Listed 8 sub titles with search on: Various locations for wider area of: "RIGION Ancient city CALABRIA" .
As one sails from Rhegium towards the east, and at a distance of fifty stadia, one comes to Cape Leucopetra (so called from its color), in which, it is said, the Apennine Mountain terminates.
The Via Aquillia began at Capua, and ran south through Nola and Nuceria to Salernum; from thence, after sending off a branch to Paestum, it took a wide sweep inland through Eburi and the region of the Mons Alburnus up the valley of the Tanager; it then struck south through the very heart of Lucania and Bruttium, and, passing Nerulum, Interamnia, and Consentia, returned to the sea at Vibo, and thence through Medma to Rhegium.
A promontory of Italy north of Rhegium, facing the promontory of Pelorus in Sicily, and forming with it the narrowest part of the Fretum Siculum.
Then comes Heracleium, which is the last cape of Italy and inclines towards the south; for on doubling it one immediately sails with the southwest wind as far as Cape Iapygia, and then veers off, always more and more, towards the northwest in the direction of the Ionian Gulf.
Scyllaeum (to Skullaion: Scilla) a promontory, and town or fortress, on the W. coast of Bruttium, about 15 miles N. of Rhegium, and almost exactly at the entrance of the Sicilian strait. The promontory is well described by Strabo (vi. p. 257) as a projecting rocky headland, jutting out boldly into the sea, and united to the mainland by a narrow neck or isthmus, so as to form two small but well sheltered bays, one on each side. There can be no doubt that this rocky promontory was the one which became the subject of so many fables, and which was represented by Homer and other poets as the abode of the monster Scylla. (Hom. Od. xii. 73, &c., 235, &c.; Biogr. Diet. art. Scylla.) But the dangers of the rock of Scylla were far more fabulous than those of its neighbour Charybdis, and it is difficult to understand how, even in the infancy of navigation, it could have offered any obstacle more formidable than a hundred other headlands whose names a<*> unknown to fame. (Senec. Ep. 79; Smyth's Sicily, p. 107.) At a later period Anaxilas, the despot of Rhegium, being struck with the natural strength of the position, fortified the rock, and established a naval station there, for the purpose of checking the incursions of the Tyrrhenian pirates. (Strab. vi. p. 257.) In consequence of this a small town grew up on the spot; and hence Pliny speaks of an oppidum Scyllaeum; but it was probably always a small place, and other writers speak only of the promontory. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Mel. ii. 4. § 8; Ptol. iii. 1. § 9.; Steph. Byz. s. v.) At the present day the rock is still occupied by a fort, which is a post of considerable strength, while a small town stretches down the slopes towards the two bays. The distance from the castle to the opposite point of the Sicilian coast, marked by the Torre del Faro, is stated by Capt. Smyth at 6047 yards, or rather less than 3 1/2 Eng. miles, but the strait afterwards contracts considerably, so that its width between the Punta del Pezzo (Caenys Prom.) and the nearest point of Sicily does not exceed 3971 yards. (Smyth's Sicily, p. 108.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Leucopetra (Leukopetra), a promontory of Bruttium, remarkable as the extreme SW. point of Italy, looking towards the Sicilian sea and the E. coast of Sicily. It was in consequence generally regarded as the termination of the chain of the Apennines. Pliny tells us it was 12 miles from Rhegium, and this circumstance clearly identifies it with the modern Capo dell' Armi, where the mountain mass of the southern Apennines in fact descends to the sea. The whiteness of the rocks composing this headland, which gave origin to the ancient name, is noticed also by modern travellers. (Strab. vi. p. 259; Plin. iii. 5. s. 10; Ptol. iii. 1. § 9; Swinburne, Travels, vol. i. p. 355.) It is evidently the same promontory which is called by Thucydides Petra tes Pegies, and was the last point in Italy where Demnosthenes and Eurymedon touched with the Athenian armament before they crossed over to Sicily. (Thuc. vii. 35.) It was here also that Cicero touched on his voyage from Sicily, when, after the death of Caesar, B.C. 44. he was preparing to repair into Greece, and where he was visited by some friends from Rhegium, who brought news from Rome that induced him to alter his plans. (Cic. Phil. i. 3, ad Att. xvi. 7.) In the former passage he terms it promontorium agri Rhegini: the Leucopetra Tarentinorum mentioned by him (ad Att. xvi. 6), if it be not a false reading, must refer to quite a different place, probably the headland of Leuca, more commonly called the Iapygian promontory.
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
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