Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/737

 CUNISTORGIS. three nxuUl islets now called liola dH Rakzoli^ dn BudcGiy and di Sta. Maria^ which are those that lie most directly iu the strait itself. Between these and the N. extremity of Sardinia, is the more con> siderable isUnd called liola deSa Maddalmay which is probably the Phinton of Pliny and Ptolemy. The former mentions another island called Fossae, and Ptolemy one called IIts, close to Phinton. There are, in fiict, two other isUmds — one called /. di Car- prtra^ on the £. of La Maddalena, and the /. dti Sparagi, on the W.— to which these names may be applied, but they cannot be really identified. Perhaps Pliny means to apply the name of Canicnlariae to the whole group. (Plin. iii« 6. s. 13; Ptol. iii. 3. § 8.) [E. H. B.] CUNISTORGIS. [CoKii.] CUPPAE (Kovirovs), a town in Upper Moeria, with a garrison of Dalmatian horsemen. (Itin. Ant p. 217 ; Geogr. Bav. iv. 7 ; Procop. De Atdif, it. 6; p. 287.) [L. S.] CUPRA (Ko^pa: EiK. Guprensis), the name of two cities or towns in Picenum, called for the sake of distinction Copra Maritima and Cnpra Montana. 1. CtTFRA Maritima (Ko^t/mi fiapnlfui, PtoL) was situated on the sea coast, between the Castellum Firmanum and Castrum Tmendnnm. (Strab. ▼. p. 241 ; Meh^ ii. 4. § 6 ; Plin. iil 13. s. 18 ; Ptol. ill 1. § 21.) Strabo does not describe it as a town, but speaks only of the temple of Cnpra (t^ r^s Kvrpaf l*p6y)y which he says was founded by the Tyrrhenians (Etruscans), and that Cnpra was the Tyrrhenian name of Juno. But it is dear that a town had grown up around the temple; for it is mentioned as such by aU the other geographers, and appears to haTe become the more considerable place of the two, so that it was often called Cnpra with- out any di^stinctiye epithet. (Cupra urbs, Mel. L c; Cupra oppidum, Plin. /. c.) The temple of Cupra 18 also mentioned by Silius Italicus (viii. 433), and ■n inscription records its restoration by Hadrian. The discovery of this fixes the site of the temple and the town of Cupra Maritima, at a place called le Grotte a Mart^ about 3 miles N. of S, BenedetiOf and 8 miles from the mouth of the Truentus or Tronto, (Cluver. ItaL p. 734; Gruter. Imcr. p. 1016, 2; Coluoci, Ct^pra MariHmaj p. 130.) 2. CuFRA MoKTAMA (Ko^pa iMvriva^ Ptol. ill 1. § 52; Cuprenses cognomine Montani, Plin. iii. 13. s. 18) is mentioned both by Pliny and Ptolemy, among the towns of the interior of Picenum, and was certainly distinct from the preceding. It is considered by local topographers to have occupied the site of the modem Ripatransone^ a town on a hill, only 8 miles inland firom the site of the mari- time Cupra. (Cluver. Ital. p. 741 ; Abeken, MiUd ItaUm, p. 120.) [E. H. B.] CURA'LIUS. [CuARius.] CURES (K^s, Strab. K^ii, Dionys. : Eih, Kv^injT, Quiris (pi. Quirites), but also Curensis, Plin.: Corrue), an ancient city of the Sabines, situated to the left of the Via Salaria, about 3 miles from the left bank of the Tiber, and 24 miles from Borne. It is celebrated in the early histoiy of Rome as the birthplace of Numa, as well as the city of Tatios, from whence the Sabines proceeded, who under that monarch waged war against Romulus, and ultimately established themsdves at Rome. (Ut. i. 13; Dionys. ii. 36, 46,48; Pint jRom. 19.) Hence the general opinion of andent authors derives the name of Quirites, by which the Roman people was known in later times, from that of Cures. CURES. 719 (Stnb. V. p. 228; Lit. i. 18; Fest v. QsMriUt.) ^Virgil therefore, for distinction's sake, terms the inhabitants of Cures "prisd Quirites" (^ei».vii. 710), and Columella still more distinctly, " veterea illi Sabini Quirites" (de R. R. i. pref.). It is, how- erer, far more probable that the two names had no immediatie connection ; but that both were derived from the Sabine word Curi:) or Quiris, which signi- fied a spear (Fest. pp. 49, 254, ed. MtiU.; Senr. ad Aen. i. 292; Ovid, Fa»L il 477), and that th^ Roman name of Quirites was merely equivalent to Dionysius (ii. 48), which connects the foundation oi Cures with the worship of the Sabine god Quirinus, evidently pdnts to the same derivation. It is evea probable that the prominent part assigned to Cures in the legendary history of Tatius, which led some writers to assume that it must have been the me- tropolis or chief city of the Sabines (Dionys. iL 36), had no other foundation than in the false etymolo- gies which connected it with the name of Qmrites. It is certain at least, that both Virgil and Ovid speak of it as a small town (parvi Cures, Virg. Jen. vL 812; Ovid, Fast, it 135), and its name never appears in any of the subsi»quent wars of the Ro- mans with the Sabines. The circumstance that Numa was, according to the recdved history, a native of Cures, may be thought to lend some coun- tenance to the tradition of its early importance, though on the other hand it is not improl»ble that the two traditions were adapted to each other. (Liv. i. 18; Pint Num, 3; Viig. Am, tL 812.) Strabo's statement, that it had once been a flourish- ing and powerful dty, is apparently only an infer- ence which he draws firom its having in andent times given two kmgs to Rome. (Strab. t. p. 228.) Whatever truth there may be in the statements of its andent greatness, it must have early fallen into comparative insignificance; for though numerous references to it are found in the Latin poets, no men« tion of its name again occurs in Roman history, and Strabo tells us that it was in hb time sunk to a mere village. It had however, previous to that, received a body of Roman oolomsts, firat in the time of Sulla, and again in that of Caesar (Lib, Colon, p. 253 ; Zumpt, ds Colon, p. 305), and seems t« have considerably revived under the Roman empire. Pliny notices the Curenses as one of the municipal towns of the Sabines; and numerous inscriptions of Imperial date speak of its magistrates, its munidpal senate (ordo), &&, whence we may infer that it con* tinned to be a tolerably flourishing town as late as the 4th century. (Plm. iiL 12. s. 17 ; Orelli, Inter, 107; Nibby, Dvdorni, vol i. pp. 532, 533.) In these inscriptions it is unifoimly termed ** Cures Sabini," an epithet probably indicating the claim set up by the people to be the metropolis of the Salnnea. In like manner, after the establishment of Chris* tianity, the bishops assumed the title of " Curium Sabinorum," and sometimes even that of *' Episcopus Sabinensis." The final decay of the city probably dates from the time of the Lombards, who repeatedly ravaged this part of Italy: we learn from an epistle of Pope Gregory L that in a. d. 598 the die was already desolate. (Nibby, 2.c.) The true dtuation of Cures was first pointed out by Holstenius, and the actual remains of the dty discovered by Chaupy. The site, which is of con- siderable eitent, is occupied in part by two small villages or hamlets: the one still bearing the name of CorrtHf Uie other, about a mile to the W., ii
 * spearmen " or " warriors." A legend related by