Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/901

 SALASSII. 36,000 persons, of whom 8000 were men of militaiy «ge. The tribe of the Salassi being thus extirpated, a Roman colony was settled at Praetoria Augusta (^Aostci), and a highroad made through the valley. (Dion Cass. liii. 25; Strab. iv. p. 20.5; Liv. Ejnt. cxssv.) The name of the Salassi, however, still remained, and is recognised as a geographical dis- tinction both by Pliny and Ptolemy, but no sub- sequent trace of them is found as an independent tribe. (Phn. iii. 17. s. 21; Ptol. iii. 1. § 34.) One of the main causes of the disputes between the Salassi and Romans had arisen from the gold- washings which were found in the valley, and which are said to have been extremely productive. These were worked by the Salassi themselves before the Roman invasion; but the Romans seem to have early taken possession of them, and they were farmed out with the other revenues of the state to the Pub- h"cani. But these were, as might be expected, in- volved in constant quarrels with the neighbouring barbarians, who sometimes cut off their supplies of water, at other times attacked them with more open violence. (Strab. iv. p. 205; Dion Cass. i^r. 79.) The line of road through the country of the Salassi, and the passes which led from Augusta Praetoria over the Pennine and Graian Alps, are described in the article Alpes [Vol. 1. p. 1 10]. [E. H. B.] SALA'SSII. [Mauretania, Vol. II. p. 298, b.] SALATARAE {-ZaKaripai, Ptol. vi. 11. § 6), a tribe of the Bactrians who lived along the banks of the Oxus. Forbiger suspects that they are the same as the Saraparae, noticed by Pliny (vi. 16. s. 18). [V.] SALATHUS (2aAa9o5, Ptol. iv.6. § 5), a river on the W. coast of Africa, with a town of the same name. This river, which took its rise in Mt. RIandrus, is re- presented by one of the Wadys, which flows into the sea in the district occupied by the ancient Autololes, on the coast to the N. of Cape Mirik. [E. B. .!.] SALAURIS, a town on the coast of Hispania Tarraconensis, mentioned in the Ora 3/arit. of Avienus (v. 518). [T. H. D.] SALDA, a town in the south of Lower Pannonia, on the southern bank of the Savus, and on the great highroad from Siscia to Sirmium. (^Tab. J'eut.; Geogr. Rav. iv. 19, where it is called Saldum.) It is very probably the same as the town of Sallis (SoAAi's) mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 16. § 8). The site is commonly believed to be occupied by the modern Szlatina. [L. S.] SALDAE (2aX5ai, Strab. xvii. p. 831 ; Ptol. iv. 2. § 9, viii. 13. § 9; Plin.v. 1; Itin. Anton.; Pent. Tab.), a town on the coast of Mauretania Caesa- riensis, with a spacious harbour, which was in earlier times the E. boundary between the dominions of Juba and those of the Romans. (Strab. I. c.) Under Augustus it became a Roman " colonia." (Plin. I. c.) In later times it was the W. limit of Mauretania Sitifensis, against Mauretania Caesariensis in its more contracted sense. It is identified with Bujeiyah, the flourishing city of the Kaliphat, taken by Pedro Navarro, the general of Ferdinand the Catholic, after two famous battles, a. d. 1510 (comp. Pres- cott's Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. ii. p. 457), or the C. Bumjie of the French province. (Barth, WanderMifjeii, p. 62.) [E. B. J.] SALDAPA, a town of Moesia (Theophyl. Simocat. i. 8), which was ravaged by the Avars in their wars with the emperor Maurice (Le Beau, Bas J'jiipire, vol. X. pp. 248, 369). Schafarik {Slav. Alt. vol. ii. p. 158) has fixed the site at the ruins of Dikelrick upon the Danube. [E. B. J.] VOL. II. SALENTINI. 881 SALDU'BA. 1. A small river in the territory of the Turduli in Hispania Baetica, probably tiie same called 'S.a^ovKa, (with far. lect.) by Ptolemy (ii. 4. § 7). Now Rio Verde. 2. A town at the mouth of the preceding river (^aX^ovSa, Ptol. ii. 4. § 11), of no great importance (Jlela, ii. 6; Plin. iii. 1. s. 3), near the present Marhellu. 3. [Caesaraugusta.] [T. H. D.] SALE, a town on the S. coast of Thrace, near the W. mouth of the Hebrus, and nearly equidistant from Zone and Doriscus. It is mentioned by Hero- dotus (vii. 59) as a Samothracian colony. [J. R.] SALEM. [Jerusalem.] SALENI, a people of Hispania Tarraconensis, probably in Cantabria, mentioned by Mela (iii. 1). They are perhaps the same as the SaiAit-oi of Pto- lemy (ii. 6. § 34). [T. H. D.] SALENTI'NI or SALLENTI'NI (both forms seem to rest on good authority), {'S.aXiVTlvoi), a people of Southern Italy, who inhabited a part of the peninsula which forms the SE. extremity, or as it is veiy often called the heel, of Italy. Their ter- ritoiy was thus included in the region known to the Greeks by the name of lapygia, as well as in the district called by the Romans Calabria. Strabo remarks that the peninsula in question, which he considers as bounded by a line drawn across from Tarentum to Brundusium, was variously called Mes- sapia, lapygia, Calabria, and Salentina; but that some writers established a distinction between the names. (Strab. vi. p. 282.) There seems no doubt that the names were frequently applied irregularly and vaguely, but that there were in fact two distinct tribes or races inhabiting the peninsula, the Salen- tines and the Calabrians (Strab. vi. p. 277), of whom the latter were commonly known to the Greeks as the Messapians [Calahrlv]. Both were, how- ever, in all probability kindred races belonging to the great family of the Pelasgian stock. Tradition repre- sented the Salentines as of Cretan origin, and, according to the habitual form of such legends, ascribed them to a Cretan colony under Idomeneus after the Trojan War. (Str.ab. vi. p. 282; Virg. Aen. iii. 400; Fest. s. v. Sahntini, p. 329; Varr. ap. Prob. ad Virg. Eel. vi. 31.) They appear to have inhabited the southern part of the peninsula, extending from its southern extremity (the Capo di Letica'), which was thence frequently called the Salentine promontory (" Salentinum Promontorium," Mel. ii. 4. § 8; Ptol'. iii. 1. § 13), to the neighbour- hood of Tarentum. But we have no means of dis- tinguishing accurately the limits of the two tribes, or the particular towns which belonged to each. The name of the Salentines does not seem to li.ave been familiarly known to the Greeks, at least in early times : as we do not hear of their name in any of the wars with the Tarentines, though from their position they must have been one of the tribes that early came into collision with the rising colony. They were probably known under the general ap- pellation of Ia])_vgi.ans, or confounded with their neighbours the Messa{)ians. (Mi the contrary, as soon as their name apjiears in Roman history, it is in a wider and more general sense than that to which it is limited by the geographers. Livy speaks of the Salentini as acceding to the Samnite alliance in B. c. 306, when the consul L. Volunmius was sent into their country, who defeated them in several battles, and took some of their towns. (Liv. ix. 42.) It is almost impossible to believe that the Romauf 3 L