Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/671

 POilPTINAE PALUDES. lime of that writer; though Theoplirastus himself tfils us distinctly that the island was in his days united to the mainland by the accumulated depDsits of certain rivers. (Theophr. //. P. v. 8. § 3; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) Another tradition, preserved to us also by Pliny (I. c), but wholly at variance with the last, asserted that the ti'act then covered by marshes, and rendered uninhabitable by them, had formerly been occupied by no less than 24 (or, ac- eordiiijj to some MSS., 33) cities. But no trace of this fact, which he cites from Mucianus, an author contemporary with himself, is to be found in any earlier writer; and not even the name of one of these supposed cities has been preserved; there can therefore be little doubt that the whole story has arisen from some misconception. The Poinptine Jlarshes are p;enerally represented as derivin:,' their name from the city of Suessa Po- metia, which appears to have been situated some- where on their borders, though we have no clue to its precise position. [Suessa Po.metia], The "Pomptinus ager," which is repeatedly mentioned by Livy, and which was cultivated with corn, and part of it portioned out in lots to Eoman colonists (Liv. ii. 34, iv. 25, vi. 5, 21) was probably rather the district bordering on the marshes than the actual swampy tract, which does not appear to have been ever effectually reclaimed; though a very moderate amount of industry must at any time have sufficed to bring into cultivation considerable por- tions of the adjoining plain. As early, however, as the year 312 b. c. the Appian Way appears to have been carried through the midst of the marshes (Liv. j.x. 29; Diod. xx. 36), and a canal conducted along with it from Forum Appii to Tarnicina, which became also much resorted to as a mode of traffic. [Via Appia.] The institution of the Pomptine tribe in b. c. 358, .and of the TJfentine tribe in B. c. 318 (Liv. vii. 15, ix. 20), would seem also to point to the existence of a considerable ])opulation in the neighbourhood at least of the Pomptine Marshes ; but still we have unequivocal testimony of the continued existence of the marshes themselves in all periods of antiquity. (Sil. Ital. viii. 380; Strab. V. p. 233, &c.) The very circumstance that the plain is bordered throughout by a chain of considerable and populous towns situated on the mountain front, while not one is recorded as existing in the plain itself, is a suffi- cient proof that the latter was in great part unin- liabitable. The actual marshes are formed principally by the stagnation of the waters of two streams, the Amasenus and the Ufens, both rising in the Volscian mountains. (Strab. v. p. 233.) Of these the latter was the most considerable, and appears to have been regarded as the principal stream, of which the Amasenus was only a tributary. The Ufens is described as a slow and sluggish stream; and Silius Italicus, amplifying the hints of Virgil, draws a dreary picture of its waters, black with mud, winding their slow way through the pestiferous Pomptine plains. (Virg. Aen. vii. 801 ; Sil. Ital. viii. 379— 382; Claudian. Proh. et 01. Conn. 257.) But, besides these, several minor streams cither flow down from the Volscian mountains, or rise imme- diately at their foot in copious springs of clear water, as is commonly the case with all limestone moun- tains. Tiie Nympiiaeus, which rises at the foot of the hill at Norba, is the most remarkable instance of this. Thus the whole mass of waters, the stag- POMPTINAE PALUDES. 655 nation of which gives rise to these marshes, is very considerable; and it is only by carrying these off in artificial channels to the sea that any real progress can be made in the drainage of the district. Various attempts were made in ancient times to drain the Pontine IMarshes. The first of these was in B.C. 160, by the consul Cornelius Cethesus, which, according to the brief notice transmitted to us, would seem to have been for a time successful (Liv. Epit. xlvi.); but it is probable that the result attained was in reality but a partial one ; and wo find them relapsing into their former state before the close of the liepublic, so that the drainage of the Pontine Marshes is noticed among the great public works projected by the dictator Caesar, which he did not live to execute. (Suet. Cues. 44; Plut. Cues. 58; Uion Cass. xliv. 5.) It would appear that on this occasion also some progress was made with the works, so that a considerable extent of land was reclaimed for cultivation, which M. Antonius proposed to divide among the poorer Koman citizens. (Dion Cass. xlv. 9.) Horace alludes to a similar work as having been accomplished by Augustus (Hor. Art. Poet. 65; Schol. Crng. ad he); but we find no mention of this elsewhere, and may there- fore probably conclude that no great success attended his efforts. Juvenal alludes to the Pontine Jlarshes as in his time a favourite resoi-t of robbers and highwaymen (Juv. iii. 307); a sufficient proof that the district was one thinly inhabited. The enter- prise seems to have been I'esumed by Trajan in connection with his restoration of the Appian Way through the same district (Dion Cass. Ixviii. 15); but we have no particular account of his works, though inscriptions confirm the account given by Dion Cassius of his renovation of the liighroad. The next serious attempt we hear of to drain this marshy tract was that under Theodoric, which is recorded both by Cassiodorus and by an inscription still extant at Terracina. (Cassiotlor. Var. ii. 32, 33; Gruter, Imcr. p. 152. 8.) But in the period that followed the works naturally fell into decay, and the whole tract relapsed into an uninhabitable state, which continued till the close of the middle ages. Nor was it till quite modern times that any important works were undertaken with a view to reclaim it. Pope Pius VI. was the first to reopen the line of the Appian Way, which had been aban- doned for centuries, and restore at the same time the canal by its side, extending from Treponti to Ter- racina. This canal takes the place of that which existed in the time of Horace and Strabo, and formed the customary mode of transit for travellers proceeding from Foram ApjJii to Tarracina. (Hor. Sat. i. 5.^10 — 24; Strab. v. p. 233; Lucan. iii. 85.) It is evidently the .same which is called by Pro- copius (J3. G. i.ll) the Decennovium, a name which could only be ajiplied to an artificial cut or canal, though that author terms it a river. The " nineteen miles " indicated by the name commenced from Tripontium {Treponti), from whence the canal wa.s carried in a straight line to within 3 miles of Tar- racina. It was this portion of the road which, as we learn from an inscription, was restored by Tra- jan; and the canal was doubtless constructed or restored at the same time. Hence Cassiodorus applies the name of " Decennovii paludes " to the whole tract of the Pontine Marshes. (Cassiod. Var. ii. 32, 33.) The Saturae Palus, mentioned both by Virgil and Silius Italicus in connection with the riviT