Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/368

 350 AVARICUM. him and hie sons is cuirent amongst tho Khergfaiz at the present day. But, a not illegitimate specnlaticm maj carry ns farther still. Avar was a wiiwt name, and it was d&- dooed from a king so called (PanL Diaoon. vi supr.). This means that there was snch an epenymnu as Avar; jnst as the statement that the Greek$ oaOed ihemaelvea HdUnea from their img HeUeHj woald imply an qtdnymua ^ that name. Like Hdlen, the Avar was a mythological rather than a real person- age. Hence, it ia suggested that the fabulous A barii of the Hyperborei (Herod, ir. 36) who was carried round the world oa an arrow, without eating food, may have been the epongfmui of the Avars. Name fw name, the words coincide; aud no locahty, as the original area of the Avars, would suit better than that of the Herodotean Hyperborei. A district on or to the east of the Tobol would satisfy the conditions required for the locality of the hyper- boreans and the belief in Abans. This hypothesis infers the existence of a populatian from the exist- ence of a personid name, — that personal name being assumed to be an epdnymius. If this be legitimate the Avars, without being exactly the ancient Hyper- boreans, were that portion of them more especially connected with the name of Abaris, [R G. L.] AVARICUM {Bowrges), the chief town of the Bituriges, a Celtic people (Caes. B. G, vii. 13, 15), on Uie Avara, £vre^ a branch of the CAer, which &Il8 into the Lovre, Caesar describes it as the finest city in almost all Gallia, and as nearly sur- rounded by a river and a marsh, with only one ap- proach to it, and that very narrow. The modem town is situated at the, junction of the Awron and the Evre^ and each of these rivers receives other streams in or near the town. The wall of Avaricum is particularly described by Caesar (vii. 23). It was built, like all the Gallic town walls, of long beams of timber, placed at intervals ci two feet; the beams, which were 40 feet long, being so pkced that their ends were on the outside. The spaces between were filled up with earth, but in front on the outside with large stones. The beams were fastened together on the inner side. On these beams others were placed, and the mtervals were filled up in like manner; and so (m, till the wall had the re- quisite height. Caesar besiq;^ Avaricum (u.g. 52) during* the rising of the Galli under Veicin- getorix. The place was taken by assault, and the Roman soldiers spared neither old men, women, nor children. Out of 40,000 persons, only 800 escaped the sword, and made their way to the camp of Ver- cingetorix, who was in the neighbourhood. Under the division of Augustus, the town was included in Aqnitania, and it finally took the bame of Bituriges or Biturigae, which seems to have become Biorgos in the middle ages, and finally Bourges^ now the capital of the department of Cher. The position of Avaricum is determined by the Itineraries, from Augustonemetom, ClennoiUf to Avaricum; from Caesarodunum, Tows, to Avaricum, and other routes. [G. L.] AVATIUM PR. {Aikipw «/fpoy, Ptol. ii. 6. § 1), a promontory on the W. coast of Hispania Tarra- conensis, between the rivers Avus and Naebis, pro- bably near Giros, [P. S.J AVEIA ('Aoi^: Eth. Aveias, -atis), a city of the Vestini, placed by the Tabula Peutingeriana on the road from Prifemum to Alba Fucensut. Its name is also foimd in Ptolemy (iii. 1. § 59) among the cities of the Vestini, but is not mentioned by Pliny, AVERXUS. I thoogh we learn from hiacriptions that it must batf I been a municipal town of some importance. There is little doubt that we should read '' Aveiae " fur <*Avellae" in Silius Italicus (viiL 519) where he enumerates it among the towns of the Vestini, and celebrates the excellence of its pastures. We learn from the Liber Coloniarum (p. 228, where the cor- rection of " Aveias ager " for *' Veios " admits of no doubt) that its territory was portioned out in the same manner as that of Amitemum, but was not made a colony, and retuned, as we leam from an inscription, the subordinate rank of a Praefectura. The site (k Aveia has been a subject of much dis- pute, but Giovenazzi, a local antiquarian, who has investigated the matter with great care, places it near /Vmo, a village about six miles S. of AquUOf where there are sidd to be considerable remains of an ancient city, as well as a church of Sia BaUtma, connected by ecclesiastical records with the ancient Aveia. The ruins at Civiia di Bagno, supposed by Holstenius to be those of Avoa, are ascribed by this author to Fnrconinm. - (Giovenazzi, DtUa Cittk d Aveia net Vestini, Roma 1773, 4to.; Holsten. Not. in Cluver. p. 139 ; Romanelli, vol. ill p. 257 —263 ; OrelL Inter. 106.) [£. H. B.] AVE'NIO(A&cvW, Strab. p. 185: Eth. Avenni- cus, AbtrunHietos, Atfwunflnis : Av^non), a town of Gallia Narbanensis, at the junction of the Dru- entia. Durance, and the Rhone. It was in the terri- tozy of the Cavares ; and Pliny and Mela (ii. 5) call it Avenio Cavarum. Pliny (iii. 4) enumerates it among the " oppida Latina," that is, the towns which had ^e Latinitas, of Gallia Narbonensie. Ptolmey calls it a colonia. Stephanus («. 9. AvcWwy) caib it " a city of Massalia," from which it seems that there is some authority for supposing it to be a Greek foundation, or to have come under the do- minion of the Greeks of MareeUle. Beeidea the resemblance of the ancient and modem names, the site of Avignon is determined by the Itin. route from Arelate to Vienna and Lugdnnum, which passed through Avenio. [G. L.] cour or avenio. AVENTICUM (Avenchet), the chief city of Uie Helvetii. (Tac BisL i. 68.) It is not mentioned by Caesar. About Trajan's time, or shortly after, it became a Roman colony with the name Pia Flavia Constans Emerita. It seems to have been originally the capital of the Tigurini [Txourini], one of th« four Helvetic pagi. Its position is determined by inscriptions and the Roman roads which meet there. Ptolemy places it in the territory of the Sequani, from which we may conclude that part of the Hel- vetii were then attached to the S^uani. In the time of Ammianus (xv. ] 1) Aventicimi was a de- serted place, but its former importance was shown by its ruins. There are still remains of an amphi- theatre, aqueduct, and part of the wall at Avenckety or Wifflisburg, as the Germans call it, in the present canton of Waadt or Pays de Vaud. Many objects of antiquity have been found at Avenehes. [G. L.] AVERNUS LACUS or AVERNI LACUS {"Aopws Kifwri: Logo dAvenui), a small Uke in