No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Identification of the Numicus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
Of the rivers of the Roman Campagna the Numicus, perhaps, attracts especial interest, not only because of several ancient cults connected with it and its resultant peculiar sanctity for the Romans, but also because of three references to it in the Aeneid. In the seventh book, after the Trojans land on the left bank of the Tiber, they prospect the newly-discovered land, and bring back word to Aeneas
This seems to imply that the Numicus is second in importance only to the Tiber in that locality. Then an envoy is sent to Latinus, and to his questions Ilioneus, the herald, replies
Thirdly, in the Gathering of the Clans, the coastal district of Latium is summarised in the lines
Apart from the fact that in these passages the Numicus is coupled with the Tiber, and that in the last two its sanctity is manifest, little evidence can be gained from Vergil in regard to the location of the river.
Between Ostia and Antium some half-dozen streams flow over the Roman Campagna and debouch on to the shore of Latium (p. 3, fig. 1), four of which have severally been recognised by various authorities as the Numicus. About two kilometres south of the Tiber is the Canale dello Stagno, a sluggish stream which serves as a drainage canal for the tract of land, now reclaimed for tillage and pasture, which once was the Ostian lake and the site of ancient salt beds. It appears originally to have been natural but at some period to have been canalised ; for, though the course is not quite straight, the banks are trim and regular. It is wide enough to admit of a bridge with three arches (pi. iii, 1).
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright ©Bertha Tilly 1936. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
References
1 Aen. vii, 150–1.
2 Ibid., 241–2.
3 Ibid., 797–8.
4 See below, p. 5.
5 Boëthius, A., Roma, ix, 1931, 49Google Scholar seq.
6 Cluverius, P., Italia Antiqua, 1624, iii, 894Google Scholar. This is also Bonstetten's identification, Le Latium ancien et modern, 1861, pp. 193 sq.
7 Perrone, , Carta idrografica d' Italia, no. 26 bis, Tevere 2, 1908, 286Google Scholar.
8 Volpi, , Vetus Latium Profanum, 1734, xiii, p. 236Google Scholar. A less probable derivation is from numen: see below, p. 6.
9 Ibid, x, p. 81: Pirro Ligorio is quoted as having thought that the Rio Torto flowed out of Nemi.
10 This statement is made on the verbal authority of Professor Axel Boëthius.
11 Ashby, , The Roman Campagna in Classical Times, 1927, p. 217Google Scholar.
12 Tomassetti, , Campagna Romana, i, p. 12, 1910Google Scholar, says that the name incastro is given to ancient artificial irrigation-canals, but the geographical situation of the Fosso leaves no doubt that it is a natural stream.
13 Vergil. Aen. vi, 775Google Scholar; Ovid, Met. xv, 726Google Scholar; Sil. It., viii, 359; Martial, iv, 60, 1; Servius, ad Aen. vi, 768Google Scholar, confuses it with Castrum Novum, as does Rutilius, Itin. i, 232Google Scholar.
14 Nibby, , Analisi, 1848, i, p. 440Google Scholar.
15 Lanciani, , Wanderings in the Roman Campagna, 1909, p. 312Google Scholar.
16 Servius, ad. Aen. vi, 768Google Scholar.
17 Nibby, , Analisi, 1848, i, p. 440Google Scholar: also Tomassetti, , Campagna Romana, 1910, ii, 460–61Google Scholar.
18 Aen. x, 687–8.
19 Nibby, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 420Google Scholar. In one account of the deification of Aeneas he was thought to have been drowned in the river which was swollen after sudden storm.
20 Ibid., p. 419.
21 Villari, , On the Roads from Rome, 1932, p. 16Google Scholar.
22 Istituto Geografico Militare, Fo. 158, iv, N.O.
23 Vallardi.
24 The following passage is a summary of Virgile et les origines d'Ostie, 1919, pp. 468–491.
25 Livy, i, 33, 9; also Floras, i, 4; Pliny, NH xxxi, 89Google Scholar; Aur. Vict., De Vir. ill. v.
26 Festus, p. 254 M., 304 Lindsay.
27 Id., p. 326 M., 436 Lindsay.
28 In telling of a Project under Nero of filling up the marshes with rubbish from the burning of Rome, Tacitus describes them as ‘Ostiensis paludes’: Ann. xv, 43.
30 See p. I above, notes 1, 2, 3.
31 Livy, xxvii, II, 1–2: ‘in Albano monte tacta de caelo erant signum Jovis arborque templo propinqua, et Ostiae lacus, et Capuae murus, Fortunaeque aedes.’
32 ad Aen. vii, 150.
33 Pliny, NH iii, 56Google Scholar.
34 Carcopino, op. cit., livre II.
35 Bendz, , Opuscula archaeologica i1, pages 60–61Google Scholar.
36 The modern name of Pratica, known in the Middle Ages as Patrica, is thought to be derived from Pater Indiges. See Carcopino, loc. cit., pp. 177–178.
37 Sil. It., viii, 179–181.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid., 194–196.
40 Ovid, Fasti iii, 523–656Google Scholar.
41 Dion. Hal., i, 64.
42 [Aur. Victor], Origo Gentis Romanae, 14, 4.
43 Servius, ad Aen. iv, 620Google Scholar.
44 Livy, i, 2.
45 CIL xiv, 2065; ILS 6181. It is not known where the stone is now. The lines are choliambic, and the fracture has caused the beginning of each one to be lost. No date is suggested by Dessau.
46 Op. cit., p. 480.
47 Aen. ix, 4; x, 76, 619.
48 ad Aen. xii, 139.
49 Gell, , Topography of Rome and its Vicinity, 1846, p. 101Google Scholar, suggests that the spring might be found in the valley called Cerquetello.
50 Nibby, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 44Google Scholar.
51 See above, p. 6.
52 See p. 6, note 29.
53 Loc. cit.; see above, p. 7.
54 i, 64.
55 Schol. Ver. ad Aen. i, 260— ‘Ascanius hostibus devictis in loco quo pater apparuerat Aeneae Indigeti templum dicavit, ad quod pontifices quotannis cum consulibus veniunt sacrificaturi.’
56 Servius, ad Aen. vii, 150Google Scholar; Macrobius, Sat. ii, 4, 11Google Scholar.
57 See above, p. 1.
58 Aen. vii, 797–8.
59 Tzetzes, ad Lycophr. Al. 1232; Zonaras, ii, I.