Volume 1

A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    120; Tab. Pent.) No mention of it is found in history during the wars of the Romans with the Samnites, though it appears to have been one of the chief cities of the Hirpini: but during the Social War (b, c. 89) it was taken and plundered by Sulla, M^hich led to the submission of almost all the neigh- bouring cities. (Appian, B. C. i. 51.) It appears to have been soon after restored: the erection of its new walls, gates, and towers being recorded by an in- scription still extant, and which probably belongs to a date shortly after the Social War. At a later period we find that part of its territory was portioned out to new colonists, probably under Octavian, but it retained the condition of a municipium (as we learn from Pliny and several inscriptions) until long afterwards. It was probably in the reign of Trajan that it acquired the lunk and title of a colony which we find assigned to it in later inscriptions. (Lib. Colon, pp. 210, 260; Orell. Inscr. no. 566, 3108, 5020; Zumpt, de Coloniis, p. 401.) The site of Aeculanum was erroneously refen-ed by Cluverius (^Ital. p. 1203) to Frigento. Holstenius was the first to point out its true position at a place called le Grotte, about a mile from Mirdbella, and close to the Taverna del Passo, on the modern high road from Naples into Puglia. Here the extensive remains of an ancient city have been found: a consi- derable part of the ancient walls, as well as ruins and foundations of Thermae, aqueducts, temples, an amphitheatre and other buildings have been disco- vered, though many of them have since peidshed; and the whole site abounds in coins, gems, bronzes, and other minor relics of antiquity. The insciiptions foiuid hei’e, as well as the situation on the Appian Way, and the distance from Benevento, clearly prove these remains to be those of Aeculanum, and attest its splendour and importance under the Roman em- pire. It continued to be a flourishing place until the 7th centuiy, but was destroyed in A. d. 662, by the emperor Constans II. in his wars with the Lom- bards. A town arose out of its ruins, which ob- tained the name of Quintodecimum from its posi- tion at that distance from Beneventum, and which continued to exist to the 11th century when it had fallen into complete decay, and the few remaining in- liabitants removed to the castle of Mirabella, erected by the Normans on a neighbouring hill. (Holsten. Not in Cluver. p. 273; Lupuli, Iter Venusin. pp. 74—128; Guarini, Ricerche sulV antica Citt'a di Eclano, 4to. Napoli, 1814; Romanelli, vol. ii. pp. 323—328.) [E. H. B.] AEDEPSUS (AiSgipos: Eth. AiSr/ipios: Lipsoi)^ a town on the NW. coast of Euboea, 160 stadia from C}uius on the opposite coast of the Opuntian I.ocri. It contained warm baths sacred to Hercules, which were used by the dictator Sulla. These warm baths are still found about a mile above Lipso^ the site of Aedepsus. (Strab. pp. 60, 425 ; Athen. p. 73; Plut. Sull. 26, Sgmp. iv. 4, where FdKgxpos is a false reading; Steph. B. s. v.] Ptol. iii. 15. § 23; Plin. iv. 21; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 176; Walpole, Travels, <^c., p. 71.) AE'DUI, HE'DUI (AiSoGot, Strab. p. 186), a Celtic people, who were separated from the Sequani by the Arar (^Saone'), wliich formed a large part of their eastern boundary. On the W. they were separated from the Bituriges by the upper course of the Ligeris {Loire), as Caesar states {B. G. vii. 5). To the NE. were the Lingones, and to the S. the Segusiani. The Aedui Ambarri {B. G. i. 11), kinsmen of the Aedui, were on the borders of the Allobroges. The chief town of the Aedui in Caesar s time was Bibracte, and if we assume it to be on the site of the later tovm of Augusto- dunum {Autun), we obtain probably a fixed cen- tral position in the territory of the Aedui, in the old division of Bourgogne. The Aedui were one of the most powerful of the Celtic nations, but before Caesar’s proconsulship of Gallia, they had been brought under the dominion of the Sequani, who had invited Germans from beyond the Rhine to assist them. The Aedui had been declared friends of the Roman people before this calamity befel them; and Divitiacus, an Aeduan, went to Rome to ask for the assistance of the senate, but he returned without accomplishing the object of his mission. Caesar, on his arrival in Gaul (b. c. 58), restored these Aedui to their former indepen- dence and power. There was among them a body of nobility and a senate, and they had a great num- ber of chentes, as Caesar calls them, who appear to have been in the nature of vassals. The clientes of the Aedui are enumerated by Caesar {B. G. vii. 75). The Aedui joined in the great rebellion against the Romans, which is the subject of the seventh book of the Gallic war {B. G. vii. 42, &c.); but Caesar reduced them to subjection. In the reign of Tiberius A. D. 21, Julius Sacrovir, a Gaul, attempted an insurrection among the Aedui and seized Augustodunum, but the rising was soon put down by C. Silius. (Tac. Ann. iii. 43—46.) The head of the commonwealth of the Aedui in Caesar’s time was called Vergobretus. He was elected by the priests, and held his office for one year. He had the power of life and death over his people, as Caesar says, by which expression he means probably that he was supreme judge. {B. G. i. 16, vii. 33.) The clientes, or small communities dependent on the Aedui, were the Segusiani, already mentioned; the Ambivareti, Avho were apparently on the northern boundary of the Aediu trans Mosam, {B. G. iv. 9); and the Aulerci Brannovices [Aulerci]. The Am- bani, already mentioned as kinsmen of the Aedui, are not enumerated among the clientes {B. G. vii. 55). One of the pagi or divisions of the Aedui was called Insubres (Liv. v. 34). Caesar allowed a body of Boii, who had joined the Helvetii in their attempt to settle themselves in Gaul, to re- main in the territory of the Aedui {B. G. i. 28). Their territory was between the Loire and the Allier, a branch of the Loire. They had a town, Gergovia {B. G. vii. 9), the site of which is un- certain ; if the reading Gergovia is accepted in this passage of Caesar, the place must not be confounded with the Gergovia of the Aiwemi. [G. L.] AEGAE in Europe {Alyai: Eth. AlyaTos, AiyeccTTjs, Aiyaievs). 1. Or Aega (Alya), a town of Achaia, and one of the 12 Achaean cities, was situated upon the river Crathis and upon the coast, between Aegeira and Bura. It is mentioned by Homer, and was celebrated in the earliest times for its worship of Poseidon. It was aftei*wards deserted by its inhabitants, who removed to the neighbouring tovm of Aegeira; and it had already ceased to be one of the 12 Achaean cities on the renewal of the League in b. c. 280, its place being occupied by Ceryneia. Its name does not occur in Polybius. All traces of Aegae have disappeared, but it pro- bably occupied the site of the Khan of A hrata, which is situated upon a commanding height rising from the left bank of the river. Neither Strabo nor Pau- sanias mention on which bank of the Crathis it