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AORSI.

AOUS.

seems to be the only ground on which Ritter places the Siraci on the E. side of the Palus Macotis
Embolima 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.
son of Mithridates the Great) held the kingdom of
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
stated by Diodorus, Curtius, and Bosporus, he was furnished with 20,000 horsemen
the Indus,
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 mistake of Strabo, that the peoples are regarded by Strabo as only exiles of the
the contrary.
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 ȧvwτépw, oi &vwžAopro), and who as-
more northern Aorsi, he adds, possessed the greater
appear; for, in common with the other ancient sisted Pharnaces with a still greater force. These
geographers, he understands by the source of the
extensive traffic in Indian and Babylonian merchan-
Indus, the place where it breaks through the chain part of the coast of the Caspian, and carried on an
of the Himalaya.
dize, 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, In like manner, Dionysius Pethe native names. riegetes calls the Himalaya Aopvis (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, except that Alexander took it before he reached [G. L.] Oreus.

AORSI (Aоpσo: Strab., Ptol., Plin., Steph. B.),
or ADORSÌ (Tac. Ann. xii. 15), a numerous and
powerful people, both 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 Euro-
pean Sarmatia and Asiatic Scythia; and so Eich-
wald 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 Euro-
pean Aorsi, with the Hamaxobii, as tribes of the
Sarmatians, in the general sense of that word, in-
cluding 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 ap-
pear in history, was in the country between the
Tanaïs, 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
(σKηVÍTαι Kai 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

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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
[P. S.]
Aorsi with the Avars, so celebrated in Byzantine
and medieval history.

AO'US, more rarely AEAS ("Awos, 'Awos, 'Aços, Val. Pol. Strab. Liv.: Alas, Hecat. ap. Strab. p. 316; Scylax, s. v. 'IXλúpioi; Steph. B. s. v. Aákμwv; Max. i. 5. ext. 2; erroneously called ANIUS, "Avios by Plut. Caes. 38, and ANAS, "Avas, by Dion Cass. xli. 45: Viósa, Vuissa, 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 πаρ' 'Aνтiyóveιav σTevà, Pol. ii. 5.) Antigoneia (Tepeléni) was situated At the termination of the pass near the northern entrance of the pass at the junction of the Aous with a river, now called Dhryno, Drino, or Druno. on the south is the modern village of Klisúra, a name which it has obviously received from its situMacedonia, in vain attempted to arrest the progress ation. It was in this pass that Philip V., king of 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. l. 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 Nemértzika. The pass 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

L 4

is

and precipitous mountains, in the profundity of the narrow fissure between them, 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.)

fluentes," -at the junction of the Tigris and the Euphrates.

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 APAMEIA, -EA, or -IA ('Añáμeia: Eth. 'Ana-places Digba at Korna, " in ripa Tigris circa conμeús, Apameensis, Apamensis, Apamenus, Apamēus), 1. (Kulat el-Mudik), a large city of Syria, situated 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 Fâmich, 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 now called Kulat 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. 'Amάuela) 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

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. 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 N. of Seleuccia, and if the course of the river is measured, it will probably be not far from the distance which Pliny gives (cxxv. M. P.). The Mesene then was between the Tigris and the Dijeil; or a tract called Mesene is to be placed there. The name Sellas in Stephanus is probably corrupt, and the last editor of Stephanus may have done wrong in preferring it to the reading Delas, which is nearer the name Dijeil. Pliny may mean the same place Apameia in both the extracts that have been given; though some suppose that he is speaking of two different places.

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. 'Añájieia), 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 Araμew Muрλearov. 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."

ΑΡΑΜΕΙΑ.

APENNINUS.

COIN OF APAMEIA, IN PHRYGIA.

5. ('H KI6wrós), a town of Phrygia, built near|blished here, and even that St. Paul visited the Celaenae by Antiochus Soter, and named after his place, for he went throughout Phrygia. But the mother Apama. Strabo (p. 577) says, that "the mere circumstance of the remains of a church at town lies at the source (60λais) of the Marsyas, Apameia proves nothing as to the time when Chrisand the river flows through the middle of the city, tianity was established there. 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 Ki6wтós 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 But there may have Apameia, though near it. 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 im-
portance 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
six towns which belonged to the conventus of Apa-
meia, 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. Nico-
laus 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 Ni-
caea. 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
probable enough that Christianity was early esta-

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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 Mace-
[G. L.]
donian conquests in Asia. It seems to be the same
cellinus (xxiii. 6).
Apameia which is mentioned by Ammianus Mar-

APANESTAE, or APENESTAE (ATEVÉσTαL),
a town on the coast of Apulia, placed by Ptolemy
among the Daunian Apulians, near Sipontum.
TINI, probably the same people, among the "Cala-
Pliny, on the contrary, enumerates the APAENES-
brorum Mediterranei." But it has been plausibly
conjectured that "Arnesto," a name otherwise un-
known, which appears in the Itin. Ant. (p. 315),
If this be correct, the distances there
between Barium and Egnatia, is a corruption of the
given would lead us to place it at S. Vito, 2 miles
W. of Polignano, where there are some remains of
(Plin. iii. 11, 16; Ptol. iii. 1.
an ancient town.
[E. H. B.]
§ 16; Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 155.)
APARNI. [PARNI.]

same name.

APATU'RUM, or APATURUS CATάтоυрov, Strab.; 'Anáтoupos, Steph. B., Ptol.), a town of the Sindae, on the Pontus Euxinus, near the Bosporus Cimmerius, which was almost uninhabited in Pliny's time. It possessed a celebrated temple of Aphrodite Apaturus (the Deceiver); and there was (Strab. xi. p. 495; Plin. town of Phanagoria. also a temple to this goddess in the neighbouring APAVARCTICE'NE (Απαυαρκτικηνή, Isid. vi. 6; Ptol. v. 9. § 5; Steph. B. s. v.) Char. pp. 2, 7, ed. Hudson; 'APTIKпνý, ог ПарavкTIKпh, 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 ̓Απέν VIVOV opos. The singular form is generally used, in Greek as well as Latin, but both Polybius and Strabo occasionally have Tà 'Aπévviva 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 subsequently extended to the whole chain, as the singular

form of the name might lead us to suspect, is un- | certain: 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 Ariminum 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 adds, 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.

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 Apennines, or rather for their junction with the Alps, of which they may, 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. Other 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 accordance 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 commencing 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 northern declivity presents a re

markable uniformity: the long ranges of hills which descend from the central chain, nearly at right angles to its direction, constantly approaching within a few miles of the straight line of the Via Aemilia throughout its whole length from Ariminum to Placentia, but without ever crossing it. On its southern side, on the contrary, it sends out several detached arms, or lateral ranges, some of which attain to an elevation little inferior to that of the central chain. Such is the lofty and rugged range which separates the vallies of the Macra and Auser (Serchio), and contains the celebrated marble quarries of Carrara; the highest point of which (the Pizzo d'Uccello) is not less than 5800 feet above Similar ridges, though of somewhat less elevation, divide the upper and lower vallies of the Arnus from each other, as well as that of the Tiber from the former.

the sea.

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, or 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, composed of a number of minor ranges and groups of mountains, which, notwithstanding great irregula rities 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 Fucinus. 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

APENNINUS.

nium they diminish in height, though still forming a vast mass of mountains of very irregular form and

structure.

APENNINUS.

From the Monte Nerone, near the sources of the
Metaurus, to the valley of the Sagrus, or Sangro,
the main range of the Apennines continues much
nearer to the Adriatic than the Tyrrhenian Sea;
so that a very narrow strip of low country intervenes
between the foot of the mountains and the sea on
their eastern side, while on the west the whole broad
tract of Etruria and Latium separates the Apennines
from the Tyrrhenian. This is indeed broken by
numerous minor ranges of hills, and even by moun-
tains of considerable elevation (such as the Monte
Amiata, near Radicofani), some of which may be
considered as dependencies or outliers of the Apen-
nines; while others are of volcanic origin, and
wholly independent of them. To this last class
belong the Mons Ciminus and the Alban Hills; the
range of the Volscian Mountains, on the contrary,
now called Monti Lepini, which separates the val-
lies of the Trerus and the Liris from the Pontine
Marshes, certainly belongs to the system of the
Apennines, which here again descend to the shore
of the western sea between Tarracina and Gaieta.
From thence the western ranges of the chain sweep
round in a semicircle around the fertile plain of
Campania, and send out in a SW, direction the
bold and lofty ridge which separates the Bay of
Naples from that of Salerno, and ends in the pro-
montory of Minerva, opposite to the island of Capreae.
On the E. the mountains gradually recede from the
shores of the Adriatic, so as to leave a broad plain
between their lowest slopes and the sea, which ex-
tends without interruption from the mouth of the
Frento (Fortore) to that of the Aufidus (Ofanto):
the lofty and rugged mass of Mount Garganus, which
has been generally described from the days of Pto-
lemy to our own as a branch of the Apennines,
being, in fact, a wholly detached and isolated ridge.
[GARGANUS.] In the southern parts of Samnium
(the region of the Hirpini) the Apennines present a
very confused and irregular mass; the central point
or knot of which is formed by the group of moun-
tains about the head of the Aufidus, which has the
longest course from W. to E. of any of the rivers of
Italy S. of the Padus. From this point the central
ridge assumes a southerly direction, while numerous
offshoots or branches occupy almost the whole of
Lucania, extending on the W. to the Tyrrhenian
Sea, and on the S. to the Gulf of Tarentum. On
the E. of the Hirpini, and immediately on the fron-aggeration in Virgil's expression,
tiers of Apulia and Lucania, rises the conspicuous
mass of Mount Vultur, which, though closely ad-
joining the chain of the Apennines, is geologically
and physically distinct from them, being an iso-
lated mountain of volcanic origin. [VULTUR.]
But immediately S. of Mt. Vultur there branches
off from the central mass of the Apennines a chain
of great hills, rather than mountains, which extends
to the eastward into Apulia, presenting a broad
tract of barren hilly country, but gradually declining
in height as it approaches the Adriatic, until it ends
on that coast in a range of low hills between Egnatia
The peninsula of Calabria
and Brundusium.
traversed only by a ridge of low calcareous hills of
tertiary origin and of very trifling elevation, though
magnified by many maps and geographical writers
into a continuation of the Apennines. (Cluver. Ital.
p. 30; Swinburne, Travels in the Two Sicilies,
vol. i. pp. 210, 211.) The main ridge of the latter

approaches very near to the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the
and retains this proximity as it descends through
neighbourhood of the Gulf of Policastro (Buxentum),
Bruttium; but E. of Consentia (Cosenza) lies the
A little
great forest-covered mass of the Sila, in some de-
gree detached from the main chain, and situated
between it and the coast near Crotona.
hitherto continuous chain of the Apennines, which
further south occurs a remarkable break in the
appears to end abruptly near the modern village of
Tiriolo, so that the two gulfs of Sta Eufemia and
Squillace (the Sinus Terinaeus and Scylletinus) are
separated only by a low neck of land, less than
20 miles in breadth, and of such small elevation
that not only did the elder Dionysius conceive the
idea of carrying a wall across this isthmus (Strab. vi.
p. 261), but in modern times Charles III., king of
Naples, proposed to cut a canal through it. The
mountains which rise again to the S. of this re-
markable interruption, form a lofty and rugged mass
(now called Aspromonte), which assumes a SW.
direction and continues to the extreme southern
point of Italy, where the promontory of Leucopetra
as the extremity of the Apennines. (Strab. v. p.
is expressly designated, both by Strabo and Ptolemy,
211; Ptol. iii. 1. § 44.) The loftiest summit in
the southern division of the Apennines is the Monte
Pollino, near the south frontier of Lucania, which
rises to above 7000 feet: the highest point of the
Sila attains to nearly 6000 feet, and the summit of
Aspromonte to above 4500 feet. (For further de-
tails concerning the geography of the Apennines,
especially in Central Italy, the reader may consult
Abeken, Mittel-Italien, pp. 10-17, 80-85; Kra-
mer, Der Fuciner See, pp. 5-11.)

Almost the whole mass of the Apennines consists of
limestone: primary rocks appear only in the southern-
most portion of the chain, particularly in the range
of the Aspromonte, which, in its geological structure
and physical characters, presents much more analogy
of the Apennines. The loftier ranges of the latter
with the range in the NE. of Sicily, than with the rest
tain such a height as to be covered with perpetual
are for the most part bare rocks; none of them at-
snow, though it is said to lie all the year round in
the rifts and hollows of Monte Majella and the
Gran Sasso. But all the highest summits, includ-
ing the Monte Velino and Monte Terminillo, both
of which are visible from Rome, are covered with
snow early in November, and it does not disappear
" nivali
before the end of May. There is, therefore, no ex-

Vertice se attollens pater Apenninus ad auras."

Aen. xii. 703; see also Sil. Ital. iv. 743. The flanks and lower ridges of the loftier mountains are still, in many places, covered with dense woods; but it is probable that in ancient times the forests were far more extensive (see Plin. xxxi. 3. 26): many parts of the Apennines which are now wholly bare of trees being known to have been covered with forests in the middle ages. Pine trees appear only on the loftier summits: at a lower level and holm-oaks (ilices) clothe the lower slopes and are found woods of oak and beech, while chesnuts vallies. The mountain regions of Samnium and the districts to the N. of it afford excellent pasturage in summer both for sheep and cattle, on which account they were frequented not only by their own herdsmen, but by those of Apulia, who annually drove their flocks from their own parched and dusty

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