Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/438

 422 NESULIUM. iv. 1 1, vlii. 1 6 ; Ne'ffiros', Hesiod. Thcog. 3-il ; Ptol. iii. 12. § 2, iii. 13. § 7; MeiTToy, Zonar. ix. 28: Nesto, Turki.sh Karasii), the river which constituted the boundary of Thrace and Slacedonia in the time of Philip and Alexander, an arrangement which the Romans continued on their conquest of the latter country. (Strab. vii. p. 331 ; Liv. xlv. 29.) Thu- cydides (ii. 96) states that it took its rise in Mt. Scomius, whence the Hebrus descended ; being ,^ in fact, that cluster of great summits between Ghius- tendil and Sofia, which sends tributaries to all the great rivers of the N. of European Turkey. It dischartjed itself into the sea near Abdera. (Herod, vii. 109; comp. Theophrast. //. P. iii. 2; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 215.) [E. B. J.] NESU'LIUM (Nrjo-ouAioj/), a harbour on the coast of Cilicia, between Celenderis and Seleucia, 60 stadia east of Mylae. (Stadiasmus Mar. Mag. §§ 1 66, 167.) [L.S.] NETO'PHAH (NeT&)(/)a),a town of Judah, men- tioned by Ezra (ii. 22) and Nehemiah (vii. 26), be- tween Bethlehem and Anathoth, if anything can be concluded from the order in which the names occur, which is so questionable, that Beit-Ntttif may be, perhaps, safely regarded as its modern represen- tative. It is situated on the highest point of a lofty ridge, towards the NW. of the ancient tribe of Judah. (Piubinson, Bib. Res. vol. ii. pp. 341 — 347 ; Reland, Palaeslina. pp. 650, 909.) [G. W.] NETUM or KEE'TUM Qiimov, Ptol. iii. 4. § 13; Netum, Cic, Sil. Ital. : Eth. Netinus, Cic, Plin. : Noto Vecchio), a considerable town in the S. of Sicily, near the sources of the little river Asi- narus {Falconara), and about 20 miles SW. of Sy- racuse. We find no mention of it in early times, but it was probably subject to Syracuse; and it is in accordance with this, that, by the treaty con- cluded in B. c. 263 between the Romans and Hieron king of Syracuse, Neetum was noticed as one of the cities left in suljjection to that monarch. (Diod. xxiii. Exc. H. p. 502.) We have no account of the circumstances which subsequently earned for the Netini the peculiarly privileged position in which we afterwards find them: but in the days of Cicero Netum enjoyed the rights of a " foederata civitas" like Messana and Tauromenium ; while, in Pliny's time, it still retained the rank of a Latin town (civitas Latinae conditionis^, a fovour then enjoyed by only three cities in the island. (Cic. Verr. iv. 26, v. 22, 51 ; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14 ; Ptol. I. c. ; Sil. Ital. xiv. 268.) Ptolemy is the last ancient writer that mentions the name; but there is no doubt that it continued to exist throughout the middle ages ; and under the Norman kings rose to be a place of great importance, and the capital of the southern province of Sicily, to which it gave the name of Val di Noto. But having suffered repeatedly from earthquakes, the inhabitants were induced to emigrate to a site nearer the sea, where they founded the modern city of Noto, in 1703. The old site, which is now known as Noto Vecchio, was on the summit of a lofty hill about 8 miles from the modern town and 12 from the sea-coast : some re- mains of the ancient amphitheatre, and of a building called a gymnasium, are still visible, and a Greek inscription, which belongs to the time of Hieron II. (Fazell. de Reb. Sic. iv. 2 ; Castell. Jnscr. Sit-il. p. 101.) [E. H. B.J NEUDRUS (NeDSpos, Arrian, Jndic. c. 4), a small stream of the Panjab, which flowed into the Hy- draotes {Ravi or Jravati) from the country of the NICAEA. Attaceni. It has not been identified with any modem river. [v.] NEVIRNUM [NoviODUNOTi.] NEURI (Neupoi), a nomad people of the N. of Europe, whom Herodotus (iv. 17, 51, 100, 125) places in the centre of the region which now com- prises Poland and Lithuania, about the river-basin of the Bug. They occupied the district (tV 'Nevploa 7'^J') which lay to the NW. of the lake out of which the Tyras rises, and which still bears the name in Slavonic of Nurskazemja^ with its chief town Nur, and a river Nureiz. Some time before the expedition of Dareius, they had been obliged to quit their original seats, on account of a quantity of serpents with which it was infested, and had taken refuge with the Budini in the district about the Bug, which had till then belonged to that people. Though not of the same origin, in customs they resembled the Scythians, and bore the reputation of being enchanters (y6r]Tes), like the " Schamas " among the Siberian nomads of the present day. Once a year — so the Scythians and the Greeks of Olbia told Herodotus — each of them became for a few days a wolf ; a legend which still lingers among the people of Volhijnia and White Russia. Pom- ponius Jlela (ii. 1. §§7, 13) repeats this story from Herodotus. (Comp. Plin. viii. 34; Cinxzn, Symbolik, vol. ii. p. 131.) The Sarmatian Navari of Ptolemy (Nouapoi, iii. 5. § 25) are the same as the Neuri, the name appearing in a Grecized form; but there is some difficulty in harmonising his statements, as well as those of Euphorus {ap. Anon. Poet, (vvlgo Sc>/mn. Ch."), v. 843; Anon. Peripl. p. 2) and of Ammianus Marcellinus (xxxi. 2. § 14), with the more trustworthy accounts of Herodotus. Schafiirik {Slav. Alt. vol. i. pp. 194—199) refers the Neuri to the Wendish or Servian stock. [E. B. J.] NIA (Ni'a), a river of Interior Libya, discharging itself into the Hesperian bay, in 13° 30' E. long, and 90° N. lat. (Ptol. iv. 6. § 7"). Colonel Leake {Journ. Geog. Soc. vol. ii. p. 18) has identified it with the Rio Grande, which takes its rise on the border of the highland of Senegambia, according to MoUien's map (Trav. in the Interior of Africa, 1820), in 10° 37' N. lat. and 13° 37' W. long. [E. B. J.] NICAE, NICE (Ni'/cu), or'^NICAEA (N//caia), a town of Thrace, not far from Adrianople, the scene of the defeat and death of the emperor Valens by the Goths in a. d. 378. (Amm. Marcell. xxxi. 13; Cedren. ii. p. 183; Sozom. iv. 19; Theoph. p. 772.) It has been variously identified with Kuleli and Kululeu. [T. H. D.] NICAEA. I. In Asia. 1. (NiKafa;£'fA. Nwaieuy or Niiiaivs : Ishnik), one of the inost important towns of Bithynia, of which Strabo (xii. p. 565) even calls it the metropolis, was situated on the eastern shore of lake Ascania or Ascanius, in a wide and fertile plain, which, however, was somewhat unhealthy in summer. The place is said to have been colonised by Bottiaeans, and to have originally borne the name of Ancore (Steph. B. s. v.) or Helicore (Geogr. Min. p. 40, ed. Hudson) ; but it was subsequently destroyed by the Mysians. A few years after the death of Alexander the Great, Antigonus, probably after his victory over Eumenes, inB. c. 316, rebuilt the town, and called it, after himself, Antigoneia. (Steph. B. I. c; Eustath. ad Horn. II. ii. 863). Not long after Lysimachus, having made himself master of a great part of Asia Minor, changed the name of Antigoneia into Nicaea, in honour of his wife Nicaea, a daughter of Antipater. (Steph. B., Eustath., Strab., II. cc.)