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.

    75/1140 (page 53)
    passage {ad Dionijs. Per. 461) he follows Strabo’s authority, and identifies it with Strongyle. For an account of the present state of the Lipari Islands and their volcanic phenomena the reader may consult Smyth’s Sicily, chap. vii. p. 274—278; Ferrera, Campi Flegrei della Sicilia, p. 199—252; Daubeny, On Volcanoes, ch. 14, pp. 245—263,2nd eilit. The history of the islands is almost wholly dependent on that of Lipara, and will be found in that article. [E. H. B.] AE'OLIS {AioXis, Aeolia), a district on the west coast of Asia Minor, which is included by Strabo in the larger division of Mysia. The limits of Aeolis are variously defined by the ancient geo- graphers. Strabo (p. 582) makes the river Her- mus and Phocaea the southern limits of Aeolis and the northern of Ionia. He observ^es (p. 586), that “ as Homer makes one of Aeohs and Troja, and the Aeolians occupied the whole country from the Hermus to the coast in the neighbourhood of Cyzicus and founded cities, neither shall I im- perfectly make my description by putting together that which is now properly called Aeolis, which e.\tends from the Hermus to Lectum, and the country which extends from Lectum to the Ae- sepus.” Aeolis, therefore, properly so called, ex- tended as far north as the promontory of Lectum, at the northern entrance of the bay of Adramyttium. The bay of Adramyttium is formed by the S. coast of the mountainous tract in which Ilium stood, by the island of Lesbos, and by the coast of Aeohs S. of Adi'amyttium, which runs from that town in a SW. direction. The coast is irregular. South of the bay of Adramyttium is a recess, at the northern point of which are the Hecatonnesi, a numerous group of small islands, and the southern boundary of which is the projecting point of the mainland, which hes nearest opposite to the southern extremity of Lesbos. The peninsula on which the town of Phocaea stood, separates the gulf of Cume on the N. from the bay of Smyrna on the S. The gulf of Cume receives the rivers Evenus and Cai’eus. The territory of the old Aeolian cities extended northward from the Hermus to the Cai'eus, com- prising the coast and a tract reaching 10 or 12 miles inland. Between the bay of Adramyttium and the Cai'eus were the following towns:—Cisthene (KiadiivT], Chirin-Jcoi), on a promontory, a deserted place in Strabo’s time. There was a port, and a copper mine in the interior, above Cisthene. Fur- ther south were Coryphantis {KopvcpavTis), Hera- cleia ('Hpa/cAeia),and Attea (’'Arrea, Ajasmat-lcoi). Coryphantis and Heracleia once belonged to the ^lytilenaeans. Herodotus (i. 149) describes the tract of country which these Aeolians possessed, as superior in fertihty to the country occupied by the cities of the Ionian confederation, but inferior in climate. He enumerates the following 11 cities; Cume, called Phriconis; Lerissae, Neon Teichos, Temnus, Cilia, Notium, Aegiroessa, Pitane, Ae- gaeae, Myrina, and Grynexa. Smyrna, which was originally one of them, and made the number 12, fell into the hands of the lonians. Herodotus says, that these 11 were all the Aeolian cities on the mainland, except those in the Ida; “ for these are separated” (i. 151); and in another place (v. 122) Herodotus calls those people Aeolians who in- habited the Ihas, or district of Ilium. [G. L.] AEPEIA {Aiireia-. Eth. AiVeaTTjs). 1. One of the seven Messenian to^vns, offered by Agamemnon to Achilles, is supposed by Strabo to be the same as Thuria, and by Pausanias the same as Corone. (Horn. II. ix. 152; Strab. p. 360; Pans. iv. 34. § 5.) 2. A town in Cyprus, situated on a mountain, the ruler of which is said to have removed to the plain, upon the advice of Solon, and to have named the new town Soli in honour of the Athenian. There is still a place, called Epe, upon the mountain above the ruins of Soli. (Plut. Sol. 26; Steph. B. s. v., Engel, Kypros, vol. i. p. 75.) AEPY (AIttv : Eth. AtVuTTjs), a town in Elis, so called from its lofty situation, is mentioned by Homer, and is probably the same as the Triphyhan town Epeium (‘'Hwetoi', Ett/ov, AIttIov'), which stood be- tween Macistus and Heraea. Leake places it on the high peaked mountain which lies between the villages of Vrind and Smerna, about 6 miles in direct distance from Olympia. Boblaye supposes it to occupy the site of Hellenista, the name of some ruins on a hill between Platiana and Barakou. (Horn. II. ii. 592; Xen. Hell. Hi. 2. § 30; Pol. iv. 77. § 9, iv. 80. § 13; Strab. p. 349; Steph. B. s. w.; Stat. Theb. iv. 180; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 206; Boblaye, Recherches, &c., p. 136.) AEQUI, AEQUrCULI or AEQUICULA'NI {AiKoi and AXkovoi, Strab.; AiKavoi, Dion. Hal.; AIkovik\oi, Ptoh; AtKiaAoi, Diod.), one of the most ancient and warlike nations of Italy, who play a conspicuous part in the early history of Pome. They inhabited the mountainous district around the upper valley of the Anio, and extending from thence to the Lake Fucinus, between the Latins and the Marsi, and adjoining the Hemici on the east, and the Sabines on the west. Their territory was subse- quently included in Latium, in the more extended sense given to that name under the Roman empire (Strab. V. p. 228, 231). There appears no doubt that the Aequiculi or Aequicoli are the same people with the Aequi, though in the usage of later times the former name was restricted to the inhabit- ants of the more central and lofty vallies of the Apennines, while those who approached the borders of the Latin plain, and W'hose constant wars with the Romans have made them so famiharly known to us, uniformly appear under the name of Aequi. It is probable that their original abode was in the high- land districts, to which we find them again limited at a later period of their history. The Aequiculi are forcibly described by Virgil as a nation of rude mountaineers, addicted to the chase and to predatory habits, by which they sought to supply the defi- ciencies of their rugged and barren soil (Virg. Aen. vH. 747; Sil. Ital. viii. 371; Ovid. Fast. Hi. 93). As the only town he assigns to them is Nersae, the site of which is unknown, there is some uncertainty as to the geographical position of the people of whom he is speaking, but he appears to place them next to the Marsians. Strabo speaks of them in one passage as adjoining the Sabines near Cures, in another as bordering on the Latin Way (v. pp. 231, 237): both of which statements are coreect, if the name be taken in its widest signification. The form Aequiculani first appears in Pliny (Hi. 12. § 17), who however uses Aequiculi also as equivalent to it: he appears to restrict the term to the inhabitants of the vallies bordering on the Marsi, and the only towns he assigns to them are CarseoH and Chteroia At a later period the name appears to have been almost confined to the population of the upper valley of the Salto, between Reate and the Lake Fucinus, a district which still retains the name of Cicolano, evidently a comiption from Aequiculanum.