Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/469

 BRUTTIl. opposite to Hipponinm were called the Ithaciesiab Insuiae, from a fancied connezioD with Ulyssce {Id. 7. 8. 13); and a rock near Terina (sapposed to be the one now called Pietra delta Nave) was called LiOEA, from the name of one of the Sirens, who was cast ashore there. (Solin. 2. § 9; Lycophr. Alex. 726.) The Greek oolonies axoimd the coasts of Bmttinm hare been already enumerated. Besides these we find the following cities and towns mentioned by ancient historians and geographers. On the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, preceding from the month of the Lans towards the Sicilian Strait, were Cerillt, Clampoxia, Temfsa and Nuobiua, Lametium and NArBdCM, on the Terinaean Gulf, Mbtaurum at the month «£ the river of the same name, and ScTLLAEUM on the rock or headland of Scylla. On the £. coast were, M-rsriA near the promontory of Codnthns, Castra Hahmibalis on the ScyUacian Gulf, Pbtelia a few miles udand near liie month of the Neaethns, and Crimisa near the promontoiy of the same name. The chief towna cf the interior were Conbentia, which was at one time the capital of the Bmttian nation, Pandosia and Aprcstum in the same neighbonrhood ; Mamertium in the Bonthem peninsula, and TiaiA. Besides these a number of small towns are mentioned by Lixy (zzz. 19) during the operations of the Bomans in Brui- tinm towards the ckise of the Second Funic War, the names of ndiich are otherwise wholly un- known. He himself calls them ^ ignobUes populL" Of these, Axgentanum is probably a place still called Argentina near JfontaUoy and Beddiae, the modem Bitignano (Besidianum), but the other four, Ufiu- gum, Vergae, Hetriculum, and Sypheum cannot be identified, the localities assigned to them by local antiquarians being purely coqjeotoraL (Holsten. NoL M Clm. p. 807; Barrins, deSU. CaHahr. iL 5; Bomanelli, voL i p. 114.) Equally uncertain are sereral towns mentioned hj Stejjumus of Byzantium and by Lycophron, and phused by them among inland towns of the Oenotriana. To this dass belong Ma- caijLA, Chone, Badiu, Ixias, Biystada, Anantha or Arintha, Cyterium, Menedna, 2^aea, Erimon, and Sestium. Almost all these names are quoted by Stephanus firom Uecataeus, who wrote at a time' when the flourishing Greek colonies on the coast natnrslly led to more fiiequent intercourse with the pet^ Oenotrian towns of the interior. In later times they had either disappeared or undergone a change of nameu Siberana mentioned only by the same author (▼. HtS^p/fynii) is supposed with some plausibtlily to be the modem Sta SeverinOj a place of some importaaoe as a fortress during the middle ages, and Tanrania (Tavpaiia) is probably the Tauriannm of the Itineraries, which must be placed on the river Metanms. On the other hand, we find in the Itineraries mention of some towns which had probably grown up at a comparatively late period: such are, Caprasia, probably Tatrna on the Crathis, Bosciannm (iSoMOMo), which vre are expressly told by Prooopius {B. 0. iiL 28) was a fortress con- atmeted by the Romans; Patemum, near the head- land of Crimisa; and on the other side of the penin- sula Niooten (which still retains its name) a few miles N. of the river Metima. Butthe greaterpart of the stations leoorded by the Itineraries in this part of Italy are utterly obscure, and were probably mere mtitatioMf, plaoes where rakys of horses were kept: the paooity of towns showing the decayed condition of the coontiy. BBITTTn. 431 On the W. ooast we find mention of some port*, which appear to have been in use as such in the time of Pliny and Strebo, without any towns having grown up a^'mning them. Of these are the Portus Parthenius, placed by Pliny (iii. 5. s. 10) between the Laus and Chunpetia, but the position of which cannot be determined with more accuracy : the Portus Herculis (Plin. f6. ; Strab. vi. p. 256) between Hip- ponium and Medma, probably Tropea: the Portujt Orestis (Plin. I, c.) apparently in the neighbourhood of the Metaurus, and the Portus Balams noticed by Appian (B. C. iv. 85) as situated in the neighbour- hood qS the Sicilian Strait, probably the modem Bagnara, The principal ancient line of road through Bmt- tium passed down the centre of the peninsula, fol- lowing nearly the same line with the modem high road from Naples to Reggio. It is considered in ^e Itineraries as a branch of the Appian Way (Itin. Ant. p. 106), but it was probably known originally as the Via Popillia, as an inscription has preserved to us the fieict that it was originally constracted by G. Popillins. It proceeded from Muranum (i/fi»- rano) in Lucania to Gaprssia (probably Tariia), ascended the valley of tiie Crathis to Consoitia, thence descended into the plain of the Lametns, and passed through Vibo Valentia, and from thence fol- lowed with little deviation the W. coast as for as Bhegiom. Another line of i-oad preserved to us by the same authority iItm,Ant. p 114) proceeded from Thurii along the £. coast by Bosoanum and Patemum to S^llaciom, leaving Crottnia on the left, and thence round the coast to Bhegiom. It was probably this line which, as we learn from another inscription, was constructed under the emperor Trajan at the same time with the road through the Sallentine peninsula. A third, given only in the Tabula, and probably the least frequented of all, led from Blanda in Lucania down the W. coast of Bmttium, keeping dose to the I^henian sea, as far as Vibo Valentia, where it joined the road first described. The modem provinces of Calabria have been less explored by recent travellers than any other part of Italy, and their topography is still but veiy im- perfectly known. None of the ancient cities which formerly adorned their shores have left any striking monuments of their former magnifioenoe, and even the site of some of them has never yet been deter- mined. The travels of Swinburne and Eeppel Craven give a good account of the physical cfaa- ractere and present condition of the oountty; but throw veiy little light upon its ancient topography, and the local writen who have treated expressly of this subject are deserving of little confidence. The principal of these is Bairio, whose work, J)e Awti- qmUxte et Stu Cahbride (Roma. 1571, 8vo.), was republished in 1737 with copious illustrations and corrections by Tommaso Aoeti The original work is inserted in Burmann's The§aiirm AnHquitatum ItaUae, vol. ix. part 5. In the more comprehensive COIN OF BBUTTn. OQ 2