Q. Valerius, the Roman annalist, was a native of ANTONI'NI VALLUM. [BOTANNIA.] STANTINA.] ANTRON ('AUTрúv, Hom. Strab.; 'AvTpŵves, Dem.: Eth. 'AvTpúvios: Fanó), a town of Thessaly in the district Phthiotis, at the entrance of the Maliac gulf, and opposite Oreus in Euboea. It is mentioned in the Iliad (ii. 697) as one of the cities of Protesilaus, and also in the Homeric hymn to Demeter (489) as under the protection of that goddess. It was purchased by Philip of Macedon, and was taken by the Romans in their war with Perseus. (Dem. Phil. iv. p. 133, Reiske; Liv. xlii. 42, 67.) | It probably owed its long existence to the composition of its rocks, which furnished some of the best millstones in Greece; bence the epithet of Terpheus given to it in the hymn to Demeter (l. c.). Off Antron was a sunken rock (pua paλov) called the "Ovos 'AVTρavos, or mill-stone of Antron. (Strab. p. 435; Steph. B. s. v.; Hesych. s. v. Múλn; Eustath. in II. 1. c.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 349.) ANTUNNACUM (Andernach), a Roman post on the left bank of the Rhine, in the territory of the Ubii. [TREVIRI.] It is placed in the Itineraries, on the road that ran along the west bank of the river; and it is also placed by Ammianus Marcellinus (xviii. 2) between Bonna (Bonn) and Bingium (Bingen), in his list of the seven towns on the Rhine, which Julianus repaired during his government of Gaul. Antunnacum had been damaged or nearly destroyed by the Germans, with other towns on this bank of the Rhine. Antunnacum is proved by inscriptions to have been, at one time, the quarters of the Legio X. Gemina; and the transition to the 1odern appellation appears from its name "Anternacha," in the Geographer of Ravenna. (Forbiger, Handbuch der alten Geog. vol. iii. p. 155, 248.) re: of ancient buildings, have been discovered. Other inscriptions, and remains of an aqueduct, mosaic pavements, &c., have also been found in the part of the present city still called Lanciano Vecchio, which thus appears to have been peopled at least under the Roman empire. From one of these inscriptions it would appear that Anxanum had already become an important emporium or centre of trade for all the surrounding country, as it continued to be during the middle ages, and to which it still owes its present importance. (Romanelli, vol. iii. pp. 55-62; Giustiniani, Diz. Geogr. vol. v. pp. 196-205.) The Itineraries give the distances from Anxanum to Ortona at xiii. miles (probably an error for viii.), to Pallanum xvi., and to Histonium (П Vasto) xxv. (Itin. Ant. p. 313; Tab. Peut.) 2. A town of Apulia situated on the coast of the Adriatic, between Sipontum and the mouth of the Aufidus. The Tab. Peut. places it at 9 M. P. from the former city, a distance which coincides with the Torre di Rivoli, where there are some ancient remains. (Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 204.) [E. H. B.] ANXUR. [TARRACINA.] A'ONES ("Äoves), the name of some of the most ancient inhabitants of Boeotia, who derived their origin from Aon, a son of Poseidon. (Strab. p. 401, seq.; Paus. ix. 5. § 1; Lycophr. 1209; Ant. Lib. 25; Steph. B. s. vv. "Aoves, Bouwria.) They appear to have dwelt chiefly in the rich plains about Thebes, a portion of which was called the Aonian plain in the time of Strabo (p. 412). Both by the Greek and Roman writers Boeotia is frequently called Aonia, and the adjective Aonius is used as synonymous with Boeotian. (Callim. Del. 75; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. vi. 65; Gell. xiv. 6.) Hence the Muses, who frequented Mt. Helicon in Boeotia, are called Aonides and Aoniae Sorores. (Ov. Met. v. 333; Juv. vii. 58, et alibi; cf. Müller, Orchomenos, p. 124, sey. 2nd ed.) AO'NIA. [AONES.] AORNUS (Aopvus Térpa, i. e. the Rock inaccessible to birds). 1. In India intra Gangem, a lofty The wooden bridge which Caesar constructed and precipitous rock, where the Indians of the (B. C. 55) for the purpose of conveying his troops country N. of the Indus, between it and the Cophen across the Rhine into Germany, was probably be-(Cabul), and particularly the people of Bazira, tween Andernach and Coblenz, and perhaps nearer made a stand against Alexander, B. c. 327. (ArAndernach. The passages of Caesar from which rian. Anab. iv. 28, foll., Ind. 5. § 10; Diod. xvii. we must attempt to determine the position of his 85; Curt. viii. 11; Strab. xv. p. 688.) It is debridge, for he gives no names of places to guide us, scribed as 200 stadia in circuit, and from 11 to 16 – B. G. iv. 15, &c., vi. 8, 35. [G. L.] in height (nearly 7000-10,000 feet), perpenANXANUM or ANXA("Aytavov: Eth. Anxanus, dicular on all sides, and with a level summit, Plin.; Anxas, -ātis, Anxianus, Inscrr.) 1. A city of abounding in springs, woods, and cultivated ground. the Frentani, situated on a hill about 5 miles from the It seems to have been commonly used as a refuge Adriatic, and 8 from the mouth of the river Sagrus in war, and was regarded as impregnable. The Dr Sangro. It is not mentioned in history, but is tradition, that Hercules had thrice failed to take it, noticed both by Pliny and Ptolemy among the cities inflamed still more Alexander's constant ambition of the Frentani; and from numerous inscriptions of achieving seeming impossibilities. By a comwhich have been discovered on the site, it appears to bination of stratagems and bold attacks, which are have been a municipal town of considerable import-related at length by the historians, he drove the ance. Its territory appears to have been assigned to military colonists by Julius Caesar, but it did not retain the rank of a colony. (Plin. iii. 12. s. 17; Ptol. iii. 1. § 65; Lib. Colon. p. 259; Zumpt, de Colon. p. 307.) The name is retained by the modern city of Lanciano (the see of an archbishop, and one of the most populous and flourishing places in this part of Italy), but the original site of the ancient city appears to have been at a spot called Il Castellare, near the church of Sta. Giusta, about a mile to the NE. of the modern town, where numerous inscriptions, as well as foundations and vestiges Indians to desert the post in a sort of panic, and, setting upon them in their retreat, destroyed most of them. Having celebrated his victory with sacrifices, and erected on the mountain altars to Minerva and Victory, he established there a garrison under the command of Sisicottus. It is impossible to determine, with certainty, the position of Aornos. It was clearly somewhere on the N. side of the Indus, in the angle between it and the Cophen (Cabul). It was very near a city called Embolima, on the Indus, the name of which points to a position at the mouth of some tributary river. This seems to be the only ground on which Ritter places the Siraci on the E. side of the Palus Maeotis Embolina at the confluence of the Cophen and the | (Sea of Azov), the former dwelling on the Tanaïs, Indus. But the whole course of the narrative, in and the latter further to the S. on the Achardeus, the historians, seems clearly to require a position a river flowing from the Caucasus into the Maeotis. higher up the Indus, at the mouth of the Burrindoo Both were powerful, for when Pharnaces (the for example. That Aornus itself also was close to son of Mithridates the Great) held the kingdom of the Indus, is stated by Diodorus, Curtius, and Bosporus, he was furnished with 20,000 horsemen Strabo; and though the same would scarcely be by Abeacus, king of the Siraci, and with 200,000 inferred from Arrian, he says nothing positively to by Spadines, king of the Aorsi. But both these the contrary. The mistake of Strabo, that the peoples are regarded by Strabo as only exiles of the base of the rock is washed by the Indus near its great nation of the Aorsi, who dwelt further to the source, is not so very great as might at first sight north (Twv avwTépw, oi ǎvwAoproi), and who asappear; for, in common with the other ancient sisted Pharnaces with a still greater force. These geographers, he understands by the source of the more northern Aorsi, he adds, possessed the greater Indus, the place where it breaks through the chain part of the coast of the Caspian, and carried on an of the Himalaya. extensive tr ffic in Indian and Babylonian merchandize, which they brought on camels from Media and Armenia. They were rich and wore ornaments of gold. The name Aornus is an example of the significant appellations which the Greeks were fond of using, either as corruptions of, or substitutes for, the native names. In like manner, Dionysius Periegetes calls the Himalaya ˇAopvıs (1151). [P. S.] 2. A city in Bactriana. Arrian (iii. 29) speaks of Aornus and Bactra as the largest cities in the country of the Bactrii. Aornus had an acropolis (apa) in which Alexander left a garrison after taking the place. There is no indication of its site, xcept that Alexander took it before he reached Oreus. [G. L.] AORSI (Aopσo: Strab., Ptol., Plin., Steph. B.), or ADORSI (Tac. Ann. xii. 15), a numerous and powerful people, botr in Europe and in Asia. Ptolemy (iii. 5. §22) names the European Aorsi among the peoples of Sarmatia, between the Venedic Gulf (Baltic) and the Rhipaean mountains (i. e. in the eastern part of Prussia), and places them S. of the Agathyrsi, and N. of the Pagyritae. The Asiatic Aorsi he places in Scythia intra Imaum, on the NE. shore of the Caspian, between the Asiotae, who dwelt E. of the mouth of the river Rha (Volga), and the Jaxartae, who extended to the river Jaxartes (vi. 14 § 10). The latter is supposed to have been the original position of the people, as Strabo expressly states (xi. p. 506); but of course the same question arises as in the case of the other great tribes found both in European Sarmatia and Asiatic Scythia; and so Eichwald seeks the original abodes of the Aorsi in the Russian province of Vologda, on the strength of the resemblance of the name to that of the Finnish race of the Erse, now found there. (Geog. d. Casp. Meeres, pp. 358, foll.) Pliny mentions the European Aorsi, with the Hamaxobii, as tribes of the Sarmatians, in the general sense of that word, including the "Scythian races" who dwelt along the N. coast of the Euxine E. of the mouth of the Danube; and more specifically, next to the Getae (iv. 12 s. 25, xi. s. 18). The chief seat of the Aorsi, and where they appear in history, was in the country between the Tanais, the Euxine, the Caspian, and the Caucasus. Here Strabo places (xi. p. 492), S. of the nomade Scythians, who dwell on waggons, the Sarmatians, who are also Scythians, namely the Aorsi and Siraci, extending to the S. as far as the Caucasian mountains; some of them being nomades, and others dwelling in tents, and cultivating the land (okŋvítai kal yewpyoi). Further on (p. 506), he speaks more particularly of the Aorsi and Siraci; but the meaning is obscured by errors in the text. The sense seems to be, as given in Groskurd's translation, that there were tribes of the Aorsi and | In A. D. 50, the Aorsi, or, as Tacitus calls them, Adorsi, aided Cotys, king of Bosporus, and the Romans with a body of cavalry, against the rebel Mithridates, who was assisted by the Siraci. (Tac. Ann. xii. 15.) Some modern writers attempt to identify the Aorsi with the Avars, so celebrated in Byzantine and medieval history. [P.S.] AO'US, more rarely AEAS ("Awos, 'Awos, 'Aços. Pol. Strab. Liv.: Aías, Hecat. ap. Strab. p. 316, Seylax, s. v. 'IAλúpio; Steph. B. s. v. Aάкμшv; Val. Max. i. 5. ext. 2; erroneously called ANIUS, "Avios by Plut. Caes. 38, and ANAS, "Avas, by Dion Cass. xli. 45: Viósa, Vuíssa, Vovússa), the chief river of Illyria, or Epirus Nova, rises in Mount Lacmon, the northern part of the range of Mount Pindus, flows in a north-westerly direction, then "suddenly turns a little to the southward of west; and having pursued this course for 12 miles, between two mountains of extreme steepness, then recovers its north-western direction, which it pursues to the sea," into which it falls a little S. of Apollonia. (Herod. ix. 93; Strab., Steph. B., ll. cc.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 384.) The two mountains mentioned above approach very near each other, and form the celebrated pass, now called the Stena of the Viósa, and known in antiquity by the name of the FAUCES ANTIGONENSES, from its vicinity to the city of Antigoneia. (Fauces ad Antigoneam, Liv. xxxii. 5; тà ñaρ' 'Avтiyóveιav OTerd, Pol. ii. 5.) Antigoneia (Tepeléni) was situated near the northern entrance of the pass at the junction of the Aous with a river, now called Dhryno, Drino, or Druno. At the termination of the pass on the south is the modern village of Klisura, a name which it has obviously received from its situation. It was in this pass that Philip V., king of Macedonia, in vain attempted to arrest the progress of the Roman consul, T. Quinctius Flamininus, into Epirus. Philip was encamped with the main body of his forces on Mount Aeropus, and his general, Athenagoras, with the light troops on Mount Asnaus. (Liv. I. c.) If Philip was encamped on the right bank of the river, as there seems every reason for believing, Aeropus corresponds to Mount Trebusin, and Asnaus to Mount Nemertzika. The pass is well described by Plutarch (Flamin. 3) in a passage which he probably borrowed from Polybius. He compares it to the defile of the Peneius at Tempe, adding “that it is deficient in the beautiful groves, the verdant forests, the pleasant retreats and meadows which border the Peneius; but in the lofty and precipitous mountains, in the profundity of the narrow fissure between then, in the rapidity and magnitude of the river, in the single narrow path along the bank, the two places are exactly alike. Hence it is difficult for an army to pass under any circumstances, and impossible when the place is defended by an enemy." (Quoted by Leake, vol. i. p. 389.) It is true that Plutarch in this passage calls the river Apsus, but the Aous is evidently meant. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. i. pp. 31, seq., 383, seq. vol. iv. p. 116.) the waters have united again, the river is called Pasitigris." There was a place near Seieuce called Coche (Amm. Marc. xxiv. 5, and the notes of Valesius and Lindebrog); and the site of Seleucia is below Bagdad. These are the only points in the description that are certain. It seems difficult to explain the passage of Pliny, or to determine the probable site of Apameia. It cannot be at Korna, as some suppose, where the Tigris and Euphrates meet, for both Stephanus and Pliny place Apameia at the point where the Tigris is divided. Pliny APAMEIÀ, -EA, or -IA ('Aráμeia: Eth. 'Awa-places Digba at Korna, " in ripa Tigris circa conμes, Apameensis, Apamensis, Apamenus, Apamēus), fluentes," -at the junction of the Tigris and the 1. (Külat el-Mudik), a large city of Syria, situated Euphrates. in the valley of the Orontes, and capital of the province of Apamene. (Steph. B. s. v. ; Strab. xvi. p. 752; Ptol. v. 15. § 19; Festus Avienus, v. 1083; Anton. Itin.; Hierocles.) It was fortified and enlarged by Seleucus Nicator, who gave it its name after his wife Apama (not his mother, as Steph. B. asserts; comp. Strab. p 578). In pursuance of his policy of "Hellenizing" Syria, it bore the Macedonian name of Pella. The fortress (see Groskurd's note on Strabo, p.752) was placed upon a hill; the windings of the Orontes, with the lake and marshes, gave it a peninsular form, whence its other name of Xeppóvnoos. Seleucus had his commissariat there, 500 elephants, with 30,000 mares, and 300 stallions. The pretender, Tryphon Diodotus, made Apamea the basis of his operations. (Strab. I. c.) Josephus (Ant. xiv. 3. § 2) relates, that Pompeius marching south from his winter quarters, probably at or near Antioch, razed the fortress of Apamea. In the revolt of Syria under Q. Caecilius Bassus, it held out for three years till the arrival of Cassius, B. C. 46. (Dion. Cass. xlvii. 26-28; Joseph. B. J. i. 10. § 10.) In the Crusades it was still a flourishing and important place under the Arabic name of Fâmieh, and was occupied by Tancred. (Wilken, Gesch. der Ks. vol. ii. p. 474; Abulfeda, Tab. Syr. pp. 114, 157.) This name and site have been long forgotten in the country. Niebuhr heard that Fâmich was Low called Külat el-Mudik. (Reise, vol. iii. p. 97.) And Burckhardt (Travels, p. 138) found the castle of this name not far from the lake El Takah; and fixes upon it as the site of Apamea. Ruins of a highly ornamental character, and of an enormous extent, are still standing, the remains, probably, of the temples of which Sozomen speaks (vii. 15); part of the town is enclosed in an ancient castle situated on a hill; the remainder is to be found in the plain. In the adjacent lake are the celebrated black fish, the source of much wealth. [E. B. J.] 2. A city in Mesopotamia. Stephanus (s. v. 'Anάuela) describes Apameia as in the territory of the Meseni, "and surrounded by the Tigris, at which place, that is Apameia, or it may mean, in which country, Mesene, the Tigris is divided; on the right part there flows round a river Sellas, and on the left the Tigris, having the same name with the large one." It does not appear what writer he is copying; but it may be Arrian. Pliny (vi. 27) says of the Tigris, "that around Apameia, a town of Mesene, on this side of the Babylonian Seleuceia, 125 miles, the Tigris being divided into two channels, by one channel it flows to the south and to Seleuceia, washing all along Mesene; by the other channel, turning to the north at the back of the same nation (Mesene), it divides the plains called Cauchae: when But Pliny has another Apameia (vi. 31), which was surrounded by the Tigris; and he places it in Sittacene. It received the name of Apameia from the mother of Antiochus Soter, the first of the Seleucidae. Pliny adds: "haec dividitur Archoo,” as if a stream flowed through the town. D'Anville (L'Euphrate et le Tigre) supposes that this Apameia was at the point where the Dijeil, now dry, branched off from the Tigris. D'Anville places the bifurcation near Samarrah, and there he puts Apameia. But Lynch (London Geog. Journal, vol. ix. p. 473) shows that the Dijeil branched off near Jibbarah, a little north of 34° N. lat. He supposes that the Dijeil once swept the end of the Median wall and flowed between it and Jibbarah. Somewhere, then, about this place Apameia may have been, for this point of the bifurcation of the Tigris is one degree of latitude The N. of Seleuceia, and if the course of the river is 3. In Osrhoëne, a town on the left bank of the Euphrates opposite to Zeugma, founded by Seleucus Nicator. (Plin. v. 21.) A bridge of boats kept up a communication between Zeugma and Apameia. The place is now Rum-kala. 4. (Medania, Mutania), in Bithynia, was originally called Múpλeia (Steph. B. s. v. 'Amάueia), and was a colony from Colophon. (Plin. v. 32.) Philip of Macedonia, the father of Perseus, took the town, as it appears, during the war which he carried on against the king of Pergamus, and he gave the place to Prusias, his ally, king of Bithynia. Prusias gave to Myrlea, which thus became a Bithynian town, the name of his wife Apameia. The place was on the S. coast of the Gulf of Cius, and NW. of Prusa. The Romans made Apameia a colony, apparently not earlier than the time of Augustus, or perhaps Julius Caesar; the epigraph on the coins of the Roman period contains the title Julia. The coins of the period before the Roman dominion have the epigraph Araμεшv Mupλeavшv. Pliny (Ep. x. 56), when governor of Bithynia, asked for the directions of Trajan, as to a claim made by this colonia, not to have their accounts of receipts and expenditure examined by the Roman governor. From a passage of Ulpian (Dig. 50. tit. 15. s. 11) we learn the form Apamena: "est in Bithynia colonia Apamena." 5. ('H Ki6wτós), a town of Phrygia, built near Celaenae by Antiochus 'Soter, and named after his mother Apama. Strabo (p. 577) says, that "the town lies at the source (x6oλais) of the Marsyas, and the river flows through the middle of the city, having its origin in the city, and being carried down to the suburbs with a violent and precipitous current it joins the Maeander." This passage may not be free from corruption, but it is not improved by Groskurd's emendation (German Transl. of Strabo, vol. ii. p. 531). Strabo observes that the Maeander receives, before its junction with the Marsyas, a stream called Orgas, which flows gently through a level country [MAEANDER]. This rapid stream is called Catarrhactes by Herodotus (vii. 26). The site of Apameia is now fixed at Denair, where there is a river corresponding to Strabo's description (Hamilton, Researches, fc. vol. ii. p. 499). Leake (Asia Minor, p. 156, &c.) has collected the ancient testimonies as to Apameia. Arundell (Discoveries, fc., vol. i. p. 201) was the first who clearly saw that Apameia must be at Denair; and his conclusions are confirmed by a Latin inscription which he found on the fragment of a white marble, which recorded the erection of some monument at Apameia by the negotiatores resident there. Hamilton copied several Greek inscriptions at Denair (Appendix, vol. ii.). The name Cibotus appears on some coins of Apameia, and it has been conjectured that it was so called from the wealth that was collected in this great emporium; for Kiswтós is a chest or coffer. Pliny (v. 29) says that it was first Celaenae, then Cibotus, and then Apameia; which cannot be quite correct, because Celaenae was a different place from Apaineia, though near it. But there may have been a place on the site of Apameia, which was called Cibotus. There are the remains of a theatre and other ancient ruins at Denair. When Strabo wrote Apameia was a place of great trade in the Roman province of Asia, next in importance to Ephesus. Its commerce was owing to its position on the great road to Cappadocia, and it was also the centre of other roads. When Cicero was proconsul of Cilicia, B. c. 51, Apameia was within his jurisdiction (ad Fam. xiii. 67), but the dioecesis, or conventus, of Apameia was afterwards attached to the province of Asia. Pliny enumerates Isix towns which belonged to the conventus of Apameia, and he observes that there were nine others of little note. The country about Apameia has been shaken by earthquakes, one of which is recorded as having happened in the time of Claudius (Tacit. Ann. xii. 58); and on this occasion the payment of taxes to the Romans was remitted for five years. Nicolaus of Damascus (Athen. p. 332) records a violent earthquake at Apameia at a previous date, during the Mithridatic war: lakes appeared where none were before, and rivers and springs; and many which existed before disappeared. Strabo (p. 579) speaks of this great catastrophe, and of other convulsions at an earlier period. Apameia continued to be a prosperous town under the Roman empire, and is enumerated by Hierocles among the episcopal cities of Pisidia, to which division it had been transferred. The bishops of Apameia sat in the councils of Nicaea. Arundell contends that Apameia, at an early period in the history of Christianity, had a church, and he confirms this opinion by the fact of there being the ruins of a Christian church there. It is blished here, and even that St. Paul visited the place, for he went throughout Phrygia. But the mere circumstance of the remains of a church at Apameia proves nothing as to the time when Christianity was established there. COIN OF APAMEIA, IN PHRYGIA. 6. A city of Parthia, near Rhagae (Rey) Rhagae was 500 stadia from the Caspiae Pylae. (Strab. p. 513.) Apameia was one of the towns built in these parts by the Greeks after the Macedonian conquests in Asia. It seems to be the same Apameia which is mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6). [G. L.] APANESTAE, or APENESTAE (ATEVÉσTAI), a town on the coast of Apulia, placed by Ptolemy among the Daunian Apulians, near Sipontum. Pliny, on the contrary, enumerates the APAENESTINI, probably the same people, among the "Calabrorum Mediterranei." But it has been plausibly conjectured that "Arnesto," a name otherwise unknown, which appears in the Itin. Ant. (p. 315), between Barium and Egnatia, is a corruption of the same name. If this be correct, the distances there given would lead us to place it at S. Vito, 2 miles W. of Polignano, where there are some remains of an ancient town. (Plin. iii. 11, 16; Ptol. iii. 1. § 16; Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 155.) [E. H. B.] APARNI. [PARNI.] APATU'RUM, or APATU'RUS ('Anáтouрor, Strab.; 'Anáтoupos, Steph. B., Ptol.), a town of the Sindae, on the Pontus Euxinus, near the Busporus Cimmerius, which was almost uninhabited in Pliny's time. It possessed a celebrated temple of Aphrodite Apaturus (the Deceiver); and there was also a temple to this goddess in the neighbouring town of Phanagoria. (Strab. xi. p. 495; Plin. vi. 6; Ptol. v. 9. § 5; Steph. B. s. v.) APAVARCTICE'NE (Απαυαρκτικηνή, Isid. Char. pp. 2, 7, ed. Hudson; 'APTIкпνý, or ПараυкTiny, Ptol. vi. 5. § 1; APAVORTENE, Plin. vi. 16. s. 18; ZAPAORTENE, Justin. xli. 5), a district of Parthia, in the south-eastern part of the country, with a strongly fortified city, called Dareium, or Dara, built by Arsaces I., situated on the mountain of the Zapaorteni. (Justin. l. c.) APENNINUS MONS (ὁ ̓Απέννινος, τὸ ̓Απένα Vivov opos. The singular form is generally used, in Greek as well as Latin, but both Polybius and Strabo occasionally have Tà 'Amévviva opn. In Latin the singular only is used by the best writers). The Apennines, a chain of mountains which traverses almost the whole length of Italy, and may be considered as constituting the backbone of that country, and determining its configuration and physical characters. The name is probably of Celtic origin, and contains the root Pen, a head or height, which is found in all the Celtic dialects. Whether it may originally have been applied to some particular mass or group of mountains, from which it was subse form of the name might lead us to suspect, is uncertain: but the more extensive use of the name is fully established, when it first appears in history. | The general features and direction of the chain are well described both by Polybius and Strabo, who speak of the Apennines as extending from their junction with the Alps in an unbroken range almost to the Adriatic Sea; but turning off as they approached the coast (in the neighbourhood of Ariainum and Ancona), and extending from thence throughout the whole length of Italy, through Samnium, Lucania, and Bruttium, until they ended at the promontory of Leucopetra, on the Sicilian Sea. Polybius aids, that throughout their course from the plains of the Padus to their southern extremity they formed the dividing ridge between the waters which flowed respectively to the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. The same thing is stated by Lucan, whose poetical description of the Apennines is at the same time distinguished by geographical accuracy. (Pol. ii. 16, iii. 110; Strab. ii. p. 128, v. p. 211; Ptol. iii. 1. § 44; Lucan. ii. 396-438; Claudian. de VI. Cons. Hon. 286.) But an accurate knowledge of the course and physical characters of this range of mountains is so necessary to the clear comprehension of the geography of Italy, and the history of the nations that inhabited the different provinces of the peninsula, that it will be desirable to give in this place a more detailed account of the physical geography of the Apennines. markable uniformity: the long ranges of hills which But after approaching within a short distance of the Adriatic, so as to send down its lower slopes within a few miles of Ariminum, the chain of the Apennines suddenly takes a turn to the SSE., and assumes a direction parallel to the coast of the Adriatic, which it preserves, with little alteration, to the frontiers of Lucania. It is in this part of the range that all the highest summits of the Apennines are found: the Monti della Sibilla, in which are the sources of the Nar (Nera) rise to a height of 7200 feet above the sea, while the Monte Corno, of Gran Sasso d'Italia, near Aquila, the loftiest summit of the whole chain, attains to an elevation of 9500 feet. A little further S. is the Monte Majella, a huge mountain mass between Sulmo and the coast of the Adriatic, not less than 9000 feet in height, while the Monte Velino, N. of the Lake Fucinus, and nearly in the centre of the peninsula, attains to 8180 feet, and the Monte Terminillo, near Leonessa, NE. of Rieti, to above 7000 feet. It is especially in these Central Apennines that the peculiar features of the chain develope themselves. Instead of presenting, like the Alps and the more northern Apennines, one great uniform ridge, with transverse vallies leading down from it towards the sea on each side, the Central Apennines constitute a mountain mass of very considerable breadth, com There was much difference of opinion among ancient, as well as modern, geographers, in regard to the point they assigned for the commencement of the Apemines, or rather for their junction with the Alps, of which they nay, in fact, be considered only as a great offshoot. Polybius describes the Apennines as extending almost to the neighbourhood of Massilia, so that he must have comprised under this appellation all that part of the Maritime Alps, which extend along the sea-coast to the west of Genoa, and even beyond Nice towards Marseilles. O.her writers fixed on the port of Hercules Monoecus (Monaco) as the point of demarcation: but Strabo extends the name of the Maritime Alps as far E. as Vada Sabbata (Vado), and says that the Apennines begin about Genoa: a distinction apparently in ac-posed of a number of minor ranges and groups of cordance with the usage of the Romans, who frequently apply the name of the Maritime Alps to the country of the Ingauni, about Albenga. (Liv. xxviii. 46; Tac. Hist. ii. 12.) Nearly the same distinction has been adopted by the best modern geographers, who have regarded the Apennines as cominencing from the neighbourhood of Savona, immediately at the back of which the range is so low that the pass between that city and Carcare, in the valley of the Bormida, does not exceed the height of 1300 feet. But the limit must, in any case, be an arbitrary one: there is no real break or interruption of the mountain chain. The mountains behind Genoa itself are still of very moderate elevation, but after that the range increases rapidly in height, as well as breadth, and extends in a broad unbroken mass almost in a direct line (in an ESE. direction) till it approaches the coast of the Adriatic. Throughout this part of its course the range forms the southern limit of the great plain of Northern Italy, which extends without interruption from the foot of the Apennines to that of the Alps. Its highest summits attain an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet, while its average height ranges between 3000 and 4000 feet. Its nor.hern declivity presents a re mountains, which, notwithstanding great irregularities and variations, preserve a general parallelism of direction, and are separated by upland vallies, some of which are themselves of considerable elevation and extent. Thus the basin of Lake Fucinus, in the centre of the whole mass, and almost exactly midway between the two seas, is at a level of 2180 feet above the sea; the upper valley of the Aternus, near Amiternum, not less than 2380 feet; while between the Fucinus and the Tyrrhenian Sea we find the upper vallies of the Liris and the Anio running parallel to one another, but separated by lofty mountain ranges from each other and from the basin of the Fucius. Another peculiarity of the Apennines is that the loftiest summits scarcely ever form a continuous or connected range of any great extent, the highest groups being frequently separated by ridges of comparatively small elevation, which afford in consequence natural passes across the chain. Indeed, the two loftiest mountain masses of the whole, the Gran Sasso, and the Majella, do not belong to the central or main range of the Apennines at all, if this be reckoned in the customary manner along the line of the water-shed between the two seas. As the Apennines descend into Sam |