Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/444

 426 BOVILLAE. the consul Gn. Fnlvius. (Liv.ix. 44, x. 12; Niebohr, vol. iii. pp. 242, 243.) In the Second Punic War it was more than once made the head-quarters of a Boman army, as a point of importance in a military view (Liv. zxv. 13), and during the great Social War it again assumed a position of the highest rank, being made for a time, after the fall of Corfinium, the capital of the confederates and the seat of their general council. (Appian, B. C. i. 51.) It was, however, taken by Sulla by a sudden assault; but fell again into the hands of the Marsic general Pom- paedius Silo, before the close of the war, and was the scene of his latest triumph. (App. Z. c; Jul. Obseq. 116.) In the devastation <^ Samnium which fol- lowed, Bovianum fully shared, and Strabo speaks of it as in his day almost entirely depopulated (v. p. 2.50). We learn, however, that a military colony was esta- blished there by Caesar, and Pliny even speaks of two colonies of the name : *^ Colonia Bovianum vetus et alteram cognomine Undecumanorum." The latter was probably that established by Caesar: the epoch of the former is uncertain, but it appears from its name to have occupied the site of the ancient Sam- nite city. (Plin. iii. 12. s. 17; Lib. Colon, p. 231; Zurapt de Colon, pp. 256, 305.) No subsequent author notices this distinction: but the continued existence of Bovianum under the Bmnan Empire as a municipal town, apparently of some consideration, with its senate (Ordo Bovianensium) and other local magistrates, is attested by inscriptions as well as by Ptolemy and the Itineraries. (Ptol. iii. 1. § 67; Itin. Ant. p. 102; Tab. Pent.; luscrr. ap Bomanelli, vol. i. pp. 442, 443.) The Boman city of Bovianum, which appears to have been situated in the plain or low grounds on the banks of the Tifernus, was almost entirely de- stroyed by an earthquake in the 9th century : its site is now covered with marshy alluvial soil, in which ancient remains have been discovered. The modern city of JBojano occupies a rocky hill, one of the last oflf-shoots of the lofty mountain mass called Monte Maiese, which completely overshadows it on the S. W. : and it is probable that this was the site of the ancient Samnite city. Some portions of its ancient waUs, constructed of polygonal blocks in a very massive style, are still visible. (Bomanelli, vol. ii. p. 441; Craven's AbrtKzi, vol. ii. p. 160.) ^lommsen, however, the latest author who has in- vestigated the topography of these regions, regards the modem Bojano as the site only of " Bovianum Uudecumanorum," and would transfer the ancient Samnite city " Bovianum Vetus " to a place called Pietrabbondante near Agnone^ about 20 miles to the N., where there certainly appear to be the remains of an ancient city. (Mommsen, Unter ItaL Dialecte^ p. 171 — 173.) The expression of Silius Italicus (^Boviania hutrOy viii. 566) is strikingly descriptive of the scenery m the neighbourhood of Bojano: the '^ narrow glens and impenetrable thickets " of the Monte Matese. (Craven, Lc), [E. H. B.] BOVILLAE (BofAAoi: Etk. BoTKKav6s, Bovil- lanus), an ancient dtj of Latium, situated on the Appian Way about 12 miles from Rome. It is one of the towns whose foundation is expressly assigned to a colony from Alba Longa (^Orig. Gtntia Mom. 17; Comp. Diod. viL ap. Etueb. Arm. p. 185): and the inhabitants appear indeed to have claimed a spedal relation with that dty, whence we find them assuming in inscriptions, of Imperial date, the titles "Albani Longani Bovillenses" (OreU. Inter. 119, 2252). After the fall of Alba, Bovillae became «n BOVILLAE. independent dty, and was one of the thirty which in B.C. 493 composed the Latin League. (Dionys. v. 61, where we should certainly read BoiAXwui^, and^ not B«Aay»y. Niebuhr, in his discussion of ihiafj^^,^ important passage, has accidentally omitted the name.) Hence we find it long afterwards noticed as partaking in the sacrifices on tiie Alban Mount. (Cic. piro Plane 9.) It is mentioned both by Dicmy- sius and Plutarch among the dties taken by the Volsdans under Coriolanus (Dionys. viii. 20; Plut. Cor. 29, where we should read BofAAcu for B^AAoi): the former calls it at this time one of the most con- siderable dties of Latium, but its name is not again mentioned during the wan of Home with the Vol« scians. Floras indeed speaks of the Bomans as hav- ing celebrated a triumph over Bovillae (1. 11. § 6), but tliis is probably a mistake, or a riietcnical inao- curacy. Like many other Latin towns it seems to have fallen into decay in the later ages of the Republic, and though Sulla established a mili- tary colony there (Lib. Colon, p. 231), Cicero speaks of it in his time as a poor decayed place, though still retaining its munidpal privileges. (/Vo Plane. 9.) It was on the Appian Way, close to Bovillae, that Clodius was lulled by Milo^ whence Cicero alludes to that event by the phrase of " pugna Bovil- lana " (Appian. B. C. ii. 21; Cic ad Att. v. 13); and it was here that the body of Augustus rested on its way to Rome, and where it was met by the funoral convoy of Roman knights who conducted it from thence to the city. (Suet. Aug. 100.) The Julian funily appears to have had previous to this some peculiar sacred rites or privileges at Bovillae, probably owing to their Alban origin: and after this event, Tiberius erected there a chapel or "sacrarium " of the Julia gens; and instituted Circendan games in its honour, which continued to be celebrated for some time. (Tac. Ann. ii. 41, xv. 23.) Owing to the fiivours thus bestowed on it, as well as to its favour- able situation close to the Appian Way, and at so short a distance from Rome (whence it is called ^' suburbanae Bovillae" by Propertius and Ovid), it appears to have recovered from its declining con- dition, and became under the Roman empire a tole- rably flourishuig municipal town. (Propert. iv. 1. 33; Ovid. Fast. iii. 667; Martial, ii. 6. 15; Tac. JJwtiv. 2, 46; OrelL Inscr. 2625, 3701.) The name (oorraptly written * Bobellas ') is found for the last time in the Tabula : the period of its destraction is unknown, but it appears to have completely ceased to exist in the middle ages, so that its very site was forgotten. Uolstenius placed it at a spot called the Osterid delle Fratocchie^ rather too near Rome: the actual town, as proved by the ruins latdy discovered, ]a.j a short distance to the right of the Appian Way, and a cross road or diverticulum, which led to it, branched off from the high road at the 12th mile- stone. The station given in the Tabula must hare been at this point, and it is therefore dear that the distance should be xii. instead of x. Recent exca- vations have brought to light the remxuns of the Circus, in which the games noticed by Tadtus were celebrated, and which are in unusually good preserva- tion : also those of a small theatre and the rains of an edifice, supposed with much plausibility to be the sanctuary of the Julian gens. A curious altar of > very andent style, with the inscription ^Vediovet ■ Patrei Gentiles Juliei,' confims the fact of the early. connexion of this gens with Bovillae^ (Nibby, ZHn^ j^ tomi di Romoy voL i. pp. 302—312 j Cell's Top. of