Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/21

  Tab. Pent.; Ptol. ii. 13. § 5, Vit S. Magu. 28), a town of Vindelicia, probably coinciding with the modern Epfach on the river Lech, where remains of Roman buildings are still extant. The stations, however, in the Itineraries and the Pentingerian Table are not easily identified with the site of Epfach; and Abodiacum is placed by some topographers at the hamlet of Peisenberg, on the slope of a hill with the same name, or in the neighbourhood of Rosenheim in Bavaria. (Itin. Auton; Muchar Noricum, p. 283.)

 ABOLLA, a city of Sicily, mentioned only by Stephanos Byzantinus (s. v.), who affords no clue to its position, but it has been supposed, on account of the resemblance of the name, to have occupied the site of Avola, between Syracuse and Noto. A coin of this city has been published by D'Orville (Sicula, pt ii. tab. 20), but is of very uncertain authority. (Eckhel, vd. L p. 189; Castell Sicil. Vet. Num. p. 4.)̺

 ABONI-TEICHOS (: Eth. : Ineboli), a town on the coast of Paphlagonia with a harbour, memorable as the birthplace of the impostor Alexander, of whom Lucian has left us an amusing account in the treatise bearing his name. (Dict. of Biogr. vol. i. p. 123.) According to Lucian (Alex. § 58), Alexander petitioned the emperor (probably Antoninus Pius) that the name of his native place should be changed from Aboni-Teichos into Ionopolis; and whether the emperor granted the request or not, we know that the town was called Ionopolis in later times. Not only does this name occur in Marcianus and Hierocles; but on coins of the time of Antoninus and L. Verus we find the legend, as well as. The modern Ineboli is evidently only a corruption of Ionopolis. (Strab. p. 545; Arrian, Peripl. p. 15; Lucian, Alex. passim; Marcian. Peripl. p. 72; Ptol. v. 4. §2; Hierocl. p. 696; Steph. B. s. v. .)

 ABORI'GINES, a name given by all the Roman and Greek writers to the earliest inhabitants of Latuim, before they assumed the appellation of. There can be no doubt that the obvious derivation of this name (ab origine) is the true one, and that it could never have been a national tide really borne by any people, but was a mere abstract appellation invented in later times, and intended, like the Autochthones of the Greeks, to designate the primitive and original inhabitants of the country. The other derivations suggested by later writers, — such as Aberrigines from their wandering habits, or the absurd one which Dionysius seems inclined to adopt, "ab " from their dwelling in the mountains, — are mere etymological fancies, suggested probably with a view of escaping from the difficulty, that, according to later researches, they were not really autochthones, but foreigners coming from a distance (Dionys. i. 10; Aur. Vict. Orig. Gent. Rom. 4). Their real name appears to have been Casci (Saufeius, ap. Serv. ad Aen. i. 6), an appellation afterwards used among the Romans to signify anything primitive or old-fashioned. The epithet of Sacrani, supposed by Niebuhr to have been also a national appellation, would appear to have had a more restricted sense, and to have been confined to a particular tribe or subdivision of the race. But it is certainly remarkable that the name of Aborigines must have been established in general use at a period as early as the fifth century of Rome; for (if we may trust the accuracy of Dionysius) it was already used by Callias, the historian of Agathocles, who termed Latinus "king of the Aborigines" (Dionys. i. 72): and we find that Lycophron (writing under Ptolemy Philadelphus) speaks of Aeneas as founding thirty cities "in the land of the Boreigonoi" a name which is evidently a mere corruption of Aborigines. (Lycophr. Alex. 1253; Tzetz. ad loc.; Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 80.) A tradition recorded both by Cato and Varro, and which Niebuhr justly regards as one of the most credible of those transmitted to us from antiquity, related that these Aborigines first dwelt in the high mountain districts around Reate and in the vallies which extend from thence towards the Mt, Velino and the Lake Fucinus. From hence they were expelled by the Sabines, who descended upon them from the still more elevated regions around Amiternum, and drove them forwards towards the W. coast: yielding to this pressure, they descended into the valley of the Anio, and from thence gradually extended themselves into the plains of Latium. Here they came in contact with the Siculi, who were at that time in possession of the country; and it was not till after a long contest that the Aborigines made themselves masters of the land, expelled or reduced to slavery its Siculian population, and extended their dominion not only over Latium itself, but the whole plain between the Volscian mountains and the sea, and even as far as the river Liris. (Dionys. i. 9, 10, 13, 14, ii. 49; Cato, ap. Priscian. v. 12. § 65.) In this war we are told that the Aborigines were assisted by a Pelasgian tribe, with whom they became in some degree intermingled, and from whom they first learned the art of fortifying their towns. In conjunction with these allies they continued to occupy the plains of Latium until about the period of the Trojan war, when they assumed the appellation of Latini, from their king Latinos. (Dionys. i. 9, 60; Liv. i. 1, 2.)

Whatever degree of historical authority we may attach to this tradition, there can be no doubt that it correctly represents the fact that the Latin race, such as we find it in historical times, was composed of two distinct elements: the one of Pelasgic origin, and closely allied with other Pelasgic races in Italy; the other essentially different in language and origin. Both these elements are distinctly to be traced in the Latin language, in which one class of words is closely related to the Greek, another wholly distinct from it, and evidently connected with the languages of the Oscan race. The Aborigines may be considered as representing the non-Pelasgic part of the Latin people; and to them we may refer that portion of the Latin language which is strikingly dissimilar to the Greek. The obvious relation of this to the Oscan dialects would at once lead us to the same conclusion with the historical traditions above related: namely, that the Aborigines or Casci, a mountain race from the central Apennines, were nearly akin to the Aequi, Volsci, and other ancient nations of Italy, who are generally included under the term of Oscans or Ausonians; and as clearly distinct from the tribes of Pelasgic origin, on the one hand, and from the great Sabellian family on the other. (Niebuhr, vol i. p. 78 — 84; Donaldson, Varronianus p. 3; Abeken, Mittelitalien pp. 46, 47.)

Dionysius tells us that the greater port of the cities originally inhabited by the Aborigines in their mountain homes had ceased to exist in his time; but he has preserved to us (i. 14) a catalogue of them, as given by Varro in his Antiquities which is of 