Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/363

 AUSONA. 4ariiim [Borkvm], and as due norfli oF the Sena. As it is mare certain that the Sena is the Shemnon than tiiat the northeni promontory is Malm Heady the outlet of Loch Corrib in Galway Bay best suits the i-omeirhat equivocal condition of the river Anaoba. [R. 6. L.] AU'SONA, a city of Latiam, in Uie more ex- tended sense cf that term, but which, at an earlier period, was one of the three cities possessed by the tribe of the Auaones. Its name would seem to imply that it was once their chief city or metropdis; but it is only once mentioned in history — during the se- 4XMid Samnite war, when the Ausonians having re- volted from the Boraans, all their three cities were betrayed into the hands of the Roman consuls, and their inhabitants put to the sword without mercy. ^Liv. iz. 25.) No subsequent notice is found of Ansona; but it is supposed to have been situated on the banks of the little river still called ^ufente, which flows into the Liris, near its mouth. The plain below the modem village of Le Fratte, near the sources of this little stream, is still known as the Piano delC Ausente ; and some remains of a Roman town have been discovered here. (Romanelli, Tul. iiL p. 438.) [£. H. B.] AU'SONES (Allirovcs) is the name given by Creek writers to one of the ancient nations or races that inhabited Central Italy. The usage of ancient writers in regard to all these national appellations is veiy vague and fluctuating, and perhaps in no in- stance more so tlian in the case of the Ausones or Ausonians. But notwithstanding this tmcertainty, some points appear to be pretty clearly made out concerning ^em. 1. The Ausonians were either identical with the Opicans or Oscans, or were at least a part of the aame race and family. Aristotle expressly tells us (J^oL vii. 10), that the part of Italy towards Tyrrhe- nia was inhabited by the Opicans, " who were called, both formerly and in his time, by the additional iHune of Ausones." Antiochus of Syracuse also aaid, that Campania was at first occupied by the Opicans, " who were also called Ausonians." {AfU. ap. Strab. v. p. 242.) Polybius, on the contrary, Appears to have r^arded the two nations as different, «nd spoke of Campania as inhabited by the Au- sonians and Opicans; but this does not necessarily prove that they were really distinct, for we find in the same manner the Opicans and Oscans motioned by some writers as if they were two different nations (Strab. L c), though there can be no doubt that these are merely forms of the same name. Heca- tacns also appears to have held the same view with Antiochus, as he called Nola in Campania " a city of the Aoaoaaes " (op. Steph, B, «. v. N«Aa). 2. The Ausones of the Greeks were the same people who were termed Aurunci by the Romans: the proofs of the original identity df the two have been shcady given under Aurukci. But at a later period the two appellations were distinguished and applied to two separate tribes or nations. 3. The name of Ausones, in this restricted and later sense of the term, is confined to a petty nation on the borders of Latinm and Campania. In one passage Livy speaks of Cales as their chief city; but a little later he tells us that they had three cities, Ausona, Mintnmae, and Vesda, all of which appear to have been situated in the plains bordering on the Liris, not far from its month. (Liv. viii. 16, ix. 25.) At this period they were certainly an in- eoosiderable tribe, and were able to offinr but little AUSONES. 345 resistanoe to the Roman arms. Their city of Cales was captured, and soon after occupied by a Roman colony, B. c. 333; and though a few years after- wards the success of the Samnites at Lantulae in- duced them to take up arms again, their three remaining towns were easily reduced by the Roman oonsula, and their inhabitants put to the sword. On this occasion Livy tells us (ix. 25) that " the Au- sonian nation was destrc^ed;" it is certain that its name does not again appear in history, and is only noticed by Pliny (iiL 5. s. 9) among the extinct races which had formerly inhabited Latium. But however inconsiderable the Ausonians appear at this time, it is clear that at a much earlier period they were a powerful and widely extended nation. For although it is probable that the Greeks frequently applied the name with little regard to accuracy, and may have included races widely different under the common appeUatbn of Ausonians, it is impossible to account for this vague and general use of the name, unless the people to whom it really belonged had formed an important part of the populati<»i of Cen- tral Italy. The precise rdation in which they were considered as standing to the Opicans or Oscans it is impossible to determine, nor perhaps were the ideas of the Greeks themselves upon this p<nnt very clear and definite. The passages already cited prove that they were considered as occupying Campania and the western coast of Italy, on which account the Lower Sea (Mare Inferum, as it was termed by the Romans), subsequently known as the Tyrrhenian, was in early ages commonly called by the Greeks the Ausonian Sea.* (Strab. v. 233 ; Dicmys. i. 1 1 ; Lyoophr. Alex, 44; Apoll. Rhod. iv. 590.) Other accounts, however, represent them as originally an inland people, dwelling in the mountains about Bene- vcntum. (Festus, S.V. ^ttfonto.) Scynmus Chius also speaks of them as occupying an inland region {Perieg, 228); and Strabo (p. 233) tells us that they had oocujned the mountain tract above the Pontine marshes, where in Roman history we meet only with Volscians. On the whole, it is probable that the name was applied with little discrimination to all the native races who, prior to the invasion of the Samnites, occupied Campania and the inland mountainous regim afterwards known as Samnium, and from thence came to be gradually applied to all the inhabitants of Coitral Italy. But they seein to have been regarded by the best authorities as dis- tinct from the Oenotrians, or Pehugic races, which inhabited the southern puts of the peninsula (see Aristot. /. c); though other authors certauily con- founded tiiem. Hellanicus according to Dionysius (i. 22) spoke of the Attsoniant as crossing over into Sicily under thou: king Siculus, where the people meant are clearly the Siculi. Again, Strabo speaks ( vi. p. 255) of Temesa as founded by the Ausones, where he must probably mean the Oenotrians, the only peo- ple whom we know of as inhabiting these regions bo- fore the arrival of the Greeks. The use of the name of AusoNiA for the whole Italian peninsula was merely poetical, at least it is not found in any extant prose writer; and Dionysius, who assures us it was used by the Greeks in very early times, associates it with if we may trust his authority, Polybius also, applied the name of " Ausonium >l^re,'' to the sea on the S£. of Italy, from Sicily to the lapygian Pro montory, but this is oertjdnly at variance with the costomaiy usage of the term.
 * Pliny,on the contrary (iii. 5 s. 10, 10. s. 15), and,