Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/468

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BRUTTII.

Normans, who assumed the titles of Dukes of Apulia and Calabria, meaning by the latter the ancient Bruttium, and including the Calabria of the Romans under the title of Apulia. [Calabria.]

There was hardly any province of Italy, which was more deeply imbued with Greek influences than Bruttium. The Greek colonies around its coasts left the impress not only of their manners and civilization, but of their language; and even in the time of Ennius, the two languages current in the peninsula were Greek and Oscan. (Feet v. Brutates.) The long continuance of the Byzantine power in these regions must have tended to preserve and renew this element: but it is probable that the traces of Greek language, and especially the Greek names, such as Pagliopoli, Ieropotamo, &c., which have been preserved down to modern times, are due to fresh colonies of Albanian Greeks introduced by the Neapolitan kings in the fifteenth century: and have not been transmitted, as supposed by Niebuhr, without interruption from the colonists of Magna Graecia. (Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 62; Swinburne's Travels, vol. i. p. 348—353; K. Craven's Travels, p. 312.)

The rivers of Bruttium are, as already observed, mostly but inconsiderable streams, mere mountain torrents having but a short course from the central ranges of the Apennines to the sea. Those of which the ancient names are preserved to us are here enumerated. Beginning from the Laus (Lao), which separated Bruttium from Lucania, and proceeding along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, we find: 1. the "Batum flumen" of Pliny, a very small stream, still called the Bato, the mouth of which is only about a mile S. of that of the Lao: 2. the Sabatus of the Itineraries (Itin. Ant. pp. 105, 110) placed by them S. of Consentia, is evidently the Savuto, a considerable stream, which rises in the mountains S. of Cosenza, and enters the sea about 7 miles S. of the modern Amantea, This is identified by most modern topographers with the river called Ocinarus (Ώκίναρος) by Lycophron (Alex. 729, 1009), on the banks of which was situated the city of Terina [Terina]: 3. the Lamato, another considerable stream which rises in the same group of mountains, but has a more circuitous course, and falls into the Terinaean Gulf, about 16 miles S. of the Savuto, was called by the Greeks the Lametus, and gave name to the neighbouring town of Lametini (Steph. B. s. v. Λαμητίνοι). 4. The Angitula of the Tabula, is a small stream called Angitola, about 6 miles S. of the preceding. 5. The Medma, or Mesma, which gave name to the city on its banks, is still called the Mesima, a stream of some importance, flowing into the Gulf of Gioja: 6. the Metaurus of Pliny, now called the Marro, about 7 miles S. of the Mesima. 7. The Crataeis (Plin. l. c.), supposed to derive its name from the mother of Scylla (Horn. Od. xii. 124) is considered to be the F. di Solano, a small stream which flows between the rock Scilla and the town of Bagnara. After passing the Straits of Messana no stream of any note is found till after rounding the headland of Leucopetra, when we come to (8) the Halex, still called Alice, which was for a long time the boundary between the territories of Locri and Rhegium. [Halex.] 9. The Caecinus of Thucydides (iii. 103) has been identified with the F. Piscopio, about 5 miles E. of the preceding. 10. The Buthrotus, mentioned by Livy (xxix. 7) as a river not far from the walls of Locri, is probably the modern F. Novito, which enters the sea about 3

BRUTTII.

miles from Gerace, [Locri.] 11. The Lucanus (Λούκανος) of Ptolemy, still called the Locano, a few miles from the preceding. 12. The Sagras, a much more celebrated stream, memorable for the great defeat of the Crotoniats on its banks, but which there is great difficulty in identifying with certainty: it is probably the Alaro. [Sagras.] 13. The Helorus, or Helleporus, celebrated for the defeat of the combined forces of the Italiot Greeks by the elder Dionysius, B.C. 389, was probably the Callipari, a small stream about 14 miles N. of the Capo di Stilo. 14. The Ancinale, a more considerable stream, about 6 miles N. of the preceding, flowing into the Gulf of Squillace, may probably be the Carcines, or Carcinus of Pliny and Mela. (Plin. iii. 15.) 15. In the same passage Pliny speaks of four other navigable rivers as flowing into the same gulf, to which he gives the names of Crotalus, Semirus, Arochas, and Targines: the similarity of names, and order of occurrence, enable us to identify these, with tolerable certainty, as the streams now called respectively the Corace, Simmari, Crocchio, and Tacina, though none of them certainly deserves to be called navigable. 16. The Aesarus, on the banks of which stood the celebrated city of Crotona, is still called the Esaro. 17. About 9 miles further N. is the mouth of the Neaethus, still called Neto, which is, next to the Crathis, the most considerable river of Bruttium. [Neaethus.] 18. The Hylias mentioned by Thucydides (vii. 35) as the limit between the territories of Crotona and Thurii, is probably the Fiumenicà, a small stream about 8 miles W. of the Capo dell' Alice. 19. The Traens, or Trais, celebrated for the bloody defeat of the Sybarites on its banks, is probably the Trionto. 20. The Crathis, as already mentioned, formed at its mouth the boundary between Lucania and Bruttium, though by far the greater part of its course belonged to the latter.

Although Bruttium is throughout almost its whole extent a mountainous country, few names or designations of particular heights have been preserved to us. The name of Sila, given in modern times to the great outlying mass of mountains between Consentia and Crotona, appears to have been applied by the ancients more especially to the southern mass, now called Aspromonte: as both Strabo and Pliny place it in the immediate neighbourhood of Locri and Rhegium. (Strab. vi. p. 261; Plin. iii 5. s. 10.) Probably the name (which is evidently only another form of silva, or ύλη, the forest) was at first applied indiscriminately to all the Apennines in this part of Italy. These are not, like those of Lucania and Central Italy, of calcareous character, but are composed for the most part of granite and other primary rocks, though bordered on each side by a band of tertiary strata, which give rise to the more fertile hills and vallies on the coasts. The Mons Clibanus of Pliny, and the Latymnius of Theocritus (Λατύμνιον όρος, Id. iv. 17), appear to have been both of them situated in the neighbourhood of Crotona, but cannot be identified with any certainty.

The only islands on the coasts of Bruttium are mere rocks, utterly unworthy of notice, were it not for the traditions by which they were connected with the mythological legends of the Greeks. Thus a barren rocky islet off Cape Lacinium was identified with the island of Calypso, the Ogygia of Homer (Plin. iii. 10. s. 15): two equally insignificant rocks