Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Various locations for wider area of: "ITALY Ancient country EUROPE" .
ITALY (Ancient country) EUROPE
Apenninus mons (ho Apenninos, to Apenninon oros. The singular form
is generally used, in Greek as well as Latin, but both Polybius and Strabo occasionally
have ta Apennina ore. In Latin the singular only is used by the best writers).
The Apennines, a chain of mountains which traverses almost the whole length of
Italy, and may be considered as constituting the backbone of that country, and
determining its configuration and physical characters. The name is probably of
Celtic origin, and contains the root Pen, a head or height, which is found in
all the Celtic dialects. Whether it may originally have been applied to some particular
mass or group of mountains, from which it was subsequently extended to the whole
chain, as the singular form of the name might lead us to suspect, is uncertain:
but the more extensive use of the name is fully established, when it first appears
in history. The general features and direction of the chain are well described
both by Polybius and Strabo, who speak of the Apennines as extending from their
junction with the Alps in an unbroken range almost to the Adriatic Sea; but turning
off as they approached the coast (in the neighbourhood of Ariminum and Ancona),
and extending from thence throughout the whole length of Italy, through Samnium,
Lucania, and Bruttium, until they ended at the promontory of Leucopetra, on the
Sicilian Sea. Polybius adds, that throughout their course from the plains of the
Padus to their southern extremity they formed the dividing ridge between the waters
which flowed respectively to the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. The same thing
is stated by Lucan, whose poetical description of the Apennines is at the same
time distinguished by geographical accuracy. (Pol. ii. 16, iii. 110;. Strab. ii.
p. 128, v. p. 211; Ptol. iii. 1. § 44; Lucan ii.396-438; Claudian. de VI. Cons.
Hon. 286.) But an accurate knowledge of the course and physical characters of
this range of mountains is so necessary to the clear comprehension of the geography
of Italy, and the history of the nations that inhabited the different provinces
of the peninsula, that it will be desirable to give in this place a more detailed
account of the physical geography of the Apennines.
There was much difference of opinion among ancient, as well as modern,
geographers, in regard to the point they assigned for the commencement of the
Apennines, or rather for their junction with the Alps, of which they may, in fact,
be considered only as a great offshoot. Polybius describes the Apennines as extending
almost to the neighbourhood of Massilia, so that he must have comprised under
this appellation all that part of the Maritime Alps, which extend along the sea-coast
to. the west of Genoa, and even beyond Nice towards Marseilles. Other writers
fixed on the port of Hercules Monoecus (Monaco) as the point of demarcation: but
Strabo extends the name of the Maritime Alps as far E. as Vada Sabbata (Vado),
and says that the Apennines begin about Genoa: a distinction apparently in accordance
with the usage of the Romans, who frequently apply the name of the Maritime Alps
to the country of the Ingauni, about Albenga. (Liv. xxviii. 46; Tac. Hist. ii.
12.) Nearly the same distinction has been adopted by the best modern geographers,
who have regarded the Apennines as commencing from the neighbourhood of Savona,
immediately at the back of which the range is so low that the pass between that
city and Carcare, in the valley of the Bormida, does not exceed the height of
1300 feet. But the limit must, in any case, be an arbitrary one: there is no real
break or interruption of the mountain chain. The mountains behind Genoa itself
are still of very moderate elevation, but after that the range increases rapidly
in height, as well as breadth, and extends in a broad unbroken mass almost in
a direct line (in an ESE. direction) till it approaches the coast of the Adriatic.
Throughout this part of its course the range forms the southern limit of the great
plain of Northern Italy, which extends without interruption from the foot of the
Apennines to that of the Alps. Its highest summits attain an elevation of 5000
or 6000 feet, while its average height ranges between 3000 and 4000 feet. Its
northern declivity presents a remarkable uniformity: the long ranges of hills
which descend from the central chain, nearly at right angles to its direction,
constantly approaching within a few miles of the straight line of the Via Aemilia
throughout its whole length from Ariminum to Placentia, but without ever crossing
it. On its southern side, on the contrary, it sends out several detached arms,
or lateral ranges, some of which attain to an elevation little inferior to that
of the central chain. Such is the lofty and rugged range which separates the vallies
of the Macra and Auser (Serchio), and contains the celebrated marble quarries
of Carrara; the highest point of which (the Pizzo d'Uccello) is not less than
5800 feet above the sea. Similar ridges, though of somewhat less elevation, divide
the upper and lower vallies of the Arnus from each other, as well as that of the
Tiber from the former.
But after approaching within a short distance of the Adriatic, so
as to send down its lower slopes within a few miles of Ariminum, the chain of
the Apennines suddenly takes a turn to the SSE., and assumes a direction parallel
to the coast of the Adriatic, which it preserves, with little alteration, to the
frontiers of Lucania. It is in this part of the range that all the highest summits
of the Apennines are found: the Monti della Sibilla, in which are the sources
of the Nar (Nera) rise to a height of 7200 feet above the sea, while the Monte
Corno, or Gran Sasso d'Italia, near Aquila, the loftiest summit of the whole chain,
attains to an elevation of 9500 feet. A little further S. is the Monte Majella,
a huge mountain mass between Sulmo and the coast of the Adriatic, not less than
9000 feet in height, while the Monte Velino, N. of the Lake Fucinus, and nearly
in the centre of the peninsula, attains to 8180 feet, and the Monte Terminillo,
near Leonessa, NE. of Rieti, to above 7000 feet. It is especially in these Central
Apennines that the peculiar features of the chain develope themselves. Instead
of presenting, like the Alps and the more northern Apennines, one great uniform
ridge, with transverse vallies leading down from it towards the sea on each side,
the Central Apennines constitute a mountain mass of very considerable breadth,
composed of a number of minor ranges and groups of mountains, which, notwithstanding
great irregularities and variations, preserve a general parallelism of direction,
and are separated by upland vallies, some of which are themselves of considerable
elevation and extent. Thus the basin of Lake Fucinus, in the centre of the whole
mass, and almost exactly midway between the two seas, is at a level of 2180 feet
above the sea; the upper valley of the Aternus, near Amiternum, not less than
2380 feet; while between the Fucinus and the Tyrrhenian Sea we find the upper
vallies of the Liris and the Anio running parallel to one another, but separated
by lofty mountain ranges from each other and from the basin of the Fucinus. Another
peculiarity of the Apennines is that the loftiest summits scarcely ever form a
continuous or connected range of any great extent, the highest groups being frequently
separated by ridges of comparatively small elevation, which afford in consequence
natural passes across the chain. Indeed, the two loftiest mountain masses of the
whole, the Gran Sasso, and the Majella, do not belong to the central or main range
of the Apennines at all, if this be reckoned in the customary manner along the
line of the water-shed between the two seas. As the Apennines descend into Samnium
they diminish in height, though still forming a vast mass of mountains of very
irregular form and structure.
From the Monte Nerone, near the sources of the Metaurus, to the valley
of the Sagrus, or Sangro, the main range of the Apennines continues much nearer
to the Adriatic than the Tyrrhenian Sea; so that a very narrow strip of low country
intervenes between the foot of the mountains and the sea on their eastern side,
while on the west the whole broad tract of Etruria and Latium separates the Apennines
from the Tyrrhenian. This is indeed broken by numerous minor ranges of hills,
and even by mountains of considerable elevation (such as the Monte Amiata, near
Radicofani), some of which may be considered as dependencies or outliers of the
Apennines; while others are of volcanic origin, and wholly independent of them.
To this last class belong the Mons Ciminus and the Alban Hills; the range of the
Volscian Mountains, on the contrary, now called Monti Lepini, which separates
the vallies of the Trerus and the Liris from the Pontine Marshes, certainly belongs
to the system of the Apennines, which here again descend to the shore of the western
sea between Tarracina and Gaieta. From thence the western ranges of the chain
sweep round in a semicircle around the fertile plain of Campania, and send out
in a SW. direction the bold and lofty ridge which separates the Bay of Naples
from that of Salerno, and ends in the promontory of Minerva, opposite to the island
of Capreae. On the E. the mountains gradually recede from the shores of the Adriatic,
so as to leave a broad plain between their lowest slopes and the sea, which extends
without interruption from the mouth of the Frento (Fortore) to that of the Aufidus
(Ofanto): the lofty and rugged mass of Mount Garganus, which has been generally
described from the days of Ptolemy to our own as a branch of the Apennines, being,
in fact, a wholly detached and isolated ridge. In the southern parts of Samnium
(the region of the Hirpini) the Apennines present a very confused and irregular
mass; the central point or knot of which is formed by the group of mountains about
the head of the Aufidus, which has the longest course from W. to E. of any of
the rivers of Italy S. of the Padus. From this point the central ridge assumes
a southerly direction, while numerous offshoots or branches occupy almost the
whole of Lucania, extending on the W. to the Tyrrhenian Sea, and on the S. to
the Gulf of Tarentum. On the E. of the Hirpini, and immediately on the frontiers
of Apulia and Lucania, rises the conspicuous mass of Mount Vultur, which, though
closely adjoining the chain of the Apennines, is geologically and physically distinct
from them, being an isolated mountain of volcanic origin. But immediately S. of
Mt. Vultur there branches off from the central mass of the Apennines a chain of
great hills, rather than mountains, which extends to the eastward into Apulia,
presenting a broad tract of barren hilly country, but gradually declining in height
as it approaches the Adriatic, until it ends on that coast in a range of low hills
between Egnatia and Brundusium. The peninsula of Calabria is traversed only by
a ridge of low calcareous hills of tertiary origin and of very trifling elevation,
though magnified by many maps and geographical writers into a continuation of
the Apennines. (Cluver. Ital. p. 30; Swinburne, Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol.
i. pp. 210, 211.) The main ridge of the latter approaches very near to the Tyrrhenian
Sea, in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Policastro (Buxentum), and retains this
proximity as it descends through Bruttium;. but E. of Consentia (Cosenza) lies
the great forest-covered mass of the Sila, in some degree detached from the main
chain, and situated between it and the coast near Crotona. A little further south
occurs a remarkable break in the hitherto continuous chain of the Apennines, which
appears to end abruptly near the modern village of Tiriolo, so that the two gulfs
of Sta Eusfemia and Squillace (the Sinus Terinaeus and Scylletinus) are separated
only by a low neck of land, less than 20 miles in breadth, and of such small elevation
that not only did the elder Dionysius conceive the idea of carrying a wall across
this isthmus (Strab. vi. p. 261), but in modern times Charles III., king of Naples,
proposed to cut a canal through it. The mountains which rise again to the S. of
this remarkable interruption, form a lofty and rugged mass (now called Aspromonte),
which assumes a SW. direction and continues to the extreme southern point of Italy,
where the promontory of Leucopetra is expressly designated, both by Strabo and
Ptolemy, as the extremity of the Apennines. (Strab. v. p. 211; Ptol. iii. 1. §
44.) The loftiest summit in the southern division of the Apennines is the Monte
Pollino, near the south frontier of Lucania, which rises to above 7000 feet: the
highest point of the Sila attains to nearly 6000 feet, and the summit of Aspromonte
to above 4500 feet. (For further details concerning the geography of the Apennines,
especially in Central Italy, the reader may consult Abeken, Mittel-Italien, pp.
10-17, 80-85; Kramer, Der Fuciner See, pp. 5-11.)
Almost the whole mass of the Apennines consists of limestone: primary
rocks appear only in the southernmost portion of the chain, particularly in the
range of the Aspromonte, which, in its geological structure and physical characters,
presents much more analogy with the range in the NE. of Sicily, than with the
rest of the Apennines. The loftier ranges of the latter are for the most part
bare rocks; none of them at. tain such a height as to be covered with perpetual
snow, though it is said to lie all the year round in the rifts and hollows of
Monte Majella and the Gran Sasso. But all the highest summits, including the Monte
Velino and Monte Terminillo, both of which are visible from Rome, are covered
with snow early in November, and it does not disappear before the end of May.
There is, therefore, no exaggeration in Virgil's expression,
nivali
Vertice se attollens pater Apenninus ad auras.
Aen. xii. 703; see also Sil. Ital. iv. 743.
The flanks and lower ridges of the loftier mountains are still, in
many places, covered with dense woods; but it is probable that in ancient times
the forests were far more extensive (see Plin. xxxi. 3. 26): many parts of the
Apennines which are now wholly bare of trees being known to have been covered
with forests in the middle ages. Pine trees appear only on the loftier summits:
at a lower level. are found woods of oak and beech, while chesnuts and holm-oaks
(ilices) clothe the lower slopes and vallies. The mountain regions of Samnium
and the districts to the N. of it afford excellent pasturage in summer both for
sheep and cattle, on which account they were frequented not only by their own
herdsmen, but by those of Apulia, who annually drove their flocks from their own
parched and dusty plains to the upland vallies of the neighbouring Apennines.
(Varr. de R. R. ii. 1. § 16.) The same districts furnished, like most mountain
pasturages, excellent cheeses. (Plin. xi. 42. s. 97.) We find very few notices
of any peculiar natural productions of the Apennines. Varro tells us that wild
goats (by which he probably means the Bouquetin, or Ibex, an animal no longer
found in Italy) were still numerous about the Montes Fiscellus and Tetrica (de
R. R. ii. 1. § 5.), two of the summits of the range.
Very few distinctive appellations of particular mountains or summits
among the Apennines have been transmitted to us, though it is probable that in
ancient, as well as modern, times, almost every conspicuous mountain had its peculiar
local name. The mons Fiscellus of Varro and Pliny, which, according to the latter,
contained the sources of the Nar, is identified by that circumstance with the
Monti della Sibilla, on the frontiers of Picenum. The mons Tetrica (Tetricae horrentes
rupes, Virg. Aen. vii. 713) must have been in the same neighbourhood, perhaps
a part of the same group, but cannot be distinctly identified, any more than the
mons Severus of Virgil, which he also assigns to the Sabines. The mons Cunarus,
known only from Servius (ad Aen. x. 185), who calls it a mountain in Picenum,
has been supposed by Cluver to be the one now called Il Gran Sasso d'Italia; but
this is a mere conjecture. The Gurgures, alti montes of Varro (de R. R. ii. 1.
§ 16) appear to have been in the neighbourhood of Reate. All these apparently
belong to the lofty central chain of the Apennines: a few other mountains of inferior
magnitude are noticed from their proximity to Rome, or other accidental causes.
Such are the detached and conspicuous height of Mount Soracte, the mons Lucretilis
(now Monte Genearo), one of the highest points of the range of Apennines immediately
fronting Rome and the plains of Latium; the mons Tifata, adjoining the plains
of Campania, and mons Callicula, on the frontiers of that country and Samnium,
both of them celebrated in the campaigns of Hannibal; and the mons Taburnus, in
the territory of the Caudine Samnites, near Beneventum, still called Monte Taburno.
In the more southern regions of the Apennines we find mention by name of the mons
Alburnus, on the banks of the Silarus, and the Sila in Bruttium, which still retains
its ancient appellation. The Mons Vultur and Garganus, as already mentioned, do
not properly belong to the Apennines, any more than Vesuvius, or the Alban hills.
From the account above given of the Apennines it is evident that the
passes over the chain do not assume the degree of importance which they do in
the Alps. In the northern part of the range from Liguria to the Adriatic, the
roads which crossed them were carried, as they still are, rather over the bare
ridges, than along the vallies and courses of the streams. The only dangers of
these passes arise from the violent storms which rage there in the winter, and
which even, on one occasion, drove back Hannibal when he attempted to cross them.
Livy's striking description of this tempest is, according to the testimony of
modern witnesses, little, if at all, exaggerated. (Liv. xxi. 58; Niebuhr, Vortrage
uiber Alte Lander, p. 336.) The passes through the more lofty central Apennines
are more strongly marked by nature, and some of them must have been frequented
from a very early period as the natural lines of communication from one district
to another. Such are especially the pass from Reate, by Interocrea, to the valley
of the Aternus, and thence to Teate and the coast of the Adriatic; and, again,
the line of the Via Valeria, from the upper valley of the Anio to the Lake Fucinus,
and thence across the passage of the Forca Caruso (the Mons Imeus of the Itineraries)
to Corfinium. The details of these and the other passes of the Apennines loftiest
will be best given under the heads of the respective regions or provinces to which
they belong.
The range of the Apennines is, as remarked by ancient authors, the
source of almost all the rivers of Italy, with the exception only of the Padus
and its northern tributaries, and the streams which descend from the Alps into
the upper part of the Adriatic. The numerous rivers which water the northern declivity
of the Apennine chain, from the foot of the Maritime Alps to the neighbourhood
of Ariminum, all unite their waters with those of the Padus; but from the time
it takes the great turn to the southward, it sends off its streams on both sides
direct to the two seas, forming throughout the rest of its course the watershed
of Italy. Few of these rivers have any great length of course, and not being fed,
like the Alpine streams, from perpetual snows, they mostly partake much of the
nature of torrents, being swollen and violent in winter and spring, and nearly
dry or reduced to but scanty streams, in the summer. There are, however, some
exceptions: the Arnus and the Tiber retain, at all seasons, a considerable body
of water, while the Liris and Vulturnus both derive their origin from subterranean
sources, such as are common in all limestone countries, and gush forth at once
in copious streams of clear and limpid water.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Garganus (to Garganon, Strab.), a mountain and promontory on the E.
coast of Italy, still called Monte Gargano, which constitutes one of the most
remarkable features in the physical geography of the Italian peninsula, being
the only projecting headland of any importance that breaks the monotonous line
of coast along the Adriatic from Otranto to Ancona. It is formed by a compact
mass of limestone mountains, attaining in their highest point an elevation of
5120 feet above the sea, and extending not less than 35 miles from W. to E. Though
consisting of the same limestone with the Apennines, and therefore geologically
connected with them, this mountain group is in fact wholly isolated and detached,
being separated from the nearest slopes of the Apennines by a broad strip of level
country, a portion of the great plain of Apulia, which extends without interruption
from the banks of the Aufidus to those of the Frento. (Swinburne's Travels, vol.
i, pp. 151, 152; Zannoni, Carta del Regno di Napoli.) Its configuration is noticed
by many ancient writers. Strabo speaks of it as a promontory projecting out to
sea from Sipontum towards the E. for the space of 300 stadia; a distance which
is nearly correct, if measured along the coast to the extreme point near Viesti.
(Strab. vi. p. 284.) Lucan also well describes it as standing forth into the waves
of the Adriatic, and exposed to the N. wind from Dalmatia, and the S. wind from
Calabria. (Lucan v.379.) In ancient times it was covered with dense forests of
oak ( Querceta Gargani, Hor. Carm. ii. 9. 7; Garganum nemus, Id. Ep. ii. 1. 202;
Sil. Ital. iv. 563), which have of late years almost entirely disappeared, though,
according to Swinburne, some portions of them were still visible in his time (Travels,
vol. i. p. 155; Giustiniani, Diz. Geogr. del Reyno di Napoli, pt. ii. vol. iii.
pp. 92-98). Strabo mentions in this neighbourhood (but without directly connecting
it with the Garganus) a hill called Drium, about 100 stadia distant from the sea,
on which were two shrines of heroes (heroia), the one of Calchas, with an oracle
which was consulted in the same manner as that of Faunus in Latium; the other
of Podaleirius, from beneath which flowed a small stream gifted with extraordinary
healing powers. The same circumstances are alluded to by Lycophron, from whom
it would appear that the stream was named Althaena. (Strab. vi. p. 284; Lycophr.
Alex. 1047-1055.) The exact locality has been a subject of dispute; but as we
find a similar mention of a stream of limpid water which healed all diseases,
in the legend of the appearance of St. Michael that gave rise to the foundation
of the modern town of Monte S. Angelo, - on a lofty hill forming one of the offshoots
of the Garganus, about 6 miles from Manfredonia - it seems very probable that
this was no other than the Drium of Strabo, and that the sanctuary of the archangel
has succeeded, as is so often the case, to another object of local worship. The
whole range of Mt. Garganus is now frequently called Monte S. Angelo, from the
celebrity of this spot; and the name of Drium seems to have been sometimes used
with the, same extension among the Greeks, as there is very little doubt that
for Arion in Scylax we should read Drion, the promontory of which lie is there
speaking being evidently the same as the Garganus. (Scyl. § 14; Gronov. ad loc.)
On the southern slope of Mt. Garganus, about 4 miles E. of Monte St.
Angelo, a straggling village still called Mattinata, with a tower and small port,
has preserved the name of the Matinus of Horace, which is correctly described
by an old commentator as mons et promontorium in Apulia. The name appears to have
properly belonged to this southern offshoot of the Garganus; but in one passage
Horace would seem to apply the name of Matina cacumina to the loftiest summits
of the range. All these hills are covered with aromatic herbs, and produce excellent
honey, whence the well-known allusion of the same poet to the apis Matina. (Hor.
Carm. i. 28. 3, iv. 2. 27, Epod. 16. 28.) Lucan also speaks of the calidi buxeta
Matini as adjoining and overlooking the plains of Apulia (ix. 182). There is no
evidence of the existence of a town of this name, as supposed by one of the old
scholiasts of Horace; and certainly no authority for the change suggested by some
modern writers, that we should read in Pliny Matinates for Merinates ex Gargano.
Holstenius and others have clearly shown that an ancient town called Merinum stood
near the NE. point of the promontory, about 5 miles from the modern Viesti. It
continued to be a bishop's see until late in the middle ages, and the site is
still marked by an ancient church called Sta. Maria di Merino. (Holsten. Not.
in Cluver. p. 278; Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 214.)
The flanking ridges which extend down to the sea on both sides of
the Garganus afford several coves or small harbours well adapted for sheltering
small vessels. Of these the one now called Porto Greco, about 8. miles S. of Viesti,
is generally supposed to be the Agasus Portus of Pliny, which he appears to place
S. of the promontory. The Portus Garnae of the same author was situated between
the promontory and the Lacus Pantanus (Lago di Lesina): it cannot be identified
with certainty; but it seems probable that it was situated at the entrance of
the lake now called Lago di Varano.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
