HIMELLA
HIMELLA a river in the country of the Sabines, mentioned by Virgil in the same line with Casperia and Foruli. (
Aen. 7.714.)
According to Vibius Sequester (p. 11. Oberlin), it was a river in the neighbourhood of Casperia; and if this is not a mere hasty inference from the line of Virgil, we may probably identify it with a small stream called
Aia or
l'Aia, which rises in the mountains to the N. of
Aspra, and falls into the Tiber about 10 miles from that town.
According to some authorities, this river is still called the
Imelle, but this name appears to have been unknown to earlier topographers, and is perhaps merely a piece of classical learning. (Cluver.
Ital. p. 675; Bunsen, in the
Ann. d. Inst. vol. vi. p. 110.)
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E.H.B]