Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/361

 AUBELUNORUM URBS. an Anna "Bapo (ii xfi^ X^) '^ ^^^ P^^ ^ ^^ world. For parkictikrB, Bee Ikdia« [P. S.] AUBELUNORUM URBS or CIVITAS. [Gk< KABUX.] AURGI, a citf of HiBpenia Baeticai mentionod in an inacriplioii, MxTinciFiUM Flayiuh Auboita- WHL' (Moratorii p. 1103, No. 6.) Ukert snppoees it to be Jaen (vol. ii. pt 1. p. 370). [P. S.] AUBINX, a city in the 6. of Hispania, not &r firom Miinda (lir. xxiv. 42); donbtless the same place aa Oringis, on the confines of the Melesaes, which Haadrabal made hia head quarters against Sdpio, B. a 207. It was at that time the most wealthj city of the district, and had a fertile terri- tory, uid sUrer mines worked by the natives. (Liv. zxviii. 3.) Pliny mentions it, with a slight di&r- <Dce of form, Oningis, among the oppida tHpendiaria of the oonventos Astigitanos. (Liv. iiL I. s. 3.) Ukert places it between Monclova and Ximma d$ la Fnmiera (vol. il pt. 1. p. 350). [P. &] AURUNC A, the capital or metropolis of the little moimtain tribe of the Anrond, in the more limited •enee of that name [Aurumci], was sitoated on one of the summits of the volcanic grottp of mountains, which rise above the plains of Campania, near Suessa and Teanom. Its name is found cnly in Featus (v. Amoma), who tells us it was founded by Auson, the son of Ulysses and Circe; but Livy cleariy alludes to its existence, though without men- tuning the name. He tells us, SitX in b.c. 337, the Aumnci, being hard pressed by their neigh- boors the Sidioini, abandoned Ihnr city, and took refuge at Suessa, which they fortified; and that tkeir tmeunt dig was degbrojeA by the Sidiflini. (Liv. viii. 15.) It was never rebuilt, and hence no subsequent notice of it is found; but some vestiges of it have been discovered on the summit of a nar- row mountain ridge, now called La SerrOj or La CortrndlOf about 5 miles N. of Suessa, where there are some fragments of the ancient walls, and massive substmctions, probably those of a temple. The hiD on which it stood forms part of the outer adge, or encircling ridge of an ancient volcanic crater, the highest point of which, called the Monte di Sla Croeej attains an elevation of 3,200 ieet above the sea; and the site of the ancient town must have been, like that of Alba Longa, a kmg and nar- row plateau on the summit of this ridge. It is to this elevated position that Virgil alludes. (" De coUAmt akU Anrund misere patres," Aen. vii. 727.) For the description of the remains and site of the ancient city, see Abeken, Afm, dt Inst 1839, p. 199 — 206, and Daubeny on Volcanoes, p. 175 — 178. Suessa was frequently distinguished by the epithet Aurunca, and hoice Juvenal (i. 20) terms Ludlius, who was a natii'e of that city, •* Aoruncae alumnus." [E. H. B.] ADBUNCI (At^^ovyiroi), is the name given by Boman writers to an ancient race or nation of Italy. It appears certain that it was originally the appel- latioa given by them to the people called Ausonbs by the Greeks: indeed, the two names are merely diiEsrent fiocms of the same, with the change so com- mon in Latin of the s into the r. (Aurunci^sAu- mniciBsAumniiKAusuni.) The identity of the two is distinctly asserted by Servius (ad Aen. viL 727), and dearly implied by Dion Cassins (Fr, 2), where be says, that the name of Ausonia was pro- periy applied only to the Und of tlie Auruncans, between the Voiscians and the Ca m pa ni ans. In like Festos (JL V. Autonia) makes the mythical AUSA. 343 hero Auson the founder of the dty of Aurunca. Servius terms the Aurund one of the most andent nations of Italy (ad Am. vii. 206); and they cer- tainly appear to have been at an early peiiod much more powerful and widdy spread than we subse- quently find thenu But it does not appear that the name was ever employed by the Romans in the vague and extensive sense in which that of Ausones was used by the Greeks. [Ausones.] At a later period, in the fourth century b. a, the two names of Aurund and Ausones had assumed a distinct signification, and came to be applied to two petty nations, evidently mere subdivisions of the same great race, both dwelling on the frontiers of Latium and Campania; the Ausones on the W. of the Liris, extending from thence to the mountains of the Voi- scians; the Auruncans, (m the other hand, being confined to the detached group of volcanic mountains now called Monte di Sta Crooe, or Mecca Monfina, on the left bank of the Liris, together with the hills that slope from thence towards the sea. Thdr an- dent stronghold or metropolis, Acbunca, was situ- ated near the summit of the mountain, while Suessa, which they subsequently made their capital, was on its south-western slope, commanding the fertile plains from thence to the sea. On the £. and S. they bor- dered dosdy on the Sidicim' of Teannm and the people of Cales, who, according to Livy (viii. 16), were also of Ausonian race, but were politically dis- tinct firom the Auruncans. Virgil evidently regards these hills as the original abode of the Auruncan nee (Aen. vii. 727), and speaks of them as merely a petty people. But the first occasion on which they appear in Boman histoiy exhibits them in a very di&rent light, as a warlike and powerful nation, who had extended their conquests to the very bor- ders of Latium. Thus, in B.C 503, we find the Latin dties of Cora and Pometia " revolting to the Anrunci," and these powerful ndghbours supporting them with a large army against the infant repubUc. (Liv. iL 16, 17.) And a few years later the Auruncans took up arms as allies of the Vdsdans, and advanced with tbdr army as £ir as Aricia, where they fought a great battle with the Roman consul Servilius. (Id. ii. 26 ; Dionys vi. 32.) On this occadon they are termed by IXonydus a warlike people of great strength and fierceness, who occupied the fairest plains of Campania; so that it seems certain the name is here used as induding the people to whom the name of Ausones {jn its more limited sense) is afterwards applied. From this time the name of the Auruncans does not again occur till b. c. 344, when it is evident that Livy is speaking only of the petty people who inhabited the mountain of Jiocca MonJbMy who were defisated and reduced to sub- misuon without difficulty. (Liv. vii. 26.) A few years later (b. c 337) they were compelled by the attacks of thdr neighbours the Sididni, to apply for aid to Borne, and meanwhile abandoned their strong- hold on the mountdn and established themselves in their new dty of Suessa. (Id. viii. 15.) No mention of their name is found in the subsequent wars of the Romans in this part of Italy; and as in b. c. 313 a Boman colony was establidied at Suessa (Liv. ix. 28), their national existence must have been thence- fiuth at an end. Thdr territoiy was subsequently included in Campania. [E. U. B.] AUSA (A09a), the chief dty of the AusKTAia, was called in the middle ages Ausona and Vicus Ansonensia, Vic de Oeane, whence its modem name z 4 i