Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/19

  became such in the reign of that emperor. (Strab. p. 249; Plin. iii. 5. § 9; Ptol. iii. 1. § 68; Lib. Colon. p. 230; Gruter. Inscr. P. 1096, 1; Zumpt, de Coloniis, p. 400.) We learn from Virgil and Silius Italicus that its territory was not fertile in corn, but rich in fruit-trees (maliferae Abellae): the neighbourhood also abounded in filberts or hazel-nuts of a very choice quality, which were called from thence nuces Avellanae (Virg. Aen. Vii. 740; Sil. Ital. viii. 545; Plin. xv. 22; Serv. ad Georg. ii. 65). The modern town of Avella is situated in the plain near the foot of the Apennines; but the remains of the ancient city, still called Avella Vecchia, occupy a hill of considerable height, forming one of the underfalls of the mountains, and command an extensive view of the plain beneath; hence Virgil's expression "despectant moenia Abellae." The ruins are described as extensive, including the vestiges of an amphitheatre, a temple, and other edifices, as well as a portion of the ancient walls. (Pratilli, Via Appia, p. 445; Lupuli, Iter Venusin. p. 19; Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 597; Swinburne, Travels, vol. i. p. 105.) Of the numerous relics of antiquity discovered here, the most interesting is a long inscription in the Oscan language, which records a treaty of alliance between the citizens of Abdera and those of Nola. It dates (according to Mommsen) from a period shortly after the Second Punic War, and is not only curious on account of details concerning the municipal magistrates, but is on if the most important auxiliaries we possess for a study of the Oscan language. This curious monument still remains in the museum of the Seminary at Nola: it has been repeatedly published, among others by Passeri (Linguae Oscae Specimen Singulare, fol. Romae, 1774), but in the most complete and satisisfactory manner by Lepsius (Inscr. Umbr. et Osc. Tab. Xxi.) and Mommsen (Die Unter-Italischen Dialekte, p. 119).

 ABELLI′NUM (, Eth. Abellinas-atis). 1. A considerable city of the Hirpini, situated in the upper valley of the Sabatus, near the frontier of Campania. Pliny, indeed, appears to have regarded it as inclded in that country, as he enumerates it among the cities of the first region of Augustus, but Ptolemy is probably correct in reckoning it among those of the Hirpini. It is placed by the Tabula Peutingeriana on the road from Beneventum to Salernum, at a distance of 16 Roman miles from the former city. No mention of it is found in history prior to the Roman conquest; and it appears to have first risen to be a place of importance under the Roman Empire. The period at which it became a colony is uncertain: Pliny calls it only an "oppidum," but it appears from the Liber de Coloniis that it must have received a colony previous to his time, probably as early as the second T Triumvirate; and we learn from various inscriptions of imperial times that it continued to enjoy this rank down to a late period. These mention numerous local magistrates, and prove that it most have been a place of considerable wealth and importance, at least as late as the time of Valentinian. (Plin. Iii, 3. a. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. § 68; Lib. de Colon. p. 229; Inscr. ap. Orell. Nos. 1180, 1181; Lupuli, Iter Venusin. pp. 34, 55, 56.)

The ancient city was destroyed daring the wars between the Greeks and the Lombards, and the inhabitants established themselves on the site of the modern Avellino, which has thus retained the name, but not the situation, of the ancient AbeIlinum. The ruins of the latter are still visible about two miles from the modern city, near the village of Atripaldi, and immediately above the river Sabbato. Some vestiges of an amphitheatre may be traced, as well as portions of the city walls, and other fragments of reticulated masonry. Great numbers of inscriptions, bas-reliefs, altars, and minor relics of antiquity, have also been discovered on the site. (Lupuli, I. c. pp. 33, 34; Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 310; Swinburne, Travels, vol. i. p. 118; Craven, Abruzzi, vol. ii. p. 201.) The neighbourhood still abounds with filbert-trees, which are extensively cultivated, as they were in ancient times; on which account the name of the nuces Avellanae was frequently derived firom Abelli-num rather than Abella. (Harduin. ad Plin. xv. 22.)

2. Besides the Abellinum mentioned by Pliny in the first region of Italy, he enumerates also in the second, which included the Hirpini and Apulians, "Abellinates cognomine Protropi," and "Abellinates cognominati Marsi." The first have been generally supposed to be the inhabitants of the city already mentioned, but it would certainly appear that Pliny meant to distinguish them. No clue exists to the position of either of these two towns: the conjecture of the Italian topographers who have placed the Abellinates Marsi at Marsico Vetere, in Lucania, having nothing, except the slight similarity of name, to recommend it, as that site would have been in the third region.

 A′BIA (: nr. Zaranata), a town of Messenia, on the Messenian gulf, and a little above the woody dell, named Choerius, which formed the boundary between Messenia and Laconia in the time of Pausanias. It is said to have been the same town as the Ira of the Iliad (ix. 292), one of the seven towns which Agamemnon offered to Achilles, and to have derived its later name from Abia, the nurse of Hyllus, the son of Hercules. Subsequently it belonged, with Thuria and Pharae, to the Achaean League. It continued to be a place of some importance down to the reign of Hadrian, as we learn from an extant inscription of that period. (Paus. iv. 30; Polyb. xxv. 1; Paciandi, Monum. Pelopon. ii. pp. 77, 145, cited by Hoffmann, Griechenland, p. 1020; Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 325.)

 ABLA′NUS, a river of Scythia (Sarmatia) falling into the Euxine, mentioned only in the work of Alexander on the Euxine, as giving name to the , who dwelt on its banks. (Steph. Byz. s. v. .) Stephanos elsewhere quotes Alexander aa saying that the district of Hylea on the Euxine was called, which he interprets by , woody (Steph. Byz. s. v. ).

 A′BII, a Scythian people, placed by Ptolemy in the extreme N. of Scythia extra Imaum, near the Hippophagi; bat there were very different opinions about them. Homer (Il. xiii. 5, 6) represents Zeus, on the summit of M. Ida, as taming away his eyes from the battle before the Greek camp, and "looking down upon the land of the Thracians familiar with horses,". Ancient and modern commentators have doubted greatly which of these words to take as proper names, except the first two, which nearly all agree to refer to the Mysians of Thrace. The fact would seem to be that the poet had heard accounts of the great nomade peoples who inhabited the steppes NW. and N. of the Euxine, whose whole wealth lay in their herds, especially of horses, on the milk of which 