Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/263

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Chap. 16.]
ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC.
229

Trica[1], whose names have passed into a by-word and a proverb.

Besides the above, there is in the interior of the second region one colony of the Hirpini, Beneventum[2], so called by an exchange of a more auspicious name for its old one of Maleventum; also the Æculani[3], the Aquilonii[4], the Abellinates surnamed Protropi, the Compsani, the Caudini, the Ligures, both those called the Corneliani and Bebiani, the Vescellani, the Æclani, the Aletrini, the Abellinates[5] surnamed Marsi, the Atrani, the Æcani[6], the Alfellani[7], the

  1. The 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."
  2. Livy 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 year B.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, erected A.D. 114 in honour of the emperor Trajan.
  3. The remains of Æculanum are to be seen at Le Grotte, one mile from Mirabella. The ruins are very extensive.
  4. There 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.
  5. These 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.
  6. Æcæ 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.
  7. Probably the people of Affilæ, still called Affile, and seven miles from Subiaco. Inscriptions and fragments of columns are still found there.