Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/72

 392 ; Inscrr. »p. Bomanelli, vol. ii. pp. 470, 471 ; Craven's Abmzziy voL ii. p. 83; Uoares Classical Tour, Tol. L p. 227.)

The coins of Aesernia, irhich are found only in copper, and have the legend aibernino, belong to the period of the first Roman colony; the style of their ezecnticm attests the infiaence of the neigh- bouring Campania. (Millingen, NumiavfuUique de f/to/Mt, p. 218.)

AE'SICAf was a Boman frontier castle in the line of Hadrian's rampart, and probably corresponds to the site of Greatcheater, It is, however, placed by some antaqnories at the Danish village oif Ne- tkerby, on the river Esk. It is mentioned by George of Ravenna, and in the Notitia Imperii^ and was the quarters of Cohors I. Astorum.^

 AESIS (A7(rtr, Strab. ; AlffiyoSy App), a river on the east coast of Italy, which rises in the Apennines near Matilica, and flows into the Adriatic, between Ancona and Sena Gallica; it is still called the Esino. It constituted in early times the boundary between the territory of the Senonian Gauls and Picenum ; and was, tlierefore, regarded &s the northern limit of Italy on the side of the Adriatic. But after the de- struction of the Senones, when the confines of Italy were extended to the Rubicon, the Aesis became the boundary between the two provinces of Umbria and Picenum. (Strab. v. pp. 217, 227, 241 ; Plin. iii. 14. 19; MeU, ii. 4; Ptol. iii. 1. § 22, where the name is corruptly written "Affios; Liv. v. 35.) Ac- cording to Silius Italicns (viii. 446) it derived its appelhttiou from a Pelasgian chief of that name, who had ruled over this part of Italy. There can be no doubt that the Aesinns of Appian {B. C. i. 87), on the bonks of which a great battle was fought bet('een Metellus and Carinas, the lieutenant d Carbo, in B. c. 82, is the same with the Acsis of other writers. In the Itinerary we find a station (ad Aesim) at the mouth of the river, which was distant 12 M. P. from Sena Gallica, and 8 from Ancona. (Itin. Ant p. 316.)

 AESIS or AE'SIUM (Afo* j, Ptol. ; At<rioVy Strab. ; JEth. Aesinas, -atis), a town of Umbria situated on the N. bank of the river of the same name, about 10 miles from its mouth. It is still called lesi, and is an episcopal town of some consideration. Pliny men- tions it only as an ordinary municipal town: but we learn from several inscriptions that it was a Roman colony, though the period when it attained this rank is unknown. (Inscrr. ap. Gruter. p. 446. 1, 2; Orelli, no. 3899, 3900; Zumpt, de Colon, p. 359.) According to Pliny {H. N, xi. 42, 97) it was noted for the excellence of its cheeses. The form Acsium, which is found only in Strabo, is probably erroneous, Atffiov being, according to Kramer, a corrupt reading for *A(rlfftoy. (Strab. v. p. 227; PtoLiu. l.§ 53; Plm. iii. 14. 19.)

 AESI'TAE (Aurh-cu or Awrtrai, Ptol. v. 19. § 2; comp. Bochart. Phaleg. ii. 8), were probably the inhabitants of the region upon the borders of Chal- daea, which the Hebrews designated as the land of Uz ( Jo6,i. 1, XV. 17 ; Jerem. xxv. 20), and which the 70 translators render by the word Ainrlris (comp. Winer, Bibl. Realw&rterb. vol. ii. p. 755). Strabo (p. 767) calls the Regio Aesitarum Madna (Maicii^). They were a nomade race, but from their possessing houses and villages, had apparently settled pastures on the Chaldaean border.

 AESON or AESO'NIS (ATcrwi', Aurawis: Eth, Altrdvios), A town of Magnesia in Thessaly, the name of which is derived from Aeson, the father ofJason. (Apoll. Bhod. L 411, and Schol.; Steph. B. s. V.)

 AE'STUI (this is the correct reading), a people of Germany, consisting of several tribes (Acstuo- rum gentcs), whose manners are minutely described by Tacitus {Germ. 45). They dwelt in the NE. of Germany, on the S£. or £. of the Baltic, bordering on the Venedi of Sarmatia. In their general ap- pearance and manners they resembled the SneW: their langnage was nearer to that of Britain. They worshipped the mother of the gods, in whose hoogur they wore images of boars, which served them as amulets in war. They had little iron, and used clubs instead of it. They worked more patiently at tilling the land than the rest of the Germans. They gathered amber on their coasts, selling it for the Roman market, with astoiushment at its price. They called it Glesswn^ perhaps Glas, i. c. glass. They are also mentioned by Cassiodoms ( Var. v. £p. 2.) They were the occupants of the present coast of Pnusia and Courland, as is evident by what Tacitus says about their gathering amber. Their name is probably ooUective, and signifies the East men. It appears to have reached Tacitus in the form £(ute, and is still preserved in the modern Esthen, the German name of the Esthonians. The statement of Tacitus, that the langnage of. the Aestoi was nearer to that of Britain, is explained by Dr. Latham by the supposition that the language of the Aestui was then called Prussian, and that the simi- larity of this word to British caused it to be mis- taken for the latter. On the various questions respecting the Aestui, see Ukert, vol. iii. pt. i. pp. 420 — 422, and Latham, The Germania of Tacittts, p. 166, seq.

 AE'SULA (Eth. Aesulanus), a dty of Latium, mentioned by Pliny among those which in his time had entirely ceased to exist (iii. 5. § 9). It appeam from his statement to have been one of the colonies or dependencies of Alba, but its name does not occur in the early history of Rome. In the Second Punic War, however, the Arx Aesulania is mentioned by Livy as one of the strongholds which it was deemed necessary to occupy with a garrison oi the approach of Hannibal. (Liv. xxvi. 9.). The wdl-known allu- sion of Horace {Carm. iiL 29. 6) to the *' declive arvum Aesulae," shows that its name at least was still fiuniliarly known in his day, whether the dty still existed or not, and points to its situation in full view of Rome, probably on the hills near Tibur. Gell has with much probability placed it on the slope of the mountain called Monte AjffUano, about 2 miles SE. of Tivoli, which is a conspicuous ob- ject in the view from Rome, and the summit of which commands an extensive prospect, so as to render it well adapted for a look-out statiorL The Arx mentioned by Livy was probably on the summit of the mountain, and the town lower down, where GeU observed vestiges of andcnt roads, and *' many foundations of the ancient walls in irreguliu* blocks." Nibby supposes it to have occupied a hill, called in the middle ages CoUe Faustiniano, which is a lower offshoot of the same mountain, further towards the S.; but this position docs not seem to correspond so well with the expressions cither of Livy or Horace. (Gell, Topography of Rome, p. 9; Kihhy, UirUomi di Roma,L i. p. 32.) Vcllcius Paterculus (i. 14) speaks of a colony being sent in the year 246 d. c. to Aesulum ; but it seems impossible that a place so close to Rome itself should have been colonized at so late a period, and that no sul^equent mention