Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1352

 1328 USPE. farther south, opposing Germanicus on his return fnira the country of the Jlarsi. (Tac. Ann. i. 50, 51 ; comp. Dion Cass, xxxix. 47 ; Plut. Caes. 22.) In Strabo (vii. p. 292) they appear under the name of OyCiTToi, and Ptolemy (ii. 11. § 10) mentions a tribe of the name of OvCcnroi, whom some believe to be the same as the Usipetes ; but if this be correct, it would follow that the Usipetes migrated still farther south, as Ptolemy places these Vispi on the upper PJiine ; but as no other authority places them so far south, the question is altogether uncertain. About the year A. v. 70, the Usipetes took part in the siege of Jloguntiacum (Tac. Ann. siii. 54), and in A. D. 83 a detachment of them is mentioned as serving in the Pioman army in Britain. (Id. Agric. 27.) Afterwards they disappear from history. (Comp. Zeuss, Die Beutschm, p. 88 ; Wilhelin, Germanien, p. 139.) [L. S.] USPE, a town of the Siraci in Sarmatia, lying E. of the Tanais. It lay on a height, and was fortified with a ditch and walls; but the latter were com- posed only of mud confined in hurdles. (Tac. Ann. xii. 16.) ^ ^ [T. H. D.] USSADIUM (Oiiffaa^LOV, or Ouaa5iov aKpov, Ptol. iv. 1. §§ 4 and 12), a promontory of Maure- tania Tingitana, lying SV. of the promontory of Hercules. Now Cajie Osem. [T. H. D.] USTICA. [OSTEODES.] USUERNA or USUEPvVA. [Hosderbas.] UTHINA (Oi/9ii'o, Ptol. iv. 3. § 34), a town of Zeugitana, in Africa Propria, between Tabraca and the river Bagradas. (Cf. Id. viii. 14. § 11 ; Plin. v. 4. s. 4.) Erroneously written Uthica in Tab Pent. Now Udlne. [T. H. D.] UTICA (?; 'iTVKTi, Polyb. i. 75 ; Ptol. iv. 3. § 6 ; OuTiKi), Dion Cass. xli. 41 ; Eih. Uticensis; Liv. xxix. 35 ; Caes. £. C. ii. 36), a colony founded by the Tyrians on the N. coast of Zeugitana in Africa. (Veil. Pat. i. 2 ; Mela, i. 7; Justin, sviii. 4, &c.) The date of its foundation is said to have been a few years after that of Gades, and 287 years before that of Carthage. (Veil. Pat. I. c. ; Aristot. Mir ah. Ausc. 146; Gesenias, Monuni. Script. Lingtiaeque Phoenic. p. 291 ; Sil. Ital. Ptm. iii. 241, sqq. &c.) Its name signified in Phoenician, "ancient," or " noble" (npTIJ?) Gesen. ih. p. 420, and Thes. Ling. Eeb. p. 108.")). Utica was situated near the mouth of the river Bagradas, or rather that of its western arm, in the Bay of Carthage, and not far from the promontory of Apollo, which forms the western boundary of the bay. (Strab. xvii. p. 832 ; Liv. I. c; Ptol. I. c. ; Anpian, B. C. ii. 44, seq.; Procop. B. V. ii. 15, &c.) It lay 27 miles NW. of Car- thage. (Jtin. Ant. p. 22.) The distance is given as 60 stadia in Appian {Pun. 75), which is pro- bably an error for 1 60 ; and as a day's sail by sea. (Scylax, Geogr. Min. i. p. 50, ed. Huds.) Both Utica and Tunes might be descried from Carthage. (Strab. I. c. ; Polyb. i. 73 ; Liv. xxx. 9.) Utica possessed a good harbour, or rather harbours, made by art, with excellent anchorage and numerous landing places. (Appian, I. c. ; cf Barth, Wanderimgen durch die Kustenliinder des Mittelmeers, pp. Ill, 125.) On the land side it was protected by steep hills, which, together with the sea and its artificial de- fences, which were carefully kept up, rendered it a very strong place. (Liv. xxix. 35; App. Pun. 16, 30, 75; Diod. XX. 54; Vlut.Cat. Min. 58.) The surrounding country was exceedingly fertile and ^vell cultivated, and produced abundance of corn, of which there was a grciit export trade to Korae. (t^iv. xxv. 31.) UTICA. The hills behind the town, as well as the district near the present Porto Farina, contained rich veins of various metals ; and the coast was celebrated for producing vast quantities of salt of a very peculiar quality. (Plin. xxxi. 7. s. 39 ; Caes. B. C. ii. 37 ; Polyb. xii. 3, seq. ; Diod. xx. 8, &c.) Among the buildings of the town, we hear of a temple of Jupiter (Plut. Cat. Min. 5) and of one of Apollo, with its planks of Numidian cedar near twelve centuries old (Plin. xvi. 40. s. 79); of a forum of Trajan, and a theatre outside the city. (Tiro Prosper, ap. 3Iorcelli, Afr. Christ, iii. p. 40 ; Caes. B. C. ii. 25.) The tomb and statue of Calo on the sea-shore were ex- tant in the time of Plutarch (lb. 79). Shaw (Tra- vels, vol. i. p. 160, seq.) has the merit of having first pointed out the true situation of this celebrated city, the most important in N. Africa after Car- thage. Before the time of Shaw, it was sought some- times at Biserta, sometimes at Porto Farina; but that learned traveller fixed it near the little miser- able Diiar, which has a holy tomb called Boo-shatter; and with this view many writers have agreed (Falbe, Recherclies sur V Emplacement de Carthage, p. 66; Barth, Wanderimgen, if c. p. 109 ; Semilasso, pp. 39, 46; Bitter, Afrika, p. 913, &c.) Since the Roman times the muddy stream of the Bagradas has deposited at its mouth a delta of from 3 to 4 miles in extent, so that the innermost recess of the Bay of Carthage, on -which ancient Utica was situated, as well as the eastern arm of the river itself, have been converted into a broad morass, in which traces are still visible of the quays which formerly lined the shore, and of the northern mole which enclosed the harbour. More towards the E.. at the margin of the chain of hills which at an earlier period descended to the sea, may be discerned blocks of masonry be- longing to the ancient town wall. On the declivity of the hills towards the SE. are the remains of six cisterns, or reservoirs, 136 feet long, 15 to 19 feet broad, and 20 to 30 feet deep, covered with a re- markably thin arched roof. These are connected with an aqueduct, which may be traced seveial miles from Boo-shatter, in the direction of the hills: but its most remarkable remains are a treble row of arches by which it was carried over a ravine. These reservoirs may probably have served to furnish water for a naumachia in the neighbouring amphitheatre, which is hollowed out of the hills, and is capable of containing about 20,000 persons. The ancient site of the city is covered with ruins. Near its centre rises the highest summit of the chain of hills on which stood the citadel and, probably, also the an- cient temple of Apollo. The ruins of other temples and castles have been discovered, as well as the site of the senate house (Plut. Cat. Min. 67), which has been thought to be determined by the excavation of a number of statues. These are now preseiTed in the museum at Leyden. In the course of time, as is usual with such con- nections, Utica became severed from the mother-city, and first appears in history as independent of it. In the first commercial treaty between Rome and Carthage, in the year 509 B. c, Utica was probably included in it among the allies of the Carthaginians (Polyb. iii. 22) : in the second, in b. o. 348, it is expressly named (ib. 24 ; Diodor. xvi. 69, who however con- founds the two treaties), as well as in the alliance concluded by Hannibal with Philip of Macedon in the Second Punic War, b. c. 215 (Polyb. viii. 9). Sub- sequently, however, Utica appears to liave thrown oiF her dependence upon, or perhaps we should rather