Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/172

 156 APENNINUS. plains to the upland vallies of the neighbouring Apennines. (Varr. de K R. u. I. ^ 16.) The same districts fornished, like most mountain pas- tarages, excellent cheeses. (Plin. xi. 42. s. 97.) We find very few notices of any peculiar natunJ prodnctions of the Apennines. Varro tells ns that wild goats (by which he probably means the Boa- qnetin, or Ibex, an animal no longer found in Italy) were stOl numerous about the Montes FisceUus and Tetrica ((fei2.i2.ii. 1. § 5.), two of the loftiest summits of the range. Very few distinctive appellations of particular mountains or summits among the Apennines have beeu transmitted to us, though it is probable that in ancient, as well as modem, times, almost ereiy conspicuous mountain had its peculiar local name. The MoNS FiscELLUs of Varro and Pliny, which, according to the latter, contained the sources of the Nar, is identified by that circmnstance with the Monti delia SUnlkif on the frontiers of Picenum. The MoNS Tetrica {Tetricae horrentes rupeSf Virg. Aen. vii. 713) must have been in the same nidghbourhood, perhaps a part of the same group, but cannot be distinctly identified, any more than the los8 Severus of Virgil, which he also assigns to the Sabines. The Mons Gunarus, known only from Servius (ad Aen. x. 185), who calls it '* a mountain in Picenum," has been supposed by Clnver to be the one now called // Gran Sasso i Italia ; but this is a mere conjecture. The ** Gurgures, alti montes" of Varro (de i2. i2. iL 1. § 16) ap- pear to have been in the neighbourhood of Beate. All these apparently belong to the lofty central chain of the Apennines: a few other mountains of inferior magnitude are noticed from their proximity to Bome, or other accideutal causes. Such are the detached and conspicuous height of Mount Soracte (Soractb), the Mons Lucretius (now Monte Gennar6)f one of the highest points of the range of Apennines immediately fronting Bome and the plains of Latium ; the Moks Tifata, adjoining the plains of Gampania, and Moira Gallicula, on the frontiers of that country and Samnium, both of them celebrated in the campaigns of Hannibal ; and the MoNS Taburxus, in the territory of the Gaudine Samnites, near Beneventum, still called Monte Ta- humo. In the more southern regions of the Apen- nines we find mention by name of the MoNS Al- BITRNUS, on the banks of the Silams, and the Sila in Bruttium, which still retains its ancient appel- lation. The Mons Voltur and Garganus, as already mentioned, do not properly belong to the Apomines, any more than Vesuvius, or the Alban hills. From the account above given of the Apennines it is evident that the passes over the chain do not assume the degree of importance which they do in the Alps. In the northern part of the range from Liguria to the Adriatic, the rc«ds whidi crossed them were carried, as they still are, rather over the hare ridges, than along the vallies and courses of the streams. The only dangers of these passes arise from the violent storms which rage there in the winter, and which even, on one occasion, drove back Hanni- bal when he attempted to cross them. Livy's striking description of this tempest is, according to the testimony of modem witnesses, little, if at all, exaggerated. (Liv. xxL 58; Niebuhr, Vortrage aher AUe Lander^ p. 336.) The passes through the more lofty centnd Apennines are more strongly marked by nature, and some of them must have been fre({uented from a very early period as the APEBOPIA. natural lines of communication firom one district to another. Such are especially the pass from Beate, by Interocrea, to the valley of the Aterans, and thence to Teate and the coast of the Adriatic ; and, again, the line of the Via Valeria, from the upper valley of the Anio to the Lake Fudnus, and theoce across the passage of the Forca Caruao (the Hona Imeus of the Itineraries) to Gorfinium. The de- tails of these and the other passes of the ApermiMs will be best given under the heads of the rcspaiive regions or provinces to which they belong. The range of the Apennines is, ta remarked by ancient authors, the source of almost all the nrai of Italy, with the exception cmly of the Padus and its northern tributaries, and the streams which de- scend from the Alps into the upper part of the Adriatic. The numerous rivers which water the northern declivity of the Apennine cham, firam the foot of the Maritime Alps to the ndghbouihood of Arlminum, all unite then: waters with those of the Padus ; but from the time it takes the great tun to the southward, it sendli off its streams on both sides direct to the two seas, forming throughoat the rest of its course the watershed of Italy. Few of these rivers have any great length of course, and not being fed, like the Alpine streams, from per- petual snows, they mosUy partake much of the na- ture of torrents, being swollen and violent in winter and spring, and nearly dry or reduced to but scanty streams, in the summer. There are, however, sane exceptions: the Amus and the Tiber retain, at all seasons, a considerable body of water, wlule the Liris and Vultumus both derive their origin from subterranean sources, such as are common in all limestone countries, and gush forth at once in copious streams of clear and limpid water. [£. H. B.] APEBA'NTIA CAwepon-fo: Eth. 'Aweporriij), the name of a district in the K£. of Aetolia, pro- bably forming part of the territory of the A^d. Stephanus, on the authority of Polybius, mentions a town of the same name (Awc/MUn-cia), which ap- pears to have been situated near the conflaenoe of the Petitarus wiUi the Achelous, at the modem vil- lage of Preventza^ which may be a cormption of the ancient name, and where Leake discovered soma Hellenic ruins. Philip V., king of Maced<»iia, ob- tained possession of Aperantia ; but it was takoi firom him, together with Amphilochia, by the Aeto- lians in B.a 189. Aperantia is mentioned again in B. c. 169, in the expedition of Perseus against Stratus. (Pol. xxii. 8 ; Liv. xxxviii. 3, xliiL 22; Leake, Northern Greece^ vol. iii. p. 141.) APERLAE ('AircpAoi: Eth, ^ArtpXelrns), a place in Lycia, fixed by the Stadiasmns 60 stadia west of Somena, and 64 stadia west of Andriace, Leake (Asia Minor y p. 188) supposes Somoia to be the Simena of Pliny (v. 27). Aperlae, which is written in the text of Ptolemy " Aperrae," and in Pliny " Apyrae,** is proved to be a genuine name by an inscription found by GockereU, at the head (f Hassar iNiy, with the Etimic nanoe 'AwfpXcirwr on it. But there are also coins of Gordian with the Ethnic name 'Airtppeurttv. The confusion between the / and the r in the name of an insignificant place is nothing remarkable. [G. L.] APEBO'PLA (Awcpork), a sniaU ishmd, whicK Pausanias describes as lymg off the promontory Bnporthmus in Hermionis, and near the ishind of Hydrea. Leake identifies Buporthmus with C, Mh- zdki and Aperopia wiUi Dhoko. (Pans. ii. 34. § 9; Plin. iv. 12. 8. 19 ; Leake, PeloponneMtaca^ p. 284.)