.....

Vulturnum.

Sinuessa tepens, fluctuque sonorum
SIL. ITAL. VIII. 529.

(Cf. Varr. de Ling. Lat. IV. Polyb. III. 92. Plut.
Fab. Max.) A magnificent bridge with a triumphal
arch was thrown over this river by Domitian, when
he caused a road to be constructed from Sinuessa to
Puteoli; a work which Statius has undertaken to
eulogize in some hundred lines of indifferent poetry.
I shall only present the reader with those in which
allusion is made to the river in question.

At flavum caput, humidumque late
Crinem mollibus impeditus ulvis,
Vulturnus levat ora, maximoque

Pontis Cæsarei reclinis arcu,

Pandis talia faucibus redundat.

SILV. IV. 3.

(Cf. Dio. Cass. LXVII.) At the mouth of this river,
and on the left bank, was a town of the same name, Vultur-
(Strab. V. 24. Mel. II. 4.
The origin of this city

now Castel di Volturno.
Plin. III. 5. Ptol. p. 66.)
is probably Etruscan, but we do not find it named
in history until it became a Roman colony, A. U. C.
558. (Liv. XXXIV. 45. Varr. loc. cit.) According
to Frontinus, a second colony was sent there by Cæ-
sar. (de Col.) Festus includes it among the præfec-
turæ.

num.

Beyond was the town of Liternum, so celebrated Liternum. as the spot to which Scipio Africanus retired into voluntary exile, and where he is also commonly said to have terminated his illustrious career.

Its situa

tion has been disputed; but antiquaries seem now agreed in fixing the site of the town at a place called Torre di Patria. The difficulty arose chiefly from the mention of a river of the same name by some of the ancient writers. (Strab. V. 243. Liv. XXXII.

29.) This river can be no other than that which rises in the Apennines above Nola, and flowing at no great distance from Acerræ, discharges its waters into the sea near Liternum. Virgil and Silius ItaClanius vel licus mention it under the name of Clanius, which it still retains under the corrupt form of Lagno.

Liternus fl.

Literna
Palus.

(Cf. Dion. Hal. VII. 3. Lycophr. v. 718.) This
stream is apt to stagnate near its entrance into the
sea, and to form marshes anciently known as the
Palus Literna, now Lago di Patria.

Hæc dum stagnosi spectat templumque domosque
Literni ductor.

Liternum.

Hinc Literna palus.

Hinc calidi fontes,
Liternum.

Hinc Literna palus.

And Liv. XXII. 16.

SIL. ITAL. VI. 653.

stagnisque palustre

ID. VIII. 532.

undosis squalida terris

ID. VII. 278.

lentisciferumque tenentur

OVID. METAM. XV. 713.

undosis squalida terris

SIL. ITAL. VII. 277.

Liternum became a Roman

colony in the same year with Vulturnum. (Liv. XXXIV. 45.) It was recolonized under Augustus, (Front. de Col.) and ranked among the præfecturæ. (Fest.)

That Scipio retired here in disgust at the injustice of his countrymen seems a fact too well attested to be called in question ; but whether he really closed his existence there, as far as we can collect from Livy's account, may be deemed uncertain: his tomb

and statue were to be seen both at Liternum and in the family vault of the Scipios, which was discovered some years ago outside the Porta Capena. (Liv. XXXVIII. 51.) Strabo certainly seems to imply that he spent the remainder of his life at Liternum, and also makes mention of his tomb there. (V. 243.) According to Valerius Maximus, Scipio himself had caused to be engraved on it this inscription,

INGRATA. PATRIA. NE. OSSA. QUIDEM. MEA. HABES,

which would be decisive of the question. (V. 3.) It
is not improbable that the little hamlet of Patria,
which is supposed to stand on the site of Scipio's
villa, is indebted for its name to this circumstance.
Seneca gives an interesting description of a visit he
made to the remains of the villa, and of the reflec-
tions to which it gave rise, in a letter to one of his
friends. (Ep. 86.) Pliny asserts, that there were to
be seen in his day, near Liternum, some olive-trees
and myrtles, said to have been planted by the illus-
trious exile. (Plin. XVI. 44.) In this vicinity was
the Silva Gallinaria, which furnished the fleet with Gallinaria
which Sextus Pompey afterwards infested the Me-
diterranean. (Strab. V. 243.) Juvenal mentions the
spot as a noted haunt of robbers and assassins.

Interdum et ferro subitus grassator agit rem,
Armato quoties tutæ custode tenentur
Et Pomptina palus, et Gallinaria pinus.

SAT. III. 305.

Cicero leads us to suppose that this wood lay on the road from Sinuessa to Naples. (ad Fam. IX. Ep. 23.) It is now called Pineta di Castel Volturno°.

• Pratilli della Via Appia, 1. ii. c. 7. p. 183.

Silva.

Cumæ.

A few miles further was the ancient Cumæ, placed on a rocky hill washed by the sea; and the same name is still attached to the ruins which lie scattered around its base. Whatever doubt may have been thrown on the pretensions of many other Italian towns to a Greek origin, those of Cuma seem to stand on grounds too firm and indisputable to be called in question. It is agreed upon by all ancient writers who have adverted to this city, that it was founded at a very early period by some Greeks of Euboea, under the conduct of Hippocles of Cumæ, and Megasthenes of Chalcis. (Strab. V. 243.) Thucydides terms it a Chalcidic city, in the land of the Opici; so also Livy VIII. 22. (Cf. Dion. Hal. VII. Hyper. Cum. ap. Pausan. X. 12. Plin. III. 5. Vell. Paterc. I. 4.)

Scymnus of Chios, in his Periplus, says it was founded by the Chalcidians, after which some Æolians of Cumæ, in Asia Minor, came and settled there. It is true that Stephanus of Byzantium is the only author who has mentioned a Cuma in Euboea; but the admission of the existence of such a town would remove many difficulties with regard to the foundation of the Italian Cumæ1. The Latin poets, with Virgil at their head, all distinguish Cuma by the title of the Euboic city.

Et tandem Euboicis Cumarum allabitur oris.

EN. VI. 2.

Talia convexum per iter memorante Sibylla,
Sedibus Euboicam Stygiis emergit in urbem
Troius Æneas.

OVID. METAM. XIV. 154. solusque quietem

Euboici vasta lateris convalle tenebis.

LUCAN. V. 195.

P See the notes to the French Strabo, t. ii.

p.

252.

The period at which Cuma was founded is stated in the Chronology of Eusebius to have been about 1050 A. C. that is, a few years before the great migration of the Ionians into Asia Minor. We have also the authority of Strabo for considering it as the most ancient of all the Grecian colonies both of Italy and SicilyTM. (V. 243.) The same author adds, that from its commencement the state of the colony was most flourishing. The fertility of the surrounding country, and the excellent harbours which the coast afforded, soon rendered it one of the most powerful cities of southern Italy, and enabled it to form settlements along the coast, and to send out colonies as far as Sicily; but these will be noticed in their proper place.

Before the Etruscans extended their dominion to the south, Cumæ had no enemy to encounter; but that powerful nation meditating, as it should seem, the entire subjugation of Italy, began to view with jealousy the prosperity and aggrandizement of this maritime town; and the more so as from being pressed

9 See Scaliger in Euseb.Chron. and Prideaux, Not. ad Marmor. Oxon. p. 146.

The colonization of Cumæ at this early period is a remark

able event, as shewing the progress already made by the Greeks in the art of navigation, and proving also that they were then well acquainted with Italy.