Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1066

 1046 SULGAS. giiiiaus (Paus. x. 17. § 9; Cliiudiaii. B. Gild. 518),
 * ind it seems to have become under thai- people one

of the most considerable cities of Sardinia, and one of the chief seats of their power ia the island. Its name was first mentioned in history durins; the First Punic War, when the Carthaginian general, Hanni- bal, having been defeated in a sea-fight by C. Sulpi- cius, took refuge at Sulci, but was slain in a tumult by liis own soldiers (Zonar. viii. 12). No other mention of the name occurs in history till the Civil AVar between Pompey and Caesar, when the citizens of Sulci received in their port the fleet of Nasidius, the admiral of Pompey, and furnished him with supplies; for which service they were severely pun- ished by Caesar, on his return from Africa, u. c. 46, who imposed on the city a contribution of 100,000 sesterces, besides heavily increasing its animal tri- bute of corn (Hirt. B. Aft: 98). Notwithstanding this infliction. Sulci seems to have continued under the Roman Empire to be one of the most flourishing towns in the island. Strabo and Mela both mention it as if it were the second city in Sardinia; and its municipal rank is attested by inscriptions, as well as by Pliny. (Strab. v. p. 225; Mel. ii. 7. § 19; Plin. iii. 7. s. 13; Ptol. iii. 3. § .3; Inscr. ap De la Mar- mora, vol. ii. pp. 479, 482.) The Itineraries give a lino of road pruceeding from Tibula direct to Sulci, a sufficient proof of the importance of the latter place. (^Itin. Ant. pp. 83, 84.) It was also one of the four chief episcopal sees into which Sardinia was divided, and seems to have continued to be inhabited through a great part of the middle ages, but ceased to exist before the 13th century. The remains of the ancient city are distinctly seen a little to the N. of the modern village of <S. Antioco, on the island or peninsula of the same name : and the works of art which have been found there bear testimony to its flourishing condition under the Romans. (De la Marmora, vol. ii. p. 357; Smyth's Sardinia, p. 317.) The name of Sulcis is given at the present day to the whole district of the mainland, immediately opposite to S. Antioco, which is one of the most fertile and best cultivated tracts in the whole of Sardinia. The Sulcitani of Ptolemy (iii. 3. § G) are evi- dently the inhabitants of this district. The Itineraries mention a town or village of ths name of Sulci on the E. coast of Sardinia, which nmst not be confounded with the more celebrated city of the name. (^Ttin. A nt. p. 80.) It was pro- bably situated at Girasol, near Tortoli. (De la Marmora, p. 443.) [E. II. B.] SULGAS, river. [G.vllia, p. 954; Vlnd.vliuji.] SU'LIA, SULE'N A (JS,ovia, 'S.ovKriva,, Stadiasm. §§ 324, 325), a promontory of Crete, 65 stadia from Slatala, where there was a harbour and good water, identified by Jlr. Pashley {Travels, vol. i. ]). 304) with Ildghio Galtne, the chief port of Amuri, on the S. coast of the island. [E. B. J.] SULIS, in Gallia, is placed in the Table on a route from Dartorituni, which is Dariorigum [Da- kioiiigum] the capital of the Veneti, to Gesocribate the western extremity of Brelagne. The distance from Dariorigum to Sulis is xx. By following the direction of the route we come to the junction of a small river named Seuel with the river of Blavet. The name and distavice, as D'Anville supposes, in- dicate the position of Sulis. [G. L.] SULLONIACAE, a town in Britannia Romana (/<m. Ant. p. 471), now Brockk'tj Hill in Jlert- fordshire. (Camden, p. 359.) [T. H. D.] tJULMO (jScrmonela), an ancient city of Latium, SULMO. mentioned only by Pliny (iii. 5. s. 9) among those which were extinct in his time, and incidentally noticed by Virgil. {Ann. x. 517.) It is in all pro- bability the same place with the modern Sermoneta, which stands on a hill between Norba and Setia, looking over the Pontine Marshes. [E. H. B.] SULMO (2ouA;ua)v: Eth. Sulmonensis: Snlmona), a city of the Peligni, situated in the valley of the Gizio, in a spacious basin formed by the junction of that river with several minor streams. There is no doubt that it was one of the principal cities of the Peligni, as an independent tribe, but no notice of it is found in history before the Roman conquest. A tradition alluded to by Ovid and Silius Italicns, which ascribed its foundation to Solymus, a Phry- gian and one of the companions of Aeneas, is evi- dently a mere etymological fiction (Ovid, Fast. iv. 79; Sil. Ital. ix. 70—76.) The first mention of Sulmo occurs in the Second Punic War, when its territory was ravaged by Haimibal in B.C. 211, but without attacking the city itself. (Liv. xxvi. 11.) Its name is not noticed during the Social War, in which the Peligni took so prominent a part; but ac- cording to Florus, it suffered severely in the subse- quent civil war between Sulhi and Marius, having been destroyed by the former as a punishment for its attachment to his rival. (Flor. iii. 21.) The expressions of that rhetorical writer are not, howevei-, to be construed literally, and it is more probable that Sulmo was confiscated and its lands assigned by Sulia to a body of his soldiers. (Zumpt, de Colon. p. 261.) At all events it is certain that Sulmo was a well-peopled and considerable town in B.C. 40, when it was occupied by Domitius with a garrison of seven cohorts; but the citizens, who were favour- ably alf'ected to Caesar, opened their gates to his lieutenant M. Antonius as soon as he appeared be- fore the place. (Caes. B. C. i. 18; Cic. ad Alt. viii. 4, 12 a,) Nothing more is known historically of Sulmo, which, however, appears to have always continued to be a considerable provincial town. Ovid speaks of it as one of the three municipal towns whose districts composed the territory of the Peligni (" Pehgni pars tertia ruris," Amor. ii. 16. 1) : and this is confirmed both by Pliny and the Liber Goloniarum ; yet it does not seem to have ever been a large jilace, and Ovid himself designates it as a small provincial town. {Amor. iii. 15.) From the Liber Coloniarum we learn also that it had received a colony, probably in the time of Augustus (Plin. iii. 12. s. 17; Lib. Colon, pp. 229, 260); though Pliny does not give it the title of a Colonia. In- scriptions, as well as the geographers and Itiner- aries, attest its continued existence as a numicipal town throughout the Roman Empire. (Strab. v. p. 241; Ptol.^iii. 1. §64; Tub. Pent.; Orell. /?wgt. 3856 ; Mommscn, Jnscr. R.N. pp. 287—289.) The modern city of Sulinona undoubtedly occupies the ancient site : it is a tolerably flourishing place and an episcopal see, having succeeded to that dig- nity after the fall of Valva, which had arisen on tlie ruins of Corfinium. (Romanelli, vol. iii. pp. 154 — 156.) The chief celebrity of Sulmo is derived from its having been the birthplace of Ovid, who repeatedly alludes to it as such, and celebrates its salubrity, and the numerous streams of clear and perennial water in which its neighbomdiood abounded. But, like the whole district of the Peligni, it was ex- tremely cold in winter, whence Ovid himself, and Silius Italicus in imitation of him, calls it " gelidus