VERRUGO
VERRUGO or
VERRUCA (
Ἔρρουκα, Diod.:
Colle Ferro?), a town or fortress in the territory of the Volsci, which is repeatedly mentioned during the wars of the Romans with that people.
The name first occurs in B.C. 445, when we are told that the place had been recently occupied and fortified by the Romans, evidently as a post of offence against the Volscians; a proceeding which that people resented so much that it became the occasion of a fresh war. (
Liv. 4.1.) We do not know at what period it fell again into the hands of the Volscians, but in B.C. 409 it was recovered and again garrisoned by the Romans. (
Ib. 55, 56;
Diod. 14.11.)
It, however, fell once more into the hands of the Volscians in B.C. 407 (
Liv. 4.58), and apparently continued in their possession till B.C. 394, when it was again occupied with a garrison by the military tribune C. Aemilius, but lost soon after in consequence of the defeat of his colleague Sp. Postumius. (
Liv. 5.28;
Diod. 14.98.) From this time it wholly disappears from history.
It is very doubtful whether it ever was a town, the manner in which it is mentioned by Livy, in connection with the Arx Carventana, seeming to prove that it was a mere fort or stronghold, garrisoned and fortified, on account of its natural strength and advantageous position. Its site cannot be determined with any certainty, but from the name itself there can be no doubt that it was situated on a projecting, knoll or peak; hence its site has been sought by Nibby (followed by Abeken) at
Colle Ferro, near
Segni; Colle Sacco, in the same neighbourhood, has as plausible a claim. (Nibby,
Dintorni, vol. iii. p. 473; Gell,
Top. of Rome, p. 458; Abeken,
Mittel-Italien, p. 75.)
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