previous next

CHAP. 17. (12.)—THE FOURTH REGION OF ITALY.

We now come to the fourth region, which includes the most valiant probably of all the nations of Italy. Upon the coast, in the territory of the Frentani1, after the river Tifernus, we find the river Trinium2, with a good harbour at its mouth, the towns of Histonium3, Buca4, and Ortona, and the river Aternus5. In the interior are the Anxani surnamed Frentani, the Higher and Lower Carentini6, and the Lanuenses; in the territory of the Marrucini, the Teatini7; in that of the Peligni, the Corfinienses8, the Superæquani9, and the Sulmonenses10; in that of the Marsi, the Anxantini11, the Atinates12, the Fucentes13, the Lucenses14, and the Marruvini15; in that of the Albenses, the town of Alba on Lake Fucinus; in that of the Æquiculani, the Cliternini16, and the Carseolani17; in that of the Vestini, the Angulani18, the Pinnenses, and the Peltuinates, adjoining to whom are the Aufinates19 Cismontani; in that of the Samnites, who have been called Sabelli20, and whom the Greeks have called Saunitæ, the colony of old Bovianum21, and that of the Undecumani, the Aufidenates22, the Esernini23, the Fagifulani, the Ficolenses24, the Sæpinates25, and the Tereventinates; in that of the Sabini, the Amiternini26, the Curenses27, Forum Decî28, Forum Novum, the Fidenates, the Interamnates29, the Nursini30, the Nomentani31, the Reatini32, the Trebulani, both those called Mutusci33 and those called Suffenates34, the Tiburtes, and the Tarinates.

In these districts, the Comini35, the Tadiates, the Cædici, and the Alfaterni, tribes of the Æquiculi, have disappeared. From Gellianus we learn that Archippe36, a town of the Marsi, built by Marsyas, a chieftain of the Lydians, has been swallowed up by Lake Fucinus, and Valerianus informs us that the town of the Viticini in Picenum was destroyed by the Romans. The Sabini (called, according to some writers, from their attention to religious37 observances and the worship of the gods, Sevini) dwell on the dew-clad hills in the vicinity of the Lakes of the Velinus38. The Nar, with its sulphureous waters, exhausts these lakes, and, descending from Mount Fiscellus39, unites with them near the groves of Vacuna40 and Reate, and then directs its course towards the Tiber, into which it discharges itself. Again, in another direction, the Anio41, taking its rise in the mountain of the Trebani, carries into the Tiber the waters of three lakes remarkable for their picturesque beauty, and to which Subla- queum42 is indebted for its name. In the territory of Reate is the Lake of Cutiliæ43, in which there is a floating island, and which, according to M. Varro, is the navel or central point of Italy. Below the Sabine territory lies that of La- tium, on one side Picenum, and behind it Umbria, while the range of the Apennines flanks it on either side.

1 They occupied what is now called the Abruzzo Inferiore.

2 Now the Trigno.

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

4 According 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.

5 Now the Pescara.

6 The 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.

7 Teate is supposed to be the present Chieti.

8 The 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.

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

10 The 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. 1. 4. It is now called Sulmona.

11 The 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.

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

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

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

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

16 It 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.

17 The 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. 1. 683 et seq.

18 The 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.

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

20 Cato in his 'Origines' stated that they were so called from the fact of their being descended from the Sabines.

21 The 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.

22 The 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.

23 The people of Esernia, now Isernia.

24 The 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.

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

26 The 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.

27 The 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.

28 Nothing 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.

29 This 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.

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

31 The people of Nomentum, now La Mentana.

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

33 The people of Trebule 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 Mutusca."

34 Their 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.

35 The people of Cominium, the site of which is uncertain. It is supposed that there were three places of this name. One Cominiun 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.

36 Solinus, 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.

37 From the Greek τέβεσθαι "to worship."

38 The 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.

39 Still 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.

40 A 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. 1. 307. The grove here alluded to was one of her sanctuaries.

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

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

43 This 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.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Latin (Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff, 1906)
hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

hide References (31 total)
  • Cross-references to this page (28):
    • The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, EPOREDIA (Ivrea) Italy.
    • The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, SEGUSIUM (Susa) Italy.
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), VIAE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ALBA FUCENSIS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ALPES
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AUGUSTA PRAETO´RIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AUGUSTA TAURINORUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), BE´RGOMUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), COMUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), EPORE´DIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), FORUM LICINII
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), FORUM VIBII
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), GA´LLIA CISALPI´NA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAEVI
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAUS POMPEIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LIBICII
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LIGU´RIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MEDIOLA´NUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), NOVA´RIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ORO´BII
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PADUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SALASSI
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SEGU´SIO
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), TAURI´NI
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), TICINUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), VERCELLAE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), VERTACOMICORI
    • Smith's Bio, Vacu'na
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (3):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: