GALLINA´RIA SILVA
GALLINA´RIA SILVA (
Γαλλιναρία ὕλη,
Strab. vi. p.243), a forest on the coast of Campania, occupying the sandy shore which extends from the mouth of the Vulturnus towards Cumae.
It is mentioned by Cicero in one of his letters (
ad Fam. ix, 23) as lying on the road to the latter place. Shortly afterwards it became the headquarters of Sextus Pompeius, where he first organised the predatory bands with which he subsequently undertook his piratical expeditions. (Strab.
l.c.) Even at ordinary times it was noted as a favourite resort of banditti, and was in consequence often guarded by bands of soldiers. (
Juv. 3.307.) Strabo speaks of it as a forest of brushwood (
ὕλη δαμνώδης) but from Juvenal's expression of “Gallinaria pinus” it is evident that there was also a wood of tall pine-trees, such as grow luxuriantly on many of the sandy shores of Italy.
In the 13th century we find it mentioned under the name of
Pineta di Castel Volturno; by which it is still known, though the pines seem to have disappeared.
The forest extends from the mouth of the Vulturnus to the
Torre di Patria (the site of the ancient Liternum), and some distance beyond that towards Cumae, The Via Domitiana, constructed by that emperor as the direct road to Cumae, ran through the midst of the forest, and many portions of it are still visible. (Pratilli,
Via Appia, 2.7. p. 183.)
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E.H.B]
