Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/268

234l PLIHl's jyATUHAIi HISTOBT. [Book III. and tlie Alfaterni, tribes of the ^quiculi, have disappeared. Prom Gellianus we learu that Archippe a town of the Marsi, built by Marsyas, a chieftain of the Lydians, has been swallowed up by Lake Fucinus. and Valerianus informs us that the town of the Yiticini in Picenum was destroyed by the Romans. The Sabini (called, according to some writers, from their attention to religious observances and the worship of the gods, Sevini) dwell on the dew-clad hills in the vicinity of the Lakes of the Yelinus^. The Nar, with its sulphureous waters, exhausts these lakes, and, descending from Mount Fiscellus"*, unites with them near the groves of Vacuna^ and Heate, and then directs its course towards the Tiber, into which it discharges itself. Again, in another direction, the Anio^, taking its rise in the mountain of the Trebani, carries into the Tiber the waters of three lakes re- markable for their picturesque beauty, and to which Subla- while Cominium Ceritvim, probably another place, is spoken of by Livy in his account of the second Punic War. The latter, it is suggested, was about sixteen miles north-west of Beneventum, and on the site of the modern Cerreto. The Comioi here mentioned by Phny, it is thought, dwelt in neither of the above places. The sites of the towns of many of the peoples here mentioned ai'e also equally unknown. ' Sohnus, B.ii., also states, that this place was founded by Marsyas, king of the Lydians. Hardouin mentions that iu his time the remains of this town were said to be seen on the verge of the lake near Transaco. 2 From the Grreek rrefSecTOaL "to worship." 3 The river Yehnus, now Velino, rising in the Apennines, in the vici- nity of Keate, overflowed its banks and formed several small lakes, the largest of which was called Lake Vehnus, now Pie di Lugo or Lago, while a smaller one was called Lacus Reatinus, now Lago di Santa Susanna. In order to carry off these waters, a channel was cut through the rocks by Curius Dentatus, the conqueror of the Sabmes, by means of which the waters of the Vehnus were carried through a narrow gorge to a spot where they fall from a height of several hmidred feet mto the river Nar. Tliio fall is now known as the Fall of Terni or the Cascade Delia Marmore. ■* Still caUed Monte Fiscello, near the town of Civita Reale. Virgil calls the Nar (now the Nera), " Sulphurea Nar albus aqua," " The white Nar with its sulphureous waters." — ^Eneid, vu. 517. ' A Sabine divinity said to have been identical with Victory. The Romans however made her the goddess of leism'e and repose, and repre- sented her as being worsiiiped by the husbandmen at harvest home, when they were " vacui," oi at leisure. She is mentioned by Ovid in the Fasti, B. vi. 1. 307. The grove here alluded to was one of her sanctuaries. ^ The modern Teverone, which I'isea near Tervi or Trevi.