Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1231

 TIERNA. in A.D. 270, in which tlie Alemanni, wlio had in- vaded Italy, were finally defeated by the Emperor Aurelian (Vict. Eint. 35): the other in A. d. 352, between the rival emperors Magnentius and Con- Btantius. {Ik 42.) [E. H. B.] TIERNA (called by Ptol. Akpva, iii. 8. § 10), a town of Dacia on the Danube, opposite to the castle of Zernes {Old Orsovci) in Moesia. In inscriptions we find it called Statio Tsieriiensis (Murat. p. 332. 3; Griselini, i. p. 265); in the Digest {de Cens. i. 8), Colonia Zernensium; and in the N'ot. Imp. (e. 3), Trans Diernis. [T. H. D.] TIFATA (to, Tiiparriva upT], Dion Cass. : Monte di Maddaloni), a mountain ridge on the borders of Campania and Samnium, only about a mile from the city of Capua. It is one of the last outlying masses of the Apennines, and is a long, narrow ridge of no great elevation, but above 12 miles in length from E. to W., and presenting a bold and steep mountain front towards the Campanian plain, upon which it looks directly down. The name was derived accord- ing to Festus from the woods of evergreen oak with which it was covered, '"' Tifata " being equivalent to " iliceta," though whether it was an Oscan or old Latin word, we are not told. (Fest. s. v. Tifata.') It is first mentioned during the war between the Samnites and Campanians which immediately pre- ceded the First Samnite War. On that occasion the Samnites in the first instance occupied the ridge itself with a strong force, and afterwards drew out their main army into the plain below, where they soon defeated the Campanians in a pitched battle. (Liv. vii. 29.) Livy calls it on this occasion " Ti- fata, imminentes Capuae colles," and elsewhere '• montem imminentem Capuae " (xsvi. 5), which well describes its character and situation. It was this opportune position with regard to Capua and the surrounding plain, that caused it to be selected by Hannibal as a post where he established his camp in b. c. 215, and from whence he long carried on his operations against the various cities of Cam- pania. (Id. sxiii. 36, 37, 39, 43, xxvi. 5; Sil. Ital. xii. 487.) At a later period it was in the jilain at the foot of Tifata that Sulla defeated the JIarian general Norbanus, b. c. 83; and in grati- tude for this victory, he consecrated a considerable tract of territory to Diana, the tutelaiy goddess of the mountain. (Veil. Pat. ii. 25.) We hence learn that that divinity had a celebrated temple on Tifata, and the " Dianae Tifatiuae fanum " is noticed also in inscriptions found at Capua. From one of these we learn that the consecrated territory was again assigned to the goddess by Vespasian. (Orell. Imcr. 1460, 3U55.) As the Tabula marks a sta- tion " Ad Dianae " near the V. extremity of the ridge, it is probable that the temple was situated in that neighbourhood. {Tab. Pent.) From the same authority we learn that Jupiter, who was worshipped on .so many of the highest points of the Apennines, had a temple also on Tifata, to which it gives the name of .lovis Tifatinus. It is pl.aced in the Tabula at the E. extremity of the ridge. {Tab. Pezit.) Again in b. c. 48 the fastnesses of this mountain ridge afforded a shelter to Milo when driven from Capua. (Dion Cass. xlii. 25.) This is the last time its name is mentioned in history, and it is not noticed by any of the geographers : in the middle ages the name seems to have been wholly forgotten; and the mountain is now called from a neighbouring village the Monte di Maddaloni. But the descrip- tions of Livy and Silius Italicus leave no doubt of TIFEKXUS. 1207 the identification. It is indeed, from its proximity to Capua and the abruptness with which it rise's from the plain, one of the most striking natural fea- tures of this part of Campania. [E. H. B.] TIFERNUM {Ti<pipvov) was the name of two cities or towns of Unibria, which were distinguished by the epithets Tiberinum and Metaurense (Flin iii 14. s. 19). 1 . TiFEKNUM Tiberinum, which appears to have been the most considerable place of the name, w;is situated on or near the site of the modern Citta di Castello, in the upper valley of the Tiber, about 20 miles E. of Arezzo. The Tifernates Tiberini are enumerated among the municipal communities of Umbria by Pliny {I. c); but our principal knowledge of the town is derived from the epistles of the younger Pliny, whose Tuscan villa was situated in its neigh- bourhood. For this reason the citizens had cho.sen him at a very early age to be their patron ; and in return for this honour he had built a temple there at his own expense. {ri . Ep. iv. 1.) He afterwards adorned this with statues of the various Roman em- peror.s, to which he in one of his letters begs leave to add that of Trajan {lb. x. 24). From the cir- cumstance that Pliny's villa itself was in Etruria (whence he always calls it his Tuscan villa), while Tifernum was certainly in Umbria, it is evident that the frontier of the two countries ran very near the latter place, very probably as that of the Tuscan and Roman States does at the present day, between Citta di Castello and Borgo S. Sepolcro. The po- sition of Tifernum on nearly the same site with the former of these cities seems to be well established by the inscriptions found there and reported by Cluverius (Cluver. Ital. p. 624 ; Gruter, Imcr. p. 494. 5). But it was probably situated rather further from the Tiber, as Pliny describes it as being, like Peragia and Ocriculuni, " not far" from that river (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9), while the modern Citta di Castello almost adjoins its banks. The precise site of Pliny's Tuscan villa cannot be ascertained, as the terms in which he describes its position {Ep. v. 6) will apply to many localities on the underfalls of the Apennines in the upper valley of the Tiber. It is, however, most probable that it was situated (as suggested by Cluverius) in the neighbourhood oi Borgo S. Sepola'o, about 10 miles N. of Cittii di Castello, rather than in the immediate vicinity of Tifernum. (Cluver. Ital. p. 590.) 2. TiFEKNi'.M JIetauuf.nsic was evidently, as its name implies, situated on the other side of the Apennines, in the valley of the Metaurus. Its name is mentioned only by Pliny among ancient writers ; but it is found in several inscri]itions (in which the citizens are termed, as by Pliny, Tifernates Meiau- renses), and the discovery of these at S. Anijilo in Vado leaves no doubt that Tifernum occujiied the same site as that town, near the sources of the Jle- laurus, about 20 miles above Foisomhroru',. (Forum Sempronii). (Cluver. Ital. p. 021 ; Orell. Inscr. 3049, 3305, 3902.) It is uncertain which of the towns above mentioned is the Tifernum of Ptolemy (iii. 1. § 53); fK'riiap.') the first has the belter claim. [K. II. B.] TIFERNUS {^Wfpvoi, Ptol.: Bl/enw), one of the most considerable rivei"8 of Samnium, which lias its sources in the heart of that country, ne.'ir Bovi- anum {liojaiui), in a lufiy group of momit.iins, now knoivn by the same name Jis the river {Montr Ili- I'erno'). This is evidently the sjime which is called by Livy the TiFKiUJUs Mo>s, which the Samnilo 4 II 4