Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/513

 CAMPANIA. panian legion in the Roman semce was gtiiltj of the same crime, and possessed itself of Bheginm by the massacre of the inhabitants. (Diod. xxii. Fr. 1,2; Dionjs. lix. 1. Fr. Mai.) It is probable, how- ever, as observed by Niebuhr, that these formidable mercenaries were not excloaively natives of Cam> pania, but were recruited also from the Samnhes and other tribes of Sabellian and (Xican origin. (Niebnhr, vol. iii. p. 112, note 211.) In other respects the Campajnians, flrom their being so mixed a raee, had probably less marked peculiarities of character than the Samnites or Ktmscana. The works of art discovered in Cam« pania, with the exception of such as belong to a late period and show the Roman influence, are almost exclusively Greek. The Greek coins of Nola, as well as the beautiful painted vases discovered there in enormous numbers, and which are all of the purest Greek style, prove that this influence was by no means confined to the cities on the coast On the other hand the inscriptions are almost all either Latin or Oscan, and the writings on the walls of Pompeii prove that the latter language continued m use down to a lat« period. It is certainly true, as Nicbahr observes (vol. i. p. 76), that we find no trace among existii^ remains of the period of Etms^ can role, though thLs circumstance is hardly suffi- cient to warrant ns in adopting the views of that historian and rejecting altogether the historical ao- eounts of the Etruscan dominion in Southern Italy. The principal natural features of Campania have been already described. Its only considenible river is the VuLTiTBif us, which rises in the mountains of Samniura, and enters Campania near Venairum ; it traverses the whole of the fertile plain of Capua, and formed the limit between the '*Ager Campanus," the proper territory of Ci^ua, on the &, and the Ager Falemus on the N. It is a deep and rapid Btsream, on which account Casilinum, as commanding the principal bridge over it, must have been in all times a point of importance. The Lnus, which originally formed the boundary of Campania on the N., was by the subsequent extension of Latium in- cluded wholly in that country, and cannot therefore be reckoned a Campanian river. Between the two was the Sayo, a small and sluj^sh stream (piger Savo, Scat. SUr. iv. 3. 66; Plin. in. 5. s. 9) still called the iS^roiM,^,which has its mouth littie more than two miles N. of that of the Vultumus. A few miles S. of the same river is the Clakius, in ancient times a more considerable stream, but the waters of which have been now diverted into an artificial channel or canal called the Lagno, The mouth of this is about 10 miles from that of a small stream serving as the outlet of the Logo di PtOria (the Litema Pains), which appean to have been called in ancient times the river Liternus. (Liv. xxxiL 29; Strab. v. p. 243.) The Sbbbthus or Sede- tui8, which bathed the walls of Neapolis, can be no other than the trifling stream that flows under the Pmiie ddla Maddalena, a little to the E. of the modem dty of Napletj and is thence commonly known as the Fwme deUa Maddalena. The Tbserib, which is mentioned as flowing not far fwm the foot of Vesuvius (Liv, viii. 9 ; Vict de Vir. IlL 26, 28), if it be not identical with the preced- ing, must have been a very small stream, and all trace of it is lost The Sarnob, still called SamOy which rises at the foot of the Apennines near the modem dty of SamOf between Nola and Nocera, is ft moro conadenble stnam, and watai* the vhofe of CAMPANIA. 495 the rich plain on the S. of Mt. Vesuvius (quae rigat aeqnora Saraus, Virg. Aen, vii. 738). The paucity of rivers in Campania is owing to the peculiar nature of the volcanic soil, which, as Pliny observes, allele's the waters that descend from the surronnding mountains to percolate gradually, without either arresting them, or becoming saturated with moisture-. (Plin. xviii. 11. s.29.) The principal mountains of Campania have already been noticed. The arm of the Apennines which separates the two Gulfe of Naples and Saierno, and rises above Cagteliamare to a height of near 5000 feet, was (Called in ancient times the Mons Lacta- RitJB (Cftssiod. Ep. xL 1-0), from its abundant pas^ tnres, which belonged to the neighbouring town of Stabiae, and were much frequented by invalids for medical purposes. [Stabiae.] Several of the minor hills bdonging to the vdcanic group of which Mt Gaums Was the principal, Were known by dis- tinguishing names, among which those of the Colub Leucooaeus between Pnteoli and Neapolis (Plin. xviii. U.S. 29), and the Moms Pausilypus inr the immediate neighbourhood of the latter city, have been preserved to us. Campania contains several small lakes, of which the lake Avbknus is a voleanio basin, in the deep hollow of a crater ; the rest are mere sti^nant pools formed by the accumulation of sand on the sea shore preventing the outflow of the waters. Such were the Literra Palus, near the town of the same name, now called the Logo di PtUria ; and the Acherusia Palvs, now Logo di Fmaro^ A httle to the S. of Cumae. The Luerine Lake (LACt78 LucHonrs) was, in fact, merely a portion of the sea shut in by a narrow dike or bar, ap^ parently of artifldal construction; simibr to the part of the Port of Misennm,wluch is now called ths J/ors Morto* The principal islands off the coast of Campania, Abnaria, Puochyta, and CAPREAE,have already been noticed. Besides these there are several smaller islets, most of them, indeed, mere rocks, of which the names have been recorded in consequence of their proximity to the flonrislung towns fk Puteoli and Neapolis. The principal of these is Nesis, still called Nitidu, opposite the extremity of the Mons Pausilypus; itself the crater of an extinct volcano^ which seems in ancient times to have still retained some traces of its former activity. (Lucan. vi. 90.) Meoaris, called by Statins Meoalia, appears t6 be the rock now occupied by the Caitd tMV Uo90j dose to Naples; while the two islets mentioned by the same poet as Limon cRid Euploea (Stat SUv, iii. 1, 149) are sn]^poeed to bd two rocks between Ninda and the adjcnning headland, called Scoglio del Laezareito and la Gajola. [Neapoub.] South of the Surrentine Promontory, and facing the Gulf of Posidonia lie some detached and picturesque rocks, a short distance firom the shore, which we^ known as the Sirekubae Imsclae, or the Ishmds of the Sbrens; they are now called Li GaUL The towns and cities of Campania may be briefly enumerated. I. Spinning finDm the frontier oif Latium and proceeding along the eoast were, Viti> TURNUM at the mouth of the river of the same name, Liternum, and Cumae ; Mibbkum adjoining the promontory of the same name, and immediately within it Bauu, Baiae, and Puteoli, originally called by the Greeks Dicaearchia. From thence proceeding round the shores <^ the Crater were ths fl^rishing towns «f KEAfouB, Hbmculahxuii^