Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/163

 904 FLORENTIANA. Golonistfl. (Zompt, de Colon, p. 253.) Bat he is certaiiilj in error in reckoning Florentia at this time among the "monioiiua Italiae splendidissima:" it coold not have been a municipal town at all; and from the absence of all notice of it during the cam- paign of the oonsal Antanios against Catiline, in the immediate neighboarhood of FaeBolae, it is evi- dent that it was not even then a place of anj im- portance. Bnt frran the period of the colonj of the triamvire it seems to have rapidly become a con- siderable and floorishing town, though not retaining the title of a colony. The Florentini are mentioned by Tacitus in the reign of Tiberius amcmg the munidpia which sent deputies to Rome to remon- strate against the project of diverting the course of tbe Clanis from the Tiber into the Amus; a pro- ceeding which they apprehended, probably not with- out reason, would have the effect of flooding their town and territory. (Tac. Awn, i. 79.) We subse- quently find the Florentini noticed by Pliny among the municipal towns of Etruria; and the name of Florentia is found in Ptolemy, as well as in the Itine- raries. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 8 ; Ptol. iii. 1. § 48 ; Itin. AnL pp. 284, 285 ; Tab. PeuL) These scanty notices are all that we hear of it previous to the £U1 of the Western empire; but its municipal con- sideration during this period is further attested by inscriptions (Orell. 686, 3711, 3713; Gori, /fl#cr. Etrwr. vol. i.), as well as by the remains of an am- phitheatre still visible near the church of Sta. Croce. It is fMTobable that its favourable position in the centre of a beauUful and fertile plain on the banks of the Amos, and on the line of the great high road through the N. of Tuscany, became the source of its prosperity; and it is clear that it rapidly came to surpass its more ancient neighbour of Faesulae. In the Gothic Wars Florentia already figures as a strong fortress, and one of the ro(»t important places in Tuscany. (Procop. B. G. iii. 5, 6.) Tbe remains of the amphitheatre already noticed, which are in themselves of little importance, are the only vestiges of Roman buildings remaining in the city of Florence. 2. A town of Cispadane Gaul, noticed only in the Itineraries, which place it on tiie Via Aemilia be- tween Placentia and Parma, at the distance of 1 5 miles from the former ci^, and 10 firom Fidentia (Borgo S. Donino). It sUll retains its ancient appellation, converted into the diminutive form Fio* renzuola for the purpose of distinction from the more celebrated city of the name. (/ttn. Ant p. 288; Tab. Peut) [E. H. B.] FLORENTIA'NA («A»pcvriaya, Florentia), a town in Moesia, of which the site is unknown. (Pro- cop, de Aedif. iv. 4. p. 285 ; NoiiL Imp., where it is called Florentia.) [L. &] FLORIA'NA, a town of uncertain site, in Lower Fannonia. It was connected by a road with Aquin- cum, 30 miles to the east of it, and was the resi- dence of the praefectus classis Istriae. {Jim. AnL p. 265; JVoJi^. /mp.) [L.S.] FLCXRIUS, a small river of Hispania Tarraoo- nensis, in the territory of the Astures, near the N. extremity of the W. coast of Spain : probably the Rio de Castro. (Plm. iv. 20. s. 34; Ukert, vol. iL ptl.p.299.) [P-S.] FLUMEN BIBALOTtUM. [Gallabcia.] FLUMEN OBLIVIO'NIS. [Gaulabcia,] FLUMEN SALSUM. [Salbum Flumkn.] FOENICULATllUS CAMPUS (rh MapaBwiws %^iov), a large pUuu in the neighboarhood of Tar- FOBMTAE. nico, in Spain, so called from the quantity of Icnnel (jiApaBpw^ Dor. and Att. /uI^ki0ok, Lat. foeniciiliiiii *} which grew there. The plain was traversed bj the great Roman road from the Pyrenees to Tamoo. (Strab. iii. p. 160; Cic. <m2 il<t xiL a) [P. S.] FONS TUNGROBUM. Pliny says (zxzL S) that ** Tungri, a city of Gallia, has a famoBs fiRm- tun, sparkUng with many bubbles; and it baa a smack of iron, which is not perceived nntil after it is drunk: it purges the body, drives awaj tertian fevers, and disperses calculi. The same water be- comes turbid if fire is applied to it, and fiisallj f^rows red." Civitas is the whole territory of the Tnngzi, whence the modem town of Tongem^ in Belj^inD; and it is generally supposed that this " fiunovis fboB- tain** is the springs of Spa, which are sooth- east t€ Liege. This would give to the territory of the Tangri a considerable extension; perhaps, however, not noore than it had. No place suits the desciiptioo of Pliny so well as the waters of Spa. [G. L.3 PONTES AMARI (oi itucpel Xlftpot, Strah. xvn. p. 804; Died. iu. 39; Plm. vi. 29. §33), the Bitter Pools, the modem Scheib^ derived thar name firan the saline flavour and deposidon of their wateiB. These were strongly impregnated wi^ alkaline sakS| and with muriate of lime, washed from the rocks which separate the Delta from the Red Sea. As salt ca- tered largely into the culinary art of the EgyptiaiH who preserved in it fish and fowl, as well aa tlK flesh of cattle, and as it was required also in their xnasa- fiutures of earthenware and glass, and in the oompe- sition of dyes and pigments, these pools, as well aa the Natron Lakes on the western side of the IGk^ were of great value, and were probably, on that ac- count, regarded as the property of the kings* The Bitter Pools began a little to the S. of Aeroopolis, in lat. 30° 4' N., and extended nearly as &r as Aisxnoi at the head of the Heroopolite bay. Through them passed the great canal which connected the Nile with the Red Sea. The canal had been planned and be- gun by Pharaoh Necho IL, a nKmarch of the 18th dynasty; was carried by Darius Hystaspis firom Pi- thoom, or Thaim, as far as the Bitter Pools (Herod. ii. 158); and was subsequently continued by Ptoie- maeus Philadelphus to Arsinoe. [W. B. D.] FORATH (Plm. vi. 28. s. 32), a small town of Southern Babylonia, stated by Pliny to have been en the banks of ihe Pasitigris, and si^ject to the ruler of Cbaraoene. Sillig, in his new edition of Pliny, reads Fora. It is said to have been 12 miles fironi Gliarax-Spasinu. Maimert has su];qpo8ed that it is representeid by the present Baarah^ and Uiat the name has been preserved in Ferath Mcuaan, a name sometimes applied to that town: but this conjectuie seems to be very doubtful. [V.] FORENTUM. [Ferkbtum.] FO'RMLA.E {^op/dai : EUl Fonuianus : Ifola di Ga£ta)f a city of Latium on the coast of the Sinus Caib'tanus, and situated on the Via Appia, between Fundi and Mintumae, 13 miles from the former and 9 from the latter city. (/(m. Ant p. 121.) Though included in Latium, in the later and more extended sense of the term, it certainly was not originally a Latin dty ; but whether this and the neigbbcnring Fundi were Volscian, or, as is perhaps more probaUe, Ausonian, cities we have no information : indeed, no mention occurs of eithw in history until they entered into municipal relations with Rome. But a l^end fiir more celebrated Maratboo had the same origin.
 * There can be little doubt that the name of the