PRAETU´TII
Eth.
PRAETU´TII (Eth.
Πραιτούττιοι, Ptol.: Eth.
Πραιτεττιανός, Pol.; Praetutianus), a tribe of Central Italy, who occupied a district of Picenum, bounded by the river Vomanus on the S. and apparently by the stream called by Pliny the Albula on the N.
This last cannot be identified with certainty, and the text of Pliny is probably corrupt as well as confused.
He appears to place the Albula N. of the Truentus; but it is certain that the Praetutii did not extend as far to the N. as the latter river, and it is probable that the stream now called the
Salinello was their northern limit. We have no account of the origin of the Praetutii, or their relation to the Picentes, from whom they seem to have been regarded as to some extent a distinct people, though more frequently included under the one general appellation. The “Ager Praetutianus” is mentioned by Livy and Polybius, as well as by Pliny, as a well-known district, and Ptolemy even distinguishes it altogether from Picenum, in which, however, it was certainly generally comprised. (Pol. 3.88;
Liv. 22.9,
27.43;
Plin. Nat. 3.13. s. 18;
Ptol. 3.1.58.)
But the name seems to have continued in general use, and became corrupted in the middle ages into Prutium and Aprutium, from whence the modern name of
Abruzzo (now applied to all the northernmost provinces of the kingdom of Naples) is generally thought to be derived. (Blondi Flavii,
Italia Illustrata, p. 394.)
The chief city of the Praetutii was Interamna, called for distinction's sake Praetutiana, which under the name of
Teramo is still the chief town of one of the provinces of the
Abruzzi. Ptolemy also assigns to them the town of Beregra. (Ptol.
l.c.) Pliny mentions the “Ager Palmensis” in close connection with the Praetutii ( “Ager Praetutianus Palmensisque,” Plin.
l.c.); but this appears to have been only a small district, which was celebrated, as was the Praetutian region generally, for the excellence of its wines. (
Plin. Nat. 14.6. s. 8; Dioscor. 5.19;
Sil. Ital. 15.568.)
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