Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/112

 96 ITALIA. ancient authors bearing iipon bis subject, but he had himself travelled over a great part of Italy, noting the distances and observing the remains of ancient towns. It is to be regretted that he has not left us more detailed accounts of these remains of antiquity, which have in many cases since disap- peared, or have not been visited by any more recent traveller. Lucas Holstenius, the contemporary and friend of Cluver, who had also visited in person nany of the more unfrequented districts of Italy, has left us, in his notes on Cluverius {Adiiotationes ad Cluverii Italiam Antiquam, 8vo. Romae, 1666), a valuable supplement to the larger work, as well as many important corrections on particular points. It is singular how little we owe to the researches of modern travellers in Italy. Not a single book of travels has ever appeared on that country which can be compared with those of Leake or Dodwell in Greece. Swinburne's Travels in the Two Sicilies is one of the best, and greatly superior to the more recent works of Keppel Craven on the same part of Italy (Tour through the Southern Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples, 4to. Lond. 1821 ; Excursions in the Ahruzzi and Northern Prooinces of Naples, 2 vols. Bvo. Lond. 1838). Eustace's well-known book (^Classical Tour through Italy in 1802) is almost wholly worthless in an antiquarian point of view. Sir R. Hoare's Classical Totir, intended as a sort of supplement to the preceding, contains some valuable notes from personal observation. Dennis's recent work on Etruria {Cities and Cemeteries of the Etruscans, 2 vols. Bvo. Lond. 1848) contains a far more complete account of the antiquities and topography of that interesting district than we pos- sess concerning any other part of Italy. Sir W. GcH's Tojwgraphj of Rome and its Vicinity (2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1834; 2nd edit. 1 vol. 1846*), taken in conjunction with the more elaborate work of Nibby on the same district {Anulisi della Carta dci Dintorni di Roma, 3 vols. 8vo. Rome, 1849), sup- plies much valuable information, especially what is derived from the personal researches of the author, but is f:ir from fulfilling all that we require. The work of Westphal on the same subject {Die Rumische Kampagne, 4to. Berlin, 1829) is still more imper- fect, though valuable for the care which the author bestowed on tracing out the direction and remains of the ancient roads throughout the district in ques- tion. Abeken's Mittel Italien (8ro. Stuttgart, 1843) contains a good sketch of the physical geo- grapliy of Central Italy, and much information con- cerning the antiquities of the difterent nations that inhabited it ; but enters very little into the topo- graphy of the regions he describes. The publi- cations of the Institute Archeologico at Rome (first counnenced in 1829, and continued down to the present time), though directed more to archaeo- looical than topographical researches, still contain many valuable memoirs in illustration of the topo- graphy of certain districts, as well as the still ex- isting remains in ancient localities. The local works and histories of particular dis- tricts and cities in Italy are innumerable. But very few of them will be found to be of any real service to the student of ancient geography. The earlier works of this description are with few ex- ceptions characterised by very imperfect scholarship, an almost total want of criticism, and a blind cre- the present work. ITALICA. dulity, or still blinder partiality to the native city of each particular author. Even on those j)oints on which their testimony would appear most likely to be valuable, — such as notices of ruins, inscriptions, and other remains of antiquity, — it must too often be received with caution, if not with suspicion. A striking exception to this general remark will be found in the treatise of Galateo, Z)e Situ lapygiae (8vo. Basel, 1551; republished by Graevius in the The- saurus Antiquitatum Italiae, vol. ix. part v.) : those of Barrio on Calabria (the modern province of the name) and Antonini on Lucania (Barrius, de Antiqicitate et Situ Calahriae, fol. Romae, 1737; Antonini, La Lvcanin, 4to. Naples, 1741), though not without their merit, are of far inferior value. The results of these local researches, and the con- clusions of their authors, will be for the most part found, in a condensed form, in the work of the Abate Eomanelli (Antica Topografa Istorica del Regno di Napoli, 3 vols. 4to. Naples, 1815), which, notwithstanding the defects of imperfect scholarship and great want of critical sagacity, will still be found of the greatest service to the student for the part of Italy to which it relates. Cramer, in his well-known work, has almost implicitly followed Eumanelii, as far as the latter extends; as for the rest of Italy he has done little more than abridge the work of Cluverius, with the corrections of his commentator Holstenius. Mannert, on the con- trary, appears to have composed his Geographie von Italien without consulting any of the local writers at all, and consequently without that de- tailed acquaintance with the actual geography of the country which is the indispensable foundation of all inquiries into its ancient topography. Reichard's work, which appears to enjoy some reputation in Germany, is liable in a still greater degree to the same charge:* while that of Forbiger is a valuable index of references both to ancient and modern writers, but aspires to little more. Kra- mer's monography of the Lake Fucinus {Der Fu- ciner See, 4to. Berlin, 1839) may be mentioned as a perfect model of its kind, and stands unrivalled as a contribution to the geography of Italy. Nie- buhr's Lectures on the Geography of Italy (in his VortrSge iiber Alte Lilnder u. Volker-kunde, pp. 318 — 576) contani many valuable and important views, especially of the physical geography in its connection with the history of the inhabitants, and should be read by every student of antiquity, though by no means free from errors of detail. [E. H. B.] ITA'LICA ('iTa'Awa, Strab. iii. p. 141 ; Ptol. ii. 4. §13; 'IraXiKi), Appian, Hlsp. 38; Steph. B. s. r.), a Roman city, in the country of the Tur- detani, in Hispania Baetica, on the right bank of the Baetis, opposite Hisi'ALis {Seville'), from which it was distant only 6 M. P. to the NW. {Itin. Ant. p. 413, comp. p. 432.) It was founded by Scipio Africanus, on the site of the old Iberian town of Saiicios, in the Second Punic War (b. c. 207), and peopled with his disabled veterans; whence its name, " the Italian city." It had the rank of a nmni- cipium : it is mentioned more than once in the his- tory of the Civil Wars : and it was the native place of the emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius the Great, and, as some say, of the poet Silius Italicus. (See Diet, of Greek and Rom. Biog. s. v.) this work are contained in Niebuhr's Lectures on, Roman History (vol. iii. p. xciv. 2d edit.).
 * It is this edition which is always referred to in
 * Some severe, but well merited, strictures on