Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/173

 914 FBEGELLAE. for its fidelity to Rome, should have rabseqiiently takea the lead ta an inmrrectioD agunst that dtj, when at the height of its power. The ciicnmstances of this reyolt are yeiy imperfectly known to ns, but it is evident that it was only a symptom of the dis- content then beginning to prevail among many of the Italian cities. The oatbreak was, howerer, pre- matore : Fr^llae alone had to hear the brant of< the unequal contest, and was quickly reduced by the praetor L. Opimins, B.a 125. The dty was utterly destrqjed, as a punishment for its rebellioQ, and appears nerer to have again arisen to prosperity : the establishment of a new colony at Falnateria, in its immediate neighbourhood, in the following year, was evidently designed to prevent Fr^ellae from recovering its former position. (Liv. Epit. Iz. ; Veil. Pat. ii. 6; Val. Max. ii. 8. § 4; Jul Obseq. 90; Cic. de Fin. v. 22 ; Auct Bhet ad EeremL iv. 9, 15.) In the time of Strabo it was a mere village, which was, however, still resorted to by the people of the surrounding towns, for sacrificial and other purposes. (Strab. V. p. 237.) Hence, its name is not found in Pliny among the towns of Latium : the Fregd- lanum mentioued in the Itineraries (/(m. Ant pp. 303, 305) was apparently a station distinct from the town of the name. Both Strabo and the rhetorical writer above dted affirm that Fr^Uae was previous to its destraction one of the most flourishing and important dties of Italy: but its ruin appears to have been complete, and hence considerable difficulty has arisen in deter- mining its exact site. Ruins (^ a dty of considerable extent having been found on the right bank of the Liris, just opposite a spot called IsoUUa, and below the village ofS. Giovanni in CarieOj these have been regarded by local antiquarians at those of Fregellae, but the inscriptions found there, as well as the cha- racter of the remains themselves, ^vriiich are wholly of Roman date, and for the mostpartnotearlier than the time of the empire, seem to prove these to be the ruins of Fabrateria Nova, the Roman colony of that name. [Fabratbbia.] The true site of Fregellae appears to be that indicated by the Abbe' Chaupy, on the left bank of the Liris, nearly oppodte the modon town of CepranOf where there is a plain of considerable extent, filled throughout with foundations and sub- structions of andent buildings, including among others the foundations of the city walls, built in a very massive style. No part of these ruins however rises above ground; and as they have served for ages as a quarry for the supply of buUding materials to Ceprano and the other ndghbouring villages, even the substructions have much disappeared. The quarter still retains the name of Opt or OpiOj pro^ bably a corruption of ** Oppidum.'* TChaupy, Maiion dEoracSf vol. iil p. 475.) This position of Fregellae would account fear its importanoe in a military point of view, as commanding the passage of the Liris. The modem town of CepranOf whidb has grown up on the right bank of the river, is supposed by the Abbd Chaupy to occupy the site of the Fregdlanum of the Itineraries; but it is not easy to undentand how the Via Latina should have proceeded so fiu* as that point, and then turned south to Fabrateria Nova before it crossed the Liris. The remains of two andent bridges of Roman imperial times at the latter place dearly prove that it was thero the Via Latina of later days crossed the river, though it is evident from Livy*s narrative (xxvi. 9) that in the time of Hannibal the bridges were dose to Fregellae itself. The whole neighbourhood certainly requires, and FRENTANL would rewaitl, a more careAil inspectka of the loca- lities, especially of the remains of the andent roads. (Chaupy, /. c. p. 476; Bomanelli, vol. iii. pp. 377— > 3S1). [£. H. B.] FREGE'NAE (♦pry^iv, Strab.), a maritime town of Etruria, dtuated between Alaium and the month of the Tiber. (Strab.v.p.226;Plin.iiL5.B.8;/<m. iliit p. 300.) It is mentioned by Livy among the '* ooloniae maritimae ** (xzxvL 3) ; and there is every reason to suppose that it was established at the same time with Alsium, in o. c. 245, and that we should read Frtgemae for FregeUat in Velldus Pa- teroulus (L 14), where he spraks of the fbnndatioQ of these two colonies. This is coofinned by the Epitome of the 19th book of Livy, where, thoogh Alsium b not mentioned, the fbundataon of Fregenae is coupled with that of Brundnsium, which Velldus refere to the following year. (y^lL Pat. L c.; Liv. EpU, xix., where the reading Fr^genae is supported by the best MSS., though the dd editions have Fre- gellae.) No subsequent notice of it occun in his- tory: its marshy and unhealthy situation (alluded to by Silius Italicus, viii. 475) probably prevoted its rismg to prosperity; and, after the constmctiaD of the Portus August! on the right bank of the Tiber, it seems to have gradually sunk into insig- nificance. Hence, though its name is foond in Strabo, Pliny, and the Itineraries, it is not notiopd by Rutilius in his descripticm df the coast of Etruxiay and no ruins now mark the site. But the distances given in the Itinerary of 9 M.P. from Alsinmf and the same from Portus August! at the mouth of the Tiber, enable us to fix its poution with certainty at a spot now called the Torre di Maeeare§e, just midway between Pah and Porto^ and at the month of the river Arone. (Cluver, Ital p. 499 ; Nibby, Dintomi di Roma, vol. ii. p. 280.) [£. H. B.] FRENT A'NI («pcKrai'o£, Strab., PtoL ; ^^parro^ Pd., Dionys.), a people of Central Italy, occupjing the tract on the £. coast of the peninsula from the Apennines to the Adriatic, and from the frontien of Apulia to those of the Marrocini. They were bounded on the W. by the Samnites, with whom they were dosdy connected, and from whom they were originally descended : hence, Scylax assigns the whole of this line of coast, from the irontien of Apulia to those of Picenum, to the Samnites. (ScyL § 15. p. 5.) Their exact limits are less dearly de- fined, and there is condderable discrepancy in the statements of andent geographers : Larinum, with its territory (extending from the Tifernus to the Frento), bdng by some writere termed a dty of the Frentani (PtoL iii. 1. § 65), while the more general o|Mnion mcluded it in Apulia, and thus made the river Tifernus (Bifemo) the limit of the two coun- tries (PUn. ui. 12. s. 17 ; Mel. iL 4. § 6> The northern boundary of the Frentani is equally un- certain ; both Strabo (v. p. 242) and Ptolemy (L c. § 19) concur in fixing it at the river Sagrns or Sangro, while Pliny extends their limits as far as the Ateraus, and, according to Mela, they possessed the mouths both of that river and the Matrinna. The latter statement is certainly inaccurate; and Strabo distinctly tdls us, that the Marrudni held the right bank of the Aternus down to its month, while the Vestini possessed the left bank (v. p. 241 ) ; hence, the farmer people must have interraed be- tween the Frentani and the mouth of the Atenras. Pliny's account is, however, more near the troth than that of Strabo and Ptolemy ; for it is certain that Ortona and Anxanum, both oif which are situ-