Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/72

 56 INTERAMNA. course of the Nar, so that it should no lonc^er flow into the Tiber. (Tac. Ann. i. 79.) In the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian it was occupied by the troops of the former while their head-quarters were at Narnia, but was taken with little resistance by Arrius Varus. (Id. Hkt. iii. 61, 63.) Inscrip- tions sufficiently attest the continued municipal im- portance of Interamna under the Eonian empire; and, though its position was some miles to the right of the great Flaminian highway, which proceeded from Narnia direct to Mevania (Strab. v. p. 227; Tac. Eist. ii. 64), a branch line of road was carried from Narnia by Tnteramna and Spoletium to Forum Fla- minii, where it rejoined the main highroad. This line, which followed very nearly that of the present highroad from Eome to Penigia, appears to have latterly become the more important of the two, and is given in the Antonine and Jerusalem Itineraries to the exclusion of the true Via Flaminia. (^Itin. Ant. p. 125; Itin. Ilier. p. 613; Tab. Pent.) The great richness of the meadows belonging to Inter- amna on the banks of the Nar is celebrated by Pliny, who tells us that they were cut for hay no less than four times in the year (Plin. xviii. 28. s. 67); and Tacitus also represents the same district as among the most fertile in Italy (Tac. Ann. i. 79). That great historian himself is generally considered as a native of Interamna, but without any distinct au- thority: it appears, however, to have been subse- quently the patrimonial residence, and probably the birthplace, of his descendants, the two emperors Ta- citus and Flurianus. (Vo^'isc. Flo7-ian. 2.) In a.d. 193, it was at Interamna that a deputation from the senate met the emperor Septimius Severus, when on his march to the capital (Spartian. Sever. 6); and at a later period (a. d. 253) it was there that ■the two emperors, Trebonianus Gidlus and his son Vo- lusianus, who were on their march to oppose Aemili- anus m Moesia, were put to death by their own soldiers. (Eutrop. is. 5; Vict. Caes. 31, Epit.3.) Interamna became the see of a bishop in very early times, and has subsisted without interruption through the middle ages on its present site; the name being gradually corrupted into its modern form of Terni. It is still a flourishing city, and retains various relics of its ancient importance, including the remains of an amphitheatre, of two temples supposed to have been dedicated to the sun and to Hercules, and some portions of the ancient Thermae. None of these ruins are, however, of much importance or in- terest. Many inscriptions have also been discovered on the site, and are pi-eserved in the Palazzo Publico. About 3 miles above Terni is the celebrated cas- cade of the Velinus, which owes its origin to the Eomau M'. Curius; it is more fully noticed under the article Velincs. 3. {Teramo), a city of Picenum, in the territory of the Praetutii, and probably the chief place in the district of that people. The name is omitted by Pliny, but is found in Ptolemy, who distinctly assigns it to the Praetutii; and it is mentioned also in the Liber Colouiarum among the " Civitates Piceni." It there bears the epithet of " Palestina," or, as the name is elsewhere written, "Paletina;" the origin and meaning of which are wholly unknown. (Ptol. iii. 1. § 58; Lib. Col. pp. 226, 259.) In the genuine fragments of Frontinus, on the other hand, the citi- zens are correctly designated as " Interamnates Prae- tutiani." (Frontin. i. p. 18, ed. Lachra.) Being si- tuated in the interior of the country, at a distance ii'om the highroads, the name is not found in the INTERCISA. Itineraries, but we know that it was an episcopal see and a place of some importance under the Ro- man empire. The name is already corrupted in our MSS. of tiie Liber Colouiarum into Teramne, whence its modern form of Tcramo. But in the middle ages it appears to have been known also by the name of Aprutium, supposed to be a corruption of Praetutium, or rather of the name of the people Praetutii, applied (as was so often the case in Gaul) to their chief city. Thus we find the name of Abru- tium among the cities of Picenum enumerated by the Geographer of Ravenna (iv. 31); and under the Lom.bards we find mention of a " comes Aprutii." The name has been retained in that of A bruzzo, now given to the two northernmost provinces of the kingdom of Naples, of one of which, called Abruzzo Ulteriore, the city of Teramo is still the capital. Vestiges of the ancient theatre, of batiis and otlier buildings of Roman date, as well as statues, altars, and other ancient remains, have been discovered on the site : numerous inscriptions have been also found, in one of which the citizens are designated as " In- teramnites Praetutiani." (Romanelli, vol iii. pp. 297—301 ; Mommsen, /. R..N. pp. 329—331.) There is no foundation for the existence of a fourth city of the name of Interamna among the Frentani, as assumed by Romanelli, and, from him, by Cramer, on the authority of a very apocrvphal inscription. [Feentam.] ' [E. H. B.] INTER.'iMNE'SIA (Phlegon. de Longaev. 1 :• Eth. Interamnienses, Plin. iv. 21. s. 35), a stipen- diary town of Lusitania, named in the inscription of Alcantara, and supposed by Ukert to have been situated between the Coa and Tuuroes, near Cartel Rodrigo and Almeida. (Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1, p. 398.) [I'-Is-] INTERAilNIUM. [Astures.] INTEHCA'TIA. [Vaccaei.] INTERCISA or AD INl'ERCISA, is the name given in the Itineraries to a station on the Via Flaminia, which evidently derives this name from its being situated at the remarkable tunnel or gallery hewn through tl;e rock, now known as the Passo del Furlo. {Itin. Bier. p. 614; Tab. Pent.) This passage, which is still traversed by the modern highway from Rome to Faiio, is a work of the em- peror Vespasian, as an inscription cut in the rock infoiins us, and was constructed in the seventh year of his reign, a. d. 75. (Inscr. ap. Cluver, /to/, p. 619.) It is also noticed among the public works of that emperor by Aurelius Victor, who calls it Petra Pertusa; and the same name (Ilerpo irep- TOvcTo) is given to it by Procopius, who has left us a detailed and accurate description of the locality. (Vict. Caes. 9, Fpit. 9; Procop. B. G. ii. 11.) The valley of the Cantiano, a tributary of the Jletaurus, which is here followed by the Flaminian Way, is at this point so narrow that it is only by cutting the road out of the solid rock that it can be carried along the face of the precipice, and, in addi- tion to this, the rock itself is in one place pierced by an arched gallery or tunnel, which gave rise to the name of Petra Pertusa. The actual tunnel is only 126 feet long, but the whole length of the pass is about half a mile. Claudian alludes to this remark- able work in terms which prove the admiration that it excited. (Claud, de VI. Cons. Hon. 502.) At a later period the pass was guarded by a fort, which, from its completely commanding the Flaminian Way, became a military post of importance, and is re- peatedly mentioned during the wars of the Goths