Chapter 248

1661This word is understood in the text, and Ansart would have it to mean that the “Gulf of Tarentum is distant,” &c., but, as he says, such an assertion would be very indefinite, it not being stated what part of the Gulf is meant. He therefore suggests that the most distant point from Lacinium is meant; which however, according to him, would make but 117 miles straight across, and 160 by land. The city of Tarentum would be the most distant point.

1662Messapus, a Bœotian, mentioned by Strabo, B. ix.

1663A son of Lycaon.

1664Of Lacinium and Acra Iapygia. About seventy miles seems to be the real distance; certainly not, as Pliny says, 100.

1665The modern Taranto to Brindisi.

1666Probably situate at the further extremity of the bay on which Tarentum stood.

1667According to D’Anville and Mannert, the modern Oria. Messapia is the modern Mesagna.

1668The modern Santa Maria dell’ Alizza, according to D’Anville.

1669The modern Gallipoli, in the Terra di Otranto. The real distance from Tarentum is between fifty and sixty miles.

1670The “Iapygian Point,” the present Capo di Santa Maria di Leuca.

1671Its site is occupied by the little village of Vaste near Poggiordo, ten miles S.W. of Otranto. In the sixteenth century considerable remains of Basta were still to be seen.

1672The modern Otranto stands on its site. In the fourth century it became the usual place of passage from Italy to Greece, Apollonia, and Dyrrhachium. Few vestiges of the ancient city are now to be seen.

1673Anciently Apollonia, in Illyria, now called Pallina or Pollona.

1674This was M. Terentius Varro, called “the most learned of the Romans.” His design, here mentioned, seems however to have evinced neither learning nor discretion.

1675Now called Soleto. The ruins of the ancient city, described by Galateo as existing at Muro, are not improbably those of Fratuertium, or, perhaps more rightly, Fratuentum.

1676The modern Lecce is supposed to occupy its site.

1677Called Valetium by Mela. Its ruins are still to be seen near San Pietro Vernotico, on the road from Brindisi to Lecce. The site is still called Baleso or Valesio.

1678Ansart takes this to be the modern village of Cavallo, on the promontory of that name; but it is more probably the modern Ceglie, situate on a hill about twelve miles from the Adriatic, and twenty-seven miles west of Brindisi. Extensive ruins still exist there. There was another town of the same name in the south of Apulia.

1679Now Brindisi. Virgil died here. The modern city, which is an impoverished place, presents but few vestiges of antiquity. The distance to Dyrrhachium is in reality only about 100 miles.

1680They occupied probably a portion of the modern Terra di Bari.

1681Said by Hardouin to be the modern Carouigna or Carovigni; but Mannert asserts it to be the same as the modern Ruvo.

1682Or Gnatia, called by Strabo and Ptolemy a city of Apulia. It was probably the last town of the Peucetians towards the frontiers of Calabria. Horace, in the account of his journey to Brundusium (I. Sat. i. 97-100), makes it his last halting-place, and ridicules a pretended miracle shown by the inhabitants, who asserted that incense placed on a certain altar was consumed without fire being applied. The same story is referred to by Pliny, B. ii. c.111, where he incorrectly makes Egnatia a town of the Salentini. Its ruins are visible on the sea-coast, about six miles S.E. of Monopali, and an old town still bears the name of Torre d’Agnazzo.

1683Now Bari, a considerable city. In the time of Horace it was only a fishing town. It probably had a considerable intercourse with Greece, if we may judge from the remains of art found here.

1684It is difficult to identify these rivers, from the number of small torrents between Brindisi and the Ofanto or Aufidus. According to Mannert, the Pactius is the present Canale di Terzo.

1685An important city of Apulia, said to have been founded by Diomedes. Horace alludes to its deficiency of water. The modern Canosa is built on probably the site of the citadel of the ancient city, the ruins of which are very extensive.

1686The ruins of this place are still to be seen at some little distance from the coast, near the village of Salpi. The story about Hannibal was very probably of Roman invention, for Justin and Frontinus speak in praise of his continence and temperance. Appian however gives some further particulars of this alleged amour.

1687The present Manfredonia has arisen from the decay of this town, in consequence of the unhealthiness of the locality. Ancient Uria is supposed to have occupied the site of Manfredonia, and the village of Santa Maria di Siponto stands where Siponti stood.

1688Probably the Cervaro. Hardouin says the Candelaro.

1689The present Porto Greco occupies its site.

1690Still known as Gargano.

1691Probably the present Varano.

1692Now Lago di Lesina. The Frento is now called the Fortore.

1693To distinguish it from Teanum of the Sidicini, previously mentioned.

1694Between the Tifernus and the Frento. Its remains are said to be still visible at Licchiano, five miles from San Martino. The Tifernus is now called the Biferno.

1695A people of Central Italy, occupying the tract on the east coast of the peninsula, from the Apennines to the Adriatic, and from the frontiers of Apulia to those of the Marrucini.

1696Strabo (B. vi.) refers to this tradition, where he mentions the oracle of Calchas, the soothsayer, in Daunia in Southern Italy. Here answers were given in dreams, for those who consulted the oracle had to sacrifice a black ram, and slept a night in the temple, lying on the skin of the victim.

1697The modern Lucera in the Capitanata.

1698The birth-place of Horace; now Venosa in the Basilicata.

1699The modern Canosa stands on the site of the citadel of ancient Canusium, an Apulian city of great importance. The remains of the ancient city are very considerable.

1700So called, it was said, in remembrance of Argos, the native city of Diomedes. It was an Apulian city of considerable importance. Some slight traces of it are still to be seen at a spot which retains the name of Arpa, five miles from the city of Foggia.

1701The names of these two defunct cities were used by the Romans to signify anything frivolous and unsubstantial; just as we speak of “castles in the air,” which the French call “châteaux en Espagne.”

1702Livy and Ptolemy assign this place to Samnium Proper, as distinguished from the Hirpini. It was a very ancient city of the Samnites, but in the yearB.C.268, a Roman colony was settled there, on which occasion, prompted by superstitious feelings, the Romans changed its name Maleventum, which in their language would mean “badly come,” to Beneventum or “well come.” The modern city of Benevento still retains numerous traces of its ancient grandeur, among others a triumphal arch, erectedA.D.114 in honour of the emperor Trajan.

1703The remains of Æculanum are to be seen at Le Grotte, one mile from Mirabella. The ruins are very extensive.

1704There were probably two places called Aquilonia in Italy; the remains of the present one are those probably to be seen at La Cedogna. That mentioned by Livy, B. x. c. 38-43, was probably a different place.

1705These are supposed by some to be the people of Abellinum mentioned in the first region of Italy. Nothing however is known of these or of the Abellinates Marsi, mentioned below.

1706Æcæ is supposed to have been situate about nineteen miles from Herdonia, and to have been on the site of the modern city of Troja, an episcopal see. The Compsani were the people of Compsa, the modern Conza; and the Caudini were the inhabitants of Caudium, near which were the Fauces Caudinæ or “Caudine Forks,” where the Roman army was captured by the Samnites. The site of this city was probably between the modern Arpaja and Monte Sarchio; and the defeat is thought to have taken place in the narrow valley between Santa Agata and Moirano, on the road from the former place to Benevento, and traversed by the little river Iselero. The enumeration here beginning with the Æclani is thought by Hardouin to be of nations belonging to Apulia, and not to the Hirpini. The Æclani, here mentioned, were probably the people of the place now called Ascoli di Satriano, not far from the river Carapella. Of the Aletrini and Atrani nothing appears to be known.

1707Probably the people of Affilæ, still called Affile, and seven miles from Subiaco. Inscriptions and fragments of columns are still found there.

1708The people of Atinum, a town of Lucania, situate in the upper valley of the Tanager, now the Valle di Diano. Its site is ascertained by the ruins near the village of Atena, five miles north of La Sala. Collatia was situate on the Anio, now called the Teverone.

1709The ruins of the town of Canuæ are still visible at a place called Canne, about eight miles from Canosa. The Romans were defeated by Hannibal, on the banks of the Aufidus in its vicinity, but there is considerable question as to the exact locality. The ruins of the town are still considerable.

1710Forentum was the site of the present Forenza in the Basilicate. It is called by Horace and Diodorus Siculus, Ferentum. The ancient town probably stood on a plain below the modern one. Some remains of it are still to be seen.

1711On the site of Genusium stands the modern Ginosa. The ruins of the ancient city of Herdonea are still to be seen in the vicinity of the modern Ordona, on the high road from Naples to Otranto. This place witnessed the defeat by Hannibal of the Romans twice in two years.

1712The mention of the Hyrini, or people of Hyrium or Hyria, is probably an error, as he has already mentioned Uria, the same place, among the Daunian Apulians, and as on the sea-shore. See p. 228. It is not improbably a corrupted form of some other name.

1713From the Frento, on the banks of which they dwelt.

1714Viesta, on the promontory of Gargano, is said to occupy the site of the ancient Merinum.

1715According to Mannert, the modern town of Noja stands on the site of ancient Netium.

1716They inhabited Ruvo, in the territory of Bari, according to Hardouin.

1717Their town was Silvium; probably on the site of the modern Savigliano.

1718According to D’Anville their town was Strabellum, now called Rapolla.

1719Their town is supposed to have been on the site of the modern Bovino, in the Capitanata.

1720The people of Apamestæ; probably on the site of the modern San Vito, two miles west of Polignano.

1721The people of Butuntum, now Bitonto, an inland city of Apulia, twelve miles from Barium, and five from the sea. No particulars of it are known. All particulars too of most of the following tribes have perished.

1722D’Anville places their city, Sturni, at the present Ostuni, not far from the Adriatic, and fourteen leagues from Otranto.

1723The people of Aletium already mentioned.

1724Their town possibly stood on the site of the present village of Veste, to the west of Castro. The Neretini were probably the people of the present Nardo.

1725Probably the people of the town which stood on the site of the present San Verato.

1726They occupied what is now called the Abruzzo Inferiore.

1727Now the Trigno.

1728On the site of the present Vasto d’Ammone, five miles south of the Punta della Penna. There are numerous remains of the ancient city.

1729According to Strabo Buca bordered on the territory of Teanum, which would place its site at Termoli, a seaport three miles from the mouth of the Biferno or Tifernus. Other writers, however, following Pliny, have placed it on the Punta della Penna, where considerable remains were visible in the 17th century. Ortona still retains its ancient name.

1730Now the Pescara.

1731The sites of their towns are unknown; but D’Anville supposes the Higher or Upper Carentum to have occupied the site of the modern Civita Burella, and the Lower one the Civita del Conte.

1732Teate is supposed to be the present Chieti.

1733The people of Corfinium, the chief city of the Peligni. It is supposed to have remained in existence up to the tenth century. Its ruins are seen near Pentima, about the church of San Pelino.

1734The site of Superæquum is occupied by the present Castel Vecchio Subequo.

1735The people of Sulmo, a town ninety miles from Rome. It was the birth-place of Ovid, and was famous for the coldness of its waters, a circumstance mentioned by Ovid in his Tristia, B. iv. ch. x. l. 4. It is now called Sulmona.

1736The people of Anxanum or Anxa, on the Sangro, now known as the city of Lanciano; in the part of which, known as Lanciano Vecchio, remains of the ancient town are to be seen.

1737The people probably of Atina in Samnium, which still retains the same name.

1738They probably took their name from the Lake Fucinus, the modern Lago Fucino, or Lago di Celano.

1739They dwelt in a town on the verge of Lake Fucinus, known as Lucus.

1740The ruins of Marruvium may still be seen at Muria, on the eastern side of Lake Fucinus.

1741It has been suggested, from the discovery of a sepulchral inscription there, that Capradosso, about nine miles from Rieti in the upper valley of the Salto, is the site of ancient Cliternia. The small village of Alba retains the name and site of the former city of Alba Fucensis, of which there are considerable remains.

1742The modern town of Carsoli is situate three miles from the site of ancient Carseoli, the remains of which are still visible at Civita near the Ostoria del Cavaliere. Ovid tells us that its climate was cold and bleak, and that it would not grow olives, though fruitful in corn. He also gives some other curious particulars of the place.—Fasti, B. iv. l. 683et seq.

1743The modern Civita Sant Angelo retains nearly its ancient name as that of its patron saint. It is situate on a hill, four miles from the Adriatic, and south of the river Matrinus, which separated the Vestini from the territories of Adria and Picenum.

1744The village of Ofena, twelve miles north of Popoli, is supposed to retain the site of ancient Aufina. Numerous antiquities have been found here.

1745Cato in his ‘Origines’ stated that they were so called from the fact of their being descended from the Sabines.

1746The site of the town of Bovianum is occupied by the modern city of Bojano; the remains of the walls are visible. Mommsen however considers Bojano to be the site of only Bovianum Undecumanorum, or “of the Eleventh Legion,” and considers that the site of the ancient Samnite city of Bovianum Vetus is the place called Piettrabondante, near Agnone, twenty miles to the north, where there appear to be the remains of an ancient city.

1747The people of Aufidena, a city of northern Samnium, in the upper valley of the Sagrus or Sagro. Its remains, which show it to have been a place of very great strength, are to be seen near the modern village of Alfidena, on a hill on the left bank of the modern Sangro.

1748The people of Esernia, now Isernia.

1749The people of Ficulia or Ficolea, a city of ancient Latium on the Via Nomentana. It is supposed that it was situate within the confines of the domain of Cesarini, and upon either the hill now called Monte Gentile, or that marked by the Torre Lupara.

1750Sæpinum is supposed to be the same with the modern Supino or Sipicciano.

1751The ruins of the ancient Sabine city of Amiternum are still visible at San Vittorino, a village about five miles north of Aquila. Considerable remains of antiquity are still to be seen there.

1752The people of Cures, an ancient city of the Sabines, to the left of the Via Salaria, about three miles from the left bank of the Tiber, and twenty-four from Rome. It was the birth-place of Numa Pompilius. Its site is occupied by the present villages of Correse and Arci, and considerable remains of the ancient city are still to be seen.

1753Nothing is known of this place; but it has been suggested that it stood in the neighbourhood of Forum Novum (or ‘New Market’), next mentioned, the present Vescovio.

1754This Interamna must not be confounded with Interamna Lirinas, mentioned in C.9, nor Interamna Nartis, mentioned in C.19. It was a city of Picenum in the territory of the Prætutii. The city of Teramo stands on its site; and extensive remains of the ancient city are still in existence.

1755From their town, Norsia in the duchy of Spoleto is said to derive its name.

1756The people of Nomentum, now La Mentana.

1757The people of Reate, now Rieti, below Mursia.

1758The people of Trebulæ Mutuscæ, said to have stood on the site of the present Monte Leone della Sabina, below Rieti. This place is mentioned in the seventh Æneid of Virgil, as the “Olive-bearing Mutuscæ.”

1759Their town was Trebula Suffena, on the site of the present Montorio di Romagna. The Tiburtes were the people of Tibur, the modern Tivoli; and the Tarinates were the inhabitants of Tarinum, now Tarano.

1760The people of Cominium, the site of which is uncertain. It is supposed that there were three places of this name. One Cominium is mentioned in the Samnite wars as being about twenty miles from Aquilonia, while Cominium Ceritum, probably another place, is spoken of by Livy in his account of the second Punic War. The latter, it is suggested, was about sixteen miles north-west of Beneventum, and on the site of the modern Cerreto. The Comini here mentioned by Pliny, it is thought, dwelt in neither of the above places. The sites of the towns of many of the peoples here mentioned are also equally unknown.

1761Solinus, B. ii., also states, that this place was founded by Marsyas, king of the Lydians. Hardouin mentions that in his time the remains of this town were said to be seen on the verge of the lake near Transaco.

1762From the Greekσέβεσθαι“to worship.”

1763The river Velinus, now Velino, rising in the Apennines, in the vicinity of Reate, overflowed its banks and formed several small lakes, the largest of which was called Lake Velinus, now Pie di Lugo or Lago, while a smaller one was called Lacus Reatinus, now Lago di Santa Susanna. In order to carry off these waters, a channel was cut through the rocks by Curius Dentatus, the conqueror of the Sabines, by means of which the waters of the Velinus were carried through a narrow gorge to a spot where they fall from a height of several hundred feet into the river Nar. This fall is now known as the Fall of Terni or the Cascade Delle Marmore.

1764Still called Monte Fiscello, near the town of Civita Reale. Virgil calls the Nar (now the Nera), “Sulphureâ Nar albus aquâ,” “The white Nar with its sulphureous waters.”—Æneid, vii. 517.

1765A Sabine divinity said to have been identical with Victory. The Romans however made her the goddess of leisure and repose, and represented her as being worshiped by the husbandmen at harvest home, when they were “vacui,” or at leisure. She is mentioned by Ovid in the Fasti, B. vi. l. 307. The grove here alluded to was one of her sanctuaries.

1766The modern Teverone, which rises near Tervi or Trevi.

1767A town of the Æqui, now known as Subiaco. In its vicinity was the celebrated villa of Claudius and Nero, called the Villa Sublacencis.

1768This was a town of the Sabines between Reate and Interocrea, in the vicinity of a small lake of the same name. It was a mere pool, according to Dionysius, being but 400 feet in diameter. It is supposed that the floating island was formed from the incrustations of carbonate of lime on the banks, which, becoming detached, probably collected in the middle. The lake still exists, but the floating island has disappeared. There are some fine ruins of Roman baths in the vicinity of the lake.

1769It was a custom with the early Italian nations, especially the Sabines, in times of danger and distress, to vow to the deity the sacrifice of all the produce of the ensuing spring, that is, of the period from the first day of March till the last day of April. It is probable that in early times human sacrifices were the consequence; but at a later period the following custom was adopted instead. The children were allowed to grow up, and in the spring of their twentieth or twenty-first year were with covered faces driven across the frontier of their native country, to go whithersoever chance or the guidance of the deity might lead them. The Mamertini in Sicily were said to have had this origin.

1770Now the Aterno, which falls into the sea at Atri or Ortona.

1771A famous city of Etruscan origin, which still retains its name of Adria or Atri. It had very considerable intercourse with Greece, and there are extensive remains of antiquity in its vicinity, towards Ravegnano. The river is still called the Vomano.

1772These places are again mentioned in B. xiv. c. 8.

1773Or “New Castle.” It probably occupied the site of the now deserted town of Santo Flaviano, near the banks of the river Tordino, the Batinus of Pliny, and below the modern town of Giulia Nova.

1774The river still has the name of Tronto; Porto di Martin Scuro occupies the site of the town.

1775Who had crossed over as colonists from the opposite coast of Illyricum.

1776According to Mannert the river Tesino is the same as the Albula, and Tervium is the modern town of Grotte a Mare; but D’Anville makes the latter to be the town of Cupra next mentioned.

1777This was called Cupra Maritima, to distinguish it from the town of the Cuprenses Montani, afterwards mentioned. It is said by Strabo to have had its name from the Tyrrhenian name of Juno. From the discovery of an inscription belonging to her temple here, there is little doubt that D’Anville is right in his suggestion that the site of Cupra is at Grotte a Mare, eight miles from the mouth of the Truentus or Tronto.

1778“The Fortress of the Firmani,” five miles from Firmum, an important city of Picenum. The Fortress was situate at the mouth of the Leta, and was the port of the city. It is still called Porto di Fermo.

1779Often called “Asculum Picenum” to distinguish it from Asculum in Apulia. It was a place of considerable strength, and played a great part in the Social War. It is unknown at what period it became a Roman colony. The modern city of Ascoli stands on its site.

1780Now called Monte Novano, according to D’Anville and Brotier.

1781Its site is supposed to have been that of the small town called Santo Elpidio a Mare, four miles from the sea, and the same distance north of Fermo. The remains of Potentia are supposed to be those in the vicinity of the modern Porto di Recanati. Numana is supposed to be the modern Umana, near the Cuscione, where, in the seventeenth century, extensive ruins were to be seen.

1782It still retains its ancient name, which was derived from the Greekἀγκὼν“the elbow,” it being situate on a promontory which forms a curve, and almost encloses the port. The promontory is still called Monte Comero. A triumphal arch, erected in honour of Trajan, who constructed a new mole for the port, is still in fine preservation, and there are remains of an amphitheatre.

1783The modern city of Osimo stands on the site of Auximum, about twelve miles south-west of Ancona. Numerous inscriptions, statues, and other remains have been found there.

1784Cluver conjectures that Beregra stood at Civitella di Tronto, ten miles north of Teramo; but nothing further relative to it is known. Cingulum was situate on a lofty mountain; the modern town of Cingoli occupies its site.

1785“The mountaineers.” They inhabited Cupra Montana, which is supposed to have stood on the same site as the modern Ripa Transone.

1786The people of Falaria or Faleria. There are considerable remains of this town about a mile from the village of Falerona, among which a theatre and amphitheatre are most conspicuous. The remains of Pausula are supposed to be those seen on the Monte dell’ Olmo. The town of the Ricinenses is supposed to have been on the banks of the Potenza, two miles from Macerata, where some remains were to be seen in the seventeenth century.

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