Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/691

 C0BE5SIA. CORE'SSIA or COKESSUS. [Ceob.] CORESSUS. [Epiiesus; Messogis.] GORFrNiUM {Kopiplfftoy: JEth, Gorfiniensis: & Pdino)f the chief citj of the Peligni, situated in the VRllej of the Aternus, near the poiDt where that river niddenlj makes a sharp angle, and tarns finom a SE. to a NE. course, which it punues from thence to the Adriatic It was distant 7 miles from Sulmo^ and 30 from Alba Fucensis hj the Via Valeria. There can be no doubt that Gorfinium was from an early period the capital dij of the Peligni, and one of the chief towns in this put of Italy; but no mention of its name b found in history until the outbreak of the Manic or Social War, b. c. 90, when it was selected by the confederates to be their common capital, and the scat of their government. It was probably to the importance of its situation in a military point of view that it was mainly indebted for this distinction; but the allied nations seem to have destined it to be the permanent capital of Italy, and the rival of Borne, as they changed its name to Italica, and adorned it with a new and spacious forum and senate house, and other public buildings of a style corre- sponding to its intended greatness. (Strab. v. p. 241 ; Veil. Pat ii 16 ; Died, xuvii. Exc. Phot p. 538.) But before the end of the second year of the war they were compelled to abandon their new capital, and transfer the seat of government to Ae« ■emia. (Diod. Lc,^ 539.) The fiOe of Gorfinium after this is not mentioned, but it probably fell into the hands of the Romans without resistance, and in consequence did not suffer; fw we find it at the out- break of the Givil War between Gaesar and Pompey, B. a 49, still retaining its position as a city of im- portance and a strong fortress. On this account it was occupied by L. Domitius with 30 cohorts, and WHS the only place which offered any effectual resist- ance to the arms of Caesar during his advance through Italy. Nor was it reduced by force, but the disaffection which rapidly spread among his officers compelled Domitius to surrender after a siege of only seven days. (Gaes. B. C. L 15 — 23; Appian, B. C. il. 38; Gic ad AtL viii. 3, 5, ix. 7; Suet Caet. 34; Lncan. ii. 478 — 510.) From this time we hear but little of Gorfinium; but inscriptions attest that it continued to be a flourishing municipal town under the Roman empre, and its prosperity is proved by the bet that its inhabitants were able to construct two aqueducts for supplying it with water, both of which are m great part hewn in the sdid rock, and one of them is carried through a tunnel nearly 3 miles in length. (Bomanelli, vol. iiL pp. 149 — 151 ; Orell. luBcr. 3695, 3696; Moounsen, Inter. Neap. 5350, foil.) A part of the territory of Gorfinium had been portioned out to new settlers as early as the time of the Gracchi: it received a fineah body of colonists under Augustus, but never assumed the title of a cokxiy, all inscriptions giving it that of a municipium only. (LA. Colon, pp. 228, 255.) It still appears in the itineraries as a place of importance (/<m. AnL p. 310; Tab. Petit), and even seems to have been m the fourth century regarded as the capital of the province of Valeria, and the residence of its Praeses or governor. (Ughelli, ap. Romanelli, vol. iii. pb 151.) The period of its destruction is unknown, but it seems to have been still in existence aa late as the tenth century. After that time we find a dty named Vahaf which appears to have succeeded to the site of G<nrfinium, but has now also disappeared, though the adjoining valley is still called LaPianaia 4i Valva. The site of Gorfinium is dearly marked VOL. I. CORIOTHIACUS. 679 in the hnmediate neighbouriiood of PenHtna(A laigv village about 3 miles from Popoli, and 6 from M- mono) ; the ruins of the ancient dty, which are veiy inconsiderable, and consist of little more than shape- less fragments of buildings, are scattered round an audent church called Stm PeUnOf which was at one time the cathedral of Vaha, But the numerous inscriptions discovered on the spot leave no doubt that this is the true site of Gorfinium. The bridge over the Aternus, three miles from the latter dty, is mentioned both by Gaesar and Strabo, and must always have been a military point of the highest importance. Hence Domitius committed a capital error in neglectmg to occupy it in sufficient force when Gaesar was advandng upon Gorfinium. (Gaes. B. C. L 16; Lucau. ii. 484—504; Strab. v. p. 242.) This bridge must evidoitly be the same, dose to which the modem town of PopoU has grown up; this has been erroneously supposed by smne authors to occupy the site of Gorfinium. (Gluver. ItaL p. 758; Romandli, vol. ilL pp. 148 — 156; Craven's Abruzsn, vol. ii. p. 18 ) [E. H. B.] GORIA, in Britain, mentioned by Ptolemy as one of the towns c^ the Damnii. Perhaps, Craio-fnrd, Golonia [Golomia] being Carstairs. [R. G. L.] GORIALLUM, a town of Gallia, at the termina- tion oi a road, in the TiU)le, which begins at Gon* dato {Rennes)^ the chief town of the Redones. Go- riallum is 29 Gallic leagues from the next station, Legedia. D'Anville pkices Goriallum at Gourily the name of a small harbour in the Cotantm^ between rocks under Cap de la Hogve^ and at the point where the mainland projects furthest into the sea. Others suppose it to be Cherbourg. [G. L.] GORIENDI, in Irehind, mentioned by Ptolemy as lying betH-een the Menapii and Brigantes, i. e. in the county of Wexford^ or thereabouts. [R. 6. L.] GORI'NEA (Kopii'ra, Ptol. v. 13), a district of Armenia, which, from the position assigned to it by Ptolemy (l c), is in the neighbourhood of the lake of Vdn. [Thobpitis.] [E. B. J.] G0RI14EUM, in Britain, mentioned by Ptdemy as a town of the Dobuni. Name for name, and place for place Cortn-eum, C^ireii-cester, where Roman remains are abundant [R. G. L.] CORINTHIACUS ISTHMUS. [Gobinthus.] GORINTHUGUS SINUS (Kopu^uusbs, or Kop'u^ws K6Kiros : GtUf of Lepanto^f the gulf between Northern Greece or Hdlas Proper, and the Petoponnesus. It commenced, according to Strabo (viii p. 335, seq.), at tlie mouth of the Evenus in Aetolia (some said at the mouth of the Achel<»is) and the promontory Araxus in Achaia, and extended to the Isthmus of Gorinth. It consisted of two distant portions, an outer and an inner sea, separated from one another by the narrow strait, between the promontories Rhium and Antirrhium. The inner sea, west of these promontories, was called originally the Grissaean gulf (6 Kpuracuos or Kpurtuos ir^wot), a name which occurs as early as in the Homeric Hynm to Apollo (^Kpltnis k6wos &ir«(pe«v, 431), and was used even by Thucydides (i. 107, ii. 86). But soon after the time of the latter historian, the G<Hrinthian gulf became the more general designation (Xen. HeU. iv. 2. § 9 ; Polyb. v. 3 ; Liv. xxvL 26, xxviii. 7, 8.) Still the more andent name never went entirely out of use. While Strabo calls the whole sea, from the promontory of Araxus to the Isthmus of Gorinth, by the general name of the Gorinthian gulf, he gives to the sea within the pro- montories of Rhium and Antirrhium the specifio zx