Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/128

 112 ALSIETINUS. ALSIETFNUS LACUS, a smaU lake in Etmria, aboat 2 miles distant from the Lacos Sabatinos, between it and the basin or crater of Baccano, now called the Zro^o di Mart^nano, Its ancient name is preserved to us only by Frontinos, from whom we learn that Aognstus conveyed the water from thence to Rome bj an aqueduct, named the Aqua Alsietina, more than 22 miles in length. The water was, however, of inferior quality, and served only to supply a Naumachia, and for purposes of irrigation. It was joined at Cabeias, a station on the Via Claudia, 15 miles from Borne, by another branch bringing water from the Lacus Sabatinus. (Frontin. de Aqwaad. §§ 11, 71.) The channel of the aque- dact is still in good preservation, where it issues from the lake, and may be traced for many miles of its course. (Nibby, Diatomic voL i. pp. 133 —137.) [E.H.B.] A'LSIUM (I^AXffiW. Eih. Alsiensis: Palo), a city on the coast of Etmria, between Pyigi and Fregenae, at the distance of 18 miles from the Partus August! {Porto) at the mouth of the Tiber. (Itin. Ant. p. 30 1 .) Its name is mentioned by Dionysius (L 20) among the cities which were founded by the Pe- lasgians in connection with the aborigines, and afterwards wrested from them by the Tyrrhenians (Etruscans). But no mention of it occurs in his- tory as an Etruscan dty, or during the wars of that people with Borne. In b. c. 245 a Roman colony was established there, which was placed on the same footing with the other '* ooloniae maritimae;" and in (xnnmon with these claimed exemption from all militaiy service, a claim which was, however, over- ruled during the exigencies of the Second Punic War. (VelL Pat i 14; Liv. xxviL 88.) No sub- sequent notice of it occurs in history, but its name is mentioned by Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy, and we learn from an inscription of the time of Caracalla that it still retained its colonial rank, and correspond- ing municipal organisation. (Strab. pp. 225, 226 ; Plin. iii. 5. s. 8; PtoL iii. 1. § 4; Gmter, Inter. p. 271. 3.) It appears to have early become a favourite resort with the wealthy Branans as a pkco of retirement and pleasure ('* maritimiu ei voUtp' tarhu locus :^ Fronto, £p. p. 207, ed. Bom.); thus we find that Pompey the Great hod a villa there, and Caesar also, where he landed on his return fnxn Africa, and at which all the nobles of Borne hastened to greet him. (Cic. pro Milon, 20, <id Fam. ix. 6, ad Att. xiii. 50.) Mother is mentioned as belong- ing to Verginius Bufiis, the guardian of Pliny, and we learn from Fronto that the emperor M. Aurelius had a villa there, to which several of his epistles are addressed. (F]m.Ep. vi.lO; Fronto, Ep. p. 205 — 215.) At a later period the town itself had fallen into utter decay, but the site was still occupied by villas, as well as that of the neighbouring Pyigi. (Kutil. Itm. i. 223.) The site of Alsium is clearly fixed by the distance firom PortOf at the modem village of Paloj a poor place with a fort and mole of the 17th century, in the construction of which many ancient materials have been used. Besides these, the whole shore to the £. of the village, fur the space of more than a mile, is occupied by the remains of buildings which appear to have belonged to a Boman villa of im- perial date, and of the most magnificent scale and style of construction. These rains are described in detail by NIbby (^Dintomi di Roma^ vol. iii. pp. 527, 528). [E. H. B.] ALTHAEA ('AA^ofa: Etk 'AXOmos), the cliief ALXJNTIUM. city of the Olcades in Spun, not far from Cartht^o Nova. Its capture was Hannibal's first ezpknt in Spain. (Pdyb. iiL 13; Steph. Byz. s. v.) Its poatim is unknown. Livy calls it Carteia (xxi. 5). [P. S.] ALTrNU^ ("AXTiwy; AlHao), a dtyof Ve- netia situated on the border of the lagunes, and on the right bank of the little river Shs (SeU) near its mouth. We learn from the Itineraries that it was distant 32 Boman miles from Pataviun, md 31 from Concordia. (Itin. Ant. pp. 128, 281.) Strabo describes it as situated in a maish or lagone, like Bavenna, and we learn that travellers were in the habit of proceeding by water along the lagunes from Bavenna to Altinmn. Tacitus also speaks of it as open to attack by sea ; but at the present day it is distant about 2 miles from the laguues. (Strab. p. 214 ; Vitrav. L 4. § 11 ; Itin. Ant. p. 126 ; Tac ffisL iii. 6.) The first historical mention of Altinum is fi>und in Velldns Patercnlus (ii. 76) during the wars of the Second Triomriiate, and it appears to have been then, as it cootiuued under the Bonum Empire, one of the most coo* siderable places in thb part of Italy. Pliny aligns it only the rank of a munidpium ; but we learn from inscriptions that it subsequently became a colony, probably in the time of Trajan. (Plin. iii. 18. 8. 22 ; Orell. Ifucr, 4082 ; Zumpt de Cohn. p. 402.) Besides its municipal importance, the shores of the adjoining lagunes became a fitvoorite residence of the wealthy Bomans. and were gradually lined with villas which are described by Maztial (iv. 25) as rivalling those of Baiae. The adjoining plains were celebrated for the excellence of their wool, while the lagunes abounded in fish of all kinds, especially sheU-fish. (Mart. xiv. 155; Pfin. xxxii. 11. 8. 53; Cassiod. Ep. Varr. xii. 22.) It was here that the emperrar L. Verus died of apo- plexy in A. D. 169. (Eutrop. viii. 10; Jul. Capt. Ver. 9; Vict, de Caet. 15.) The modem village of AUino is a very poor place; the period of the decay or destruction of the ancient dty is unknown, but its inhabitants are supposed to have fled for refuge from the invasions of the barbarians to 7or- cello, an island in the lagunes about 4 miles distant, to which the episcopal see was transferred in A. d. 635. [E.H.B.] ALTIS. [Oltmpia.] ALU'NTIUM or HALU'NTIUM ('AkSmop, Ptol.; 'AAo^ioi', Dion. Hal.: Eth. 'AAoin-Ivos, Ha- luntinus), a city on the N. coast of Sicily, between Tyndaris and Calacta. Its foundation was ascribed by some authors to a portion of the companiiKis d Aeneas, who remained bdiind in Sicily under a leader named Patron (Dionys. i. 51); but it pro- bably was, in reality, a Sicelian town. No mention of it is found in Diodorus, nor is it noticed in his- tory prior to the Boman conquest of Sicily. Bnt in the time of Cicero it appears to have been a place of some importance. He mentions it as having suf- fered severely from the exactions of Verres, who, not content with ruinous extortions of com, com- pelled the inhabitants to give up all their omam^tal pUte. (Cic. Kerr. iii. 43, iv. 28.) W^e learn from inscriptions that it retained the rank of a munid- pium, and was a flourishing town at least as late as the reign of Augustus. Its site has been a matter cf much dispute, but there are very strong ai^uments to prove that it occupied the same situati<Ni as the modem town of San Marco, which rises on a lofty hill of steep and difficult ascent, about 3 miles from the Tyrrhenian