Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/180

 GABQ. OcUviaa and L. AntoDiiis, pnbablj on acoomt of its poaiUoD midway between Borne and Piaeneete. (Appian, B, C. t. 23.) Bat long before this period it hiid ceased to be a place of importanoe and appean to bare fiUlen into complete decay. We learn, in- deed, that the dictator SnUa restored its walls, and dirided its territory among his Tsterans {LUk Colon, p. 234) ; but this measure, if it did not acodeiate its decline, at least did nothing to arrest it: and in B. a 54 we find Cicero speaking of Gabii among the towns of Latium which were so poor and decayed that they could hardly take their accustomed part in thesacrifioes on the Alban Monnt. (CicproPkmc9,) Dionysins also attests its decayed condition at a some- whiit later period, and tells ns that in his time the greater part of the space enclosed within the ancient walls was no longer inhabited, though the traffic along the high road (the Via Praenestina) pnserred the adjacent parts of the town from depopulation (it. 53). This distinct statement explains, at the same time that it confirms, the expressions of poets of the Aognstan age, which would otherwise give an exaggerated idea of its state of desobitioo. Thus Horace calls it a " deserted Tillage," and Propertius speaks as if it were almost deroid of inhalntants. (Hor.£j».L 11.7; PropertT. 1.34.) The still stronger expressions of Lncan (TiL 392) are scarcely meant to be lustoricaL JuTcnal also repeatedly alludes to H as a poor country town, retaining much of rustic simplicity, and in imitation of Horace ooaples its name with that of Fidenae. (Jut. iii 189, tI. 56, X. 100.) But we know from other sources, that it had beoi considembly renTod at this period; it is not improbable that its cold sulphureous waten, which are already noticed by HorMe {Ep» i. 15. 9), had become a source of attraction, but the moon- ments and inscriptions which have been recently dis- covered on the site, proTe that it not only continued to exist as a municipal town, but recoTered to a con- siderable extent from its prerious decay. This re- TiTal, which appean to have commenced as early as the reign of Tiberius, was greatly accelerated by Hadrian, and continued under his immediate sno- oessora down to the commencement of the third oen- tuiy. From this time all trace of the town disappeara; thflNigh it is probable that the bishops of Gabii, men- tioned in early ecclesiastical documents down to the 7th century, belong to this city, rather than to a Sabine Gabii, of which nothing else is known. (Vis- conti, Momtm, Gabmif pp. 7 — 14 ; Nibby, Dmtomif Tol. ii. pp. 76 — 78.) The site of Gabii is clearly fixed by the state- ments of Dionysius and Strabo, that it was distant 100 stadia from Rome, on the Via Praenestina, with which the Itineraries, that phu» it 12 M. P. from the city, closely accord. (Dionys. iv. 53 ; Strab. v. p. 238 ; Itm. Ant p. 302 ; Tab. PeuL) Strabo correctly adds that it was just about equi- distant from Rome and Praeneste ; and as the rums of an ancient temple haTO always remained to mark the spot, it is strajoge that its site should bsTe been mistaken by the earlier Italian topographers, who (before Cluverius) transferred it to GaUuano or La Colotauu The temple just mentioned stands in a commanding position on a gentle eminence, a short distance on the left of the ancient road, the line of which is clearly marked by its still existing paTo- ment: and the site of the ancient city may be readily traced, occupying the whole ridge of hill firom thence to an eminence on tlie K. of the kke, which pro- bably formed the ancient citadel, and is crowned GABIL 981 by the nuns of a mediaeTal fortren, now known as CaUigliane, Some remaias of the walls may be stiU obserred near this castle: their extent, to which Dionysius appeak as proof of the former greatness of Gabii, is considerable^ the eireuit being abont three miles, but the ridge nowhere exceeds ludf a mile in breadth. The only ancient edifice now Tisible is the temple already noticed, which has been supposed, with much probability, to be that of Juno, who, as we learn from Virgil ukl his constant imitator Silius Italicus, was the tuteUry dei^y of GabiL (Virg. .^aa. Til 682; Sil. ItaL xii. 537.) LiTy, howerer, notices also a temple of Apollo in the ancient city (xli. 16), and the point is by no means clear. The existing edifice is of a simple style of eonstruetion, built wholly of Gahian stone, and with but little ornament* It mnch resembles tho one still remaining at Aricia; and is probably, like that, a work of Roman tiroea [Aricia], though it has been often ascribed to a much earlier date. Nothing else now remains above ground; but excaTataons made in the year 1792 brought to light the seats of a theatre (or rather, perhaps, ranges of semicircuhur seats adapted ta supply the place of one) just bekw the temple, &cing the Via Praenestina, — and a short distance from it, immediately adjoining the high road, were found the remains of the Forum, the plan of which might be distinctly traced : it was eridently a work of Imperial times, surrounded with porticoes on three sides, and adorned with statues. The in- scriptions discovered in the same excavations were of considerable interest, as illustmting the municipal condition of Ciabii under the Roman Empire; and numerous works of art, statues, busts, &c., many of them of great merit, proved that Gabii must have risen, for a time at least, to a position of considerable splendour. Both the inscriptions and scnlptuies, which are now in the Museum of the LouTre, are fully described and illustmted by Viscontl (ifomi- mmti Gabmi, Roma, 1797, and Mihm, 1835.) Gabii was noted in andoit times for its stone^ known as the ** lapis Gabinus," a hard and compact variety of the Tol^anic tnfo or peptrino coromoii throughout the Roman Campogna: it closely re- sembles the ^ lapis Albanns,'* but is of superior qua- lity, and appears to have been extensively employed by the Romans as a building-stone from the earliest ages down to that of Augustus and Nero. (Strab. t. p. 238 ; Tac. Ann, xt. 43 ; Nibby, lUmia Antica, ToL i. p. 240.) It is singubur that no allusion is found in any ancient writer to the kke of Gabii : thif is a droular basin of email extent, which must at one time haTO formed the creter of an extinct Tolcano ; it immediately adjoins the ridge occupied by the an- cient city, which in fact forms part of the outer rim of the crater. Pliny, however, alludes to the volcanie character of the soil of Gabii, which caused it to sound hollow as one rode OTor it (Plin. iL 94.) A strong confirmation of the ancient importance of Gabii is found in the fact that the Romans bor- rowed from thence the mode of dress called the Cinctus Gabinus, which was usual at sacrifices and on certain other solemn occatdons. (Viig. Aen.yu. 612 ; Serv. ad loc; Liv. v. 46, &c) StiU more remarkable is it that^ according to the rules of the Augurs, the ** Ager Gabinus " was set apart as some- thing distinct both from the Ager Romanus and Ager Peregrinus. (Van*. L. L, t. 33.) The road leading from Rome to Gabii vras originally called the Via Gabima, a name which occurs twice in the earlier books of Livy (ill. 6, t. 49), but appean to