Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/377

 MINTURNAE. to execute his task ; and hereupon the magistrates determined to send llarius away, and put him on board a ship which conveyed him to Africa. (Plut. Mar. 36—39; Appian,^. C. i. 61, 62; VelL Pat. ii. 19 ; Vah jIax. i. 5. § 5. ii. 10. § 6 ; Liv. Eint. Ixxvii. ; Juv. X. 276; Cic.^jj-o Plane. 10, jn-o Sext. 22.) We hear little more of ilinturnae under the Re- public, though from its position on the Appian Way it is repeatedly noticed incidentally by Cicero (ad Alt. V. 1, 3, vii. 13, xvi. 10.) It still retained in his time the title of a colony ; but received a ma- terial accession from a fresh body of colonists esta- blished there by Augustus ; and again at a later period under Caligula. (Lib. Colon, p. 235; Hy- gin. de Limit, p. 178; Zumpt, de Colon, p. 355.) We find it in consequence distinguished both by Pliny and Ptolemy by the title of a colony, as well as in inscriptions (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. § 63 ; Orell. Inscr. 3762 ; Jlommsen, /. R. N. 4058 — 4061); and notwithstanding its unhealthy situ- ation, which is alluded to by Ovid, who calls it " jMinturnae graves" (.l/e<. xv. 716), it appears to have continued throughout the Roman Empire to have been a flourishing and important town. Its prosperity is attested by numerous inscriptions, as well as by the ruins still existing on the site. These comprise the extensive remains of an amphi- theatre, of an aqueduct which served to bring water from the neighbouring hills, and the substructions of a temple, as well as portions of the ancient walls and towers. (Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 430; Eustace, Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 318.) AH these remains are on the right bank of the Liris, but according to Pliny the city extended itself on both sides of the river; and it is certain that its territory comprised a considerable extent on both banks of the Liris. (Hygin. de Limit, p. 178.) The period of its de- struction is unknown : we find it still mentioned in Procopius (5. G. iii. 26) as a city, and apparently a place of some strength; but at the commence- ment of the middle ages all trace of it is lost, and it was probably destroyed either by the Lombards or Saracens. The inhabitants seem to have withdrawn to the site of the modem Trajetto, a village on a hill about 1 g mile distant, the name of which is obviously derived from the passage of the Liris (Ad Trajectum), though wholly inapplicable to its pre- sent more elevated position. Between Minturnae and the sea-coast, at the mouth of the Liris, was the celebrated grove of Jlarica [Lucus Maricae], with a temple or shrine of the goddess of that name, which seems to have enjoyed a great reputation for sanctity. (Plut. JIar. 39 ; Strab. v. p. 233.) She appears to have been properly a local divinity; at least we do not meet with her worship under that name any where else in Italy; though many writers called her the mother of Latinus, and others, perhaps on that very account, identified her with Circe. (Virg. Aen. vii. 47; Serv. ad loc; Lactant. Inst. Div. i. 21.) We may probably conclude that she was connected with the old Latin religion; and this will explain the veneration with which her grove and temple were regarded, not only by the inhabitants of Wiutumae, but by the Romans themselves. Frequent allusions to them are found in the Latin poets, but always in close connection with Minturnae and the Liris. (Hor. Carm. iii. 17. 7; Lucan. ii. 424; Martial, siii. 83; Claudian, Proh. et 01. Cons. 259). Strabo calls Minturnae about 80 stadia from For- miae, and the same distance from Sinuessa : the MISENU]L 361 Itineraries give the distance in each case as 9 miles. (Strab. V. p. 233; Iti?i. Ant. pp. 108, 121.) After crossing the Liris a branch road quitted the Appian Way on the left, and led by Suessa to Teanum, where it joined the Via Latina. [E. H. B.] Ml'NYA (Mivva), a city of Thessaly, said by Stephanus B. (.s. r.) to have been formerly called Halmonia ('AAfxcavia), and to have derived its name from Minyas. It is mentioned by Pliny (iv. 8. s. 15) under the name of Almon, and in conjunction with Orchomenus Minyeus in Thessaly. (See MUller, Orchomenos mid die Minyer, p. 244, 2nd ed.) Ml'NYAE (Mij/i;ai), an .indent race in Greece, said to have been descended from Llinyas, the son of Orchomenus, who originally dwelt in Thessaly, and afterwards migrated into Boeotia, and founded Orchomenus. [For details see Okciiomeni's.] Most of the Argonautic heroes were Minyae ; and some of them having settled in the island of Lemnos, continued to be called Minyae. These Lenmian Minyae were driven out of the island by the Tyr- rhenian Pelasgians, and took refuge in Lacedaemon, from whence some of them migrated to Thera, and others to Triphylia in Elis, where they founded the six Triphyliau cities. (Herod, iv. 145 — 148.) [Elis, p. 818.] MINYEIUS (MivvrjLos), the ancient name of the river Auigrus in Elis. (Horn. //. xi. 721.) [Ani- GRUS.] MIROBRIGA (Mip<5gp£7o). 1. Also called JIerobkica (Plin. iv. 12. s. 35; Coins), a town of the Celtici in Lusitania, upon the Ocean (Ptol. ii. 5. § 6), identified by some with Odemira. by others with Sines. (Mentelle, Esp. Anc. p. 260 ; Ukert, ii. 1. p. 390.) 2. A Rom.an municipium, in the territory of the Turduli, in Hispania Baetica, on the road from Emerita to Caesaraugasta, now Capilla, N. of Ftiente Ovejuna. (Ptol. ii. 4. § 13; Plin. iii. 1. s. 3; It. Anton, p. 444; Inscr. Gruter, pp. 76, 257.) 3. A town of the Oretani, in Hispania Tarraco- nensis, mentioned only by Ptolemy (ii. 6. § 59). 1ISE'NU] (MiffTjj'o;'), was the name of a re- markable promontory on the coast of Campania (Mi- SEXUJi Promontorium, Tac. Ann. xiv. 4; some- times also MisENi Promontorium, Liv. xxiv. 13; T^ MiaTjf bi' &Kpov, Strab. : Capo di 3Iiseno). to- gether with the adjacent port (Portus Mlsenus, Flor. i. 16), and a town which grew up adjoining it, after the harbour had become the station of the Roman fleet. The promontory of Misenum forms the northern limit of the celebrated gulf called the Crater or Sinus Cumanus (the Bay of Naples). It is an almost isolated headland, forming a hill of consider- able elevation, and of a somewhat pyramidal form, joined to the mainland opposite to Procida only by a narrow strip of low land, between which and the con- tinu.ition of the coast by Bauli and Baiae is a deep inlet forming the harbour or port of Slisenum (Strab. V. p. 243). A large stagnant pool or basin, still deeper in, now called the Mare 3Io7-to, communi- cated with this outer port by a very narrow entrance, which could be closed by a bridge or causeway. It is probable that the headland of IMisenum itself at one time formed part of the encircling heights of the crater of a long extinct volcano, of which the Mare Morto occupies the centre, and the Monte di Pro- cida (as the headland opposite to the island of that name is now called) constituted the opposite margin. (D.aubeny On Volcanoes, p. 202, 2nd edit.)