Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/229

 ARIL ARIL [Ltgii.] ARIMASPI (^AptfuurwoC), a Scythian people. The fi»t extaai notice of the Arimaspi is in Hero* dotas ; bat, earlier than this there was the poem of Aristets of Proconessos, called Arimaspea (Irca ^Afiiituima, Herod, vr. 14); and it is npon the erkknce of this poem, rather than npon the inde- pendent testimoDj of Herodotos, that the stranger statements concerning the people in question rest. Sneh are thoee, as to their being one-eyed, and as to their stealing the gold fmn the Giypes; on the other band, however, themore prosaic parts of the Herodotean arooont may be considered as the result of investi- gstioDs on the part of the historian himself, espe- dallr the derivaticm of their name. (Herod, iv. 27.) Respecting this his evidence is, 1st, that it belonged to the Scythian language; 2ndly, that it was a compoond of arima==one^ and spou^eye; each of these words being Scythic glosses ; or, to speak more precisely, glosses from the language of the Skoloti (Xc^AfOTox). Hence, the name was not native; i.e. Arim-4upi was not an Arimaspian word. ^ If we deal with this compound as a gloss, and attempt to discover the existing tongue in which it M still to be found, our results are wholly negatlTe. In ixne of the numerous languages of Caucasus, in mane of the Slavonic dialects, and in none of the Turk and Ugrian tongues of the Lower Volga and Don do we find either one word or the other. Yet we have specimens of every existing form of speech for tiiese parts, and there is no reason to believe that the toogoe of the ancient Skoloti is extinct. On the CQBtraiy, one of the Herodotean glosses (pior = man) 'a Turk. Much, then, as it may wear the appear- sDce of catting rather than untying the Goidian knot, the tianslatioii of Arimtupi by Movy6pdafios most be looked upon as an inaccuracy. If the loss of Uie final -p, and the change of the campoond sibilant (a sound strange to Greek ears) at the beginmng of the word Arimat-pj be admitted as l^itimate, we may find a population that, at the pmcnt time, agrees, name for name, and place for plare, with this mysterious nation. Their native Bime is Jfari=menj and, as Arimatpi was not a Bitive nanie, they may have been so called in the time of Heroidotus. The name, however, by which tber mre known to their neighbours is Tsheremis. Tbexr locality is the left bank of the Middle Volga, in the goremments of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov ; a bcality which is sufficiently near the gold districts cf the Undian Range, to fulfil the conditions of the Heradntean account, which places them north of the loedooes (themselves north of the Scythae, or Skoloti), and south of the Grypes. The Tshercmiss bekog to the Ugrian family ; they have no appear- aore of being a recent people ; neither is there any RMOQ to assume the extinction of the Herodotean AiimaspL Lastly, the name by which they were known to the Greeks of Olbiopolis, is likely to be the name (allowing for change of form) by which thry are known to the occupants of the same parts at present. ' [R. G. L.] ARIMATHEA, " A city of the Jews " {Luke, xxiiL 51), placed by St. Jerome near Diospolis or Lydda {Epitaph, PauL), which would correspond rery well with the situation of liamleh, where a late traditiflci finds the city of Joseph of Arimathea. The arguments against this hypothesis are fully stated by Dr. Robinsoa. (Po^^cne, vol. iii. pp. 33, &c.) He concludes that its site has not yet been identified. Some writers identify it with Rama* ARIMINUM. 213 [G. W.] ARI'MINUM CApf^vov: Eth, Ariminensis: Ri- mmx), one of the most important and celebrated cities of Umbria, situated on the coast of the Adriatic, close to the mouth of the river Ariminus, from which it derived its name (Fest. s. v.), and only about 9 miles S. of the Rubic(m which formed the boundary of Cisalpine Gaul. Strabo tells us that it was ori- ginally an Umbrian city (v. p. 217.): it must have passed into the hands of the Senonian Gauls during the time that they possessed the whole of tliis tract between the Apennines and the sea: but we have no mention of its name in history previous to the year B. c. 268, when the Romans, who had expelled the Senones from all this part of Italy, established a colony at Ariminum. (Liv. Epit. xv. ; Eutrop. ii. 16 ; Veil. Pat. i. 14; Sb»b. I c.) The position of this new settlement, close to the extreme verge of Italy towards Cisalpine Gaul, and just at the pdnt where the last slopes of the Apennines descend to the Adriatic and bound the great plains which extend from thence without interruption to the Alps, ren- dered it a military post of the highest importance, and it was justly considered as the key of Cisalpine Gaul on the one side, and of the eastern coast of Italy on the other. (Strab. v. p. 226 ; Pol. iii. 61 .) At the same time its port at the mouth of the river maintained its communications by sea with the S. of Italy, and at a later period with the countries on the opposite side of the Adriatic. The importance of Ariminum was still further increased by the opening in B.C. 221 of the Via FUminia which led from thence dirwt to Rome, and subsequently of tlie Via Aemilia (b. c. 187) which established a direct communication ^ith Pla- centia. (Liv. Epit. xx. xxxix. 2.) Hence we tind Ariminum repeatedly playing an important part in Roman history. As early as b. c. 225 it was occu- pied by a Roman army during the Gaulish war: in B. c. 218 it was the place upon which Semproniiis directed lus legions in order to oppose Hannibal in Cisalpine Gaul; and throughout the Second Punic War it was one of the points to which the Romans attached the greatest strategic importance, and which they rarely failed to guard with a considerable army. (PoL ii. 23, iii. 61, 77 ; Liv. xxi. 51, xxiv. 44.) It is again mentioned as holding a similar place during the Gallic war in b. c. 200, as well as in the civil wars of Sulla and Marius, on which occasion it suf fered severely, for, having been occujaed by Carbo, it was vindictively plundered by Sulla. (Liv. xxxi. 10, 21 ; Appian. B, C. i. 67, 87, 91 ; Cic. Ferr. i. 14.) On the outbreak of hostilities between Caesar and Pompey, it was the first object of the former to make himself master of Ariminum, from whence he directed his subsequent operations both against Etnma and Picenum. (Caes. ^. C. L 8, 11 ; Plut Caes. 32 ; Cic. ad Fam, xvi. 12 ; Appian. B. C. ii. 35.) So also we find it conspicuous during the wars of Antonius and Octavius (Appian. B, C. iii. 46, v. 33); in the civil war between ViteUius and Vespasian (Tac. Hist. iii. 41, 42); and agiun at a much hiter period in the contest between BeUsarius and the Goths. (Procop. B.G.u. 10, 17, iu. 37, iv. 28.) Nor was it only in a military point of view that Ariminum was of importance. It seems to have been from the first a flourishing colony : and was one of the eighteen which in B.C. 209, notwithstanding the severe pressure of the Second Punic War, was still able to furnish its quota of men and money. (Liv. xxvii. 10.) It was indeed for a time reduced to a state of inferiority by Sulla, as a punishment for tho p 3