Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1064

 1044 SUESSETANI. that connected with Pometia (Tac. Fllst. iii. 72). The name of Suessa Pometia is only once mentioned before this time, as the place where the sons of Ancus Jlarcius retired into exile on the accession of Servius. (Liv. i. 41). It is clear also that it sur- vived its capture by Tarquin, and even appears a^ain in the wars of the Republic with the Volscians, as a place of great power and importance. Livy in- deed calls it a " Colonia Latina," but we have no account of its having become such. It, however, re- volted (according to his account) in b. c. 503, and was not taken till the following year, by Sp. Cassius, when the city was destroyed and the inhabitants sold as slaves. (Liv. ii. 16, 17). It nevertheless appears again a few years afterwards (b. c. 495) in the hands of the Volsi ians, but was again taken and pillaged by the consul P. Servilius {lb. 25; Dionys. vi. 29). This time the blow seems to have been decisive ; for the name of Suessa Pometia is never again mentioned in history, and all trace of it disappears. Pliny notices it among the cities which were in his time utterly extinct (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9), and no record seems to have been preserved even of its site. We are, however, distinctly told that the Pomptinus ager and the Pomptine tribe derived their appellation from this city (Fest. $. v. Pomptinn, p. 233), and there can therefore be no doubt that it stood in that district or on the verge of it ; but be- yond this all attempts to determine its locality must be purely conjectural. [E. H. B.] SUESSETA'NI, a people of Hispania Tarra- conensis, mentioned only by Livy (xxv. 34, xxviii. 24, sxxiv. 20, xxxix. 42) and especially in con- nection with the Sedetani (or Edetani). Marca (Hisp. ii. 9. 4) takes them for a branch of the Cossetani; and Ukert (ii. pt. i. p. 318) seeks them near theCeltiberi, Lacetani, and llergetes. [T.H.D.] SUESSIONES, or SUE'SSONES (Ovtaaoufs, Ptol. ii. 9. § 11), a people of Gallia Belgica. The Remi told Caesar (B. G. ii. 3) in b. c. 57 that the Sue.ssiones were their brothers and kinsmen, had the same political constitution and the same laws, formed one political body with them, and had the same head or chief : their territory bordered on the territory of the Remi, and was extensive and fertile; within the memory of man the Siiessones had a king, Divitiacus, the most powerful prince in Gallia, who even had the dominion of Britannia; at this time (b. c. 57) they had a king named Galba, a very just and wise man, to whom the Belgae who were combining against Caesar unanimously gave the direction of the war. The Suessiones had twelve towns, and promised a contingent of 50,000 men for the war with Caesar, Caesar (B. G. ii. 12) took Noviodunuin, a town of the Suessiones, and the people submitteil [No^o- Di'NUM; Augusta SukssionumJ. The Suessiones liad the rich country between the Olse and the Mariie. and the town of Soissons on the Aisne pre- serves their name unchanged. The Suessiones are mentioned {B. G. vii. 75) among the peoples who sent their contingent to attack Caesar at Alesia, n. C. 52; but their force was oidy 5000 men. Caesar jiaid the Suessiones for their pains by subjecting them to their brothers the Remi {B. G. viii. 6: "(lui Remis erant attributi"); in which passage the word " attri- hnli'' denotes a political dependence, and in Gallia that signiljed payment of money. The Remi took care of themselves [Remi]. Pliny names the Suessiones Liberi (iv. 1 7), which, if it means anything, may mean that they were re- SUETRT. leased in liis time from their dependence on the Remi. In Pliny's text the name " Sueconi " stands between the name Veromandui and Suessiones; but nobody has yet found out what it means. The orthography of this name is not quite cer- tain; and the present name Soissons is as near the truth as any other form. In Strabo (iv. p. 195) it is "^.oviacnoivis, and Lucan (i. 423) has — " Et Bituris, longisque leves Suessones in anuis:"' Suessones is a correction ; but there is no doubt about it (ed. Oudendorp). [G. L.] SUE'SSULA {'S.ovidcovXa : Etli. Suessulanus : Sessola), a city of Campania, situated in the inteiior of that country, near the frontiers of Samnium, betwen Capua and Nula, and about 4 miles NE. of Acerrae. It is repeatedly mentioned during the wars of the Romans with the Samnites, as well as in their campaigns against Hannibal. Thus in the First Samnite War (b. c. 343) it was the scene of a decisive victory by Valerius Corvus over the Samnites, who had gathered together the remains of their army which had been previously defeated at Mount Ganrus (Liv, vii. 37). In the great Campanian War shortly after, the Suessulani followed the fortunes of the citizens of Capua, and shared the same fate, so that at the close of the contest they must liave obtained the Roman civitas, but without the right of suftVage (Id. viii. 14). In the Second Punic War the city bears a considerable part, though apparently more from it.s position than its own importance. The line of hills which rises from the level plain of Campania immediately above Suessula, and forms a kiiiil of prolongation of the ridge of Mount Tifata, was a station almost as convenient as that mountain itself, and in b. c. 216, it was occupied by Marcellus with the view of protecting Nola, and watcliing the operations of Hannibal against that city (Liv. xxiii. 14, 17). From this time tiie Romans seem to have kept up a permanent camp there for some years, which was known as the Castra Claudiana, from the name of Marcellus who had first established it, and which is continually alluded to during the operations of the subsequent campaigns (Liv. xxiii. 31, xxiv. 46, 47, xxv, 7, 22, xxvi. 9). But from this period the name of Suessula disapjiears from history. It continued to be a nuinicipal town of Campania, though apparently one of a secondary class ; and inscriptions attest its municipal rank under the Empire. It had received a body of veterans as colonists under Sulla, but did not attain the colonial rank (Strab. v. p. 249; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Orell. hiscr. 129, 130, 2333; Lib. Col. p. 237). The Tabula places it on a line of road from Capua to Nola, i't the distance of 9 miles from each of those cities {Tub. Pent). It was an episcopal see in the first ages of Christianity, and its destruction is ascribed to the Saracens in the 9th century. Its rums are still visible in a spot now occupied by a marshy forest about 4 ndles S. of Maddaloni, and an adjacent castle is still called Torre di Sexsola. Inscriptions, as well as cajiitals of columns and other architectural fragments, have been found there (Pratilli Via Appia, iii. 3. p. 347; Romanelli, vol. iii p. .590). [E. H. B.] SUETRI (SourjTpi'oi, Ptol. iii. 1. § 42, written 'ZovKjpioL in some editions), a Ligurian people, placed by Pliny (iii. 4) above the U.xybii, who were on the coast between Frejus and Antihes, The Suetri are the last people named in the Trophy of the Alps. If the position of their town Salinae [Salinak] is