Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1301

 VENUSIA. liaustcd strength with a fresh body of colonists. (Liv. xxxi. 49.) From this time Venusia seems to have always continued to be a flourishing town and one of the most considerable jilaces in this part of Italy. It bore an important part in the Social War, having early joined in the outbreak, and became one of the principal strongholds of the allies in the south of Italy. (Appian, B. C. i. 39, 42.) In the second year of the war its territory was ravaged by the Eoman praetor Cosconius, but we do not learn that the city itself fell into his hands. {lb. .52.) At all events it did not suffer severely, as it is afterwards mentioned by Appian as one of the most flourishing cities of Italy (lb. iv. 3) ; and Strabo also notices it as one of the few cities in this region which retained their consideration in his time (v. p. 2.50). It received a colony of veterans under the Triumvirate (Appian, B. C. iv. 3 ; Zumpt, de Colon. p. 332), and seems to have retained the rank of a Colonia under the Empire, as we find it bearing that designation both in Pliny and in inscriptions. (Plin. iii. 11. s. 16 ; Orell. Inscr. 867 ; Mumm.-en, Inscr. R. N. 735, 745.) Its position on the Appian Way doubtless contributed to its prosperity, and it is men- tioned more than once by Cicero as a customary lialting-place in proceeding from Rome to Brundu- sium. (Cic. ad Att. Y.f>,xi. 5.) It appears in- deed that the great orator had himself a villa there, as one of liis letters is dated " de Venusino " {ad Fam. xiv. 20). But the chief interest of V^enusia is undoubtedly derived from its having been the birth- place of Horace, who was born there in the consul- ship of L. Manlius Torquatus and L. Aurelius Cotta, r.. c. 65. (Hor. Carm. iii. 21. 1.) The works of the poet abound in allusions to the neighbourliood of his native city, the fountain of Bandusia, the forests of Mount Vultur, &c. But it does not appear that he ever resided there in the latter years of his life, having lost his paternal estate, which was confiscated in the civil wars. (Id. Ep. ii. 2.) We hear nothing of Venusia under the Roman Empire, but it is certain from the Liber Coloiuarum, which mentions it among the Civitates Apuliae, and from the Itineraries, that it continued to exist as a city, and apparently one of the most considerable in this part of Italy. (Ptol. iii. 1. § 73 ; Lib. Colon. pp. 210, 261; Itin. Ant. pp. 104, 113, 121 ; Tab. Pent.) Tliis is further confirmed by inscriptions, in one of which it is called " splendida civitas Venu- sinorum." (Momnisen, /. R. N. 706.) It retained the same consideration throughout the middle ages, and is still an episcopal city with about 6000 inha- bitants. Its antiquities have been illustrated with a profusion of erudition by Italian writers, but it has few ancient remains of much interest ; though frag- ments of ancient edifices, mosaic pavements, &c. have been found on the site, as well as numerous in- scriptions. These last have been collected and pub- lished by Mons. Lupoli, in his Marmora Venusina COIN OF VENUSIA. VERCELLAE. 1277 (added as an appendix to the Iter Venvsinum, 4to- Neapoh, 1797), and more recently by Mommsen, in his Inscriptiones Reyni NeapoUtani (pp. 39—48). Concerning the antiquities of Venusia in general, see the work of Lupoli above quoted, and that of Cnnagha {Antiquitates Venusinae, 4to. Neapol, 1757.) TE H B 1 VEPITENUM or VIPITENUM, a place in the district occupied by the Venostes in Rhaetia, between Veldidena and Tridentum. {It. Ant. pp. 275, 280 ; Tab. Pent.) Its modern representative is, in all probability, the town of Sterzinff on the Eisach, at the foot of the Brenner. [L. S. I VEKAGRI {Ovapa-ypoi). The Veragri are placed by Caesar {B.C. iii. 1, 6) in the Valais of Swit- zerland between the Nantuates and the Seduni, [N.VNTUATES; Seduni]. Their town was Octodurus {Martigny), whence the Veragri are called Octodu- renses by Pliny [Octodurus]. Dion Cassius (xxxix. 5), using Caesar as he generally used him, says that the Veragri extended from the territory of the Allobroges and the Leman lake to the Alps; w^hich is not true. Strabo (iv. p. 204) mentions the Varagri, as he calls them, between the Caturiges and the Nantuatae ; and Pliny (iii. 20) between the Seduni and the Sahl^si: the Salassi are on the Italian side of the Alps in the Val d'Aosta. Livy (xxi. 38) places the Veragri among the Alps and on the road to the pass of the Pennine Alps, or the Great St. Bernard, which is correct. He says that the pass was occupied by half German tribes. [G. L.] VERBANUS LACUS {v Ovep§av6s Ai/avr] : Lago Maggiore), one of the principal lakes of Northern Italy, formed by the river Ticinus, where it first issues from the valleys of the Alps. (Plin. iii. 19. s. 24.) It is the largest of the three great lakes of Northern Italy, whence its modern name of Logo Maggiore; though Virgil appears to have considered the Larius as the largest, as he calls it, " Te, Lari masime," and singulariy enough does not mention the Verbanus at all. {Georg. ii. 159.) Strabo, by a strange mistake, describes the river Addua as flowing from the Lake Verbanus, and the Ticinus from the Larius (iv. p. 209): tliis may, periiaps, be an error of the copyists, but is more probably an ac- cidental blunder of the author. He gives the length of the lake at 400 stadia, or 40 geog. miles, which is somewhat below the truth, the actual lengtli being 46 geog. miles: its breadth does n9t ex- ceed 4 or 5 miles, except in one part, where it ex- pands to a width of from 8 to 10 miles. [E. H. B.] VERBICAE or VERB ICES {Ov(p€tKai or Omp- SiKis, Ptol. iv. 1. § 10), a people of Mauretania Tingitana. [T. H. D.] VERBIGENUS PAGUS. [Helvetii, Vol. L p. 1041.] VERBINUM, in Gallia, is placed by the It ins. on a road from Bagacum {Bavai) to Durocortorum {Reims). Duronum is between Bagacum and Ver- binuin [Duronum]. All the several distances between Bagacum and Durocortorum do not agree in the Antonine Itin. and the Table. The sum total of these distances in the Table is 53 M. P., and the Itin., though it makes the several distances amount to 63 U. P., still gives the sum total at 53 1. P. But these must be Gallic leagues, as D'Aiiville shows. He supposes Verbinum to be Vervins, which in fact is the same name as Verbinum. The table writes it Vironum. Vervins is in the department of Aisne, about 20 miles NE. of Laon. [G. L.J VERCELLAE {OvfpKiKKai, Ptol. iii. 1. § 36;