Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1294

 i2ro VEMANIA, the river Rliubon, identical, accordins; to Ukert (iii. ' pt. ii. p. 435), with the Sclavoniun Veleti, or Lutizi, who dwelt on the Oder. [T. H. D.] VEMA'NIA, a town of Vindelicia, on the road be- tween AuEjusta Vindelicorum and Brigantinm (/^i.^wi. pp. 237, 251, 259 ; Tab. Pent), seems to have been a place of some importance, as it was the station of the prefect of the third legion, who had to guard thefrontier from this town to Campodunum. (Not. Imp.) The place now occupj'ing the site is called Wangen. [L. S.] VENAFRU JI (Ovevappov : Eth. Venafranus : Venafro), an inland city of Campania, situated n the upper valley of the Vultunius. and on the Via Latina, 16 miles from Casinumand 18 from Teanum. (Itin. Ant. p. 303.) It was the last city of Cam- pania towards the N., its territory adjoining on the W., that of Casinum (5. Germano), which was in- cluded in Latium, in the more extended sense of that name, and that of Aesernia on the KE., which formed part of Samnium. It stood on a hill rising above the valley of the Vulturnus, at a short distance from the right bank of that river. (Strab. v. p. 238.) No mention is found in history of Venafrum before the Roman conquest of this part of Italy, and it is uncertain to what people it originally belonged ; but it is probable that it had fallen into the liands of the Samnites before that people came into collision with Rome. Under the Roman government it appears as a flourishing municipal town : Cato, the most ancient author by whom it is mentioned, notices it as having manufactures of spades, tiles, and ropes (Cato, R. R. 135) : at a later period it was more noted for its oil, which was celebrated as the best in Italy, and supplied the choicest tables of the great at Rome under the Em])ire. (Hor. Carm. ii. 6. 16, Sat. ii. 4. 69 : Juv. V. 86; Martial, xiii. 98; Strab. v. pp. 238, 242; Varr. R. iS. i. 2. § 6; Plin. xv. 2. s. 3.) The only occasion on which Venafrum. figures in history is during the Social War. b. c. 88, when it was betrayed into the hands of the Samnite leader Marius Egnatius, and two Roman cohorts that formed the garrison were put to the sword. (Appian, B, C. i. 41.) Cicero more than once alludes to the great fertility of its territory (Cic. de Leg. Ayr. ii. 25, pro Plane. 9), which was one of those that the tri- bune Rullus proposed by his agrarian law to divide among the Roman citizens. This project proved abortive, but a colony was planted at Venafrum under Augustus, and the city continued henceforth to bear the title of a Colonia, which is found both in Pliny and in inscriptions. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9 ; Lib. Col. p. 239; Zunipt, de Colon, p. 347; Jlommsen, Inscj: R. N. 4643, 4703.) These last, which are very numerous, sufficiently attest the flourishing condition of Venafrum under the Roman Empire : it continued to subsist throughout the middle ages, and is still a town of about 4000 inhabitants. It retains the an- cient site as well as name, but has few vestiges of antiquity, except the inscriptions above mentioned and some shapeless fragments of an edifice supposed to have been an amphitheatre. The inscriptions are published by Monuusen. (Inscr. R. N. pp. 24.3—249.) [E. H. B.] VENANTODUXUM, apparently a town of the Catyeuchlani in Britannia Roniana, perhaps Hun- tingdon. The name appears in the Not. Imp. ; though Camden (p. 502) notes it as coined by Leland. [T. H. D.] VENASA (0vi]va3-a), a ra'.her important town in the district of Morimene in Cappadocia, possessing a celebrated temple of Zeus, to which no jess than VENETI 3000 slaves belonged. The high priest enjoyed an' annual income of fifteen talents, arising from the produce of the lands belonging to the temple. This sacerdotal dignity was held for life, and the priest was next in rank to the high priest of Comana. (Strab. xii. p. 537.) [L. S.] VENDUM (Ovev^ov, Str.ab. iii. p. 207, vii. p. 314), a town of the lapodes in Illyria, and on the borders of Pannonia. It is probably the modern Windhch-Griilz ; but some have identified it wit ti [T. H. D.] VE'NEDAE (Ouivi^ai, Ptol. iii. 5. § 19), or VENEDI (Tac. Germ. 46; Plin. iv. 13. s. 27), a considerable people of European Sarmatia, situated on the N. declivity of the mountains named after them, and along the Sinus Venedicus about the river Chro- nos, and as far as the E. bank of the Vistula. They were the northern neighbours of the Galindae and Gy- thones; but Tacitus was doubtful whether he should call them Germans or Sarmatians, though they more resembled the former than the latter in some of their customs, as the building of houses, the carrying of shields, and the habit of going on foot, whilst the Sarmatians travelled on horseback or in waggons. They sought a precarious livelihood by scouring the woods and mountains which lay between the Peucini and the Fenni. Whether they were the forefathers of the Wends is very problematical. (Cf. SchaflFarik, Slav. Altherth. i. p. 75, seq.. p. 151, seq. &c., Ueber die Abl-unft der Slaven, p. 24.) [T. H. D.] VENEDICI MONTES (ra Ou^vidiKo. opt), Ptol. iii. 5. § 1 5), certain mountains of European Sarma- tia, bounding the territory of the Venedae on the S. They were probably the low chain of hills which separates East Prussia from Poland. [T. H. D.] VENEDICUS SINUS {Oviv^^uchs K6-nos, Ptol. iii. 5. § 1), a b.ay of the Sarm.atian ocean, or -C«??ic, named after the Venedae who dwelt upon it. It lay to the E. of the Vistula, and was in all probability the Gulf of Riga ; a view which is strengthened by the name of Vindau belonging to a river and town in Courland. [T. H. D.] VE'XELI. [Unelli.] VENELIOCASII. [Velocasses.] VE'NERIS j^IOXS. [Apiirodisius Mons.] VE'NERIS PORTUS. [Poktus Veneris.] VE'NERIS PROM. [Hispania, Vol. I. p. 1084.] VE'NETI (Oi 6-'eTni). a Celtic people, whose coun- try Caesar names Venetia (5. G. iii. 9). The Ve- neti lived on the coast of the Atlantic 0B. G. ii. 34), and were one of the Armoric or JIaritime states of Celtica. On the south they bordered on the Nam- netes or Nannetes, on the east they had the Redones, and on the north the Osismii, who occupied the most western part oi Brttagne. Strabo (iv. p. 195) made a great mistake in supposing the Veneti to be Belgae. He also .supposes them to be the progenitors of the Veneti on the coast of the Hadriatic, whom others supposed to be Paphlagonians ; however, he gives all this only as conjecture. The chief town of the Veneti was Dariorigum, afterwards Veneti, now Vannes [Dariorigum.] The river Vilaine may have been the southern boundary of the Veneti. Caesar (5. G. iii. 9) describes the coast of Venetia as cut up by aestuaries, which interrupted the com- munication by land along the shore. Most of the towns {lb. 12) were situated at the extremity of tongues of land or peninsulas, so that when the tide was up the towns could not be reached on foot, nor could ships reach them during the ebb, for the water was then too shallow. This is the character