Chap. 18.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 285 



queum' is indebted for its name. In the territorj' of Eeate 

 is the Lake of Cutilite*, in which there is a floating island, 

 and which, according to M. Varro, is the navel or central 

 point of Italy. Below the Sabine territory lies that of La- 

 tium, on one side Picenum, and behind it Umbria, while 

 the range of the Apennines flanks it on either side. 



CHAP. 18. (13.) — THE FIFTH BEGION OF ITALY. 



The fifth region is that of Picenum, once remarkable for 

 the denseness of its population ; 360,000 Picentines took the 

 oaths of fidelity to the Eoman people. They are descended 

 from the Sabines, who had made a vow to celebrate a holy 

 spring'. Their territory commenced at the river Atemus*, 

 where the present district and colony of Adria^ is, at a distance 

 of six miles from the sea. Here we find the river Vomanus, 

 the territories of Prjetutia and Palma'', Castrum Novum", 



^ A town of the ^qui, now known as Subiaco. In its vicinity was 

 the celebrated rilla of Claudius and Nero, called the Villa Sublacencis. 



2 This was a town of the Sabines between Reate and Interocrea, in the 

 vicinity of a smaU lake of the same name. It was a mere pool, accord- 

 ing to Dionysius, being but 400 feet in diameter. It is supposed that the 

 floating i:$land was formed from the incrustations of carbonate of lime on 

 the banks, which, becoming detached, probably collected in the middle. 

 The lake still exists, but the floating Lsland has disappeared. There are 

 some fine rviins of Roman baths in the vicinity of the lake. 



3 It was a custom with the early Itahan nations, especially the Sabines, 

 m times of danger and distress, to vow to the deity the sacrifice of all the 

 produce of the ensuing spring, that is, of the period from the first day of 

 March tQl the last day of April. It is probable that in early times hu- 

 man sacrifices were the consequence ; but at a later period the following 

 custom was adopted instead. The children were allowed to grow up, and 

 in the spring of their twentieth or twenty-first year were with covered 

 faces driven across the frontier of their native country, to go whitherso- 

 ever chance or the guidance of the deity might lead them. The Mamer- 

 tini in Sicily were said to have had this origin. 



* Now the Atemo, which falls into the sea at Atri or Ortona. 



* A fSamous city of Etruscan origin, which stUl retains its name of 

 Adria or Atri. It had very considerable intercourse with Greece, and 

 there are extensive remains of antiquity in its vicinity, towards Kavegnano. 

 The river is still called the Vomano. 



* These places are again mentioned in B. xiv. c. 8. 



7 Or " New Castle." It probably occupied the site of the now de- 

 serted town of Santo Flaviano, near the banks of the river Tordino, the 

 Batinus of Pliny, and below the modem towTi of Giulia Nova. 



