ATAX. ^ot. There an antcoomoaa coins of Atanaeos, with the epigraph ATA. and ATAP. There v» a piaoe near Fitane called Atameos. <S«nbc p. 614.) [6. L.] ATAX C^rai: A9ide% or ATTAGUS, a river of Gallia KaHKmeosta, which rises an the north slope of the Prnoeai, and flows by Careationne and Narbo (^Xardotme), below which it enters the Mediterra- nran, near the E'tang de Vendres, Strabo (p. 182) makes it rise in the Cevaine$, which is not earrwt. Mela (IL 5) and Pliny (iiL 4) place its source in the Pyrenees. It was navigable to a short distance abore Narbo. A few miles higher np than Ai m b ot mt the stream divides into two arms; one ann flowed into a lake, Hnbresns or Rubrensis (the A(iun« Nap^wrris of Strabo) ; and the other direct ifito the aea. The Rnbresns is described by Mela as a very large piece of water, which commnnicated with tbe sea by a narrow passage. This appears to be the E'taag Sitfetm ; and the canal Robme dAmde, wtiich mns from Narbonne to this Etang, jvpreBcata the Atax of the Romans. The inhabitants of the valley of the Atax were 4^]led AtacinL Mela calls Narbo a colony of the Ataczni and the Decuraani, from which Walckenaer {vol. L p. 140) draws the conclusion that this place was Bot the original capital of the AtacinL Bat IfeU esBptqjs like terms, when he speaks of " Tolosa Tectoaagam* and '* Menna Allobrqgnm ;" so that vf rgect Walckenaer's condnsion from this There may, however, have been a " Vicoa
Eosebios names it, or Vicus Atacinos,
the Imtb-place of P. Terentins Varro: and the ^«hotiast on Horace (JSaL i. 10. 46) may not be cor- ject, wheo he says tiliat Varro was called Atacinos hom the river Atax. Polybins (iii. 37, xxxiv. 10) calb this river Narbo. FG. L.] ATELLA ('ArcAXa: Eik, ArcAXavJf, AteUa- nns), a citj of Campania, sitnated on the road from Capua to Neapcdis, at the distance of 9 miles from each of those two cities. (Stepb.B. «. v. ; Tab. PeuL) Its name is not found in history daring the wars (k the Romans with the Campanians, nor on occasion of ihe wttlement of Campania in b. c. 336 : it probably itAmed the fortunes of its powerful neighbour Capua, thouiEh its independence is attested by its ckhus. In the tecond Panic war the AteUani were among the fint to declare far the Carthaginians after the battle «f CasBM (Liv. xxii. 61; Sil.Ital. xi. 14): hence, wrlken they fell into the power of the Romans, after the redaction of Capna, B. c. 211, they were very arrerely treated: tlK chief citizens and authors of ihe rrrolt ware execated on the spot, while of the ivst of the inhabitants the greater part were sold as «lmves, and others rem o ved to distant settlements. The next year (210) the few remaining inhabitants were cocnpelled to migrate to Calatia, and the citizens of Knccria, whose own city had been destroyed by Hannibal, were settled at Atella m their stead. (Liv. xxri. 16, 33, 34, xxviL 3.) After this it appears to have quickly revived, and Cicero speaks oH it as, in fab thne, a flourishing and important municipal town. It was under the especial patronage and pro- tcctaon of the great orator himself, but we do not kaam what wv the origin of this peculiar connection between them. (Cic. de Leg. Agr. iL 31 , ad Fam, am. 7, aJ Q. fr. iL 14.) Under Augustus it re- xcired a eoloay of military settlen; bat continued to be a place only of municipal rank, and is classed by Stxabo among the smaller towns of Campania. CPiiiLiu.5.8.9; Strab. v. p. 249 ; Ptol. iiL 1 . § 68 ; ATERNUat 253 Orell. InKT. 130.) It continued to exist as an efnscopal see till tiie ninth century, but was then much decayed; and in a.d. 1030 the inhabitants wore removed to the neighbouring town of Averta^ then lately founded by the Norman Count Rai- nul^us. Some remains of its walls and other ruins are still visible at a spot about 2 miles E. of ^va"sa, near the villages of S. Arpmo and S. Elpidio; and an old church on the site is still called Sta Maria di AteUa. Numerous inscriptians, terracottas, and other minor antiquities, have been found there. (Hol- Bten. Not. in Clw. p. 260; Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 592.) The name of Atella is best known in oonnecti(Hi with the peculiar class of dramatic representations which derived from thence the appellation of " Fsr- bulae Atellanae," and which were borrowed from them by the Romans, among whom they enjoyed for a time especial favour, so as to be exempt from the penalties and disqualifications which attached to the actons of other diramatic performances. At a later period, however, they degenerated into so licentious a character, that in the reign of Tiberius they were altogether prohibited, and the acton banished from . Italy. These plays were origmally written in the [ Osom dialect, which they appear to have mainly con- j tributed to preserve in ita purity. (Liv. vii. 2 ; Strab. > ^ ▼. p. 233; Tac. Aim. iv. 14. For further parti- culars concerning the Fabulae Atellanae see Bern- hardy, Romiscke Literatur. p. 379, &c) The early unpcoianoe of Atella is further attested by its coins, which resemble in their types those of Capua, but bear the legend, in Oscan characters, '* Aderl," — evidently the native form of the name. (Millingen, NumUm. de Vltalie^ p. 190; Friedlilnder, Otkische MOneen, p. 15.) [£. H. B.] ATER or NIGER MONS, a mountain range of Inner Libya, on the N. side of the Great Desert (SoAora), dividing the part of Roman Africa on the Great Syrtis from Phazania (^Fezzan). It seems to oorrespood either to the JebeUSoudan or Black MowUairUj between 28° and 29° N. bit, and from about 10° £. long, eastward, or to the SE. pro- longation of the same chain, called the Black Earutehf or both. The entire range is of a black basaltic rock, whence the ancient and modem names (Plin. V. 5, vi. 30. s. 35; Homemann, Reiaen von Kairo nach Fegean^ p. 60). [P. S.] ATERNUM ("ATepwy: Peecara), a city of the Vestini, situated on the coast of the Adriatic, at the mouth of the river Atemus, from which it derived its name. It was the only Vestinian city on the sea- coast, and was a place of considerable trade, serving as the emporium not only of the Vestini, but of the Peligni and Marrucini also. (Strab. v. pp. 241 , 242.) As early as the second Punic war it is mentionied as a place of importance : having joined the cause of Han- nibal and the Carthaginians, it was retaken in b.c.2 13 by the praetor Sempronius Tuditanus, when a consi- derable sum of money, as well as 7000 prisoners, fell into the hands of the captors. (Liv. xxiv. 47.) Under Augustus it recieived a colony of veterans, among whom its territory was portioned out (JAb. Colon, p. 253), but it did not obtain the rank of a colony. Various inscriptions attest its municipal condition under the Roman Empire. One of these mentions the restoration of its port by Tiberius (Ro- manelli, vol. iii. p. 82); another, which commemo- rates the continuation of the Via Valeria by Clau- dius to this point (OreU. Inter, 711), speaks only of the ** Ostia Atemi," without mentioning the town of that name ; and the same expression is found both in
