Lectures on ancient ethnography and geography, volume 2 (of 2) : $b comprising Greece and her colonies, Epirus, Macedonia, Illyricum, Italy, Gaul, Spain, Britain, the north of Africa, etc.Niebuhr, Barthold Georg
History
Lectures on ancient ethnography and geography, volume 2 (of 2) : $b comprising Greece and her colonies, Epirus, Macedonia, Illyricum, Italy, Gaul, Spain, Britain, the north of Africa, etc.
Niebuhr, Barthold Georg
Ethnology; Geography, Ancient; History, Ancient
This name has likewise different meanings. In the Roman sense, it is the
country of the Campanians, as Samnium is the country of the Samnites; but
the Campanians (on coins they are called _Capani_) are the inhabitants
of Capa or Capua. In this sense Campania is a country of small extent,
comprising Capua and the neighbouring places, Atella, Acerrae, Saticula,
Calatia, Abella, Casilinum, Vulturnum, and Linternum. All these places
were situated on the south of the Vulturnus, with the exception of
Saticula; the _ager Falernus_, between the Vulturnus and Liris, however,
likewise belonged to Campania. The Greeks, on the other hand, applied the
name Campanians to all the nations of southern Italy belonging to the
Oscan race, and this accounts for the fact that the name Campania was
also used in a wider sense. This, however, occurs only in later times;
and the extent of country which is marked Campania in all our maps, even
in those of D’Anville, was not generally so designated until the time of
Augustus. The name then embraced the whole country between the Vulturnus,
the Liris, and the heights of the Apennines about Arpinum and Aquinum, so
as to include Cales and Teanum,—in one word, all the Oscan tribes north
of the Vulturnus as far as the frontier of the Volscians. I think I have
already observed, in the account of the division of Italy into regions,
that the expression _Campania Romae_ was used as early as the fourth
or fifth century of our era; it is found in the abridgment of Servius,
which, however, was made in the seventh century. The name Champagne has
quite a different origin, probably from _campus_, a plain, whence _Campi
Catalaunici_, which also comprise the foreign immigrants such as the
Goths and others.
You must bear in mind this difference of meaning, in order that in
reading the ancients, e.g., Livy, you may not fall into the mistake of
believing that Campania is the name for the country which is so marked in
our maps.
Advancing from the Liris, we come upon Ausonian tribes and CALES, which,
according to Livy, was an Auruncian town. It was conquered by the Romans
in the interval between the great Latin and the second Samnite war, and
received a Roman colony.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account