probable locality. (Gell, Top. of Rome, p. 311.)
SARDINIA (Island) ITALY
Sardoum or Sardonium Mare (to Sardoon pelagos, Strab., Pol., but to
Sardonion pelagos, Herod. i. 166), was the name given by the ancients to the part
of the Mediterranean sea adjoining the island of Sardinia on the W. and S. Like
all similar appellations it was used with considerable vagueness and laxity; there
being no natural limit to separate it from the other parts of the Mediterranean.
Eratosthenes seems to have applied the name to the whole of the sea westward of
Sardinia to the coast of Spain (ap. Plin. iii. 5. s. 10), so as to include the
whole of what was termed by other authors the Mare Hispanum or Balearicum; but
this extension does not seem to have been generally adopted. It was, on the other
hand, clearly distinguished from the Tyrrhenian sea, which lay to the E. of the
two great islands of Sardinia and Corsica, between them and Italy, and from the
Libyan sea (Mare Libycumn), from which it was separated by the kind of strait
formed by the Lilybaean promontory of Sicily, and the opposite point (Cape Bon)
on the coast of Africa. (Pol. i. 42; Strab. ii. pp. 105, 122; Agathem. ii. 14;
Dionys. Per. 82.) Ptolemy, however, gives the name of the Libyan sea to that immediately
to the S. of Sardinia, restricting that of Sardoum Mare to the W., which is certainly
opposed to the usage of the other geographers. (Ptol. iii. 3. § 1.) Strabo speaks
of the Sardinian sea as the deepest part of the Mediterranean; its greatest depth
was said by Posidonius to be not less than 1000 fathoms. (Strab. ii. pp. 50, 54.)
It is in fact quite unfathomable, and the above estimate, is obviously a mere
guess.
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Thyrsus or Tyrsus (Thursos potamos, Ptol.; Thorsos, Paus.: Tirso), the most considerable river of Sardinia, which still retains its ancient name almost unaltered. It has its sources in the mountains in the NE. corner of the island, and flows into the Gulf of Oristano on the W. coast, after a course of above 75 miles. About 20 miles from its mouth it flowed past Forum Trajani, the ruins of which are still visible at Fordungianus; and about 36 miles higher up are the Bagni di Benetutti, supposed to be the Aquae Lesitanae of Ptolemy. The Itineraries give a station ad Caput Tyrsi (itin. Ant. p. 81), which was 0 M.P. from Olbia by a rugged mountain road: it must have been near the village of Beuduso. (De la Marmora, Voy. en Sardaigne, vol. ii. p. 445.) Pausanias tells us that in early times the Thyrsus was the boundary between the part of the island occupied by the Greeks and Trojans and that which still remained in the hands of the native barbarians. (Paus. x. 17. § 6.)
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Insani Montes (ta Mainomena ore, Ptol. iii. 3. § 7), a range of mountains in Sardinia, mentioned by Livy (xxx. 39) in a manner which seems to imply that they were in the NE. part of the island; and this is confirmed by Claudian, who speaks of them as rendering the northern part of Sardinia rugged and savage, and the adjoining seas stormy and dangerous to navigators. (Claudian, B. Gild. 513.) Hence, it is evident that the name was applied to the lofty and rugged range of mountains in the N. and NE. part of the island: and was, doubtless, given to them by Roman navigators, on account of the sudden and frequent storms to which they gave rise. (Liv. 1. c.). Ptolemy also places the Mainomena ore - a name which is obviously translated from the Latin one - in the interior of the island, and though he would seem to consider them as nearer the W. than the E. coast, the position which he assigns them may still be referred to the same range or mass of mountains, which extends from the neighbourhood of Olbia (Terra Nova) on the E. coast, to that of Cornus on the W.
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SIKELIA (Ancient Hellenic lands) ITALY
River in Sicily.
Perseus Project Index. Total results on 27/4/2001: 5 for Asinarus.
Crimisus or Crimissus (Krimisos, Lycophr., Dion. Hal.; Krimesos, Plut.; Krimissos, Ael.), a river of Sicily, in the neighbourhood of Segesta, celebrated for the great battle fought on its banks in B.C. 339, in which Timoleon, with only about 11,000 troops, partly Syracusans, partly mercenaries, totally defeated a Carthaginian army of above 70,000 men. This victory was one of the greatest blows ever sustained by the Carthaginian power, and secured to the Greek cities in Sicily a long period of tranquillity. (Plut. Timol. 25-29; Diod. xvi. 77-81; Corn. Nep. Tim. 2.) But though the battle itself is described in considerable detail both by Plutarch and Diodorus, they afford scarcely any information concerning its locality, except that it was fought in the part of the island at that time subject to Carthage (en tei ton Karchedonion epikrateiai). The river Crimisus itself is described as a considerable stream, which being flooded at the time by storms of rain, contributed much to cause confusion in the Carthaginian army. Yet its name is not found in any of the ancient geographers, and the only clue to its position is afforded by the fables which connect it with the city of Segesta. According to the legend received among the Greeks, Aegestes or Aegestus (the Acestes of Virgil), the founder and eponymous hero of Egesta, was the son of a Trojan woman by the river-god Crimisus, who cohabited with her under the form of a dog. (Lycophr. 961; Tzetz. ad loc.; Virg. Aen. v. 38; and Serv. ad Aen. i. 550.) For this reason the river Crimisus continued to be worshipped by the Segestans, and its effigy as a dog was placed on their coins (Ael. V. H. ii. 33; Eckhel, vol. i. p. 234): Dionysius also distinctly speaks of the Trojans under Elymus and Aegestus as settling in the territory of the Sicani, about the river Crimisus (i. 52); hence it seems certain that we must look for that river in the neighbourhood, or at least within the territory of Segesta, and it is probable that Fazello was correct in identifying it with the stream now called Fiume di S. Bartolommeo or Fizmne Freddo, which flows about 5 miles E. of Segesta, and falls into the Gulf of Castellamare at a short distance from the town of that name. Cluverius supposed it to be the stream which flows by the ruins of Entella, and falls into the Hypsas or Belici, thus flowing to the S. coast: but the arguments which he derives from the account of the operations of Timoleon are not sufficient to outweigh those which connect the Crimisus with Segesta. (Fazell. de Reb. Sic. vii. p. 299; Cluver. Sicil. p. 269.)
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Siculum Mare (to Sikelikon pelagos, Pol. Strab. &c.), was the name
given in ancient times to that portion of the Mediterranean sea which bathed the
eastern shores of Sicily. But like all similar appellations, the name was used
in a somewhat vague and fluctuating manner, so that it is difficult to fix its
precise geographical limits. Thus Strabo describes it as extending along the eastern
shore of Sicily, from the Straits to Cape Pachynus, with the southern shore of
Italy as far as Locri, and again to the eastward as far as Crete and the Peloponnese;
and as filling the Corinthian Gulf, and extending northwards to the Iapygian promontory
and the mouth of the Ionian gulf. (Strab. ii. p. 123.) It is clear, therefore,
that he included under the name the whole of the sea between the Peloponnese and
Sicily, which is more commonly known as the Ionian sea, but was termed by later
writers the Adriatic. Polybius, who in one passage employs the name of Ionian
sea in this more extensive sense, elsewhere uses that of the Sicilian sea in the
same general manner as Strabo, since he speaks of the island of Cephallenia as
extending out towards the Sicilian sea (v. 3); and even describes the Ambracian
gulf as an inlet or arm of the Sicilian sea (iv. 63, v. 5). Eratosthenes also,
it would appear from Pliny, applied the name of Siculum Mare to the whole extent
from Sicily to Crete. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 10.) The usage of Pliny himself is obscure;
but Mela distinguishes the Sicilian sea from the Ionian, applying the former name
to the western part of the broad sea, nearest to Sicily, and the latter to its
more easterly portion, nearest to Greece. (Mel. ii. 4. § 1.) But this distinction
does not seem to have been generally adopted or continued long in use. Indeed
the name of the Sicilian sea seems to have fallen much into disuse. Ptolemy speaks
of Sicily itself as bounded on the N. by the Tyrrhenian sea, on the S. by the
African, and on the E. by the Adriatic; thus omitting the Sicilian sea altogether
(Ptol. iii. 4. § 1); and this seems to have continued under the Roman Empire to
be the received nomenclature.
Strabo tells us that the Sicilian sea was the same which had previously
been called the Ausonian (Strab. ii. p. 133, v. p. 233); but it is probable that
that name was never applied in the more extended sense in which he uses the Sicilian
sea, but was confined to the portion more immediately adjoining the southern coasts
of Italy, from Sicily to the Iapygian promontory. It is in this sense that it
is employed by Pliny, as well as by Polybius, whom he cites as his authority.
(Plin. l. c.)
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Halycus (Halukos: Platani), a considerable river of Sicily, which rises nearly in the centre of the island, and flows towards the SW. till it enters the sea close to the site of Heracleia Minoa. Its name was evidently derived from the salt or brackish quality of its waters, a circumstance common to those of the Platani and of the Fiume Salso (the ancient Himera), and arising from the salt springs which abound in this part of Sicily. It obtained considerable historical importance from the circumstance that it long formed the eastern boundary of the Carthaginian dominions in Sicily. This was first established by the treaty concluded, in B.C. 383, between that people and Dionysius of Syracuse (Diod. xv. 17): and the same limit was again fixed by the treaty between them and Timoleon (Id. xvi. 82). It would appear, however, chat the city of Heracleia, situated at its mouth, but on the left bank, was in both instances retained by the Carthaginians. The Halycus is again mentioned by Diodorus in the First Punic War (B.C. 249), as the station to which the Carthaginian fleet under Carthalo retired after its unsuccessful attack on that of the Romans near Phintias, and where they awaited the approach of a second Roman fleet under the consul L. Junius. (Diod. xxiv. 1.; Exc. Hoesch. p. 508.) Polybius, who relates the same events, does not mention the name of the river (Polyb. i. 53): but there is certainly no reason to suppose (as Mannert and Forbiger have done) that the river here meant was any other than the well-known Halycus, and that there must therefore have been two rivers of the name. Heracleides Ponticus, who mentions the landing of Minos in this part of Sicily, and his alleged foundation of Minoa, writes the name Lycus, which is probably a mere false reading for Halycus. (Heracl. Pont. § 29, ed. Schneidewin.) Though a stream of considerable magnitude and importance, it is singular that its name is not mentioned by any of the geographers.
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SYRACUSSES (Ancient city) SICILY
Island off Syracuse.
Perseus Project Index. Total results on 27/4/2001: 81
Anapus (Anapos). (Anapo), one of the most celebrated and considerable
rivers of Sicily, which risesabout a mile from the modern town of Buscemi, not
far from the site of Acrae; and flows into the great harbour of Syracuse. About
three quarters of a mile from its mouth, and just at the foot of the hill on which
stood the Olympieium, it receives the waters of the Cyane. Its banks for a considerable
distance from its mouth are bordered by marshes, which rendered them at all times
unhealthy; and the fevers and pestilence thus generated were among the chief causes
of disaster to the Athenians, and still more to the Carthaginians, during the
several sieges of Syracuse. But above these marshes the valley through which it
flows is one of great beauty, and the waters of the Anapus itself are extremely
limpid and clear, and of great depth. Like many rivers in a limestone country
it rises all at once with a considerable volume of water, which is, however, nearly
doubled by the accession of the Cyane. The tutelary divinity of the stream was
worshipped by the Syracusans under the form of a young man (Ael. V. H. ii. 33),
who was regarded as the husband of the nymph Cyane. (Ovid. Met. v. 416.) The river
is now commonly known as the Alfeo, evidently from a misconception of the story
of Alpheus and Arethusa; but is also called and marked on all maps as the Anapo.
(Thuc. vi. 96, vii. 78; Theocr. i. 68; Plut. Dion. 27, Timol. 21; Liv. xxiv. 36;
Ovid. Ex Pont. ii. 26; Vib. Seq. p. 4; Oberlin, ad loc.; Fazell. iv. 1, p. 196.)
It is probable that the Palus Lysimeleia (he limne he Lusimeleia kaloumene)
mentioned by Thucydides (vii. 53), was a part of the marshes formed by the Anapus
near its mouth. A marshy or stagnant pool of some extent still exists between
the site of the Neapolis of Syracuse and the mouth of the river, to which the
name may with some probability be assigned.
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Asinarus or Assinarus (Asinaros, Diod. Plut. Assinaros, Thuc.), a small river on the E. coast of Sicily, between Syracuse and Helorus; memorable as the scene of the final catastrophe of the Athenian armament in Sicily, and the surrender of Nicias with the remains of his division of the army. (Thuc. vii. 84, 85; Diod. xiii. 19; Plut. Nic. 27.) It is clearly identified by the circumstances of the retreat (as related in detail by Thucydides), with the river now called the Falconara, but more commonly known as the Fiume di Noto, from its proximity to that city. It rises just below the site of the ancient Neetum (Noto Vecohio), and after flowing under the walls of the modern Noto, enters the sea in a little bay called Ballata di Noto, about 4 miles N. of the mouth of the Helorus (F. Abisso). Being supplied from several subterranean and perennial sources it has a considerable body of water, as described by Thucydides in the above passage. A curious monument still extant near Helorum is commonly supposed to have been erected to commemorate the victory of the Syracusans on this occasion; but it seems too far from the river to have been designed for such an object. Plutarch tells us (Nic. 28), that the Syracusans instituted on the occasion a festival called Asinaria; and it is said that this is still celebrated at the present day, though now converted to the honour of a saint. (Smyth's Sicily, p. 179; Fazell. de Reb. Sic. iv. 1. p. 198; Cluver. Sicil. p. 184.)
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SYVARIS (Ancient city) PUGLIA
A river in Bruttium, separating the territories of Sybaris and Croton.
A river in Bruttium, now the Trionto, near which the Sybarites were defeated by the troops of Crotona in B.C. 510
TARANTO (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Tarentinus Sinus (ho Tarantinos kolpos: Golfo di Taranto) was the
name given in ancient as well as in modern times to the extensive gulf comprised
between the two great promontories or peninsulas of Southern Italy. It was bounded
by the Iapygian promontory (Capo della Leuca) on the N., and by the Lacinian promontory
(Capo delle Colonne) on the S.; and these natural limits being clearly marked,
appear to have been generally recognised by ancient geographers. (Strab. vi. pp.
261, 262; Mel. ii. 4. § 8; Plin. iii. 11. s. 16; Ptol. iii. 1. § 12.) Strabo tells
us it was 240 miles in extent, following the circuit of the shores, and 700 stadia
(87 1/2 miles) across from headland to headland. Pliny reckons it 250 miles in
circuit, and 100 miles across the opening. The latter statement considerably exceeds
the truth, while Strabo's estimate is a very fair approximation. This extensive
gulf derived its name from the celebrated city of Tarentum, situated at its N
E. extremity, and which enjoyed the advantage of a good port, almost the only
one throughout the whole extent of the gulf. (Strab. vi. p. 278.) But notwithstanding
this disadvantage, its western shores were lined by a succession of Greek colonies,
which rose into flourishing cities. Crotona, Sybaris, Metapontum, and, at a later
period, Heraclea and Thurii, all adorned this line of coast; the great fertility
of the territory compensating for the want of natural harbours. On the northern
or Iapygian shore, on the contrary, the only city was Callipolis, which never
rose above a subordinate condition.
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TAVROMENION (Ancient city) SICILY
Acesines (Akesines), a river of Sicily, which flows, into the sea
to the south of Tauromenium. Its name occurs only in Thucydides (iv. 25) on occasion
of the attack made on Naxos by the Messenians in B.C. 425 : but it is evidently
the same river which is called by Pliny (iii. 8) Asines, and by Vibius Sequester
(p. 4) Asinius. Both these writers place it in the immediate neighbourhood of
Tauromenium, and it can be no other than the river now called by the Arabic name
of Cantara, a considerable stream, which, after following throughout its course
the northern boundary of Aetna, discharges itself into the sea immediately to
the S. of Capo Schizo, the site of the ancient Naxos. The Onobalas of Appian (B.C.
v. 109) is probably only another name for the same river. Cluverius appears to
be mistaken in regarding the Flume Freddo as the Acesines : it is a very small
stream, while the Cantara is one of the largest rivers in Sicily, and could hardly
have been omitted by Pliny. (Cluver. Sicil. p. 93; Mannert, vol. ix. pt. ii. p.
284.)
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TYRRHENIAN SEA (Sea) ITALY
Pontia or Pontiae (Pontia: Ponza), an island in the Tyrrhenian sea,
situated off the coast of Italy, nearly opposite to the Circeian promontory. It
is the most considerable of a group of three small islands, now collectively known
as the Isole di Ponza; the ancient names of which were, Palmaria now Palmaruola,
the most westerly of the three, Pontia in the centre, and Sinonia (Zannone) to
the NE. (Plin. iii. 6. s. 12; Mel. ii. 7. § 18.) They are all of volcanic origin,
like the Pithecusae (Aenaria and Proclyta), nearer the coast of Campania, and
the island of Pandataria (now called Vandotena), about midway between the two
groups. Strabo places Pontia about 250 stadia from the mainland (v. p. 233), which
is nearly about the truth, if reckoned (as he does) from the coast near Caieta;
but the distance from the Circeian promontory does not exceed 16 geog. miles or
160 stadia. We have no account of Pontia previous to the settlement of a Roman
colony there in B.C. 313, except that it had been already inhabited by the Volscians.
(Liv. ix. 28 ; Diodor. xix. 101.) The colonisation of an island at this distance
from the mainland offers a complete anomaly in the Roman system of settlements,
of which we have no explanation; and this is the more remarkable, because it was
rot, like most of the maritime colonies, a colonia maritima civium, but was a
Colonia Latina. (Liv. xxvii. 10.) Its insular situation preserved it from the
ravages of war, and hence it was one of the eighteen which during the most trying
period of the Second Punic War displayed its zeal and fidelity to the Roman senate,
when twelve of the Latin colonies had set a contrary example. (Ibid.) Strabo speaks
of it as in his time a well peopled island (v. p. 233). Under the Roman Empire
it became, as well as the neighbouring Pandataria, a common place of confinement
for state prisoners. Among others, it was here that Nero, the eldest son of Germanicus,
was put to death by order of Tiberius. (Suet. Tib. 54, Cal. 15.)
The island of Ponza is about 5 miles long, but very narrow, and indented
by irregular bays, so that in some places it is only a few hundred yards across.
The two minor islands of the group, Palmaruola and Zannone, are at the present
day uninhabited. Varro notices Palmaria and Pontia, as well as Pandataria, as
frequented by great flocks of turtle doves and quails, which halted there on their
annual migrations to and from the coast of Italy. (Varr. R. R. iii. 5. § 7.)
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Osteodes, a small island in the Tyrrhenian sea, lying off the N. coast
of Sicily, and W. of the Aeolian Islands. Diodorus tells us that it derived its
name (the Bone Island) from the circumstance, of the Carthaginians having on one
occasion got rid of a body of 6000 turbulent and disaffected mercenaries by landing
them on this island, which was barren and uninhabited, and leaving them there
to perish. (Diod. v. 11). He describes it as situated in the open sea, to the
west of the Liparaean or Aeolian Islands; a description which applies only to
the island now called Ustica. The difficulty is, that both Pliny and Ptolemy distinguish
Ustica (Oustika) from Osteodes, as if they were two separate islands (Plin. iii.
8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 17). The former writer says, a Solunte lxxv. M. Osteodes,
contraque Paropinos Ustica. But as there is in fact but one island in the open
sea W. of the Lipari Islands (all of which are clearly identified), it seems certain
that this must have been the Osteodes of the Greeks, which was afterwards known
to time Romans as Ustica, and that the existence of the two names led the geographers
to suppose they were two distinct islands. Mela does not mention Ustica, but notices
Osteodes, which he reckons one of the Aeolian group; and its name is found also
(corruptly written Ostodis) in the Tabula, but in a manner that affords no real
clue to its position. (Mel. ii. 7. § 18; Tab. Peut.)
Ustica is an island of volcanic origin, about 10 miles in circumference,
and is situated about 40 miles N. of the Capo di Gallo near Palermo, and 60 miles
W. of Alicudi, the westernmost of the Lipari Islands. It is at this day well inhabited,
and existing remains show that it must have been so in the time of the Romans
also. (Smyth's Sicily, p. 279.)
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UMBRIA (Region) ITALY
Metaurus (Metauros). A river of Umbria, flowing into the Adriatic
sea, near Fano, and one of the most considerable of the numerous streams which
in this part of Italy descend from the eastern declivity of the Apennines into
the Adriatic. It is still called the Metauro or Metro; and has its sources in
the high group of Apennines called the Monte Nerone, from whence it has a course
of between 40 and 50 miles to the sea. It flows by Fossombrone (Forum Sempronii),
and throughout the latter part of its course was followed by the great highroad
of the Flaminian Way, which descended the valley of the Cantiano, one of the principal
tributaries of the Metaurus, and emerged into the main valley of the latter river
a few miles below the pass of Intereisa or Il Furlo. Its mouth is about 2 miles
S. of Fano (Fanum Fortunae), but has no port; and the river itself is justly described
by Silius Italicus as a violent and torrent-like stream. (Strab. v. p. 227; Plin.
iii. 14. s. 19; Mel. ii. 4. § 5; Sil. Ital. viii. 449; Lucan ii.405.)
The Metaurus is celebrated in history for the great battle which was
fought on its banks in B.C. 207, between Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, and
the Roman consuls C. Claudius Nero and M. Livius, in which the former was totally
defeated and slain, - a battle that may be considered as the real turning-point
of the Second Punic War, and therefore one of the most important in history. (Liv.
xxvii. 46-51; Ores, iv. 18; Eutrop. iii. 18; Vict. de Vir. Ill. 48; Hor. Carm.
iv. 4. 38; Sil. Ital. vii. 486.) Unfortunately our knowledge of the topography
and details of the battle is extremely imperfect. But we learn from Livy, the
only author who has left us a connected narrative of the operations, that M. Livius
was encamped with his army under the walls of Sena (i. e. Sena Gallica, now Sinigaglia),
and Hasdrubal at a short distance from him. But as soon as the Carthaginian general
discovered the arrival of Claudius, with an auxiliary force of 6000 foot and 1000
horse, he broke up his camp and retreated in the night to the Metaurus, which
was about 14 miles from Sena. He had intended to cross the river, but missed the
ford, and ascended the right bank of the stream for some distance in search of
one, till, finding the banks steeper and higher the further he receded from the
sea, he was compelled to halt and encamp on a hill. With the break of day the
Roman armies overtook him, and compelled him to a general engagement, without
leaving him time to cross the river. From this account it is clear that the battle
was fought on the right bank of the Metaurus, and at no great distance from its
mouth, as the troops of Hasdrubal could not, after their night march from Sena,
have proceeded many miles up the course of the river. The ground, which is well
described by Arnold from personal inspection, agrees in general character with
the description of Livy; but the exact scene of the battle cannot be determined.
It is, however, certainly an error to place it as high up the river as Fossombrone
(Forum Sempronii), 16 miles from the sea, or even, as Cramer has done, between
that town and the pass of the Furlo. Both he and Vaudoncourt place the battle
on the left bank of the Metaurus, which is distinctly opposed to the narrative
of Livy. Appian and Zonaras, though they do not mention the name of the Metaurus,
both fix the site of the Roman camp at Sena; but the former has confounded this
with Sena in Etruria, and has thence transferred the whole theatre of operations
to that country. (Appian, Annib. 52; Zonar. ix. 9; Arnold's Rome, vol. iii. pp.
364-374; Vaudoncourt, Campagnes d'Annibal, vol. iii. pp. 59-64; Cramer's Italy,
vol. i. p. 260.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
VAIE (Ancient city) ITALY
Lucrinus Lacus (ho Lokrinos kolpos, Strab: Lago Lucrino), a salt-water
lake or lagoon, adjoining the gulf of Baiae on the coast of Campania. It was situated
just at the bight or inmost point of the deep bay between Puteoli and Baiae, and
was separated from the outer sea only by a narrow strip or bank of sand, in all
probability of natural origin, but the construction of which was ascribed by a
tradition or legend, frequently alluded to by the Roman poets, to Hercules, and
the road along it is said to have been commonly called in consequence, the Via
Herculea or Heraclea. According to Strabo it was 8 stadia in length, and wide
enough to admit of a road for waggons. (Diod. iv. 22 ; Strab. v. p. 245; Lycophr.
Alex. 697 ; Propert. iv. 18. 4; Sil. ltal. xii. 116--120.) On the other side,
the Lucrine lake was separated only by a narrow space from the lake Avernus, which
was, however, of a wholly different character, being a deep basin of fresh water,
formed in the crater of an extinct volcano; while the Lacus Lucrinus, in common
with all similar lagoons, was very shallow, and was for that reason well adapted
for producing oysters and other shell-fish, for the excellence of which it was
celebrated. (Hor. Epod. ii. 49, Sat. ii. 4. 32; Juven. iv. 141; Petron. Sat. p.
424; Martial, vi. 11. 5, xiii. 90; Varr. ap. Non. p. 216.) These oyster-beds were
so valuable as to be farmed out at a high price, and Caesar was induced by the
contractors to repair the dyke of Hercules for their protection. (Serv. ad Georg.
ii. 161.)
The Lucrine lake is otherwise known chiefly in connection with the
great works of Agrippa for the construction of the so-called Julius Portus, alluded
to in two well-known passages of Virgil and Horace. (Virg. Georg. ii. 161-163;
Hor. Ars Poet. 63.) It is not easy to understand exactly the nature of these works;
but the object of Agrippa was obviously to obtain a perfectly secure and land-locked
basin, for anchoring his fleet and for exercising his newly-raised crews and rowers.
For this purpose he seems to have opened an entrance to the lake Avernus by a
cut or canal from the Lucrine lake, and must, at the same time, have opened a
channel from the latter into the bay, sufficiently deep for the passage of large
vessels. But, together with this work, he strengthened the natural barrier of
the Lucrine lake against the sea by an artificial dyke or dam, so as to prevent
the waves from breaking over it as they previously did during heavy gales. (Strab.
v. p. 245; Dion Cass. xlviii. 50; Suet. Aug. 16; Veil. Pat. ii. 79; Serv. et Philargyr.
ad Virg. l. c.; Plin. xxxvi. 15. s. 24.) It is clear from the accounts of these
works that they were perfectly successful for a time, and they appear to have
excited the greatest admiration; but they were soon abandoned, probably from the
natural difficulties proving insuperable; and, from the time that the station
of the Roman fleet was established at Misenum, we hear no more of the Julian Port.
Even in the time of Strabo it seems to have fallen into complete disuse, for he
says distinctly, that the lake Avernus was deep and well adapted for a port, but
could not be used as such on account of the Lucrine lake, which was shallow and
broad, lying between it and the sea (v. p. 244). And again, a little further on
(p. 245), he speaks of the latter as useless as a harbour, and accessible only
to small vessels, but producing abundance of oysters. At a later period Cassiodorus
(Var. ix. 6) describes it in a manner which implies that a communication was still
open with the lake Avernus as well as with the sea. The two lakes are now separated
by a considerable breadth of low sandy ground, but it is probable that this was
formed in great part by the memorable volcanic eruption of 1538, when the hill
now called Monte Nuovo, 413 feet in height and above 8000 feet in circumference,
was thrown up in the course of two days, and a large part of the Lucrine lake
filled up at the same time. Hence the present aspect of the lake, which is reduced
to a mere marshy pool full of reeds, affords little assistance in comprehending
the ancient localities. (Daubeny, On Volcanoes, pp. 208-210.) It is said that
some portions of the piers of the port of Agrippa, as well as part of the dyke
or bank ascribed to Hercules, are still visible under the level of the water.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
VENICE (Town) NORTHERN ITALY
Liquentia (Livenza), a considerable river of Venetia, which rises
in the Julian Alps to the N. of Opitergium (Oderzo), and flows into the Adriatic
near Caorle, about midway between the Piave (Plavis) and the Tagliamento (Tilaventum).
(Plin. iii. 18. s. 22.) It had a port of the same name at its mouth. Servius (ad
Aen. ix. 679) correctly places it between Altinum and Concordia. The name is not
found in the Itineraries, but Paulus Diaconus mentions the pons Liquentiae fluminis
on the road from Forum Julii towards Patavium. (P. Diac. Hist. Lang. v. 39; Anon.
Ravenn. iv. 36)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Medoacus or Meduacus (Medoakos: Brenta), a river of Northern Italy,
in the province of Venetia, falling into the extensive lagunes which border the
coast of the Adriatic, in the neighbourhood of the modern Venice. According to
Pliny (iii. 16. s. 20), there were two rivers of the name, but no other author
mentions more than one, and Livy, a native of the region, mentions the Meduacus
amnis without any distinctive epithet. (Liv. x. 2.) There can be no doubt that
this is the river now known as the Brenta, which is a very considerable stream,
rising in the mountains of the Val Sugana, and flowing near Padua (Patavium).
A short distance from that city it receives the waters of the Bacchiglione, which
may probably be the other branch of the Medoacus meant by Pliny. Strabo speaks
of a port of the same name at its mouth (Medoakos limen, v. p. 213), which served
as the port of Patavium. This must evidently be the same to which Pliny gives
the name of Portus Edro, and which was formed by the Medoaci duo ac Fossa Clodia
: it is in all probability the one now called Porto di Lido, close to Venice.
The changes which have taken place in the configuration of the lagunes and the
channels of the rivers, which are now wholly artificial, render the identification
of the ports along this coast very obscure, but Strabo's statement that the Medoacus
was navigated for a distance of 250 stadia, from the port at its mouth to Patavium,
seems conclusive in favour of the Porto di Lido, rather than the more distant
one of Chiozza. At the present day the Brenta flows, as it were, round the lagunes,
and enters the sea at Brondolo, evidently the Portus Brundulus of Pliny (l. c.)
; while a canal called the Canale di Brenta, quitting the river of that name at
Dolo, holds a more direct course to the lagunes at Fusina. This canal may perhaps
be the Fossa Clodia of Pliny.
Livy tells us that, in B.C. 301, Cleonymus the Lacedaemonian arrived
at the mouth of the Medoacus, and having ascended the river with some of his lighter
vessels, began to ravage the territory of the Patavini, but that people repulsed
his attacks, and destroyed a considerable part of his fleet. (Liv. x. 2.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Tartarus (Tartaro), a river of Venetia, near the borders of Gallia Transpadana. It is intermediate mediate between the Athesis (Adige) and the Padus (Po); and its waters are now led aside by artificial canals partly into the one river and partly into the other, so that it may be called indifferently a tributary butary of either. In ancient times it seems to have had a recognised mouth of its own, though this was even then wholly artificial, so that Pliny calls it the fossiones Philistinae, quod alii Tartarum vocant. (Plin. iii. 16. s. 20.) In the upper part of its course it formed, as it still does, extensive marshes, of which Caecina, the general of Vitellius, skilfully availed himself to cover his position near Hostilia. (Tac. Hist. iii. 9.) The river is here still called the Tartaro: lower down it assumes the name of Canal Bianco, and after passing the town of Adria, and sending off part of its waters right and left into the Po and Adige, discharges the rest by the channel now known as the Po di Levante. The river Atrianus (Atrianos potamos), mentioned by Ptolemy (iii. 16. § 20), could be no other than the mouth of the Tartarus, so called from its flowing by the city of Adria; but the channels of these waters have in all ages been changing.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Timavus (Timauos: Timao), a river of Venetia, flowing into the Adriatic
sea between Aquileia and Tergeste, about 12 miles E. of the former city. Notwithstanding
its classical celebrity, it is one of the shortest of rivers, being formed by
copious sources which burst out from the rock at the foot of a lofty cliff, and
immediately constitute a broad and deep river, which has a course of little more
than a mile before it discharges itself into the sea. There can be no doubt that
these sources are the outlets of some subterranean stream, and that the account
of Posidonius (ap. Strab. v. p. 215), who says that the river after a course of
some length falls into a chasm, and is carried under ground about 130 stadia before
it issues out again and falls into the sea, is substantially correct. Such subterranean
passages are indeed not uncommon in Carniola, and it is impossible to determine
from what particular river or lake the waters of the Timavus derive their origin;
but the popular notion still regards them as the outflow of a stream which sinks
into the earth near S. Canzian, about 13 miles from the place of their reappearance.
(Cluver. Ital. p. 193.) The number of the sources is variously stated: Virgil,
in the well-known passage in which he describes them (Aen. i. 245), reckons them
nine in number, and this agrees with the statement of Mela; while Strabo speaks
of seven; and this would appear from Servius to have been the common belief (Serv.
ad Aen. l. c.; Mel. ii. 4. § 3), which is supported also by Martial, while Claudian
follows Virgil (Mart. iv. 25. 6; Claudian, de VI. Cons. Hon. 198). Cluverius,
on the other hand, could find but six, and some modern travellers make them only
four. Strabo adds that, according to Polybius, all but one of them were salt,
a circumstance which would imply some connection with the sea, and, according
to Cluverius, who described them from personal observation, this was distinctly
the case in his time; for though at low water the stream issued tranquilly from
its rocky sources, and flowed with a still and placid current to the sea, yet
at high tides the waters were swollen, so as to rush forth with much greater force
and volume, and inundate the neighbouring meadows: and at such times, he adds,
the waters of all the sources but one become perceptibly brackish, doubtless from
some subterranean communication with the sea. (Cluver. Ital. p. 194.) It appears
from this account that Virgil's remarkable expressions
Unde per ora novem, vasto cum murmure montis
It mare proruptum, et pelago premit arva sonanti
are not mere rhetorical exaggerations, but have a foundation in fact.
It was doubtless from a reference to the same circumstance that, according to
Polybius (ap. Strab. l. c.), the stream was called by the natives the source and
mother of the sea (metera tes thalattes.) It is probable that the communication
with the sea has been choked up, as no modern traveller alludes to the phenomenon
described by Cluverius. The Timao is at present a very still and tranquil stream,
but not less than 50 yards broad close to its source, and deep enough to be navigable
for vessels of considerable size. Hence it is justly called by Virgil magnus Timavus
(Ecl. viii. 6); and Ausonius speaks of the aequoreus amnis Timavi (Clar. Urb.
xiv. 34).
Livy speaks of the lacum Timavi, by which he evidently means nothing more
than the basin formed by the waters near their source (Liv. xli. 1): it was close
to this that the Roman consul A. Manlius established his camp, while C. Furius
with 10 ships appears to have ascended the river to the same point, where their
combined camp was attacked and plundered by the Istrians. According to Strabo
there was a temple in honour of Diomed erected near the sources of the Timavus,
with a sacred grove attached to it. (Strab. v. p. 214). There were also warm springs
in the same neighbourhood, which are now known as the Bagni di S. Giovanni.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Medoacus or Meduacus (Medoakos: Brenta), a river of Northern Italy,
in the province of Venetia, falling into the extensive lagunes which border the
coast of the Adriatic, in the neighbourhood of the modern Venice. According to
Pliny (iii. 16. s. 20), there were two rivers of the name, but no other author
mentions more than one, and Livy, a native of the region, mentions the Meduacus
amnis without any distinctive epithet. (Liv. x. 2.) There can be no doubt that
this is the river now known as the Brenta, which is a very considerable stream,
rising in the mountains of the Val Sugana, and flowing near Padua (Patavium).
A short distance from that city it receives the waters of the Bacchiglione, which
may probably be the other branch of the Medoacus meant by Pliny. Strabo speaks
of a port of the same name at its mouth (Medoakos limen, v. p. 213), which served
as the port of Patavium. This must evidently be the same to which Pliny gives
the name of Portus Edro, and which was formed by the Medoaci duo ac Fossa Clodia
: it is in all probability the one now called Porto di Lido, close to Venice.
The changes which have taken place in the configuration of the lagunes and the
channels of the rivers, which are now wholly artificial, render the identification
of the ports along this coast very obscure, but Strabo's statement that the Medoacus
was navigated for a distance of 250 stadia, from the port at its mouth to Patavium,
seems conclusive in favour of the Porto di Lido, rather than the more distant
one of Chiozza. At the present day the Brenta flows, as it were, round the lagunes,
and enters the sea at Brondolo, evidently the Portus Brundulus of Pliny (l. c.)
; while a canal called the Canale di Brenta, quitting the river of that name at
Dolo, holds a more direct course to the lagunes at Fusina. This canal may perhaps
be the Fossa Clodia of Pliny.
Livy tells us that, in B.C. 301, Cleonymus the Lacedaemonian arrived at
the mouth of the Medoacus, and having ascended the river with some of his lighter
vessels, began to ravage the territory of the Patavini, but that people repulsed
his attacks, and destroyed a considerable part of his fleet. (Liv. x. 2.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
VENUSIA (Ancient city) BASILICATA
A mountain dividing Apulia and Lucania near Venusia, is a branch
of the Apennines. It is celebrated by Horace as one of the haunts of his youth.
It attains an elevation of 4433 feet above the sea. From it the southeast wind
was called Vulturnus by the Romans.
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