Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/917

 SAMONIUJL sented by DioJorus as the scene of the deci.sive victory in b. c. 314 (Diod. six. 76); and several places of which the names are found only in Virgil and Silius Italicus, — JIucrae, Rufrae, BATULUii, and Chlkn'NA (Virsr. Aen. vii. 739; Sil. Ital. viii. 564), which seem to have been situated on tiie borders of Campania, so that it is doubtful to which country they are to be assisjned. The minor towns of the Hirpini have been already discussed in that article; Fauna, or Panna, a name found in Strabo (v. p. 250) as that of a place still existing; in his time, is probably rorrnpt, but we are wholly at a loss what to substitute. On the other hand, inscriptions attest the existence under the Roman Empire of a town called Juvavium, or Juvanum, of municipal rank, which is not men- tioned by any of the geographers, but is probably the one meant by the Liber Coloniarum, which notices the " lobanus ager " among the " civitates Samiiii." {Lib. Col. p. 260.) It was probably situated in the neighbourhood of Sta Maria di Palazzo, a few miles N. of the Sagrus, and on the very frontiers of the JIarrucini. (Mommsen, Inscr. R. N. p. 271.) The existence of a town named Tifernum is very doubtful [Tifernus] ; and that of a city of the name of Samnium, though adopted by nuiiiy local writers (Romanelh, vol. ii. p. 490), cer- tainly rests on no adequate authority. Samnium was traversed in ancient times by several lines of highway. One of these, following nearly same line with the modern road from Naples to ila, proceeded up the valley of the Vulturnus 1 Venafrum to Aesernia, thence crossed the ntain ridge to Aufidena in the valley of the us, and from thence again over another moun- pass to Sulmo in the land of the Peligni. her branch led from Aesernia to Pjovianum, and 1 thence to Equus Tuticus, where it joined the Appia or Trajana. A third followed the valley 'e by Telesia to Beneventum. There seems to have been a cross line from the latter place -iiepinum to Bovianum. {Itin. Ant. p. 102; Tab. '.) But these different lines are very confusedly i:i I down in the Tabula, and the distances given an; often either corrupt or erroneous. The course of the Via Appia, and its branch called the Via '1 raj ana, through the land of the Hirpini, has been already noticed in that article. [See also Via Ai-i'iA.] [E. H. B ] SAMO'Nimi, SAJIilO'NIUM, SALMO'XIUM, SAL.MO'XE PROM, {^a/xccvtuv, laXfidiviov, Strab. ii. ]>. 106, X. pp. 474, 475, 478, 489; 'S.a.Xixavq , -1 '■/■■, xxvii. 7; comp. Ptol. iii. 15. § 5 ; Pomp. I, iL 7. § 12 ; Plin. iv. 20. .s. 21; Stadkism. IS: Eth. 'SaX/xwi/toi, l.aX/j.uii'is, Apoll. Khod. /. 1693; Dionys. Per. 110; Inscrip. ap. Biickh, (,'"rpus, vol. ii. p. 409), the E. promontory of Crete, ' 'vhich the seamen of the Alexandrian vessel h conveyed Paul to Rome, thinking they could down. {AcU, I.e.) Much difference of opinion has been entertained relative to the identification of this celebrated foreland, the position of which would seem to be ineontrovertibly ascertained by the ex- istence of the modem name C. Salomon. (Comp. Hiick, Kreta, vol. i. p. 427.) But though the name is certainly in favour of this site, the state- ments of the ancients as to its position, and of the seven islets or rocks which surround it, determine conclusively that it must be C. S. Sidero. It is true that by the recent Admiralty survey it is not vol, 11. SAMOS. 897 quite .so far to the E. as C. Solomon (the difierence is, however, only a few seconds of longitude) ; but by its extreme extension from the mainland it would be considered as the principal promontory at this end of the island, and known as the " E. fore- land." (Comp. Museum of Class. Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 302.) TE. B. J.] SAMOS or SAJrUS (2,dfios: Eth. and Adj. 2a- /iiios, Samius, 'Safxaios.'Xaf/.iaKhsln Steph. : ^aixiwrris in the language of the modern Greeks, who call the island Samo, 2a/uco: the Turks call it Susam Adassi), a large island in that part of the Aegaean which is called the Icarian sea, and the rrjost important of the Sporades next after Rhodes. The word denotes a height, especially by the sea-shore. (See Const. Porphyrog. de Them. 16. p. 41, ed. Bonn.) Hence Samothracia, or the Thracian Samos, which is said by Pausanias (vii. 4. § 3) to have been colonised and named by certain fugitives from the Icarian Samos, — and Same, one of the names of Ccphalonia, which is inversely connected with it by one of Strabo's conjectures (x. p. 457). How applicable the idea of elevation is to the island before us may be seen in the narratives and views given by Dr. Clarke {Travels,vo. ii. p. 192, vol. iii. p. 366), who uses the strongest language in describing the conspi- cuous height of Samos above the surrounding islands. The following earlier names of Samos are men- tioned by Pliny (v. 37) and other writers, — Par- thenia, Anthemus, Slclainphylus, Dryusa and Cy- parissia. Some of these have evidently arisen from the physical characteristics of the island. Samos was, and is, well-wooded. It is intersected from E. to W. by a chain of mountains, which is in fact a continuation of the range of Mycale, being separated from it only by the narrow channel, hardly a mile in breadth, which the Turks call the Little Boghaz. Here was fought the decisive victory against the Persians, B. c. 479. The Great Boghaz, which is nearly 10 miles in breadth, separates the other ex- tremity of Samos from the comparatively low island of IcARiA. The length of Samos, from E. to W., is about 25 miles. Its breadth is very variable. Strabo reckons the circuit at 600 stadia, Pliny at 87 miles, though he says that Isidorus makes it 100. These differences may be readily accounted for by omitting or including Port Vathy, which is a wild-looking bay, though a very serviceable harbour, on the north. Here the modern capital is situated ; but in ancient times the bay of Vathy seems to have been com- paratively deserted — ]x;rhaps, asTournefort suggests, because it was peculiarly exposed to jiirates, wlio infested the straits and bays of an island which lay in the route of commerce between the Bosporus and i-gypf- What Toumefort tells us of his travels through Samos gives ns the idea of a very rugged, though picturesque and productive, island. (Possibly the PalinuiTis and Panonnus of Samos. mentioned by Livy, xxxvii. 11, may have been in the bay of Vathy.) The highest point, Motint Kerlds, the ancient Cerceteus (Strab. x. p. 488), which is nearly always covered with snow, and reaches the height of 4725 English feet, is towards the west. A ridge, which branches oft' in a south-easterly direction from the main range, and ends in the promontoiy of Poscidium, opposite Mycale, was called AmiJflus, which name seems also to have been civen to the w hole mountain-system (Strab. xiv. p. 637). The western- most extremity of the island, o])j)osite Icaria was an- ciently called Cantharium. Here the clifl's are very bare and lofty. A landslip, which, has taken place in 3 M
 * iie Vulturnus from Aesernia to Allifae, and
 * I -ue their voyage under the lee of the island, ran