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FISCELLUS MONS

FISCELLUS MONS a lofty mountain forming part of the central and most elevated chain of the Apennines. Pliny tells us that it contained the sources of the river Nar; and this statement would lead us to identify it with the group now known as the Monti della Sibilla, one of the loftiest and most rugged portions of the central Apennines [APENNINUS], rising on the confines of the Sabines and Picenum. Silius Italicus, on the contrary, appears to connect it with the Vestini, which would indicate a situation somewhat further south. (Plin. Nat. 3.12. s. 17; Sil. Ital. 8.517.) The statement of Pliny would deserve the most credit, but that the passage is confused, and in all probability corrupt (see Sillig, ad loc.); and it would almost seem as if he confounded the Nar with the Velinus, which in fact rises in the lofty mountain group immediately on the confines of the Vestini. [NAR] Varro speaks of the Mons Fiscellus and Tetrica (in the same neighbourhood) as abounding in wild goats; meaning probably the Ibex or Bouquetin of naturalists, an animal long since extinct in the Apennines. (Varr. R. R. 2.1.5, 3.3.) [E.H.B]

F1XTUINUM. The Table has a road from Agedincum (Sens) to Fixtuinum, passing through Riobe and Calagum (Chailly). D'Anville supposes it to be the Iatinum of Ptolemy, the chief town of the Meldi. [IATINUM]

[G.L]

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    • Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 3.12
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