INTEME´LII
Eth.
INTEME´LII (Eth.
Ἰντεμέλιοι), a maritime people of Liguria, situated to the W. of the Ingauni, at the foot of the Maritime Alps. They are but little known in history, being only once mentioned by Livy, in conjunction with their neighbours, the Ingauni, as addicted to piratical habits, to repress which their coast was visited by a Roman squadron in B.C. 180. (
Liv. 40.41.) Strabo speaks of them as a still existing tribe (
Strab. iv. p.202); and their capital, called Albium Intemelium or Albintemelium; now corrupted into
Vintimiglia, was in his time a considerable city. [
ALBIUM INTEMELIUM] We have no means of determining the extent or limits of their territory; but it seems to have bordered on that of the Ingauni on the E., and the Vediantii on the W.: at least, these are the only tribes mentioned as existing in this part of Liguria by writers of the Roman Empire.
It probably comprised also the whole valley of the
RUTUBA or
Roja, one of the most considerable of the rivers, or rather mountain torrents, of Liguria, which rises at the foot of the
Col di Tenda, and falls into the sea at
Vintimiglia. [
E.H.B]
