Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/298

 282 BIAESI. all sides by lofty, or strongly marked mountain ridges, may be considered as constituting the natural limits of their territory. But towards the XE. we find that Alba Fucensis, though certainly belonging to this natural district, and hence sometimes de- scribed as belonging to the Slarsi (Ptol. iii. 1. § 57 ; Sil. Ital. viii. 507), was more properly an Aequian city [Alba Fucensis] ; while, on the other hand, the upper valley of the Liris (though separated from the lake by an inteiTening mountain ridge) was included in the Marsic territory, as Antinum (^Civita dAntinn) was unquestionably a Marsian city. [An- TiNUir.] On the N. the Marsi were separated from the Sabines and Vestini by the lofty group of the Monte Velino and its neighbours ; while on the S. another mountain group, of almost equal elevation, separated them from the northern valleys of Sam- nium and the sources of the Sagrus (^Sangro). On the E., a ridge of very inferior height, but forming a strongly marked barrier, divided them from the Pe- ligni, who occupied the valley of the Gizio, a tribu- tary of the Aternus. From its great elevation above the sea (2176 feet at the level of the lake), even more than from the mountains which surrounded it, the land of the Jlarsi had a cold and ungenial climate, and was ill adapted for the growth of corn, but pro- duced abundance of fruit, as well as wine, though the latter was considered harsh and of inferior qua- lity. (Sil. Ital. viii. 507; Athen. i. p. 26; Martial, xiii. 121, siv. 116.) The principal town of the Slarsi was JIarru- ■VIUM, the rains of which are still visible at S. Bene- detto, on tlie E. shore of the lake Fucinus. This ■was indeed (if Alba Fucensis be excluded) probably the only place within their territory which deserved the name of a city. The others, as we are told by Silius Italicus, though numerous, were for the most aart obscure places, rather fortified villages (castella) lelonged, in all probability, the three places mentioned ly Livy (x. 3) as having been taken in b. c. 301 by the dictator ]I. Valerius JIaximus, — Milionia, Plestina, and Fresilia ; all three names are other- ■nise wholly unknown, and there is no clue to their sie. Pliny, however, assigns to the JIarsi the fol- losping towns : — Anxantia (Anxantini), the name of which is found also (written Anxatini) in an inscription, and must have been situated near An- dnssano or Scurgoh, in the immediate neighbour- hotd oi Alha (Hoare's Classical Tbwr, vol. i. p. 367; llcmmsen, Tnscr. R. N. 5528) ; Antlxum (Anti- natBs), now Civita d'Antino; Lucus (Lucenses), moie properly Lucus Angitiae, still called Lvgo, on '.he W. bank of the lake ; and a " populus " or conmunity, which he terms Fucenses, who evidently derired their name from the lake ; but what part of its shores they inhabited is uncertain. Besides thest he notices a tradition, mentioned also by Soli- nus, that a town named Archippe, founded by the mytl.ical Jlarsyas, had been swallowed up in the waters of the lake. (Plin. iii. 12. s. 17; Solin. 2. § 6.) From the number of inscriptions found at Trasdcco, a callage near the S. end of the lake, it would appear to have been certainly an ancient site ; but its name is unknown. (Mommsen, I. c. p. 295.) The only town of the Mar.si mentioned by Ptolemy (iii. 1. § 57) besides Alba Fncensis, is a place which he calls Aex (AJ"!), a name in all probability cor- rupt, for which we should perhaps read "hv^a, the Anxatia or Anxantia of Pliny. Cerfknnia, a place laiown only from the Itineraries, was situated 3IAKSYABAE. on the Via Valeria, at the foot of the pass leading over the Jlons Iraeus into the valley of the PeUgni. This remarkable pass, now called the /orcacZJ Caruso, must in all ages have formed the principal line of communication between the Marsi and their eastern neighbours, the Peligni and Marrucini. Another natural line of communication led from the basin of the Fucinus near Celano to the valley of the Ater- nus near Aqtiila. It must be this line which was followed by a route obscurely given in the Ta- bula as leading from Aveia through a place called Frusteniae (?) to Alba and Marruvium (^Tab. Pent.). [E. H. B.] BIARSIGNI, a German tribe, mentioned only by Tacitus (^Germ. 43), probably occupying the north of Bohemia, about the Upper Elbe. In language and manners they belonged to the Suevi. (Comp, Zeuss, Die Deutschen, p. 124.) [L. S.] MAPtSO'NlA (Mapo-ori'o), or MARSO'NIUM (Tab. Pent.'), a place in Upper Pannonia, south of the river Savus,on the road between Siscia andServitium; is identified by some with the town of Issenoviz, at the mouth of the Unna into the Save. (Ptol. ii. 1 6. § 7; Geogr. Eav. iv. 19.) [L. S.] MARSYABAE (Mapo-uagai), a town of the Rha- manitae, an Arabian tribe, mentioned by Strabo as the utmost hmit of the Roman expedition under Aelius Gallus, the siege of which he was obliged to abandon after six days for want of water, and to commence his retreat. The only direct clue afforded by Strabo to the position of the town is that it was two days distant from the Frankincense country; but the interest attaching to this expedition — which promises so much for the elucidation of the classical geography of Arabia, but has hitherto served only still further to perplex it — demands an investiga- tion of its site in connection with the other places named in the only two remaining versions of the narrative. It will be convenient to consider, — (I.) the texts of the classical authors. (II.) The commen- taries and glosses of modern writers on the subject. (III). To offer such remarks as may serve either to reconcile and harmonise conflicting views, or to in- dicate a more satisfactory result than has hitherto been arrived at. In order to study brevity, the conclusions only will be stated; the arguments on which they are supported must be sought in the writings referred to. I. To commence with Strabo, a personal friend of the Roman general who com- manded the expedition, and whose account, scanty and unsatisfactory as it is, has all the authority of a personal narrative, in which, however, it will be advisable to omit all incidents but such as directly bear on the geography. ^Diciionary of Biography, Gallus, Aelius.] After a voyage of 15 days from Cleopatris [Arsinoe, No. 1], the expedition arrived at Leuce Come (Aeu/c?; Kw/xri), a considerable sea- port in the country of the Nabathaeans, under whose treacherous escort Gallus had placed his armament. An epidemic among the troops obliged him to pass the summer and winter at this place. Setting out again in the spring, they traversed for many days a barren tract, through which they had to carry their water on camels. This brought them to the terri- tory of Aretas, a kinsman of Obodas, the chief sheikh of the Nabathaei at the time. They took thirty days to pass through this territory, owing to the obstructions placed in their way by their guide Syl- laeus. It produced spelt and a few palms. 'I'hey next came to the nomad country named Ararena (jApaprivi)'), under a sheikh named Sabus. This it
 * han to^vns. (Sil. Ital. viii. 510.) To this class