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النشر الإلكتروني

A DICTIONARY

OF

GREEK AND ROMAN GEOGRAPHY.

ABACAENUM.

ABACAENUM ('Abákavov, Diod., Steph Byz.: | Abákaiva, Ptol.: Eth. 'Abakaivivos: nr. Tripi, Ru.), a city of Sicily, situated about 4 miles from the N. coast, between Tyndaris and Mylae, and 8 from the former city. It was a city of the Siculi, and does not appear to have ever received a Greek colony, though it partook largely of the influence of Greek art and civilisation. Its territory originally included that of Tyndaris, which was separated from it by the elder Dionysius when he founded that city in B. C. 396 (Diod. xiv. 78). From the way in which it is mentioned in the wars of Dionysius, Agathocles, and Hieron (Diod. xiv. 90, xix. 65, 110, xxii. Exc. Hoeschel. p. 499), it is clear that it was a place of power and importance: but from the time of Hieron it disappears from history, and no mention is found of it in the Verrine orations of Cicero. Its name is, however, found in Ptolemy (iii. 4. § 12), so that it appears to have still continued to exist in his day. Its decline was probably owing to the increasing prosperity of the neighbouring city of Tyndaris.

There can be little doubt that the ruins visible in the time of Fazello, at the foot of the hill on which the modern town of Tripi is situated, were those of Abacaenum. He speaks of fragments of masonry, prostrate columns, and the vestiges of walls, indicating the site of a large city, but which had been destroyed to its foundations. The locality does not seem to have been examined by any more recent traveller. (Fazellus, de Reb. Sic. ix. 7; Cluver. Sicil. Ant. p. 386.)

There are found coins of Abacaenum, both in silver and copper. The boar and acorn, which are the common type of the former, evidently refer to the great forests of oak which still cover the neigh. bouring mountains, and afford pasture to large herds of swine. [E.H.B.]

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ABALUS.

temple and oracle of Apollo, who hence derived the surname of Abaeus. So celebrated was this oracle, that it was consulted both by Croesus and by Mardonius. Before the Persian invasion the temple was richly adorned with treasuries and votive offerings. It was twice destroyed by fire; the first time by the Persians in their march through Phocis (B. C. 480), and a second time by the Boeotians in the Sacred or Phocian war (B. C. 346). Hadrian caused a smaller temple to be built near the ruins of the former one. In the new temple there were three ancient statues in brass of Apollo, Leto, and Artemis, which had been dedicated by the Abaei, and had perhaps been saved from the former temple. The ancient agora and the ancient theatre still existed in the town in the time of Pausanias. According to the statement of Aristotle, as preserved by Strabo, Thracians from the Phocian town of Abae emigrated to Euboea, and gave to the inhabitants the name of Abantes. The ruins of Abae are on a peaked hill to the W. of Exarkhó. There are now no remains on the summit of the peak; but the walls and some of the gates may still be traced on the SW. side. There are also remains of the walls, which formed the inclosure of the temple. (Paus. x. 35; Herod. i. 46, viii. 134, 33; Diod. xvi. 530; Strab. pp. 423, 445; Steph. Byz. s. v.; Gell, Itinerary, p. 226; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 163, seq.)

ABA'LLABA, a Roman castle in Britannia Inferior, whose site unknown. It is mentioned in the Notitia Imperii as the quarters of a troop of Numidian horse (Mauri Aureliani) in the 3rd century A. D. Antiquaries refer it to Appleby on the Eden, and its name, containing the Celtic word Avon, water, indicates its position near a stream. Watchcross in Cumberland also claims to be the ancient Aballaba. It was certainly, however, one of the forts upon the rampart erected by Hadrian in A. D. 120, between the rivers Esk and Tyne, to protect the province of Britain from the incursions of the Caledonians. [W. B. D.]

ABALUS, was said by Pytheas to be an island in the northern ocean, upon which amber was washed by the waves, distant a day's sail from the aestuary called Mentonomon, on which the Gothones dwelt. This island was called Basilia by Timaeus, and Baltia by Xenophon of Lampsacus. It was probably a portion of the Prussian coast upon the Baltic. (Plin. xxxvii. 7. s. 11; Diod. v. 23; Ukert, Geographie, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 33, seq.)

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ABASCI, ABASGI ('Αβασκοί, Αβασγοί), 2 Scythian people in the N. of Colchis, on the confines of Sarmatia Asiatica (within which they are sometimes included), on the Abascus or Abasgus, one of the small rivers flowing from the Caucasus into the NE. part of the Euxine. They carried on a considerable slave-trade, especially in beautiful boys, whom they sold to Constantinople for eunuchs. These practices were suspended for a time, on their nominal conversion to Christianity, during the reign of Justinian; but the slave-trade in these regions was at least as old as the time of Herodotus (iii. 97), and has continued to the present time. (Arrian. Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 12; Procop. B. Goth. iv. 3, B. Pers. ii. 29; Steph. B. s. v. Závviya.) [P.S.]

ABASCUS, ABASGUS. [ABASCI.]

A'BATOS, a rocky island in the Nile, near Philae, which the priests alone were permitted to enter. (Senec. Q. N. iv. 2; Lucan, x. 323.)

ABBASSUS or AMBASUM (Abbassus, Liv.; Αμβασον, Steph. Β. s. v.: Eth. ̓Αμβασίτης), ο town of Phrygia, on the frontiers of the Tolistoboii, in Galatia. (Liv. xxxviii. 15.) It is, perhaps, the same as the ALAMASSUS of Hierocles, and the AMADASSE of the Councils. (Hierocles, p. 678, with Wesseling's note.)

ABDE'RA. 1. (τὰ ̓Αβδηρα, also "Αβδηρον or -os ; Abdera, -orum, Liv. xlv. 29; Abdera, -ae, Plin. XXV. 53: Eth. 'A6onpirns, Abderites or -ita: Adj. 'AbonрITIKós, Abderiticus, Abderitanus), a town upon the southern coast of Thrace, at some distance to the E. of the river Nestus. Herodotus, indeed, in one passage (vii. 126), speaks of the river as flowing through Abdera (8 d' 'Aconpwv péwv Néoros, but cf. c. 109, Kaтà "A6npa). According to mythology, it was founded by Heracles in honour of his favourite Abderus. (Strab. p. 331.) History, however, mentions Timesius or Timesias of Clazomenae as its first founder. (Herod. i. 168.) His colony was unsuccessful, and he was driven out by the Thracians. Its date is fixed by Eusebius, B. C. 656. In B. C. 541, the inhabitants of Teos, unable to resist Harpagus, who had been left by Cyrus, after his capture of Sardis, to complete the subjugation of Ionia, and unwilling to submit to him, took ship and sailed to Thrace, and there recolonised Abdera. (Herod. l. c.; Scymnus Chius, 665; Strab. p. 644.) Fifty years afterwards, when Xerxes invaded Greece, Abdera seems to have become a place of considerable importance, and is mentioned as one of the cities which had the expensive honour of entertaining the great king on his march into Greece. (Herod. vii. 120.) On his flight after the battle of Salamis, Xerxes stopped at Abdera, and acknowledged the hospitality of its inhabitants by presenting them with a tiara and scymitar of gold. Thucydides (ii. 97) mentions Abdera as the westernmost limit of the kingdom of

the Odrysae when at its height at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. In B. c. 408 Abdera was reduced under the power of Athens by Thrasybulus, then one of the Athenian generals in that quarter. (Diod. xiii. 72.) Diodorus speaks of it as being then in a very flourishing state. The first blow to its prosperity was given in a war in which it was engaged B. c. 376 with the Triballi, who had at this time become one of the most powerful tribes of Thrace. After a partial success, the Abderitae were nearly cut to pieces in a second engagement, but were rescued by Chabrias with an Athenian force. (Diod. xv. 36.) But little mention of Abdera occurs after this. Pliny speaks of it as being in his time a free city (iv. 18). In later times it seems to have sunk into a place of small repute. It is said in the middle ages to have had the name of Polystylus. Dr. Clarke (Travels, vol. iii. p. 422) mentions his having searched in vain on the east bank of the Nestus for any traces of Abdera, probably from imagining it to have stood close to the river.

Abdera was the birthplace of several famous persons: among others, of the philosophers Protagoras, Democritus, and Anaxarchus. In spite of this, its inhabitants passed into a proverb for dullness and stupidity. (Juv. x. 50; Martial, x. 25. 4; Cic. ad Att. iv. 16, vii. 7.)

Mullets from Abdera were considered especial dainties (Athen. p. 118). It was also famous for producing the cuttle-fish (Id. p. 324). [H. W.]

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2. (τὰ ̓Αβδηρα, Αὔδηρα, Strab. ; "Αβδαρα, Ptol.; Tò "A6ônpov, Ephor. ap. Steph. B.: Eth. 'A6dnpirns: Adra or, according to some, Almeria), a city of Hispania Baetica, on the S. coast, between Malaca and Carthago Nova, founded by the Carthaginians. (Strab. pp. 157, 8; Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. iii. 1. s. 3.) There are coins of the city, some of a very ancient period, with Phoenician characters, and others of the reign of Tiberius, from which the place appears to have been either a colony or a municipium. (Rasche, s.v.; Eckhel, vol. i. p. 13.) [P.S.]

ABELLA ('AGéλλa, Strab., Ptol.: Eth. Abellanus, Inscr. ap. Orell. 3316, Avellanus, Plin.: Avella Vecchia), a city in the interior of Campania, about 5 miles NE. of Nola. According to Justin (xx. 1), it was a Greek city of Chalcidic origin, which would lead us to suppose that it was a colony of Cumae: but at a later period it had certainly become an Oscan town, as well as the neighbouring city of Nola. No mention of it is found in history, though it must have been at one time a place of importance. Strabo and Pliny both notice it among the inland towns of Campania; and though we learn from the Liber de Coloniis, that Vespasian settled a number of his freedmen and dependants there, yet it appears, both from that treatise and from Pliny, that it had not then attained the rank of a colony, a dignity which we find it enjoying in the time of Trajan. It pro

bably became such in the reign of that emperor. (Strab. p. 249; Plin. iii. 5. § 9; Ptol. iii. 1. § 68; Lib. Colon. p. 230; Gruter. Inscr. p. 1096, 1; Zumpt, de Coloniis, p. 400.) We learn from Virgil and Silius Italicus that its territory was not fertile in corn, but rich in fruit-trees (maliferae Abellae): the neighbourhood also abounded in filberts or hazelnuts of a very choice quality, which were called from thence nuces Avellanae (Virg. Aen. vii. 740; Sil. Ital. viii. 545; Plin. xv. 22; Serv. ad Georg. ii. 65). The modern town of Avella is situated in the plain near the foot of the Apennines; but the remains of the ancient city, still called Avella Vecchia, occupy a hill of considerable height, forming one of the underfalls of the mountains, and command an extensive view of the plain beneath; hence Virgil's expression "despectant moenia Abellae." The ruins are described as extensive, including the vestiges of an amphitheatre, a temple, and other edifices, as well as a portion of the ancient walls. (Pratilli, Via Appia, p. 445; Lupuli, Iter Venusin. p. 19; Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 597; Swinburne, Travels, vol. i. p. 105.) Of the numerous relics of antiquity discovered here, the most interesting is a long inscription in the Oscan language, which records a treaty of alliance between the citizens of Abella and those of Nola. It dates (according to Mommsen) from a period shortly after the Second Punic War, and is not only curious on account of details concerning the municipal magistrates, but is one of the most important auxiliaries we possess for a study of the Oscan language. This curious monument still remains in the museum of the Seminary at Nola: it has been repeatedly published, among others by Passeri (Linguae Oscae Specimen Singulare, fol. Romae, 1774), but in the most complete and satisfactory manner by Lepsius (Inscr. Umbr. et Osc. tab. xxi.) and Mommsen (Die Unter-Italischen Dialekte, p. 119). [E. H. B.] ABELLI'NUM ('ASéλλivov, Eth. Abellinas-atis). 1. A considerable city of the Hirpini, situated in the upper valley of the Sabatus, near the frontier of Campania. Pliny, indeed, appears to have regarded it as included in that country, as he enumerates it among the cities of the first region of Augustus, but Ptolemy is probably correct in reckoning it among those of the Hirpini. It is placed by the Tabula Peutingeriana on the road from Beneventum to Salernum, at a distance of 16 Roman miles from the former city. No mention of it is found in history prior to the Roman conquest; and it appears to have first risen to be a place of importance under the Roman Empire. The period at which it became a colony is uncertain: Pliny calls it only an "oppidum," but it appears from the Liber de Coloniis that it must have received a colony previous to his time, probably as early as the second Triumvirate; and we learn from various inscriptions of imperial times that it continued to enjoy this rank down to a late period. These mention numerous local magistrates, and prove that it must have been a place of considerable wealth and importance, at least as late as the time of Valentinian. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. § 68; Lib. de Colon. p. 229; Inscr. ap. Orell. Nos. 1180, 1181; Lupuli, Iter Venusin. pp. 34, 55, 56.)

The ancient city was destroyed during the wars between the Greeks and the Lombards, and the inhabitants established themselves on the site of the modern Avellino, which has thus retained the name, but not the situation, of the ancient Abellinum. The

ruins of the latter are still visible about two miles from the modern city, near the village of Atripaldi, and immediately above the river Sabbato. Some vestiges of an amphitheatre may be traced, as well as portions of the city walls, and other fragments of reticulated masonry. Great numbers of inscriptions, bas-reliefs, altars, and minor relics of antiquity, have also been discovered on the site. (Lupuli, l.c. pp. 33, 34; Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 310; Swinburne, Travels, vol. i. p. 118; Craven, Abruzzi, vol. ii. p. 201.) The neighbourhood still abounds with filbert-trees, which are extensively cultivated, as they were in ancient times; on which account the name of the nuces Avellanae was frequently derived from Abellinum rather than Abella. (Harduin. ad Plin. xv. v. 22.) 2. Besides the Abellinum mentioned by Pliny in the first region of Italy, he enumerates also in the second, which included the Hirpini and Apulians, "Abellinates cognomine Protropi," and " Abellinates cognominati Marsi." The first have been generally supposed to be the inhabitants of the city already mentioned, but it would certainly appear that Pliny meant to distinguish them. No clue exists to the position of either of these two towns: the conjecture of the Italian topographers who have placed the Abellinates Marsi at Marsico Vetere, in Lucania, having nothing, except the slight similarity of name, to recommend it, as that site would have been in the third region. [E. H. B.]

A'BIA ( 'Asía: nr. Zarnata), a town of Messenia, on the Messenian gulf, and a little above the woody dell, named Choerius, which formed the boundary between Messenia and Laconia in the time of Pausanias. It is said to have been the same town as the Ira of the Iliad (ix. 292), one of the seven towns which Agamemnon offered to Achilles, and to have derived its later name from Abia, the nurse of Hyllus, the son of Hercules. Subsequently it belonged, with Thuria and Pharae, to the Achaean League. It continued to be a place of some importance down to the reign of Hadrian, as we learn from an extant inscription of that period. (Paus. iv. 30; Polyb. xxv. 1; Paciandi, Monum. Pelopon. ii. pp. 77, 145, cited by Hoffmann, Griechenland, p. 1020; Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 325.)

ABIA'NUS ('Abiavós), a river of Scythia (Sarmatia) falling into the Euxine, mentioned only in the work of Alexander on the Euxine, as giving name to the ABII, who dwelt on its banks. (Steph. Byz. s. v. "Abio.) Stephanus elsewhere quotes Alexander as saying that the district of Hylea on the Euxine was called 'A6, which he interprets by 'Thala, woody (Steph. Byz. s. v. 'Tλéa). [P. S.]

A'BII (A6io), a Scythian people, placed by Ptolemy in the extreme N. of Scythia extra Imaum, near the Hippophagi; but there were very different opinions about them. Homer (Il. xiii. 5, 6) represents Zeus, on the summit of M. Ida, as turning away his eyes from the battle before the Greek camp, and "looking down upon the land of the Thracians familiar with horses," Muoŵv ' ayxeμάχων, καὶ ἀγαυῶν ἱππημολγών, γλακτοφάγων, ἀβίων τε, δικαιοτάτων ἀνθρώπων. Ancient and modern commentators have doubted greatly which of these words to take as proper names, except the first two, which nearly all agree to refer to the Mysians of Thrace. The fact would seem to be that the poet had heard accounts of the great nomade peoples who inhabited the steppes NW. and N. of the Euxine, whose whole wealth lay in their herds, especially of horses, on the milk of which

have extended S. and SE. of Damascus as far as the borders of Galilaea, Batanaea, and Trachonitis. Abilene, when first mentioned in history, was governed by a certain Ptolemaeus, son of Mennaeus, who was succeeded, about B. C. 40, by a son named Lysanias. Lysanias was put to death in B. c. 33, at the instigation of Cleopatra, and the principality passed, by a sort of purchase apparently, into the hands of one Zenodorus, from whom it was transferred (B. c. 31) to Herod the Great. At the death

they lived, and who were supposed to preserve the innocence of a state of nature; and of them, therefore, he speaks collectively by epithets suited to such descriptions, and, among the rest, as bio, poor, with scanty means of life (from a and Bíos). The people thus described answer to the later notions respecting the Hyperboreans, whose name does not occur in Homer. Afterwards, the epithets applied by Homer to this supposed primitive people were taken as proper names, and were assigned to different tribes of the Scythians, so that we have of the latter (A. D. 3) one portion of it was annexed mention of the Scythae Agavi, Hippemolgi, Galactophagi (and Galactopotae) and Abii. The last are mentioned as a distinct people by Aeschylus, who prefixes a guttural to the name, and describes the Gabii as the most just and hospitable of men, living on the self-sown fruits of the untilled earth; but we have no indication of where he placed them (Prom. Solut. Fr. 184). Of those commentators, who take the word in Homer for a proper name, some place them in Thrace, some in Scythia, and some near the Amazons, who in vain urged them to take part in an expedition against Asia (Eustath. ad II. l. c. p. 916; Steph. Byz. l. c.); in fact, like the correspondent fabulous people, the Hyperborei, they seem to have been moved back, as knowledge advanced, further and further into the unknown regions of the north. In the histories of Alexander's expedition we are told that ambassadors came to him at Maracanda (Samarkand) from the Abii Scythae, a tribe who had been independent since the time of Cyrus, and were renowned for their just and peaceful character (Arrian. Anab. iv. 1; Q. Curt. vii. 6); but the specific name of the tribe of Scythians who sent this embassy is probably only an instance of the attempts made to illustrate the old mythical geography by Alexander's conquests. In these accounts their precise locality is not indicated: Ammianus Marcellinus places them N. of Hyrcania (xxiii. 6). An extended discussion will be found in Strabo of the various opinions respecting the Abii up to his time (pp. 296, 303, 311, 553; Droysen, in the Rhein. Mus. vol. ii. p. 92, 1834). [P. S.]

A'BILA (A6λa: Eth. 'Abiλnvós). It would appear that there were several towns bearing this appellation in the districts which border upon Palestine. The most important of these was a place of strength in Coele-Syria, now Nebi Abel, situated between Heliopolis and Damascus, in, lat. 33° 38' N., long. 36° 18′ E. It was the chief town of the tetrarchy of ABILENE, and is frequently termed, by way of distinction, Abila Lysaniae ("Abiλa érikαλουμένη Λυσανίου). [ABILENE.]

Belleye has written a dissertation in the Transactions of the Academy of Belles Lettres to prove that this Abila is the same with Leucas on the river Chrysorrhoas, which at one period assumed the name of Claudiopolis, as we learn from some coins described by Eckhel. The question is much complicated by the circumstance that medals have been preserved of a town in Coele-Syria called Abila Leucas, which, as can be demonstrated from the pieces themselves, must have been different from Abila Lysaniae. (Eckhel, vol. iii. pp. 337, 345; Ptol. v. 15. § 22; Plin. v. 18; Antonin. Itiner. pp. 198, 199, ed. Wessel.) [W. R.]

ABILE'NE, or simply A'BILA (A6λn, "A6λa), a district in Coele-Syria, of which the chief town was ABILA. The limits of this region are nowhere exactly defined, but it seems to have included the castern slopes of Antilibanus, and to

to the tetrarchy of his son Philip, and the remainder
bestowed upon that Lysanias who is named by St.
Luke (iii. 1). Immediately after the death of Ti-
berius (A. D. 37), Caligula made over to Herod
Agrippa, at that time a prisoner in Rome, the te-
trarchy of Philip and the tetrarchy of Lysanias,
while Claudius, upon his accession (A. D. 41), not
only confirmed the liberality of his predecessor towards
Agrippa, but added all that portion of Judaea and
Samaria which had belonged to the kingdom of his
grandfather Herod the Great, together (says Josephus)
with Abila, which had appertained to Lysanias
(“Abıλav dè tùy Avσavíov), and the adjoining region
of Libanus. Lastly, in A. D. 53, Claudius granted
to the younger Agrippa the tetrarchy of Philip with
Batanaea and Trachonitis and Abila — Avoavía dè
aŭrŋ éyeyóvel teтpaρxía. (Joseph. Ant. xiv. 4.
§ 4, 7. § 4, xviii. 7. § 10, xix. 5. § 1, xx. 6. § 1,
B. J. i. 13. § 1, xx. 4.) Josephus, at first sight,
seems to contradict himself, in so far that in one
passage (Ant. xviii. 7. § 10) he represents Caligula
as bestowing upon Herod Agrippa the tetrarchy of
Lysanias, while in another (Ant. xix. 5. § 1) he
states that Abila of Lysanias was added by Clau-
dius to the former dominions of Agrippa, but, in
reality, these expressions must be explained as re-
ferring to the division of Abilene which took place
on the death of Herod the Great. We find Abila
mentioned among the places captured by Placidus,
one of Vespasian's generals, in A. D. 69 or 70
(Joseph. B. J. iv. 7. § 5), and from that time for-
ward it was permanently annexed to the province of
Syria.
[W. R.]

A'BNOBA (AŬvoba: Schwarzwald, Black Forest), a range of hills in Germany, extending from the Oberland of Baden northward as far as the modern town of Pforzheim. In later times it was sometimes called Silva Marciana. On its eastern side are the sources

of the Danube. Its name is sometimes spelt Arnoba or Arbona, but the correct orthography is established by inscriptions. (Orelli, Inscr. Lat. no. 1986.) Ptolemy (ii. 11. § 7) incorrectly places the range of the Abnoba too far N. between the Maine and the source of the Ems. (Tacit. Germ. 1; Fest. Avien. Descript. Orb. 437; Plin. iv. 12. s. 24; Martian. Capell. vi. § 662; comp. Creuzer, Zur Gesch. der Alt-Röm. Cultur, pp. 65, 108.) [L. S.]

ABOCCIS or ABUNCIS ('Abovykis, Ptol. iv. 7. § 16; Plin. vi. 29. s. 35. § 181, Aboccis in old editions, Abuncis in Sillig's: Aboosimbel or Ipsambul), a town in Aethiopia, between the Second Cataract and Syene, situated on the left bank of the Nile, celebrated on account of the two magnificent grotto temples, which were discovered at this place by Belzoni. The walls of the larger of the two temples are covered with paintings, which record the victories of Ramses III. over various nations of Africa and Asia. (Kenrick, Ancient Egypt, vol. i. p. 24, seq.)

ABODI’ACUM,

AUODI'ACUM ('Abovðlakov,

Tab. Peut.; Ptol. ii. 13. § 5 ABUZACUM, Vit. S. Magn. 28), a town of Vindelicia, probably coinciding with the modern Epfach on the river Lech, where remains of Roman buildings are still extant. The stations, however, in the Itineraries and the Peutingerian Table are not easily identified with the site of Epfach; and Abodiacum is placed by some topographers at the hamlet of Peisenberg, on the slope of a hill with the same name, or in the neighbourhood of Rosenheim in Bavaria. (Itin. Anton.; Muchar, Noricum, p. 283.) [W. B. D.] ABOLLA (“A¤¤λλa), a city of Sicily, mentioned only by Stephanus Byzantinus (8. v.), who affords no clue to its position, but it has been supposed, on account of the resemblance of the name, to have occupied the site of Avola, between Syracuse and Noto. A coin of this city has been published by D'Orville (Sicula, pt. ii. tab. 20), but is of very uncertain authority. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 189; Castell. Sicil. Vet. Num. p. 4.)

[E. H. B.]

ABONI-TEICHOS ('Abúvou Teîxos: Eth. 'A6wvoTEIXEITNS: Ineboli), a town on the coast of Paphlagonia with a harbour, memorable as the birthplace of the impostor Alexander, of whom Lucian has left us an amusing account in the treatise bearing his name. (Dict. of Biogr. vol. i. p. 123.) According to Lucian (Alex. § 58), Alexander petitioned the emperor (probably Antoninus Pius) that the name of his native place should be changed from Aboni-Teichos into Ionopolis; and whether the emperor granted the request or not, we know that the town was called Ionopolis in later times. Not only does this name occur in Marcianus and Hierocles; but on coins of the time of Antoninus and L. Verus we find the legend INNOMOAITON, as well as ABONOTEIXITON. The modern Ineboli is evidently only a corruption of Ionopolis. (Strab. p. 545; Arrian, Peripl. p. 15; Lucian, Alex., passim; Marcian. Peripl. p. 72; Ptol. v. 4. §2; Hierocl. p. 696; Steph. B. s. v. 'Abúvov τεῖχος.)

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for (if we may trust the accuracy of Dionysius) it
was already used by Callias, the historian of Aga.
thocles, who termed Latinus "king of the Abori-
gines" (Dionys. i. 72): and we find that Lycophron
(writing under Ptolemy Philadelphus) speaks of
Aeneas as founding thirty cities "in the land of the
Boreigonoi," a name which is evidently a mere cor-
ruption of Aborigines. (Lycophr. Alex. 1253; Tzetz.
ad loc.; Niebuhr, vol. i.
p. 80.)

A tradition recorded both by Cato and Varro, and which Niebuhr justly regards as one of the most credible of those transmitted to us from antiquity, related that these Aborigines first dwelt in the high mountain districts around Reate and in the vallies which extend from thence towards the Mt. Velino and the Lake Fucinus. From hence they were expelled by the Sabines, who descended upon them from the still more elevated regions around Amiternum, and drove them forwards towards the W. coast: yielding to this pressure, they descended into the valley of the Anio, and from thence gradually extended themselves into the plains of Latium. Here they came in contact with the Siculi, who were at that time in possession of the country; and it was not till after a long contest that the Aborigines made themselves masters of the land, expelled or reduced to slavery its Siculian population, and extended their dominion not only over Latium itself, but the whole plain between the Volscian mountains and the sea, and even as far as the river Liris. (Dionys. i. 9, 10, 13, 14, ii. 49; Cato, ap. Priscian. v. 12. § 65.) In this war we are told that the Aborigines were assisted by a Pelasgian tribe, with whom they became in some degree intermingled, and from whom they first learned the art of fortifying their towns. In conjunction with these allies they continued to occupy the plains of Latium until about the period of the Trojan war, when they assumed the appellation of Latini, from their king Latinus. (Dionys. i. 9, 60; Liv. i. 1, 2.)

Whatever degree of historical authority we may attach to this tradition, there can be no doubt that it correctly represents the fact that the Latin race, such as we find it in historical times, was composed of two distinct elements: the one of Pelasgic origin, and closely allied with other Pelasgic races in Italy; the other essentially different in language and origin. Both these elements are distinctly to be traced in the Latin language, in which one class of words is closely

ABORIGINES ('Aboptyîves), a name given by all the Roman and Greek writers to the earliest inhabitants of Latium, before they assumed the appellation of LATINI. There can be no doubt that the obvious derivation of this name (ab origine) is the true one, and that it could never have been a national title really borne by any people, but was a mere abstract appellation invented in later times, and in-related to the Greek, another wholly distinct from it, tended, like the Autochthones of the Greeks, to designate the primitive and original inhabitants of the country. The other derivations suggested by later writers, such as Aberrigines, from their wandering habits, or the absurd one which Dionysius seems inclined to adopt, " ab operi," from their dwelling in the mountains, -are mere etymological fancies, suggested probably with a view of escaping from the difficulty, that, according to later researches, they were not really autochthones, but foreigners coming from a distance (Dionys. i. 10; Aur. Vict. Orig. Gent. Rom. 4). Their real name appears to have been CASCI (Saufeius, ap. Serv. ad Aen. i. 6), an appellation afterwards used among the Romans to signify anything primitive or old-fashioned. epithet of Sacrani, supposed by Niebuhr to have been also a national appellation, would appear to have had a more restricted sense, and to have been confined to a particular tribe or subdivision of the race. But it is certainly remarkable that the name of Aborigines must have been established in general use at a period as early as the fifth century of Rome;

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and evidently connected with the languages of the Oscan race. The Aborigines may be considered as representing the non-Pelasgic part of the Latin people; and to them we may refer that portion of the Latin language which is strikingly dissimilar to the Greek. The obvious relation of this to the Oscan dialects would at once lead us to the same conclusion with the historical traditions above related: namely, that the Aborigines or Casci, a mountain race from the central Apennines, were nearly akin to the Aequi, Volsci, and other ancient nations of Italy, who are generally included under the term of Oscans or Ausonians; and as clearly distinct from the tribes of Pelasgic origin, on the one hand, and from the great Sabellian family on the other. (Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 78-84; Donaldson, Varronianus, p. 3; Abeken, Mittelitalien, pp. 46, 47.)

Dionysius tells us that the greater part of the cities originally inhabited by the Aborigines in their mountain homes had ceased to exist in his time; but he has preserved to us (i. 14) a catalogue of them, as given by Varro in his Antiquities, which is of

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