MA´SSICUS MONS
MA´SSICUS MONS (
Monte Massico), a mountain, or rather range of hills, in Campania, which formed the limit between Campania properly so called and the portion of Latium, south of the Liris, to which the name of Latium Novum or Adjectum was sometimes given. (
Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9.) The Massican Hills form a range of inconsiderable elevation, which extends from the foot of the mountain group near Suessa (the
Mte. di Sta. Croce), in a SW. direction, to within 2 miles of the sea, where it ends in the hill of
Mondragone, just above the ancient Sinuessa. The Massican range is not, like the more lofty group of the
Mte. di Sta. Croce or
Rocca Monfina, of volcanic origin, but is composed of the ordinary limestone of the Apennines (Daubeny
On Volcanoes, p. 175).
But, from its immediate proximity to the volcanic formations of Campania, the soil which covers it is in great part composed of such products, and hence probably the excellence of its wine, which was one of the most celebrated in Italy, and vied with the still more noted Falernian. (
Verg. G. 2.143,
Aen. 7.724;
Hor. Carm. 1.1.19, 3.21. 5;
Sil. Ital. 7.20; Martial,
1.27. 8,
13.111;
Plin. Nat. 14.6. s. 8; Columell. 3.8.) Yet the whole of this celebrated range of hills does not exceed 9 miles in length by about 2 in breadth.
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E.H.B]
