Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/357

AUGUSTA FIRMA. neglected town of 4500 inhabitants, ding to the memory of her past glory; for few cities in the Roman empire have such magnificent ruins to attest their ancient splendour. It has been fitly called '* the Rome of Spain in respect of stupendous and well-preeeryed monuments of antiquity." f yprdj p. j58.'> Remains of all the great buildings which adorned a Roman city of the first class are found within a drcuit of about half a mile, on a hill which formed the nucleus of the city. The Goths pre- sorved and even repaired the Roman edifices; and, at the Arab conquest, Merida called forth from the Moorish leader Musa the exclamation, that " all the world must have been called together to build such a city." The conquerors, as usual, put its stability to the severest test, and the ruins of Merida consist of what was solid mough to withstand their violence and the more insidious encroachments of the citizens, who for ages have used the ancient city as a quarry. Within the circuit of the dfef , the ground is covered with traces of the ancient nMds and pavements, re- mains of temples and other buildings, fragments of columns, statues, and lias-reliefii, with numerous in- scriptions. A particular account of the antiquities, which are too numerous to describe here, is given by lAborde and Ford. The circus is still so peHbct that it might be used for races as of old, and the theatre, the vomitaries of which are perfect, has been the scene of many a modem buU-fight. The great aqueduct is one of the grandest remains of antiquity in the worid ; and there are several other aqueducts of less conaeqnence, and the remains of vast reservoirs for water. The Roman bridge over the GtMeUana, of 81 arches, 2575 feet^long, 26 broad, and 38 above the river, upheld by Goth and Moor, and repaired by Philip III. in 1610, remained uninjured till the Peninsular War of our own time, when some of the arches were blown up, in April 1812. (Florez, £tp. Sagr. vol. xiiL pp. 87, foil.; Laborde, Itini' rairt de VEtpagne, vol. iiL pp. 399, folL, 3rd ed. ; Ford, Handbook of Spam, pp. 258, folL) [P. S.] AUGUSTA FIRMA. [Astiol] AUGUSTA GEMELLA. [Tucci.] AUGUSTA JULL. [Gadks.] AUGUSTA PRAETOHIA {Airfov<rra, Strab.; AOyovara npatrmpla, Ftol*)} a city of Cisalpine Gaul, in the territny of the Salassi, situated at the loot of the Alps, in the valley of the Duiia Major: It is now called AottOj and gives to the whole vaJley •f the Duria the name of Vol cF Aotta, It was a Boman colony, founded by Augustus, who, after the «Nn|dete subjugation of the Salassdans by Terentius Varro, established here a body of 3,000 veterans. From the statement of Strabo, that the colony was settled on the site of the camp of Varro, it would appear that there was previously no town on this spot; bat the importance of its position at the point of junction of the two passes over the Pennine and Graian Alpe (the Great and Little St Bernard) cansed it quickly to rise to great prosperity, and it soon became, what it has ever sinoe continued, the coital of the whole valley and surrounding region. (Stnb. iv. p. 206; Dion Cass. liu. 25; Plin. iu. 17. 1. 2 1 ; Ptd. iii. 1. § 34.) According to Pliny it was the extreme point of Italy towards the north, so that he reckons the length of that country " ab Alpmo fine Praetoriao Angustae " to Rhegium. {H. N. ill 5. § 6.) The importance of Augusta Praetoria under the Roman empire is sufficiently attested by its existing remains, among which are those of a triumphal arch at the entrance of the town on the lUGUSTA TAURINORUM. 339 E. side, of aNrery good style of architecture, and probably of th^time of Augustus, but which has lost its inscriptioK Besides this, there is another an- dent gate, now half buried by the accumulation of the soil ; a fine Roman bridge, and 8C«ne remains of an amphitheatre; while numerous architectural frag- ments attest the magnificence of the public build- ings with which the dty was once adorned. (Millin. Foy. en Piefnont, vol. ii. pp. 14-— 17.) [E. H. B.] AUGUSTA RAURACORUM iAwfst the chief town of the Raurad, who bordered on the Helvetii. (Caes. B, G, L 5.) A Roman colony was settled here by L. Munatius Plancus, in the time of Augua. tus, as is proved by an inscription. (Plin. iv. 17, ed. Hard, note.) .^mianus (ziv. 10) gives it the name Rauracum, and fixes its position on the border of the Rhine. The town suffered firom the Ale- manni, and was reduced to a mere fort, Castrum Ranraoense. Augsi is in the canton of Bale, six miles cast of B&le, and on the left bank of the Rhine. It is now a village. In the sixteenth century there were still many remains of Augusta, and among them a large amphitheatre. [Rauraci.] AUGUSTA SUESSONUM or SUESSIONUM (^Soistoru). The podtion of this place is determined by the Itineraries. It is twice called simply Sues- sonae in the Antonine Itin. It wss on the rood from Durocortorum {Bheinu) to Samarobriva (Amiena). Soittons is on the south bank of the June, in the department of Aime. Under the later empire there was a Roman manufSKtory of shidds, balistae, and armour for the cavalry called Clibanarii. D'Anville and othen suppose that the Noviodunum of Caesar {B. (7. ii. 12) was the place that afterwards became Augusta Suessonum; and it may be, but it is only a conjecture. [Suessiomes.] [G. L.] AUGUSTA TAURINORUM (A^Arra Toupi- rwir, PtoL: Torino car Turin), the capital of the Ligurian tribe d the Taurini, was dtnated oa the river Padus, at its junction with the Duxia Minor or Dora Biparia, It was at this point that the Padus began to be navigable, and to this drcumstance, combined with its podtion on the line of high road leading from Mediolanum and Tidnum to the pas- sage of the Cottian Alps (^Mont Genetfre), the dty doubtless owed its early importance. It is probable that the chief dty of the Taurini, which was taken by Hannibal immediately after his descent into Italy (Pdyb. iii. 60), and the name of which, according to Appian (ilnni6. 5), was Taurada, was the same that became a Roman colony under Augustus, and recdved from him the name of Augusta. The only subsequent mention of it in history is during the dvil war between Otho and Vitellius, a. d. 69, when a condderable part of it was burnt by the soldiers of the hitter (Tac HisL ii. 66); but we learn both firom Pliny and Tadtus, as well as from numerous inscriptions, that it retained its colonial rank, and was a place of importance under the Roman empire. (Plin. iii. 17. s. 21; PtoLiii. l.§36; Gruter. /n«cr. pp. 458. 8, 495. 5; Maffd, Mtu. Veron, pp. 209 —233; Millin. Voy. en Piemont, vd. i. p. 254.) The nafaie of Augusta seems to have been gra- dtially dropped, and the city itself came to be called by the name of the tribe to which it bdonged : thus we find it termed in the Itineraries simply " Tau- rini," from whence comes its modem name of Torino or Turin, It continued after the fall of the Roman empire to be a place of importance, and became the capital of Piedmont, as it now is oif the kingdom of Sardinia. With the excoption of tlie inscriptions z2