Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/468

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

452 NUCERIA. that it received a fresh accession of veteran sol- diers as colonists under Nero. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 31.) It was not long alter this new settlement that a violent quarrel broke out between the colonists of Pompeii iind Nuceria, which ended in a serious tu- mult, not without bloodshed (Id. siv. 17). This is the last mention of Nuceria that we find in his- tory under the Roman Empire; but its name appears in "the Itineraries, and is incidentally mentioned by Procopius. The decisive battle between Narses and Teias, which put an end to the Gothic monarchy in Italv, A. I). .533. was fought in its neighbourhood, on the "banks of the Sarnus, called by Procopius the Draco. (Prucop. B. G. iv. 35.) We learn also that it was an episcopal see in the early ages of Christianity, a dignity that it has retained without interruption down to the present day. Its modern appellation of Nocera del Pagani is derived from the circumstance, that in the 13th century a body of Saracens were es- tablished there by the emperor Frederic II. There are no remains of antiquity .at Nocera, except a very old church, which is supposed to have been originally an ancient temple. (Kornanelli, vol. iii. p. 602.) It was at Nuceria that the great line of high-road, which, quitting the Appian Way at Capua, proceeded directly S. to Eliegium, began to ascend the range of hills that separate the Bay of Naples from that of Salerno, or the Posidonian gulf, as it was called by the ancients. Strabo reckons the distance from Pom- peii, through Nuceria to Marcina, on the latter bay, at 120 stadia (15 Roman miles) (Strab. v. p. 251), which is less than the truth ; Nuceria being, in fact, 7 geographical miles, or 70 stadiii, from Pompeii, and the same diiitance from the sea near Salerno. The inscription at Polla (Forum PopiUii) gives the distance from thence to Nuceria at 51 M. P.; while it reckons only 33 from thence to Capua. The Itine- rary gives 16 from Nuceria to Nola, and 21 from Nuia to Cipia. (Orell. Inscr. 3308 ; Mommsen, Jnscr. R. N. 6276; Itin. Ant. p. 109). COIN OF NUCERIA IN CAMPANIA. 2. (^Nocera), a town of Umbria, situated on the Flaminian Way, between Forum Flaminii and the nctual pass of the Apennines. It is mentioned by Strabo as a town of considerable population, owing to its situation on so frequented a line of road, as well as to a manufacture of wooden vessels for household utensils. Pliny dcbignates the inhabitants as " Nu- cerini cognoinire F.vonienses et Camellani," but the origin of both appellations is quite unknown. Pto- lemy terms it a Colonia, but it is not mentioned as such by any other writer. If this is not a mistake, it must have been one of those settled by Trajan or Hadrian. (Zumpt, de Colon, p. 401.) The modern city of Nocera, a small place, though an episcopal see of great antiquity, undoubtedly retains the anc'ent site. It was sitna'ed 12 miles from Forum Flaminii and 15 from Fulginium {Fol'njno). (Strab. v. p. 227 ; Plin. iii. U. s. 19; Ptol. iii. 1. §53; Itin. Ant. p. 311 ; Itin. Hier. p. 614.) 3. A town of Cispadane Gaul, mentioned only by Ptolemy (iii. 1. §46), from whom we learn that it was situated iu the neighbourhood of Eegium Le- NUIUS. pidum and Mutina; but was not on the line of the Via Aemilia. It is probably represented by the vil- lage of Luzzara, near Guastalla, on the right bank ot'the Po. (Cluver. Ital. p. 281.) 4. A city of Bruttium, in the neighbourhood of Terina, not mentioned by any ancient author, but the existence of which is clearly established by its coins, which have the Gre^k inscription NOrKPINHN (tlioSe of Nuceria Alfaterna having uniformly Oscan legends), and indicate a close connection with Terina and Ehegium. Its site is marked by the modern town of Nocera, situated on a hill about 4 miles from the Tyrrlienian sea and the mouth of the river Sa- vuto. Considerable remains of an ancient city are still visible there, which have been regarded by many writers as those of Terina (Miliingen, Ancient Coins, p. 25, Numismatique de VAnc. Italie, p. 58). It is not improbable that the 'NovKpia cited by Stephanus of Byzantium from Philistus is the city in question, though he terms it a city oj" Tyrrhenia, which must in any case be erroneous. [E. H. B.] COIN OF NUCERIA IN BRUTTIUM. NUDIONNUM, in the Table, is probably the same place as Noeodunum of the Diablintes. [NoEO- DUNUM.] [G. L.] NU'DIUM (NouSfOf), a town founded by the Minyae, in Triphylia in Elis, but which was destroyed by the Eleians in the time of Herodotus (iv. 148). NUITHONES, a German tribe, mentioned by Tacitus {Germ. 40) as inhabiting the banks of the Albis {Elbe), to the SW. of the Longobardi. They in common with other neighbouring tribes worshipped Ertha, that is, the Earth. In some editions the name is written Nurtones; so that nothing definite can be said either in regard to the import of their name or to the exact locality they inhabited. [L.S.] NUIUS (NouiOL- fK§oai, Ptol. iv. 6. § 6 : in the Latin translation, " Nunii ostia"), a river of Interior Libya, which discharged itself into the sea to the S. of JIauretania Tingitana. It has been identified with that which is called in the Ship journal of Hanno, Lixus (Ai|os, Geotj. Graec. Min., p. 5, ed. Jliiller), and by Scylax of Caryanda (if the present text be correct), Xion (Hiojj', p. 53), and by Poly- bius {ap. Plin. v. 1), Cosenus. The Lybian river must not be confounded with the Mauretanian river, and town of the same name, mentioned by Scylax (?. c. ; comp. Artemidorits, ap Strab. xvii. p. 829 ; Steph. B. s. V. Myl; Ai^a, Hecat. Fr. 328; Aif, PtoL iv. 1. §§2, 13; Pomp. Mela, iii. 10. §6; Plin. v. 1), and which is now represented by the river called by the Arabs Wady-el-Khos. falling into the sea at El-'Arisch. where Barth {Wajiderunc/en, pp. 23 — 25) found ruins of the ancient Lixus. The Lixus of Hanno, or Nuius of Ptolemy, is the Quad- Dra {Wady-Dra), which the S. declivity of the A ilas of Marocco sends to the Sahara in lat. 32°: a river for the greater part of the year nearly dry, and which Eenou {Explor. de VAlg. Eiit. et Georjr. vol. viii. pp. 65 — 78) considers to be a sixth longer than the Rhine. It flows at first from N. to S., until, in N. lat. 29° and W. long. 5°, it turns almost at right