queum[1] is indebted for its name. In the territory of Reate
is the Lake of Cutiliæ[2], 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 Latium, on one side Picenum, and behind it Umbria, while
the range of the Apennines flanks it on either side.
CHAP. 18. (13.) the fifth region of italy.
The fifth region is that of Picenum, once remarkable for the denseness of its population ; 360,000 Picentines took the oaths of fidelity to the Roman people. They are descended from the Sabines, who had made a vow to celebrate a holy spring[3]. Their territory commenced at the river Aternus[4], where the present district and colony of Adria[5] is, at a distance of six miles from the sea. Here we find the river Vomanus, the territories of Prætutia and Palma[6], Castrum Novum[7],
- ↑ A town of the Æqui, now known as Subiaco. In its vicinity was the celebrated villa of Claudius and Nero, called the Villa Sublacenscis.
- ↑ 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 Dionysus, 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.
- ↑ It 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.
- ↑ Now the Aterno, which falls into the sea at Atri or Ortona.
- ↑ A 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.
- ↑ These places are again mentioned in B. xiv. c. 8.
- ↑ Or "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.
