Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1306

 1282 VESPASIAE. '"ock which Caesar describes as occupying the neck of land, -where the river does not flow. The lower town is on the other side of the river opposite to the peninsula, with which it is connected by a stone bridge, the foundations of which are Roman. There is a Roman triumphal arch with a single pas- sage. The date of its construction does not appear. This arch which was nearly hidden by rubbish and buildings has been partially uncovered and restored within the present century. It is decorated with sculptures. There are some remains of the aque- duct which supplied Vesontio with water from a distant source. It was constructed of a soft stone. It terminated in the town in a vast reservoir of an oval form, which was covered by a roof supported by columns. The water was distributed from the re- servoir all through the town : and in many parts of Besanqon there have been found traces of the con- duits which conveyed the water to the private houses. (Penny Cyclopaedia, art. Besanqon ; Richard et Hocquart, Guide du Voyageur.') [G. L.] VESPA'SIAE. [NuKsiA.] VESPERIES, a town of the Varduli in Hispania Tarraconensis. (Plin. iii. 20. s. 34.) It is identi- fied with the present Beittieo. (Cf. Mentelle, Esp. Mod. p. 37.) [T. H. D.] VESTINI (OvriffTlvoi), a people of Central Italy, who occupied a mountainous tract extending from the coast of the Adriatic to the lofty mountains near the sources of the Aternus. Here they met the Sabines, whose territory bounded them on the W. ; thence they were bounded by the high moun- tain range which forms the southern barrier of the valley of the Aternus, and separated them from the Aequi and Marsi; while towards the S. and E. the river Aternus itself, from the point where it takes the sudden bend towards the NE., became the limit of their territory, and their frontier towards the Pe- ligni and Marrucini. Along the coast of the Adriatic they held only the narrow space between the mouth of the Aternus and that of the Matrinus, a distance of about 6 miles ; the latter river apparently formed the northern limit of their territory from its mouth to its source, and thence to the high ridge of the Central Apennines their exact frontier cannot be traced. But it is almost immediately after passing the point where the Vestini adjoined the Praetutii on tlie one hand and the Sabines on the other, that the chain of the Apennines rises abruptly into the lofty group or mass, of which the Monte Corno (commonly called the Gran Sasso d Italia) is the highest summit. This mountain is the most ele- vated in the whole range of the Apennines, attaining to a height of 9500 feet; and those immediately ad- joining it are but little inferior, forming a rugged and irregular mass of mountains, which is continued without interruption by a range of inferior but still very considerable elevation, in a SE. direction. This range is almost continuous with the equally lofty ridge of the Monte Morrone, the two being separated only by the deep and narrow gorge below PopoU, through which the Aternus finds its way to the sea. Hence the territory of the Vestini is naturally divided into two distinct regions, the one consisting of the upper valley of the Aternus, W. of the lofty mountain range above described, the other of the tract on the E. of the same mountains, sloping gradually thence to the sea. This last district is very hilly and rugged, but has the advantage ofa far milder climate than that of the basin of the Aternus, which is a bleak and cold upland region, Laving much analogy VESTINI. with the valley of the Peligni (of which it may be considered in some degree as a continuation), but from its considerable elevation above the sea (2380 feet in its upper part) suffering still more severely from cold in winter. The Vestini, however, did not occupy the whole of the valley of the Aternus ; Amiternum, near the sources of that river, which was one of the oldest abodes of the Sabines, having continued, even in the days of Pliny, to belong to that people, and though Ptolemy assigns it to the Vestini, it is probable that in this, as in many si- milar cases, he was guided by geographical views rather than the real ethnical distribution of the tribes. (Strab. v. p. 228; Plin. iii. 12. s. 17; Ptol. iii. 1. § 59.) But the precise hue of demar- cation between the Vestini and the Sabines, cannot now be determined. No author has left to us any distinct statement concerning the origin and affinities of the Vestini, but there seems to be no reason to doubt that they were, in connnon with the other tribes by which they were surrounded, a Sabine race. It would indeed have been almost impossible for that people to have extended themselves to the S., and sent forth their numerous colonies, the Peligni, the Samnites, &c., had not the valley of the Aternus been already occupied by a kindred and friendly race. The close connection which we find subsisting between the four tribes of the Vestini, Marrucini, Peligni, and Marsi, may be also taken as a strong presumption of their common origin, and there seem good reasons for supposing them all to have been derived from a Sabine stock. The first mention of the Vestini in history occurs in b. c. 324, when they concluded an alliance with the Samnites against Rome. It was feared that their example would be speedily followed by the Blarrucini, Peligni, and Marsi, but this was not the case, and the Vestini, unsupported by their allies, were unable to resist the Roman arms : they were defeated and dispersed by the consul D. Junius Brutus, and took refuge in their fortified towns, of which Cutina and Cingilia were successively taken by assault. (Liv. viii. 29.) From this time we hear nothing more of the Vestini till b. c. 301, when they concluded a treaty with the Romans, which ap- pears to have been an alliance on favourable terms (Id. X. 3); and from this time the Vestini became the faithful allies of the rising republic. In the enumeration of the forces of the Italian allies in B. c. 225, Polybius mentions the Vestini, together with the Marsi, Marrucini, and Frentani (the Peligni being omitted), and estimates their joint contingent at 20,000 foot and 4000 horse soldiers (ii. 24); but we have no means of judging of the proportion furnished by each nation. No other mention is found in history of the Ves- tini, with the exception of casual notices of their troops serving as auxiliaries in the Roman armies (Ennius, Ann. Fr. viii. 6 ; Liv. xliv. 40), until the outbreak of the Social War, in b. c. 90. On this occasion they followed the example of the Marsi and Pehgni, as well as of their more immediate neighbours the Picentines, and were among the first to declare themselves in insurrection against Rome. Liv. Epit. Isxii.; Oros. v. 18; Appian, B. C. i. 39.) There can be no doubt that throughout that contest they furnished their contingent to the armies of the Marsi; but their name is not specially mentioned till towards the close of the war, when we learn that they were defeated and reduced to submission, ap- parently somewhat sooner than the other confede-