Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/355

 AUFIDENA. Suar and AndoB are the same river, and identical «lao with the Usak of Pliny. Perhaps the two names, Aodus and Sisar (or Usar), maj belong to the two great branches of the Sumeimy of which the western is still called AdoWj and the other Ajeby, (Mannert, ToL x. pt. 2. p. 411 ; Pdlissier, £xphr<i- turn de VAlgiri^, toI. tI. p. 356.) [P. S.] AUFIDE'NA (JihipMiva, Ptol.: E(k, Aafideuas, Stis: Affidena a dtj o£ northern Samnium, situ- ated in the upper valley of the Sagrus, or Sangro* Ptolemy mentions it as the chief dty of the Caiu- ceni, the most northern tribe of the Samnites; and the Itineraries place it 24 miles from Sulmo, and 28 firom Aewemia, but the latter number is certainly erroneous. (PtoL UL 1. § 66; Itin. Ant. p. 102.) The remains of its massive ancient walls prove that it must have been a fortress of great strength ; but the only notice of it in history is that of its conquest by the Roman consul Cn. Fulvins, who took it by storm in B. c. 298. (Liv. x. 12.) It seems V> have suffered severely in common with the other Samnite cities from the ravages of Sulla, but received a mili- tary colony under Caesar (Lib. Colon, p. 259; Zumpt, de CoUfnnSy p. 307), and continued to exist under the empire as a municipal town of some con- seqoenoe. (Plin. iiL 12. s. 17 ; OieU. Inter, 3776 ; Zumpt, 2. c.) The modem viUage of Alfidenc^ as is olbm the case in Italy, though it has retained the name of Aufidena, does not occupy its original site; the ruins of the ancient city (consisting principally of portions of its walls of a very rude and massive character) are still visible on a hill on the left bank d[ the river Sangro^ about 5 miles above CasUl di Saagro. Numerous architectural fragments and other andent relics of Boman date are also still found on the site. (Bomanelli, vol. iU pp. 486, 487 ; Craven's Ahrvzd, vol. u. p. 59.)^ [fi. H. B.] AUTIDUS (A%dor: 0/anto% the principal river of Apulia, and one of the most considerable of Southern Italy, flowing into the Adriatic Sea. Po- lybins says (iii. 110) that it is the only river of Italy that traverses the central chain of the Apen- nines, which is a mistake; but its sources are at so short a distance from the Tyrrhenian Sea, as to have readily given rise to the error. It actually rises in the Apennines, in the country of the Hirpini, about 15 miles W. of Compsa (Conea), and only 25 from Salemnm, on the Tyrrhenian S^ From thence it flows throngh the rugged mountain country of the Hirpini for a distance df above 40 miles to Uie fron- tie/8 of Apulia, which it crosses between Asculum and Venusia, and traverses the broad plains of that province, till it discharges itself uito the Adriatic, about half way between Sipontum and Barium. Like most of the rivers of Italy, it has much of the character of a great mountain torrent. Horace, whose native place of Venusia was scarcely 10 miles distant frnn the Aufidus (whence he calls himself 2X aJJodes repeatedly to the violent and impetuous character of its stream, when swollen by winter floods or by heavy rains in the mountains of the Hirpini; nor has it in thb respect d^enoated from its andent character. (Hor. Carm. iiL 30. 10, iv. 14. 25, S€U. L 1 58.) But in the summer, on the contrary, it dwindles to a very inconsiderable river, 80 that K is at this season readily fbrdable at almost any pdnt; and bdow Cannsium it is described by a noent traveller as "a scanty stream, holding its slow and winding course through the flat country from thence to the sea.** (Craven, TraveUf p. 86.) AUGILA. 337 4f Hence Sillus Italious, in describing the battle of Cannae, speaks of the " stagnant Aufidus" {aiagna Atifidd, X. 180; see also xi. 510), an epithet well deserved where it traverses that celebrated plain. So winding is this part of its course, that the dis- tance from the bridge of Cannsium to the sea, which is only 15 miles in a direct line, is nearly double that distance along the river. (Lupuli, Iter Fie- mum. p. 176; Swinburne, Travelty voL i. p. 165; Giustiniani, IHz. Geogr. pt. ii. voL iii. p. 44.) Strabo speaks of it as navigable for a distance a{ 90 stadia from its mouth, at which point the Ca- nusians had an emporium. But this could never have been accessible to any but very small vessels. (Strab. vi. p. 283; Plin. iii. II. s. 16; Mela, u. 4; Ptol. iii. 1. § 15.) There are at the present day only three bridges over the Aufidus, all of which are believed to have been originally of andent construction ; the one called the Fonte di CanoM^ 3 miles W. of that city, was traversed by the Via Trajana from Herdonia to Canusium; that called the PonU di Sia. Venere^ about 7 miles from Lacedogneit is clearly the Pons AuFiDi of the Itin. Ant. (p. 121), which pUoes it on the direct road from Beneventum to Venusia, 18 M. P. from the latter dty. The ancient Koir.an bridge is still preserved, and an inscription recorda its restoration by M. Aurelius. (Pratilli, ViaAppic^ iv. C.5, p. 469; Lupuli, Iter Vemuin. p. 178; Bo- manelli, vol. ii. pp. 230, 231.) The Itineraries also notice a station at the mouth of the river where it was crossed by the coast road from Sipontum to Barium; but its name is cor- rupted into Aufidena (Itin. Ant p. 314) and Au- finum (Tab. Pent) [E. H. B] AUFINA, a dty of the Veetini, mentioned only by Pliny (iii. 12. s. 17), who enumerates the " Au- finates Cismontani " among the conmiunities of the Vestini; and tdls us that they were united with the Pdtuinates, but whether mumcipally or locally, is not clear. The modem village of Ofenoj about 12 miles N. of Popolij in the lofty and rugged group of mountains N. of the Atemus, retains the andent site as wdl as name. It was a bishop*s see as late as the 6th century, and numerous antiquities have been found there. (Holsten. Not in Cluoer. p. 140; Bomanelli, vol. iiL p. 271.) [E. H. B.] AUFONA, a river in Britain. In Tadtns {Annal xiL 31) we find that Ostorins covered the rivers Sabrina and Antona with encampments. The Geo- grapher of Bavenna has Au/ona^ and the Gloucester- shire Avon suits the locality. This has justified the current notion that such was dther the true reading of Tacitus, or else that it would have been more correctly so written by the author^ [R. G. L.] AUGEIAE (ACyual: Eth. Kiy*&Tiii). I. A town of Locris Epicneraidia, near Scarpheia, men- tioned by Homer, but which had disappeared in the time of Strabo. (Hom. IL ii. 532; Strab. ix. p. 426; Steph. B. «.r.) 2. A town of Laconia, mentioned by Homer (IL ii. 583), probably the same as the later Aegiae. [Aeoiab.] AU'GILA (ra AffyiXo: Eth. AirytXirai, Steph. B. ; Ai^iAai, PtoL ; Augilae or Augylae, Mela and Plin. : Aujelah an oasis in the desert aS Barca, in the region of Cyrenaica, in N. Africa, about Sj[° S. of Cyrene. Herodotus mentions it as one of the oases formed by salt hills {koXwvoI &os)y which he places at inten'als of 10 days' journey along the ridge of sand which he supposes to form the N. /♦« .y •z'
 * looge sonantem natus ad Aufidum," Carm, iv. 9.