Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/236

 220 AROANIUS. mouth was distant, according to Strabo, only 20 Ftadia from Pisa; an estimate, probably, below the truth, but the coast line has certainly receded considerably, from the constant accunuUation of sand. The present mouth of the AmOy which is above six miles below Pisa, is an artificial channel, cut at the beginning of the 17th century. (Tar- gtoni-Tozzetti, Viaggi in Toicttnay voL ii. pp.96, 97.) The whole length of its course is about 140 Italian, or 175 Roman, miles. The Arrto receives in its course numerous tri- butaxy streams, but of none of these have the ancient names been preserved to us. It has always been subject to violent floods, and inundates the flat country on its banks throughout the lower part of its course. This must have been the case m ancient times to a still greater extent, and thus were formed the marshes through which Hannibal found so much difficulty in forcing his way on his march to Arretium. (PoL iii. 78, 79; Liv. xxii. 2, 3.) Strabo, indeed, supposes these marshes to have been on the N. side of the Apennines, and in the valley of the Pados (v. p. 217); but this seems to be certainly a mistake; Livy expressly refers them to the Anios, and this position is at least equally consistent with the narrative of Poly- bins, who affords no distinct statonent on the point. (Niebuhr, Lect. on Bom. Hist. vol. i. p. 181 ; Van- doncourt. Hist, des Campagnes cTAnntbal^ vol. i. pp. 136, 156.) The marshy Likes, called the PaduU di Fucecchio and eft BientinUf still existing between the Apennines and the N. bank of the AmOy are evidently the remains of a state of things formerly much more extensively developed. At a still earlier period it is probable that the basin or valley at the foot of the hill of Faesulae, in the centre of which now stands the city of Florence^ was likewise a marsh, and that the narrow rocky gorge through which the river now escapes (jost below the village of SiffnOj 10 miles from Florence) was formed, or at least widened, by artificial mrans. (Niebuhr, Vorlrage ub. Volker u. Lander^ p. 339.) [E.H.B.] AROA'NIUS ('A/>oti[yioi), the name of three rivers in Arcadia. 1. Or Olbius ('OXSios), called Anias {*Avlas) by Strabo, a river rising in the mountains to the north of Pheneus, and falling into some caverns called katavothra, near the hitter city. Wlien these caverns happened to je blocked up, the waters of the river overflowed tlie whole plain, and communicated with the Ladon and the Alpheius. (Strab. viii. p. 389; Paus. viii. 14. § 3, 15. § 6.) 2. (AToteana), a tributary of the Ladon, and flomng past the western side of Gleitor. (Paus. vui. 19. § 4, 21. § 1.) Polybius (iv. 70), without men- tioning the name of the river, properly describes it as an impetuous torrent from the neighbouring moun- tains. The trout in the Aroanius are said to have sung like thrushes. (Paus. viii. 21. §2; Athen. viiL p. 331, e.; Plin. ix. 19; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. pp. 241, 263, seq.) This river rose in the Aroanian mountains (Jap^ 'Apodvuiy Paus. viii. 18. § 7), now called KhehnoSj which is 7726 feet in height (Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 203.) 3. A tributary of the Erymanthus, flowing on ono side of Psophis. (Paus. viii. 24. § 3.) AROE. [Patrae.] AROER, a city of the Amorites on the north side of the valley of Uie Amon ( Wady-eUMojib) (DeuL ii. 36, iii. 12), occnpicd by the tribe of Gad {Nun^. xxxii. 34). Eusebius says that the site of the city existed in his day on the top of a hill (Onomast. ARPI. s. v.). And Bnrckhardt was shown, on the top of thtf precipice which forms the northern brink of the Wady-d'Majiby the ruins of Artuiyr, which he con- cludes to be the Aroer of the Scriptures. {Tmvek^ p. 372.^ FG W 1 AR^MATA PROMONTOTUUM (^kpdiiMra. JSucpov KoL ifiir6pioPf Ptol. iv. 7. § 10; "Apv/io, Steph. B. S.V.; Arrian, Perip. Mar. Eryth. 7, 8, 17, 33: Eth. *Apvfie6si the modem Cap Gnardajftd)^ was the easternmost headland of Africa, in hit. 1 1^ N. The promontory was a continuation of Mount £le- phas, and the* town Aromata was the principal dty in the Regio Cinnamonifera (ji Kiyyafio^t6pos x"^ Strab. xvL p. 774.) Ptolemy, indeed (iv. 7. § 34), places the region of dnnamon and sjaces further to the west and nearer to the White Nile. The district of which Aromata waa the capital bounded Africa Barbaria to the north, and the Long-lived Aethio- pians (Macrobii) are placed by some geographers immediately south of it The quantity of spices employed by the Egyptians in the process of em- balming rendered their txade with Aromata active and regular. Diodorus (i. 9 1 ) menti(MQs cinnamtn as one of the usual condiments of mummies. [W. B. D.] AROSAPES (Plin. vi. 23 ; Arusaces, Mela, iu. 7), a river of Ariana, in the SE. part of Persia ; c(»- jectured by Forbiger {AU. Geogr. vol. il p. 537) to be the same as the modem ArghascM^ one of the tributaries of the ffdtnend. From Mela it would seem to have been in the district of Pattalene. [ V.] A'ROSIS ("Apocris, Arrian, Ind. 39), a river which flowed into the Persian Gulf, forming the boundary of Susiana and Persis. It is the same as the Oroatis (^Opodris; in Zend. AunccUj "swift") of Strabo (xv. pp. 727, 729), and of Ptolemy (vi. 4. § 1). Arrian and Strabo both state 4hat it was the cluef river in those parts. It answers to the Zarotis of Pliny (vi. 23. s. 26), " ostio diflicilis iii«i peritis." It is now called the Tab. {Geogr. Nub, p. 123 ; Otter, vol. ii. p. 49.) Gellarius (iiL c. 9) has conjectured that the Aroeis of Arrian, the Ko- gomanis of Ptolemy (vi. 4. § 2), and Amm. Marc (xxiii. 6), and the Persian Arazes (Strab. xv. p. 729), are different names of one and the same river : but this does not seem to be the case. [V.} AROTREBAE. [Artabri.] ARPI C^P'o^y Ptol- £th.*Apir(»v6sy Arpanus, PUn., Arpinus, Liv.: Arpa')^ called also ARGY- RIPA, or ARGYRIPPA (Argyripa, Virg. Sil. Ital.; *Ap7up«nro, Strab. Pol. ; 'ApyvpiinreufoSf Steph. B.), one of the most ancient and important cities of Apulia, situated in the centre of the great Apulian plain, about 13 miles E. of Luceria, and 20 from the sea at Sipontum. (The Tab. Peut. gives 21 M. P. to Sipontum.) Its foundation is generally attributed, both by Greek and Roman writers, to Diomedes, who is said to have originally named it after bis native city Argos Hippium {"Ap- yos *Iinrio>'), of which the name Aigyrippa was supposed to be a corraption. (Strab. i. p. 283; Plin. iii. 11. 8.16; Appian. ^9mi&. 31 ; Lycophr. Alex. 592; Wrg. Aen. xi. 246; Justin, xx. 1; Steph. B. s. V. 'Apyvpimca.) But this is probably a mere etymological fancy; and it is even doubtful whether the name of Argyrippa, though so con- .staiitly used by Greek authors, was known to the inhabitants themselves, in historical times. Their coins always bear 'Afwroyof; and Diony^ius expressly says that Argyrippa was in history called Arpi. Nor is there any historical evidence of its having been a Greek colony: its name is not found iu