Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1354

 1330 VULTUENUM. to the S. of the modern city of Melfi, and nearly due W. of Venosa (Venusia), and attains an elevation of 4433 feet above the level of the sea. Its regular conical form and isolated position, as vcell as the crater-like basin near its summit, at once mark it as of volcanic origin; and this is confirmed by the nature of the rocks of which it is composed. Hence it cannot be considered as properly belonging to the range of the Apennines, from which it is separated by a tract of hilly country, forming as it were the base from which the detached cone of Monte Voltore rises. No ancient author alludes to the volcanic character of Mount Vultur; but the mountain itself is noticed, in a well known passage, by Horace, who must have been veiy familiar with its aspect, as it is a prominent object in the view from his natire city of Venusia. {Carm. iii. 4. 9 — 16.) He there terms it " Vultur Apulus," though he adds, singu- larly enough, that he was without the limits of Apulia (" altricis extra limen Apuliae ") when he was wandering in its woods. This can only be ex- plained by the circumstance that the mountain stood (as above stated) on the confines of three provinces. Lucan also incidentally notices Jit. Vultur as one of the mountains that directly fronted the plains of Apulia. (Lucan, ix. 185.) The physical and geological characters of Jlount Vultur are noticed by Romanelli (vol. ii. p. 233), and more fully by Daubeny {^Description of Vulctmoes, chap. 11). [E. H. B.] VULTURNUJ^OuouATOt/pcoj/: Castel Volturno), a town of Campania, situated on the sea-coast at the mouth of the river of the same name, and on its S. bank. There is no trace of the existence of any town on the site previous to the Second Punic War, when the Romans constructed a fortress (castellum) at the mouth of the river with the object of securing their possession of it, and of establishing a magazine of corn for the use of the army that was besieging Capua. (Liv. xxv. 20, 22.) It is probable that this continued to exist and gradually grew into a town; but in b. c. 194, a colony of Roman citizens ■was established there, at the same time with Liter- num and Puteoli. (Id. xxxiv. 45; Varr. L. L. v. 5.) The number of colonists was in each case but small, and Vulturnum does not appear to have ever risen into a place of much importance. But it is noticed by Livy as existing as a town in his time ('' ad Vul- turni ostium, ubi nunc urbs est," xxv. 20), and is mentioned by all the geographers. (Strab. v. p. 238: Plin. iii. 5. s. 9;"iMeL ii. 4. § 9; Ptoh iii. 1. § 6.) We learn also that it received a fresh colony under Augustus {Lib. Colon, p. 239), and retained its colonial rank down to a late period. It became an episcopal see before the close of the Roman Em- pire, and appears to have continued to subsist down to the 9th century, when it was destroyed by the Saracens. In the 17th century a new fortress was built nearly on the ancient site, which is called Castel Volturno or Castelt a Mare di Volturno. But fiom the remains of tliQ ancient city still visible it appears that this occupiS a site somewjiat nearer the sea than the modern fortress. Several inscrip- tions have been found on the spot, which attest the colonial rank of Vulturnum as late as the age of the Antonines. (Jlonmisen, /. R. iV. 3535 — 3539.) [E. H. B.] VULTURNUS {OvovTovpvos: Volturno), the most considerable river of Campania, which has its sources in the Apennines of Samnium, about 5 miles S. of Aufidena, flows within a few miles of UXAMA. Aesernia on its left bank, and of Venafmm on its right, thence pursues a SE. course for about 35 miles, till it receives the waters of the Calor (C«- loi-e), after which it turns abruptly to the WSW., passes under the walls of Casilinum (Capoua), and finally discharges itself into the Tyrrhenian sea about 20 miles below th.at city. Its mouth was marked in ancient times by the town of the same name (Vulturnum). the site of which is still occu- pied by the modern fortress of Castel Volturno [Vulturnum]. (Strab. v. pp. 238, 249; PHn. iii. 5. s. 9; Mel. ii. 4. § 9.) The Vulturnus is a deep and rapid, but turbid stream, to which character we find many allusions in the Roman poets. (Virg. Aen. vii. 729; Ovid. Alet. xv. 714; Lucan. ii. 423; Claudian. Paneg. Proh. et 01. 256; Sil. Ital. viii. 530.) A bridge was thrown over it close to its mouth by Domiiian, when he constructed the Via Domitia that led from Sinuessa direct to Cumae. (Stat. Silv. It. 3. 67, &c.) From the important position that the Vulturnus occupies in Campania, the fertile plains of which it traverses in their whole extent from the foot of the Apennines to the sea, its name is frequently mentioned in his- tory, especially during the wars of the Romans with the Campanians and Samnites, and again during the Second Punic War. (Liv. viii. 11, x. 20,31, sxii. 14, &c. ; Polyb. iii. 92.) Previous to the construction of the bridge above mentioned (the remains of which are still visible near the modern Castel Volturno'), there was no bridge over it below Casilinum, where it was crossed by the Via Appia. It appears to have been in ancient times navigable for small vessels at least as far as that city. (Liv. xxvi. 9; Stat. Silv. iv. 3. 77.) Its only considerable tributary is the Calor, which brings with it the waters of several other streams, of which the most important are the Ta- MARUS and Sabatus. These combined streams bring down to the Vulturnus almost the whole waters of the land of the Hirpini; and hence the Calor is at the point of junction nearly equal in matrnitude to the Vulturnus itself [E. H. B.] VUNGUS, VICUS, in North Gallia, is placed by the Antonine Itin. on the road from Durocortorum {Reims) to Augusta Trevirorum {Trier). Vungus is between Durocortorum and Epoissum {Iptsch, Ivois), or Epusum [Epoissum], and marked xxii. leugae from each place. The direction of this road from Reims is to the passage of the Maas or Meuse at Mouson; and before it reaches Irois it brings us to a place named Vonc, near the river Aisne, a little above Attigni. This is a good example, and there are many in France, of the old Gallic names continuing unchanged. Flodoard, ia his history of Reims, speaks of " Municipium Von- gum," and the " Pagus Vongensis circa Axonnae ripas." The Axonna is the Aisne. The Roman road may be traced in several places between Reims and Vonc; and there is an indication of this road in the place named V(m d'Etre (de strata), at the passage of the river Suippe. [G. L.] UXACONA, a town belonging apparently to the Cornavii in Britannia Romana, on the road from Deva to Londinium, and betvreen Urioconium and Pennocrucium. Camden (p. 653) and others identify it with Okemjate, a village in Shrop- shire ; Horsley (p. 419) and others with Sheriff Hales. [T. H. D.] UXAMA (Oy|a/ua 'Ap7f'AAai, Ptol. ii. 6. § 56), a town of the Arevaci in Hispania Tarraconensis, on