AMERI´OLA
AMERI´OLA a city of ancient Latium, mentioned by Livy among those reduced by force of arms by the elder Tarquin (1.38).
It is here enumerated among the “Prisci Latini,” and doubtless at this period was one of the thirty cities of the league: but its name is not found in the later list given by Dionysius (
5.61), nor does it again occur in history; and it is only noticed by Pliny (
3.5. s. 9) among the extinct cities of Latium. From the names with which it is associated in Livy we may probably infer that it was situated in the neighbourhood of the Corniculan Hills: and it has been conjectured by Gell and Nibby that some ruins still visible on the northernmost of the three hills, about a mile north of
Mte S. Angelo, may be those of Ameriola. They consist of some remnants of walls, of irregular poly-gonal construction, running round a defensible eminence, and indicating the site of a small town.
But the distance from
Mte S. Angelo (on the summit of which there was certainly an ancient city, whether Corniculum or Medullia) is however so small as to render it improbable that another independent town should have existed so close to it. (Gell,
Top. of Rome, p. 52; Nibby,
Dintorni di Roma, vol. i. p. 138; Abeken,
Mittel-Italien, p. 78.)
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E.H.B]
