198 plint's natural HISTOKT. [Book III. 



region, beginnmg at the Tiber, is looked upon as the first of 

 Italy according to the division of Augustus. 



Inland there are the following colonies: — Capua\ so 

 called from its champaign country, Aquinum^, Suessa^ Ve- 

 nafrum^, Sora"\ Tcanum surnamed Sidicinum^ Nola^; 

 and the towns of Abelia^ Aricia^ Alba Longa^", the Acer- 



^ It probably had its name from Campania, of which it was the ca- 

 pital, and wliich was so called from its extensive campi or plains. The 

 site of this luxm-ious and magnificent city is now occupied by the village 

 of Santa Maria di Capoua, the modern city of Capua being on the site 

 of ancient Casilmum, Of ancient Capua there are but few remains. It 

 was made a Roman colony by Jtdius Csesar. 



2 OrigLaally a city of the Yolscians : Cicero had a villa there, and 

 Juvenal and the emperor Pescennius Niger were natives of it. The pre- 

 sent Aquino stands on its site, and there are considerable remains of it 

 to be seen. 



3 Or Suessa Am'unca, to distmguish it from the Yolscian city of 

 Suessa Pometia. The poet Lucihus was a native of it. The modem 

 Sessa stands in its vicinity. 



* The modern Venafri stands near its site. It was famous for the 

 excellence of its ohves. 



5 On the banks of the Sm-is, and the most northerly tovra of the 

 Yolsci. The modern Sora is in its vicuiity, and the remains of its waUs 

 are still to be seen. 



^ The modern Teano occupies its site. It was famous for the medicinal 

 springs in its vicinity. There was another Teammi, m Apulia. 



7 The town on its site still preserves the name. Bells were made 

 here, whence in the later writers they are called " Noise." There is also 

 an ecclesiastical tradition that church bells were first \ised by Saint Pau- 

 Hnus, bishop of tliis place, whence they were called ' Campanae.' The 

 emperor Augustus died here. 



s The remains of the ancient town, of which the ruins are very exten- 

 sive, are called Avella Yecchia. It was famous for its fruit, especially 

 its filberts, to which it gives name in the French " Avehnes." It was 

 fhst a Greek colony, and then a town of the Oscans. 



9 A city of Latium, sixteen miles from Rome, and said to have been of 

 SicOian origin. The modem town of La Riccia occupies the site of its 

 citadel. It was celebrated for the temple and grove of Diana, whose 

 high priest was always a fugitive slave who had killed his predecessor, 

 and was called " Rex nemorensis," or " kmg of the grove." See Ovid, 

 Fasti, B. vi. 1. 59 ; Art of Love, B. i. 1. 260 ; and Lucan, B. vi. 1. 74. 



10 The ancient city was destroyed by Tullus Hostilius, king of Rome. 

 The Roman colony here was probably but smaU. The Roman patrician 

 famihes, the Juhi, Servilii, Tullii, and Quintii, are said to have migrated 

 from Alba Longa, which, according to tradition, had given to Rome her 

 first kmg. 



