ABRUZZO. 



ABYSSINIA. 



20 



out the old canal, but we have been unable to ascertain whether the 

 work has been completed. 



The mountainous nature of the soil in this province renders it unfit 

 for agricultural operations ; in the valleys, however, com enough for 

 the home supply is raised. The chief products are rye, maize, flax, 

 hemp, saffron of superior quality, figs, and almonds. The olive grows 

 only in sheltered places. The mountains abound with good timber 

 and with pasture, on which vast numbers of cattle and sheep are fed 

 in summer. The cheese made in the valley of Aquila is preferred to 

 Parmesan. Large numbers of poultry are reared, and form an im- 

 portant article of export. The roads are neglected, and there is but 

 little trade or commerce. The climate is cold on the mountains, 

 temperate in the valleys, and everywhere pure and healthy. Abruzzo 

 Ultra I. and II. comprise the territories of the ancient Marsi and 

 Peligni, with a large portion of the Sabine territory, and the southern 

 part of Picenum. It is divided into four districts, named from its 

 chief towns Aquila, Civith-Ducale, Avezzano, and Sulmona. 



.i'/iiila, the capital of the province, an episcopal town, is situated 

 on a hill above the left bank of the Aterno, 110 miles N.W. from Naples, 

 27 miles S.W. from Teramo : population, 14,000. It is the seat of a 

 high civil and criminal court, and of a court of appeal for the whole 

 province, and is considered one of the best built and most commercial 

 towns in the kingdom. The chief building is the cathedral ; there are 

 also several other churches and convents, a high school, an ecclesias- 

 tical college, an hospital, and a theatre. The chief industrial products 

 are paper, linen, and wax ; the town has a large trade in saffron ; four 

 fairs are held in the year. Aquila was founded by the Emperor 

 Frederic II., who removed hither the inhabitant* of Amiternum, a very 

 ancient town of the Sabineg (or, according to Ptolemrous, of the 

 Vestini), and the birthplace of Sallustius, the historian. It was origi- 

 nally strongly fortified ; but on the reconstruction of the city after the 

 earthquakes of 1703 and 1706, only one fort of the former defences 

 p-eserved. Amiternum stood at the foot of a hill in the valley of 

 the Aternus, 5 miles N. from Aquila ; there are still the remains ol 

 an amphitheatre on the site, on which numerous inscriptions and a 

 fragment of an ancient calendar have been found. On the hill above 



nmm are remains of old polygonal walls. 



A rezzano, in a plain on the north-western shore of the lake Celano, 

 22 miles S. from Aquila, is a walled town containing ten churches, one 

 of which is collegiate, and a handsome public square, on one side ol 

 which is a fine palace of the Colonna family : population, 6000. 



i'!t-J>ucak, 24 miles N.W. from Aquila, on the right bank of the 

 Vfl ino, gives title to a bishop, and has a handsome cathedral, an eccle- 

 siastical college, and 3331 inhabitants. It was founded by Robert, 

 King of Sicily and Duke of Calabria. 



'110. [SULMOXA.] 



A mong the more important of the other towns, the following are 

 mentioned : Amatrice, on a hill near the source of the Tronto, 21 

 mi!''* N. from Aquila, contains five churches, a school of belles lettres, 

 ami -1000 inhabitants, who manufacture woollen stuffs. Antrodoco, 

 situated on a plateau surrounded by high mountains, near the right 

 lank of the Velino, 8 miles above Civith-Ducale : population, 

 Juno. < ',,.,',1 i/i-fianyro, in the south of the province, on the road from 

 NapltM tn Cliii ti. has carpet factories, and 2500 inhabitants. C'dano, 

 M N. of the lake Celano, has a collegiate church, a paper 

 factory, and 3300 inhabitants. iian-Dcmetrio, 11 miles S.E. from 

 Aijnila, in a territory yielding great quantities of almonds and saffron, 

 li:u> three churches, and a population of 2100 inhabitants. Introdacqua, 

 on a rock between two streams, 4 miles S. from Sulmoua : popu- 

 latii.n, 4000. Leonetta, near the northern boundary, on the left bank 

 of the Corno, a feeder of the Nora, has four parish churches, one 

 i;tte church, seven convents, and 6500 inhabitants. Montercalf, 



les N.N.W. from Aquila, on the western slope of the main ridge 

 of thu Apennines, and near a feeder of the Velino : population, 5000. 

 /'irrf: /,/,-,,, 5 miles K. from Aquila : population, 2000. Pcscina, the 

 residence of the Bishop of Marsi, and the birth-place of Cardinal 

 Mazarin, near the eastern shore of lake Celano, has a handsome cathe- 

 dral, a parish church, two convents, an ecclesiastical school, an hospital, 

 and a house for foundlings : population, 3500. It stands near the 

 site of Mamtbinm, the chief town of the Marsi. Peico-Coilatizo, on a 

 hill, 13 miles S.E. from Sulmona: population, 2500. Pi::oli, at the 

 fmit of a high mountain, 5 miles N.W. from Aqnila, has three 

 he, and 3500 inhabitants. Popoli, N. of Sulmona, on the right 

 if the Pescara, has two handsome churches, three convents, and 

 inhabitant*. Hetween Popoli and Pentium, a small place S. of 

 it, stood Corfinium, the chief town of the Peligni. Tagliacazzo, 19 

 miles S.W. from Aquila, at the foot of a hill, near the right bank of 

 the little river Ismele, gives title to a duke, and has a ducal palace, a 

 custom-house for superintending the trade in salt, a very large market- 

 - four parish churches, four religious houses, two hospitals, and 

 nhabitonta. Near this town, in 1268, Charles of Anjou defeated 

 Conradino, son of Conrad IV., and put an end to the Hohenstauffen 

 jw-ay in Italy. The little village of Alba, 3 miles N. of the lake 

 i, Bright to be mentioned as occupying the crown of a hill on 

 which was xituatol Mini /'iirinaitii, a town if tin; ,Ki|iii, :m.l a Human 

 from B.C. 302. Of this very ancient town there remain the 

 walls of cyclopean or polygonal masonry, three miles in circuit, ami 

 I'ting one of the most perfect specimens of ancient fortification 



remaining in Italy ; also traces of an amphitheatre, a theatre, and 

 several temples, one of which, almost unaltered, is now a church. 

 Many inscriptions and architectural ornaments have been removed 

 from this place to Avezzauo and Tagliacozzo. 



ABURY. [AVEBDRY.] 



ABY'DOS, an ancient city of Upper Egypt, the remains of which 

 are found near two villages, El Kherbeh and Harabat, about 7 

 miles from the W. bank of the Nile, in 26 10' N. lat., 32 3' E. long. 

 The chief building, which still remains, is nearly covered with sand, 

 but the interior is in good preservation. Contrary to what we observe 

 generally in Egyptian buildings, this edifice is constructed of both 

 limestone and sandstone. In the interior it is said that constructed 

 arches are found, similar to those of brick which Belzoni describes at 

 Thebes. The numerous apartments, in this building, and the style of 

 decoration, show that Abydos was once a place of importance, and 

 possibly a royal residence. When Strabo was in Egypt (about the 

 commencement of the Christian era) Abydos was a mere village, but 

 he learned that the great building was called a Memuoneiou, or palace 

 of Memnon, and that tradition assigned to Abydos a rank in ancient 

 times next to Thebes. " There is," says the geographer, " a canal 

 leading to the place from the river," but, besides this communication 

 with the main stream, Abydos had the advantage of standing on the 

 great canal which runs northwards,.and is best known by the name 

 of the Bahr Youssuf, though the name commences much farther north, 

 at a place called Tarut-es-Sheriff. The other edifice, of which remains 

 still exist, was a temple of Osiris, built or completed by Ranges the 

 Great. On an interior wall of this building, Mr. W. Bankes discovered 

 in 1818 a tablet containing a list of the early kings of Egypt, which is 

 now generally called the Tablet of Abydos. This tablet, which is now 

 in the British Museum, consists of three compartments lying horizon- 

 tally one above another, and each compartment has been divided into 

 twenty-six rectangles. No one compartment is perfectly entire, but 

 enough remains of the lowest to enable us to determine the original 

 dimensions of the whole tablet, and the number of compartments. 

 Each of these rectangles contains an elliptical ring, or cartouche as it 

 is sometimes called, containing those various figures which are now 

 generally admitted to indicate the names or titles of sovereigns. The 

 lowest of the three compartments contains in the nineteen rectangles 

 which are complete the title and name of Ramses the Great ; the same 

 prenomen or title, and name, having each probably been repeated 

 thirteen times in the whole twenty-six rectangles ; of which seven, as 

 we have just stated, are erased. Deducting these twenty-six, we have 

 remaining in the other two compartments fifty-two rectangles : the 

 fifty-first and fifty-second contain the title and name of a Rainees, who 

 may be a predecessor of Ramses the Great. The cartouches preceding 

 these are probably the titles of kings ; for example, the forty-seventh 

 is the same as that on the great colossal statue at Thebes, and on the 

 entire colossal statue in the British Museum, which is Amenophis II. 

 (in Manethon's Catalogue), or the Greek Mumnon. Whether the 

 forty-six cartouches that precede this of Memuon belong to kings, his 

 lineal predecessors, we cannot undertake to assert or deny. 



Abydos is supposed to be identical with This, the capital of the 

 Thinite Nome, and one of the most important cities in Egypt under 

 the native kings. It was believed to be the buryiug-place of Osiris, 

 and that here the first mortal monarch, Menes, was born. Plutarch men- 

 tions that distinguished Egyptians frequently selected Abydos as 

 their place of burial, in order that their remains iniijht rest near those 

 of Osiris, The modern name is Arabat-d-ilatfuon, in Coptic Eliut. 

 (Kenrick's Ancient Egtjjit, vol i. ; Wilkinson's Topvyraphy o/7'/ //....) 

 ABY'DOS, an ancient Greek town in Mysia, on the Asiatic shore of 

 the Hellespont, now the Dardanelles, and nearly opposite Sestos on 

 the European shore. It is said by Strabo to have been founded by 

 the Milesians ; but the date of its foundation, like that of many other 



Greek towns, is not accurately known. Abydos was burnt by Darius 

 the Persian, after his Scythian expedition, but soon recovered ; and 

 somewhat later (B.C. 480) the people of Abydos witnessed the immense 

 army of Xerxes cross the strait on a bridge of boats. Th is brii 1; .. ill I 

 not extend from Abydos to Sestos, which was a distance of more than 

 three English miles, but it was formed a a narrower part, where the 

 distance is somewhat less than one mile. It commenced on the Asiatic 

 side, a little higher up the stream than Abydos ; its termination, on 

 ;he opposite coast, was at the projecting point opposite to Abydos, 

 and between Madytus and Sestos. A description of the bridge of 

 Xerxes is given by Herodotus (vii. 30), who was on the spot probably 

 nuch less than half a century after the event. Abydos has obtiiimi I 



poetical celebrity from the story of Leander, who used to swim 

 across the Hellespont to Sestos, to visit his mistress Hero, whose name 

 was commemorated even as late as the 1. thinning of the t'Lii tian 

 era by a building called the tower of Hero. There is extant a Greek 

 >oem by Musams, who perhaps lived about the 4th century, de- 

 rcriptive of the love and tragical fate of Leauder. Lord Byron htui 

 jiven a new interest to these localities by liis poem of the 'Bride of 

 Uiydos.' The modern village of Aidon or A cido stands on or near 

 ihe site of Abydos. 



ABYSSINIA. The name of Abyssinia became known in Kurope 

 rom the Portuguese missionaries who penetrated there. Tellez tells 

 us that the name of the people is A bc.eiiis ; but the Portuguese often 

 vrite the names of the country and the people rospocMvely in thu 



