INTERAMNA
INTERAMNA (
Ἰντέραμνα: Eth.
Interamnas,--ātis), was the name of several cities in different parts of Italy. Its obvious etymology, already pointed out by Varro and Festus, indicates their position at the confluence of two streams ( “inter amnes,” Varr.
L. L. 5.28, Fest.
v. Amnes, p. 17, Müll.); which is,however, but partially borne out by their actual situation.
The form
INTERAMNIUM (
Ἰντεράμνιον), and the ethnic form Interamnis, are also found, but more rarely.
1.
A Roman colony on the banks of the Liris, thence called, for distinction's sake, INTERAMNA LIRINAS. It was situated on the left or northern bank of the Liris, near the junction of the little river which flows by Aquinum (confounded by Strabo with the Melpis, a much more considerable stream), and was distant 6 miles from the latter city, and 7 from Casinum. Its territory, which was included in Latium, according to the more extended use of that name, must have originally belonged to the Volscians, but we have no mention of Interamna as a Volscian city, nor indeed any evidence of its existence previous to the establishment of the Roman colony there, in B.C. 312.
This took place at the same time with that at the neighbouring town of Casinum, the object of both being obviously to secure the fertile valley of the Liris from the attacks of the Samnites. (
Liv. 9.28;
Diod. 19.105;
Vell. 1.14.) Hence we find, in B.C. 294, the territory of Interamna ravaged by the Samnites, who did not, however, venture to attack the city itself; and, at the opening of the following campaign, it was from Interamna that the consul Sp. Carvilius commenced his operations against Samnium. (
Liv. 10.36,
39.) Its territory was at a later period laid waste by Hannibal during his march by the Via Latina from Capua upon Rome, B.C. 212 (
Liv. 26.9): and shortly afterwards the name of Interamna appears among the twelve refractory colonies which declared themselves unable to furnish any further supplies, and were subsequently (B.C. 204) loaded with heavier burdens in consequence (Id. 27.9, 29.15).
After the Social War it passed, in common with the other Latin colonies, into the state of a municipium; and we find repeated mention of it as a municipal town, apparently of some consequence. (
Cic. Phil. 2.41,
pro Mil. 17;
Strab. v. p.237;
Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9.)
It received a colony under the Second Triumvirate, but does not appear to have enjoyed colonial rank, several inscriptions of imperial times giving it only the title of a municipium. (
Lib. Col. p. 234; Orell.
Inser. 2357, 3828.) Its position at some distance from the line of the Via Latina was probably unfavourable to its prosperity in later times: from the same cause its name is not found in the Itineraries, and we have no means of tracing its existence after the fall of the Roman Empire.
The period at which it was ruined or deserted is unknown; but mention is found in documents of the middle ages of a “Castrum Terame,” and the site of the ancient city, though now entirely uninhabited, is still called
Terame. It presents extensive remains of ancient buildings, with vestiges of the walls, streets, and aqueducts; and numerous inscriptions and other objects of antiquity have been discovered there, which are preserved in the neighbouring villages. (Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 384; Cluver,
Ital. p. 1039.
The inscriptions are given by Mommsen,
Inscr. Regn. Neap. pp. 221, 222.)
Pliny calls the citizens of
this Interamna “Interamnates Succasini, qui et Lirinates vocantur.” The former appellation was evidently bestowed from their situation in the neighbourhood of Casinum, but is not adopted by any other author. They are called in inscriptions “Interamnates Lirinates,” and some-times “Lirinates” alone: hence it is probable that we should read “Lirinatum” for “Larinatum” in Silius Italicus (
8.402), where he is enumerating
Volscian cities, and hence the mention of Larinum would be wholly out of place.
2.
（
Terni), a city of Umrbria, situated on the river Nar, a little below its confluence with the Velinus, and about 8 miles E. from Narnia.
It was surrounded by a branch of the river, so as to be in fact situated on an island, whence it derived its name.
The inhabitants are termed by Pliny “Interamnates cognomine Nartes,” to distinguish them from those of the other towns of the name; and we find them designated in inscriptions as Interamnates Nartes and Nahartes; but we do not find this epithet applied to the city itself. No mention is found of Interamna in history previous to its passing under the Roman yoke; but there is no doubt that it was an ancient Umbrian city, and an inscription of the time of Tiberius has preserved to us the local tradition that it was founded in B.C. 672, or rather more than 80 years after Rome. (Orell.
Inscr. 689.) When we first hear of Interamna in history it appears as a flourishing municipal town, deriving great wealth from the fertility of its territory, which was irrigated by the river Nar. Hence it is said to have been, as early as the civil wars of Marius and Sulla, one of the “florentissima Italiae municipia” (Florus,
3.21); and though it suffered a severe blow upon that occasion, its lands being confiscated by Sulla and portioned out among his soldiers, we still find it mentioned by Cicero in a manner that proves it to have been a place of importance (
Cic. Att. 4.1. 5). Its inhabitants were frequently engaged in litigation and disputes with their neighbours of Reate, on account of the regulation of the waters of the Velinus, which joins the Nar a few miles above Interamna; and under the reign of Tiberius they were obliged to enter an energetic protest against a project that had been started for turning aside the
[p. 2.56]course of the Nar, so that it should no longer flow into the Tiber. (
Tac. Ann. 1.79.) In the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian it was occupied by the troops of the former while their head-quarters were at Narnia, but was taken with little resistance by Arrius Varus. (Id.
Hist. 3.61, 63.) Inscriptions sufficiently attest the continued municipal importance of Interamna under the Roman empire; and, though its position was some miles to the right of the great Flaminian highway, which proceeded from Narnia direct to Mevania (
Strab. v. p.227;
Tac. Hist. 2.64), a branch line of road was carried from Narnia by Interamna and Spoletium to Forum Flaminii, where it rejoined the main highroad.
This line, which followed very nearly that of the present highroad from Rome to
Perugia, appears to have latterly become the more important of the two, and is given in the Antonine and Jerusalem Itineraries to the exclusion of the true Via Flaminia. (
Itin. Ant. p. 125;
Itin. Hier. p. 613;
Tab. Pent.) The great richness of the meadows belonging to Interamna on the banks of the Nar is celebrated by Pliny, who tells us that they were cut for hay no less than four times in the year (
Plin. Nat. 18.28. s. 67); and Tacitus also represents the same district as among the most fertile in Italy (
Tac. Ann. 1.79).
That great historian himself is generally considered as a native of Interamna, but without any distinct aunthority: it appears, however, to have been subsequently the patrimonial residence, and probably the birthplace, of his descendants, the two emperors Tacitus and Florianus. (Vopisc.
Florian. 2.) In A.D. 193, it was at Interamna that a deputation from the senate met the emperor Septimius Severus, when on his march to the capital (Spartian.
Sever. 6); and at a later period (A.D. 253) it was there that the two emperors, Trebonianus Gallus and his son Volusianus, who were on their march to oppose Aemilianus in Moesia, were putto death by their own soldiers. (Entrop. 9.5; Vict.
Caes. 31,
Epit 31.)
Interamna became the see of a bishop in very early times, and has subsisted without interruption through the middle ages on its present site; the name being gradually corrupted into its modern form of
Terni. It is still a flourishing city, and retains various relics of its ancient importance, including the remains of an amphitheatre, of two temples supposed to have been dedicated to the sun and to Hercules, and some portions of the ancient Thermae. None of these ruins are, however, of much importance or interest. Many inscriptions have also been discovered on the site, and are preserved in the
Palazzo Publico.
About 3 miles above
Terni is the celebrated cascade of the Velinus, which owes its origin to the Roman M‘. Curius; it is more fully noticed under the article
VELINUS
3.
（
Teramo), a city of Picenum, in the territory of the Praetutii, and probably the chief place in the district of that people.
The name is omitted by Pliny, but is found in Ptolemy, who distinctly assigns it to the Praetutii; and it is mentioned also in the Liber Coloniarum among the “Civitates Piceni.” It there bears the epithet of “Palestina.” or, as the name is elsewhere written, “Paletina;” the origin and meaning of which are wholly unknown. (
Ptol. 3.1.58;
Lib. Col. pp. 226, 259.)
In the genuine fragments of Frontinus, on the other hand, the citizens are correctly designated as “Interamnates Praetutiani.” (Frontin. i. p. 18, ed. Lachm.) Being situated in the interior of the country, at a distance from the highroads, the name is not found in the Itineraries, but we know that it was an episcopal see and a place of some importance under the Roman empire.
The name is already corrupted in our MSS. of the Liber Coloniarum into Teramne, whence its modern form of
Teramo. But in the middle ages it appears to have been known also by the name of Aprutium, supposed to be a corruption of Praetutium, or rather of the name of the people Praetutii, applied (as was so often the case in Gaul) to their chief city. Thus we find the name of Abrutium among the cities of Picenum enumerated by the Geographer of Ravenna (4.31); and under the Lombards we find mention of a “comes Aprutii.” The name has been retained in that of
Abruzzo, now given to the two northernmost provinces of the kingdom of Naples, of one of which, called
Abruzzo Ulteriore, the city of
Teranmo is still the capital. Vestiges of the ancient theatre, of baths and other buildings of Roman date, as well as statues, altars, and other ancient remains, have been discovered on the site: numerous inscriptions have been also found, in one of which the citizens are designated as “Interamnites Praetutiani.” (Romanelli, vol iii. pp. 297--301; Mommsen,
I. R. N. pp. 329--331.)
There is no foundation for the existence of a fourth city of the name of Interamrna among the Frentani, as assumed by Romanelli, and, from him, by Cramer, on the authority of a very apocryphal inscription. [
FRENTANI] [
E.H.B]
