Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/582

This page needs to be proofread.

564 CASTRUM NOVUM. the coast of Calabria, between Hjdnintam and the lapygian Promontory. It derived its name from an ancient temple of Minerva, of which Strabo speaks (vi. p. 281) as having been formerly very wealthy. This is evidently the same which Virgil mentions as meeting the eyes of Aeneas on his first approach to Italy; he describes the temple itself as standing on a hill, with a secure port immediately below it. {Aen. iii. 531, foil, and Serv. ad loc.) Dionysios gives the same account; (i. 51) he calls the spotrii KdKovfuyov ^MnivaSov^ and says that it was a pro- montory with a port adjacent to it, to which Aeneas gave the name of the Port of Venus (Xt/iV 'A^po- 8{ri7s), but he adds that it was only fit for summer anchorage (P^pwhs ipijuoi), so that it is evident we must not take Virgil's description too literally. No mention is found either in Strabo or Dionysius of a toton on the spot; but Varro (as cited by Probus, ad Virg. Eel. vi. 31) distinctly speaks of Castrum Minervae as a town (oppidum) founded by Idome- nens at the same time with Uria and other cities of the Sallentines. It seems to have been but an in- considpjrable place under the Romans; but the Tabula marks the *' Gastra Minervae " at the distance of 8 M. P. south of Uydruntum ; and there is every probability that the modem town of Casbro^ which stands on a rocky eminence near the sea-shore, about 10 Roman miles S. of OtrantOj occupies the site in question. There is a little cove or bay immediately below it, which answers to the expressions of Dio- nysius: though the little port now called Porto Ba- discOf more than 5 miles furtlier north, would corre- spond better with the description of Virgil. The spot is called by the geographer of Ravenna

    • Minervium," and hence some modem writers (Man-

nert, Forbiger) have been led to regard this as the colony of Miner vium, ^tablished by the Romans in B.C. 123. (Veil. Pat i. 15.) But it is now well esbU)li8hed that that name was only a new desig- nation for the previously existing city of Scylacium. [SCYLACIUM.] [E. H. B.] CASTRUM NOVUM. 1. (Kaorpoy y4oy, Ptol. : nth. Castronovani, Inacr. a city on the sea-coast of Etruria, between Pyrgi and Centumcellae. We have no account of it prior to the establishment of a Roman colony there, and from the name we may presume that this was a new foundation, and that there was no Etmscan town previously existing on the site. But the period at which this colony was established is unknown; we first find it mentioned in Livy (xxxvi. 3), in B.C. 191, as one of the " oo- loniae maritimae," together with Fr^enae, Pyrgi, Ostio, and oilier places on the Tyrrhenian Sea. There can therefore be no doubt that the Tuscan town is here meant, and not the one of the same name in Picenum. Mela, Pliny, and Ptolemy all mention it as one of the towns on the coast of Etruria, but it had in their time lost its character of a colony, in common with its neighbours Fregenae, Pyrgi, and Graviscae. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 8 ; Mela, ii. 4 ; Ptol. iii. 1. § 4.) Yet we find it termed, in an inscription of the tiird century, " Golonia Julia Castro Novo " (Orell. Inecr. 1009), as if it had received a fresh colony under Caesar or Augustus. Its name is still found in the Itineraries {Itin. AnL pp. 291. 301 ; Jtin. MariL p. 498); but in the time of Rutilius it had fallen into complete decay, and only its mins were visible, which that author erroneously identifies with the Castinim Inui of Virgil. (Rutil. Itin. i. 227 — ^232.) Scrvius appears to have fallen into the same mistake (ad Jdn. vi. 776). The site of Gas- CASTRUM VERGIUM. tram Novum seems to have been correctly fixed bj Cluver at a phuMS called Torre di Chiarwxia^ about 5 miles S. of Cimta Vecchia (Centumcellae), — where considerable remains of it were still visible, — though this distance is less than that given in the Itineraries. (Cluver. Itai. p. 488 ; D'Anville, Anai. Geogr. de Vltalie, pp. 122, 123.) 2. (Keurrpo^ouy, Strab. ; Katrrpof^ Ptol.), a city on the sea-coast of Picenum, which was, as well as the preceding, a Roman colony. There can be little doubt that this is the Castram, the foundation of which as a colony is mentioned both by Livy and Velleius, though tha« is much discrepancy between them as to the date. The latter represents Flrmum and Castrum as founded at the beginning of the First Punic War, while Livy assigns Castrum to the same period with Sena and Adria, about b.c. 282. (Liv. Epit. xi.; Veil. Pat. i. 14; Madvig, de Colon. pp. 265, 299.) No subsequoit mention of It is found as a colony, the Castrum Novum of which the name occurs in Livy (xxxvL 3) as a " colonia marl- tima," being evidently, as already observed, the Tuscan town of the name. But it is mentioned among the maritime towns of Picenum by Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy, and we learn from tJie Liber Coloniamm (p. 226) that its territory, the " ager Castranus," was portioned out to fr^ colonists under Augustus, though it did not resiune the rank of a colony. The Itineraries place it 12 M.P. from Castrum Traentinum, and 15 from Adria (Itin. AnL pp. 101, 308, 313), from which we may infer that it was situated near Giulia Nuova, a little to the N. of the river Tordino^ the Batinus of Pliny. It pro- bably occu|ned the site of the now deserted town of S. Flaviano, near the bank of the river, and below the modem town of Giulia Nuova, the foundation of which dates only from the fifteenth century. (D'An- ville, AnaL Geogr. de tltaliey p. 181; Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 303.) [E. H. B.] CASTRUM TRUENTI'NUM, called also TRU- ENTUM, from the name of the river (mi which it stood (Plin. iii. 13. s. 18 ; Troento civitas, Itin. AnL p. 101), was a maritime city of Picenum, situated at the mouth of the river Truimtus (Tronto). From the name it would appear to have been a Roman town, though we have no account of its settlement, and it certainly never ranked as a colony. But ac- cording to Pliny there was a town previously exist- ing on the spot, which was a Libumian settlement, and the only one of that people still remaining in Italy. (Plin. I. c.) Castrum Traentinum is men- tioned during the Civil Wars as one of the places occupied by Caesar during his advance through Pi- cenum firom Ariminum (Cic. ad Att. viii. 12. B); but this is the only occasion on which its name oc- curs in history. Its territory (the ** ager Traenti- nus ") was among those portioned out by Augustus (Lib. Colon, p. 226); and its continu^ existence throughout tlie Roman empire is attested by the geographers and the Itineraries. (Strab. v. p. 241 ; Mel. ii. 4; Sil. Ital. viii. 434; Itin. AnL pp. 308, 313; Tab. Pent.) All authorities agree in placuig it near the mouth of the Traentus, but its exact site has not been determined. D'Anville placed it at Monte Brandone, on tlie N. bank of the river, a short distance from the sea; but according to Roma- nelli some vestiges of it are still visible on the right bank of the TrontOj at a spot called Torre di Mar- tin Siairo, (D'Anville, AnaL Giogr. de Cltal. p. 169 ; Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 294.) [E. H. B.] CASTRUM VERGIUM. fBsBGiSTAiri.]