Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1282

 1258 VANESIA. VANESIA, a place in Gallia Aquitanica, fixed by the Jerusalem Itin. between Elusa (Eanse) and Auscius, the capital of the Ausci, xii. from Elusa and viii. from Auscius. The place is supposed by D'Anville to be the passage of the Baise, a branch of the Garonne which comes from the Pyrenees. [G. L.] VANGIONES (Ovayyiovts). There were Van- giones in the army of Ariovistus when Caesar de- feated him. (B. G. i. 51.) Caesar means to say that they were Germans, but he does not say whether they were settled in Gallia. Pliny and Tacitus (Ann. xii. 27, Gertn. c. 28) also describe the Vangiones as Germans and settled on the left bank of the Rhine, where they are placed by Ptolemy (ii. 9. § IT) ; but Ptolemy makes a mistake in placing the Nemetes north of the Vangiones, and making the Vangiones the neighbours of the Tribocci, from whom in fact the Vangiones were separated by the Nemetes. In the war of Civilis (Tacit. Bkt. iv. 70), Tutor strengthened the force of the Treviri by levies raised among the Vangiones, Caracates [Caua- CATEs], and Tribocci. The territory of the Van- giones seems to have been taken from that of the Mediomatrici. Their chief town was Borbetomagus (Worms). [Borbetomagus.] [G. L.] VA'NNIA (Ovavvia, Ptol. iii. 1. § 32), according to Ptolemy a town of the Bechuni in Carnia or Carniola (cf. Plin. iii. 19. s. 2.3). Variously iden- tified with Venzone and Cividato. [T. H. D.] VAPINCUM, in Gallia Narbonensis, is not men- tioned by any authority earlier than the Antonine and Jerusalem Itins. In the Notitia of the Gallic Provinces it is styled " Civitas Vapincensium." The initial letter of the name has been changed to G, as in many other instances in the French language, and the modern name is Gap, which is the capital of the department of Bawtes-Alpes, and on a small stream which flows into the Durance. [G. L.] VARA, or VARAE, a town in Britannia Romana, between Conovium and Deva. {Kin. Ant. p. 482.) Variously identified with St. Asaph, Rndland, and Bodvary. [T. H. D.] VARADA (Oua'paSa, Ptol. ii. 6. § 57), a town of the Carpetani in Hispania Tarraconensis. [T.H.D.] VARADETUM, in Gallia, is placed by the Table on a road from Divona (Cahors) to Segodunum (Rodez) ; and the distance from Divona is xv. DAn- ville places Varadetum at Farate, which is on the road between Cahors and Rodez but the distances do not agree. Others fix the site at Puijourdes. [G. L.] VARAE. [Vara.] VARAGRI. [Veragri.] VARAR {Ovapap, Ptol. ii. 6. § 5), an estuary on the E. coast of Britannia Barbara, very probably the present Frith of Cromarty. [T. H. D.] VARCIANI (OvapKiavo'i), a tribe in Upper Pan- nonia, which is mentioned by both Pliny (iii. 28) and Ptolemy (ii. 15. § 2), but of which nothing is known, except that it probably occupied the western portion of Slavonia. [L. S.] VARCILENSES, the inhabitants of a town of the Carpetani in Hispania Tarraconensis. (Inscr. in Morales, Ant. pp. 17, 26, 28.) The modern Varciles still contains some ruins of the old town. [T.H.D.] VARDAEI (OiiapSa7ot, Ptol. ii. 17. § 8), an Illyrian tribe dwelling opposite to the island of Pharos (cf. Plin. iii. 23. s. 26). By Strabo they are called Ardiaei ('Ap5io?oi, vii. p. 315). In the Epitome of Livy (Ivi.) they are said to have been subdued by the consul Fulvius P'laccus. [T. H. D.] VARIA. VARDANES (OvapSdvris, Ptol. v. 9 §§5 and 28), a river of Asiatic Sarmatia, represented as falling into the Euxine to the SW. of the Atticitus. Probably, however, it was only the southern arm of the latter, the present Kuban. (Cf. Ukert, iii. pt. ii. p. 202.) [Atticitus.] [T. H. D.] VARDO, a tributary of the Rhone, which rises in the Cerennes, and is formed by two branches named respectively Gat-don dAlais and Gardon d'Anduze, from the names of these two towns. The Vardo flows in a deep valley, and passes under the great Roman aqueduct now named Pont du Card, below which it enters the Rhone on the west bank, near a place named Cons. The name Vardo occurs in Sidonius Apollinaris ; and in a Latin poem of three or four centuries' later date the name is Wardo, from which the modern name Gardon is formed, according to a common change of V into G. [Va- PINCUM.] [G. L.] VARDULI (OvapSovoi, Ptol. ii. 6. §§ 9, 66; BapSouAoi, Strab. iii. p. 162; where we also learn that at an earlier period they were called BapSuf;- rai), a people in Hispania Tarraconensis, who dwelt westward of the Vascones. as far as the N. coast (in the present Guijmscoa and Alava). (Mela, iii. 1; Plin. iii. 3. s. 4, iv. 20. s. 34.) [T. H. D.] VARGIO'NES (Ovapyiioves'), a German tribe, between the eastern bank of the Rhenus and jIons Abnoba, that is, perhaps between the Ruhr and the Ravhe Alp. (Ptol. ii. 11. § 9.) [L. S.] VARIA. l.(Ovapia: T7cora?'o), a town of the Sa- bines, situated in the valley of the Anio, on the right bank of the river, about 8 miles above Tibur. The name is con'uptly written in most editions of Strabo Valeria (OvaKepia). for which there is no doubt that we should read Varia (Ouapia, Strab. v. p. 237; Kramer, ad loc). Strabo there calls it a Latin city, as well as Carseoli and Alba, both of which were certainly Aequian towns, and subsequently included in Latium. But Horace speaks of it as the town to which the peasantry from his Sabine farm and the neighbouring villages used to resort (Hor. Ep. i. 14. 3), in a manner that certainly seems to imply that it was the municipal centre of that district, and if so, it must have then been reckoned a Sabine town. It is not mentioned by Pliny, but according to his limitation was certainly included among the Sabines, and not in Latium. It was probably never a large place, though the remains of the ancient walls still extant prove that it must at one time have been a fortified town. But it early sank into a mere village; the old commentator on Horace calls it " Oppidum in Sabinis olim, nunc vicus " (Schol. Cruq. ad I. c): and hence in the middle ages it came to be called Vicus Varia, whence its modern appellation of Vico- varn. It is still a considerable village of above 1000 inhabitants, standing on a hill to the left of the Via Valeria, and a short distance above the Anio, which flows in a deep valley beneath. The Tabula and the old commentary on Horace both place it 8 miles above Tibur, which is very nearly exact. (Tab. Pent. Comm. Cruq. I. c.) 2. Phny mentions among the cities of Calabria a place called Varia, " cui cognomen Apulae" (iii. 11. s. 16) ; but the name is otherwise unknown, and it is probable that we should read " Una ;" the place meant being apparently the same that is called by other writers Hyria or Uria [Hyria]. [E. H. B.] VA'RIA (Ouapia, Strab. iii. p. 162 ; Ouapeia, Ptol. ii. 6. § 55), a town of the Berones in Hispania Tarraconensis, situated on the Iberus, which here be-