Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/711

 RAURANUM. 17), and in some inscriptions. Ptolemy mentions two towns of the Rauraci, Rauricorum Augusta and Ai'gentovaria [Augusta Rauracoruji; Argkn- taria]. Augusta is Augst near Bale, in the Swiss Canton of Bale, and Argentovaria may be Artzenheim. The position of these places helps us to form a measure of the extent of the teiTitory of the Rauraci, which may have nearly coincided with the bisliopric of Bale. The Rauraci joined the Helvetii in their emigra- tion, B. c. 58. [Helvetii.] [G. L.] RAURANUM, in Gallia, is placed by the Table and the Antonine Itin. on a direct road from Me- diolanum Santonum (Saintes) to Limonum (^Poi- tiers). It is Raurana in the Table, but the name Rauranum occurs in a letter of Paulinus to Ausonius (Ep. fV. ad Alison, v. 249), who places it " Pic- tonicis in arvis." The place is Rom or Raum, near Chenay, nearly due south of Poitiers. (D'Anville, Notice, <fc. Ukert, Gallien, p. 392.) [G. L.] RAURARIS. [Akauris.] REA'TE ('Peare, Strab.; 'Pedros, Dionys. : Eth. 'Pf ar'tvos, Reatinus : Rieti"), an ancient city of the Sabines, and one of the most considerable that be- longed to that people. It was situated on the Via Salaria, 48 miles from Rome (Itin. Ant. p. 306), and on the banks of the river Velinus. All writers agree in representing it as a very ancient city : ac- cording to one account, quoted by Dionysius from Zenodotus of Troezen, it was one of the original abodes of the Umbrians, from which they were ex- pelled by the Pelasgi ; but Cato repre.sented it as one of the first places occupied by the Sabines when they descended from the neighbourhood of Amiter- num, their original abode. (Dionys. ii. 49.) What- ever authority Cato may have had for this statement, there seems no reason to doubt that it was substan- ti.illy true. The fertile valley in which Reate was situated lay in the natural route of migration fur a people descending from the highlands of the central Apennines : and there is no doubt that both Reate and its neighbourhood were in historical times occu- pied by the Sabines. It was this migration of the Sabines that led to the expulsion of the Aborigines, M'ho, according to Dionysius, previously occupied this part of Italy, and whose ancient metropolis, Lista, was only 24 stadia from Reate. (Dionys. i. 14, ii. 49.) Silius Italicus appears to derive its name from Rhea, and calls it consecrated to the Mother of the Gods; but this is probably a mere poetical fancy. (Sil. Ital. viii. 415.) No mention of Reate occurs in history before the period when the Sabines had been subjected to the Roman rule, and admitted to the Roman Franchise (b. c. 290) ; but its name is more than once incidentally noticed during the Second Punic War. In B. c. 211 Han- nibal passed under its walls during his retreat from Rome, or, according to Coelius, during his advance upon that city (Liv. xxvi. 11); and in b. c. 205 the Reatini are specially mentioned as coming forward, in common with the other Sabines, to furnish volun- teers to the armament of Scipio. (Id. xxviii. 45.) We are wholly ignorant of the reasons why it was reduced to the sul)ordinate condition of a Praefcc- tura, under which title it is repeatedly mentioned by Cicero, but we learn from the great orator himself, under whose especial patronage the inhabitants were placed, that it was a flourishing and important town. (Cic. in Cat. iii. 2, pro Scaur. 2. § 27, de Nat. Dear. ii. 2.) Under the Empire it certainly ob- tained the ordinary municipal privileges, and had REATE. 695 its own magistrates (Zumpt, de Col. pp. 98, 188 • Gruter, Iiiscr. p. 354. 3, &c.) : under Vespasian it received a considerable number of veteran soldiers as colonists, but did not obtain the rank or title of a Colonia. (^Lib. Col. p. 257; Orell. Inscr. 3685 ; Gruter, Inscr. p. 538. 2 ; &c.) The territory of Reate included the whole of the lower valley of the Velinus, as far as the falls of that river; one of the most fertile, as well as beau- tiful, districts of Italy, whence it is called by Cicero the Reatine Tempe (ad Att. iv. 15.) But the pe- culiar natural character of this di.strict was the means of involving the citizens in frequent disputes with their neighbours of Interamna. ( Varr. R. R. iii. 2. § 3.) The valley of the Velinus below Reate, where the river emerges from the narrow mountain valley through which it has hitherto flowed, and receives at the same time the waters of the Salto and 7m- rano, both of them considerable streams, expands into a broad plain, not less than 5 or 6 miles in breadth, and almost perfectly level; so that the waters of the Velinus itself, and those of the smaller streams that flow into it, have a tendency to stag- nate and form marshes, while in other places they give rise to a series of small lakes, remarkable for their picturesque beauty. The largest of these, now known as the Lago di Pie di Lugo, seems to have been the one designated in ancient times as the Lacus Velinus ; while the fertile jjlains which ex- tended from Reate to its banks were known as the RoSEi or more properly Roseae Campi, termed by Virgil the " Rosea rura Velini." (Virg. Aen. vii. 712; Cic. ad Aft. iv. 15 ; Varro, R. R. i. 7. § 10, ii. 1. § 16, iii. 2. § 10 ; Plin. xvii. 4. s. 3.) But this broad and level valley is at an elevation of near 1000 feet above that of the Nar, into which it pours its waters by an abrupt descent, a few miles above Interamna. (Terni) ; and the stream of the Velinus must always have constituted in this part a natural cascade. Those waters, however, are so strongly impregnated with carbonate of lime, that they are continually forming an extensive deposit of traver- tine, and thus tending to block up their own chan- nel. The consequence was, that unless their course was artificially regulated, and their channel kept clear, the valley of the Velinus was inundated, while on the other hand, if these waters were carried off too rapidly into the Nar, the valley of that river and the territory of Interamna suffered the same fate. The first attempt to regulate the course of the Veli- nus artificially, of which we have any account, was made by M'. Curius Dentatus, after his conquest of the Sabines, when he carried off' its waters by a deep cut through the brow of the hill overlooking the Nar, and thus gave rise to the celebrated cascade now known as the Falls of Terni. (Cc. ad Alt. iv. 15; Serv. ad Aen. vii. 712.) Prom the ex- pressions of Cicero it would appear that the Lacus Velinus, previous to this time, occupied a nmcli larger extent, and that a considerable part of the valley was then first reclaimed for cultivation. But the expedient thus resorted to did not fully accomplish its object. In the time of Cicero (b. c. 54) fresh disputes arose between the citizens of Reate and tiiose of Interamna ; and the former ap- pealed to the great orator iiimsclf as their patron, who pleaded their cause before tiie arbiters apjiointed by the Roman senate. On this occiision he visited Reate in person, and inspected the lakes and the channels of the Velinus. (Cic. jyro Scaur, 2. § 27, ad Att. iv. 15.) The result of the arbitration is Y Y 4