Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/437

 BONONIA. The Aim TJbionim was probably near Bonna. [ Ara Ubiorum.] [G. L.] BONCXNIA (Boywla: Eth, Bononiensu : Bo- logna)y an ancient and important city of Cispadane Gaol, sitoated on the river Rhenns, immediately at the foot of the Apennines, and on tlie great line of road called the Via Aemilia, which led from Ari- ninam to Plaoentia. Its foondation is expressly aaerSnd to the Tuscans, by whom it was named FEUsnrA; and its origin was connected with Perusia by a local tradition that it was first established by Aacnos or Ocnos, brother of Aulestes the founder of Pemsia. Hence it is called by SiHus Italicus " Ocni prises domns." (Plin. iH. 15. s. 20 ; Senr. ad Virg. Aen. X. 198; Sfl. Ital. viii. 600 ; MtiUer, EtnuhfTy voL i. pp. 132, 139, vol. ii. p. 275.) Pliny even calls it " princeps Etrariae;" by which he probably means only that it was the chief of the Etruscan cities north of the Apennines; and this is confirmed by a statement (ap. Serv. I. c.) that Mantua was one of its colonies. It afterwi^ds passed into the hands of the Boian Gauls, and is mentioned by Livy, as late as B. G. 196, under the name of Felsina; so that it appeara to have first assumed that of Bononia when it became a Roman colony in b. a 189. (Liv. xxxiii. 37, xxxvii. 57 ; Veil. Pat L 1 5.) Three thousand co- loiDists, with Latin rights, were established there, with the view of securing the territory newly wrested from the Boians: and two years afterwards the consul C. Fhuniniua constructed a road from thence across the Apennines direct to Arretinm, while the opening of ihb Via Aemilia about the same time established its communications both with Ariminum and Plaoentia. (Liv. xxzix. 2.) Its position thus became equally advantageous in a military and commercial point cS view: and it seems to have speedily risen into a flourishing and important town. But its name does not again occur in history until the period of the ^ Civil Wars; when during the siege of Mutina (b. c. 43) it became a point of importance, and was occupied with a strong garrison by M. Antunius, but was afterwards seized by Hirtius without resistance. It was here that Pansa died of his wounds after the battle of Mutina, and here too that, shortly after, Octavian at the head of his army met the combined forces of Antonius and Lepidus, and arranged the terms of the Second Triumvirate. (Cic ad Fam. xL 13, zii. 5 ; Dion Cass. xlvi. 36, 54 ; Apinan. B. C. iii. 69 ; Suet. Aug. 96.) It appears to have been under the espedal patrixiage of the Antonian family, and the triumvir in consequence settled there many of his friends and dependents, on which ao- eount, in B. c. 32, Octavian exempteid it from the general requisition to take up arms against Antonius and Cleopatra: but after the battle of Actium he increased its popalation with partisans of his own, and raised it afresh to the rank of a Colonia. Its previous colonial condition had been mei^ed in that of a Mnnicipiuro by the effect of the Lex Julia. (Suet Aitg. 17 ; I>ion Cass. 1. 6; Fest. Epit v. Municipium; Zumpt, de CokmiiSt pp. 333, 352.) Hence we find Bononia distinguished as a colony both by Pliny and Tacitus; and it appears to have eontinned under the Roman Empire an important and flourishing place. In A. d. 53, it suffered se- verely from a conflagration, but was restored by the munificence of Claudius. (Suet Ner. 7 ; Tac. Ann. xii. 58, BisL 53, 67, 71 ; Plin. iii. 15. s. 20; Stiab. ▼. p. 216; PtoL iii. 1. § 46; Mart. iU. 59.) St Ambrose speaks of it as much decayed in the fourth centuiy (JEp. 39), but in a. d. 410 it was able suc- cessful]/ to withstand the arms of Akric (2^m. BOOSURA. 419 vi. 10), and seems to have in a great measure re- tained its prosperity after the fall of the Roman Empire, so that it is ranked by P. Diaoonus in the 7th century among the wealthy cities (locupleiea urbes) of Uie province of Aemilia (Procop. ui. 1 1 ; P. Diac ii. 18): but it was not till a later period that it obtained the pr»-eminence which it still enjoys over all the other cities in this part of Italy. The modem city of Bologna contains few remains of antiquity, except a few fragments ci sculpture and some inscriptions preserved in the Museum of the University. They have been published by Malvasia {Marmora FMneay 4ta Bonon. 1690). About a mile to the W. of Bononia flowed the river Rhenus (i2eiio),and it was in a small island formed by the waters of this stream that most writers place the celebrated interview between Octavian, Antonius, and Lepidus, when they agreed on the terms of the Se- cond Triumvirate, b. o. 43. But there is much diffi- culty with regard to the exact spot Appian, the only writer who mentions the name of the river, places the interview near Mutina in a small islet of the river Lavinius, by which he evidently means the stream still called Lavmo, which crosses the Aemilian Way about 4 m. W. of Bologna, and joins the Beno about 12 miles lower down. Plutarch and Dion Gassius, on the contraiy, both fix the scene of the interview near Bononia, in an island of the river which flows by that city: thus designating the Rhenus, but without mentioning its name. (Appian, iv. 2; Pint Cic. 46, Ant. 19; Dion Cms. xlvi. 54, 55.) Local writers have fixed upon a spot called la Crocetta del Trebbo, about 2 m. from Bologna, as the scene of the meeting, but the island formed by the Reno at that point (described as haJi a mile long and a third of a mile in breadth) seems to be much too large to answer to the description o| the spot in question. It is contended by some that the Lavino formerly joined the Beno much nearer Bologna, and at all events it seems certain that the beds of both streams are subject to frequent changes, so that it is almost impossible to identify with any certainty the Island of the Triumvirs. (Calindri, IHssertazione deW Isola del Triunwirato, Cramer's Italy, vol. i. p. 88.) [E. H. B.] BONCNIA (Bovwia). 1. {Banottorf) a fort built by the Romans in Pannonia, opposite to Ona- grinum on the Danube, in the district occupied by the lazyges. It was the station of the fifth cohort of the fifth legion, and of a squadron of Dalmatian horsemen. (Ptol. ii. 15. § 4; Amm. Marcxxi. 9, xxxi. 1 1 ; Itm. Anton, p. 243 ; Notit Imp.) 2. A town of the lapydes in lllyris Barbara, of which ruins are still extant near Bunich, (PtoL ii. 14. § 4, who however places this town also in Pan- nonia.) 3. A town in Upper Moesia, on the Danube, generally identified with the town of Bonui near Widdm, (Amm. Marc. xxxi. 1 1 ; Itin. Ant p. 2 19.) It is probably the same place as the Benopia (Bcyo- vla) mentioned by Hierocles (p. 655 ; oomp. Procop. DeAedif. iv. 6. p. 290.) [L. S.] BONO'NIA. [Gesoriacum.] BONTOBRICE. [Baudobrica.] BO'ON (JRwiv. Vona), a cape and port on the coast of Pontus (Arrian, p. 417), 90 stadia east of Cape Jasonium. The Turks call the port Vona Li- man. " It is cnisidered the best winter harbour on this side of Constantinople, preferable even to that of ^nope, on account of the greater depth of water." (Hamilton, Beeearchet, ^., vol. i. p. 269.) [G. L.] BOSU'RA(Bo<{(rovpa). Strabo (xiv. p. 683), iu E B 2