Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/165

 906 FOROAUGUSTANA. FOROAUGUSTA'NA- [Libisosona.] FORTUNATAE INSUXAE (al tw McucdpufM y^ffof, the IdamdM of Ae Bluaedjy one of those geographical names whose origin is lost in mythic darkness, bat whidi afterwards came to have a specific application, so closely resembling the old mythical noUon, as to make it almost impossible to doubt that that notion was based, in part at least, on some vague knowledge of the regions afterwards dis- covered. In the present case, the oiMnion embodied in the name will be more fitly discussed under OCBANUS : it is enough to say here that the earliest Greek poetry places the abode of the happy departed sprits fax beyond the entrance of the Mediterranean, at the extremity of the eartii, and upon the shores of the river Oceanus, or in isUmds in its midst ; and that Homer's poetical description of the place may be applied almost word for word to those blands in the Atlantic, off the W. coast of Africa, to which the name was given in the historical period ((?d. iv. 563, foil.): — ^ There the life of mortals is most easy ; there is no snow, nor winter, nor much rain, but Ocean is ever sending up the shrilly breathing breezes of Zephyrus, to refresh men." (Comp. Find. OL ii. 1 28.) Their delicious climate, and their sup- posed identity (tf situation, marked out the Canary JslandSf the Madeira group, and the Azores, as worthy to represent the islands of the Blest In tlie more specific sense, however, the name was applied to the two former groups ; while, in its widest ap- plication, it may even have included the C. de Verde islands ; its extension being, in fact, adapted to that of maritime discovery. The Romans first became acquainted with these islands at the close of the civil wars of Marius and Sulla. Plutarch relates that, when SertcMrius was at or near Gades {Cadk), about b.c. 82, he found certain sailors lately returned from the Atlantic islands, which were also called the islands of the Blest ; who described them as two in number, separated by a very narrow strait, and distant from Africa 10,000 stadia (1000 geographical miles, an enormous exaggeration, if the Canaries are meant). Watered moderately by rare showers, and refreshed by gentle and moist breezes, chiefly from the west, they not only rendered an abundant return to the cultivator, but produced spontaneously food enough for thdr indolent inha- bitants. The climate was temperate at all seasons of the year ; and, in short, such were their natural advantages, that even the barbarians identified them with that Elysian Plain and those Abodes of the Happy which had been sung by Homer, and the fame of which had reached to them. Enchanted by these accounts, Sertorins was seized with the desire of fixing his abode in the islands, and living there in peace ; but, as the Gilician pirates of his fleet pre- ferred the plunder of better known countries, be was compelled to abandon the design. (Plut Serior, 8 ; Flor. iii. 22.) However, the disooveiy must have been speedily followed up, if at least the writer Sebosus, whom Pliny quotes in his account of the islands (vi. 32. s. 37), be the same who is men- tioned by Cicero (ad AU. ii. 14). Strabo speaks of tliem in a very cursory way ; and the later geographers differ somewhat as to their number and names. The following table exhibits their statements, as com- pared with one another, ind with the modem names, the order (after the first) being from E. to W. From this table it will be seen that, besides Auto- lala, which he expressly distinguishes from the Fortunataei Ptolemy only reckons six blands as FORUM ALLOSNL belongmg to the group, instead of seven, which b tlia actual number. Pliny also gives the nnmbor as six Sebosub ap. Plin.tc. JUBA, ap. Plin./.c. PTOT.F.MAEUB, lY. 6. §§33,34. MoDEBzr KAVB& Junonia Purpura- riae •Hpos['HA.iw], ^KolAJrroAaAa Madeira, 4^ Junonia Lanzaroie, Minor Junonia 'Upas Fvertecenbtra^ Planaria Canaria Kai'apia, Gran Canarta. Gonvallis Capraria Nivaxia Capraria XIiKTOvapla, ^ Ketn-ovpia Kaareipla Tenerife. (romerflk Plnvialia OmbrioB Uowrdku Ferro, (iv. 21. s. 36, "' Deorum sex, qoas aliqui Fortanatos appellavere.") Instead of accounting for the difler- ence, as above, by supposing him to have omitted Paltna, some modem writere identify this island with his *Airp6<nTos vrjaos, and with the Junonia Mincn- of Juba ; making the A^oX<ia of Pto1emy,aDd the Pnr- pnrariae of Juba, Ijonzarote, with the smaller tsUoada of ^ lefframa and (?raoto#a,and so exduding Madein. Those who desire to pursue the subject further should compare the longitudes and iatitndea of Ptolemy with the distances preserved by Pliny from Juba and Seboeus. Of those, respecting the idoiti- fication of which there is no dispute, Canaria, whidi is still so called, is said to have obtuoed its name from the multitude of dogs which ran wild there; the lofty snow-clad peak of Tenerife shows at a glance the (Higin of the name of Nivaria ; whUe Ferro maiks the place of the chief meridian fhun which loogiiodes were reckoned before the introduction of the practice of computing them from nati<»al observatories : the old practice dates from the time of Ptolemy, whose first meridian, however, is drawn through the groop, without specifying the exact island. (PtoL t IS. §§ 11, 12,etalib.)*'^ [P.Sw] FORULI {*6povoi), a town of the Sabines, situated, as we learn from Livy (xxvL 1 1), on the road from Aroitemnm to Interocrea. It is men- tioned by Virgil among the ancient cities of the Sabines (Jen. vii. 714), as well as by bis imitator Silius Italicus (viii. 417); but in later timea it appears to have been a mere village or vicus de- pendent upon Amitemum. (Liv. I. c. ; Ficons Fortikmi, Inscr. ap. Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 333 ; Orell. Inscr. 3794.) Strabo describes it (v. p. 228) as built on a rock, in a poution better suited fair a band of outlaws than for peaceable inhabatanta. Its site may be fixed with certainty at Cicita Tom^ masOf about 5 miles from Amitemum, where there are numerous ancient remains, and the inscripdona above cited were discovered. The distance froio Antrodoco also agrees with that of 13 M. P. as- signed by the Tab. Peut. from Interocrea to "Emli,** which name is evidently a corruption of ForoU. The precise situation of Civita Tommasa scazcdj corresponds with the expressions of Strabo, but the general wild character of the neighbourhood is suffi- cient to justify them. (Romanelli, 2. c; Bunsen, in Ann. deW Jnst. vol. vi. p. 109 ; Chanpy, Maimm dHorace, vol. iii. pp. 124—126.) [E. H. B.] FORUM ALLIENI, a city of Gallia Cisalpina, mentioned only by Tacitus (Hist, iiu 6) during the civiJ^wars_of Vitellios and YpspuBoaOy a.i>. 69, bat. ■^y*- ^-v'xj. f'^ti,^x€i^^^ ^"^j Oc V^'^/'^.
 * Airp6a-iros