Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/685

 CORA. ianebns. (Wilkinsoo, MoeL Egypt and Tbebet^ ii. p, 123.) Neither, as might have been expected from its origin, does it exhibit snj xemarkable Hellenic remains. The principal objects of interest there are the niiiM of Roman bniidkigs. The neighbooring hills contained emeralds and a few other precioos stones: and the Tineyards prodooed a thin and not mnch esteemed wine, which, however, from its light- ness of bodj wss administered in febrile disorders. (Aelian, H. ^ikviL 18; Athen. L p. 33: Plin. N. H, zxzviL 17, 18, 65. 66.) [ W. B. D.] CORA (K^: Etk. K»pettf6sj Coranns : Cort), a city of Latinm, sitoated on the left of the Appan Way, between Vditrae and Norba, and aboat 37 miles distant fi^om Rome. It stands on a bold hill, on the outskirts of the Vokdan mountains, and overlooking the jdain of the Pomptine Marshes. All accounts agree in representing it as a very ancient city. WiTf^ notices it as one of the colonies of Alba Longa, and this is confirmed by Dlodoms and the author of the Oriffo Urhis RomoA, both of whom include it in their lists of the cokmies founded by Latinus Silvius. (Vixg. Ae», tL 776 ; Diod. viL Fr. ap, Euteb. Arm, p. 184; Orig. U. Rom. 17.) Pliny, on the contrary, ascribes its fbundati<m to Bardanus (Plin. iil 5. s. 9; Solin. 2. § 7), while another tradition seems to have represented it ss deriving both its name and its origin from Coras, a brother of Tiburtus, the eponymous hero of Tibur. <SerT. ad Am, viL 672; Solin. 2. § 8.) Both theae last traditions may be regarded as pointing to a Pe- lasgic origin. It is certain that it was at a very eariy period one of the most coosideiable cities of Latinm. Thus Cato mentions it as one of those which took part in the consecration of the grove and aanctuaiy of Diana in the Nemus Aridnum ; and we find it included by Dionysius in the list of the thirty Latin cities which composed the League in b.c. 493. (Cato ap, Primskm, iv. 4. § 21 ; Dionys. v. 61; Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 17, note.) At an earlier period also one of the two generals chosen to com- mand the confederate armies was Ancus Publicius of Cora. (Dionys. iii. 34.) Its subsequent iela> tions both with Latium and Rome are very obscure. In B.C. 603, Livy calls it a " colonia Latina," and speaks of it as revolting, together with Pometia, to join the Aumnd, but shortly after both C torical aocniacy on this point. It is, however, pro- bable that Cora resumed the positian ef a Latin 00I017 about this period, as well as Norba and Setia, and on this account we find no mention of any of the three in the great Latin War of B.a 340, or the pacification that followed. But a few years later, H.0. 330, their territories were laid waste by the Privemaies under Vitnivitts Vaocns. (Liv. viii. 19.) It seems certain therefore that they were at this time dq»ndencies of Rome. Livy includes Cora among the twelve Latin cokmies, whkh, in b.c. 209, reftised any further supplies (xxviL 9): but where the same list is repeated (xxix. 16), the name is written Sora^ and it seems most probable that this is the town really meant (Madvig. de CORACESIUH. 667 Ccicn, p. 268, note.) In another passage he no- tices it among the Municipia on the Appian Way (Liv. xxvi. 8), and it seems to have been at this time still a considerable town, but from henceforth we hear little of it According to Floms, it was ravaged by Spartacns (iii. 20. § 5, but this reading is pro- bably corrupt); and there seems reason to suppose that it suffered severely during the Civil Wars. (Lucan. vii. 392.) But no subsequent mention of it occurs in history; and though the name is still found in Strabo and Pliny, and an inscription attests its municipal rank in the first centuiy of the em- pire, it seems probable that it must have soon after fidlen into complete decay. Nor is any trace of its existence found in the middle ages till the 13th cen- tury, when it reappears under its ancient name, which it still retains, and is now a considerable town. (Plin. iii 6. s. 9 ; Strab. v. p. 237 ; Nibby, Dwtond^ vol. i. p. 493.) Few cities of Latium possess more consideiable remains of antiquity than Cora. Among these are numerous portions of the ancient walls, constructed of massive polygonal blocks, together with terraces and substructions of a similar dbaracter, resembling in style the massive fortifications of Norba and Signia, but infiBrior in extent and preservation. They appear when perfect to have formed three successive tiers (NT circuits, the uppermost of which enclosed the highest summit of the hill, and constituted the citadel of the ancient town. Within this enclosure, and on the highest point of the whole ci^, stands a small Doric temple (commonly known, but without any authority, as thi^ of Hertniles), the tetrastyle portico of which is in good preservation, and an in- scription over the entrance records its construction by the Duumvirs of the town. From the ortho- graphy of this inscription, as well as the style of architecture, there seems reason to sssign the erec- tion of it to the last century of the Roman Republic. Lower down the town are the remains of another temple ni ht superior style and execution, but of which only two colunms now exist: th^ are of Co- rinthian order and of beautiM workmanship; from a fragment of the inscription on the architrave, we learn that it was consecrated to Castor and PoUux ; its date is uncertain, but it must certainly be re- ferred to the best period of Roman architeoture. Many other fragments of buildings are to be found in the town, and several inscriptions, but all belong- ing to the early ages of the Roman empire, or the end of the Republican period. Just ontside the town, on the road to Norba, is an ancient bridge of a single arch, throvm over a deep ravine, which is one (^ the most remarkable monuments of its kind in Italy. From the irregularity of its construction, it is probable that this is the woi^ of an early period, and belongs to the old Latin colony of Cora. Many of the other remains, and some parts at least of the fortifications, may probably be referred to the time of Sulk. (Nibby, Vmtomi di Roma, voLL pp.497— 612. The bridge and specimens of the walls are figured by Dodwell, Ptlatgic Remctuu^ pi. 88— > 91 ^ r£ H B.T CORAC£'SIUM (Kopom^fTioO, Strabo's boundary on the coast of Asia Minor between Pamphylia and Cilida. [CiuciA,p.617.] At ^iijwt, which is the site of Coracesium, begins the mountainons coast which extends eastward to Cape Cawdiire. A mountain a little east of Aldjfo^ and near the coast, is marked 4800 feet high in Beaufort's map. " The paromontofy of Aldya (Concesium) rises abruptly