SAPIS
SAPIS (
Σάπις, Strab.:
Savio), a small river of Cisalpine Gaul, not far from the frontiers of Umbria.
It rises in the Umbrian Apennines, a few miles above Sarsina, flows under the walls of that town, and afterwards, pursuing a course nearly due N., crosses the Aemilian Way close to the town of Caesena (
Cesena), and falls into the Adriatic about 10 miles S. of Ravenna. (
Strab. v. p.217;
Plin. Nat. 3.15. s. 20;
Lucan 2.406;
Sil. Ital. 8.448;
Tab. Peut.) It is called in the Tabula Sabis; and the name is written Isapis in several editions of Lucan and Strabo; but there seems little doubt that Sapis is the true form of the name.
It is still called the
Savio. There can be little doubt that the SAPINIA TRIBUS, mentioned by Livy (
31.2,
33.37), as one of the tribes or divisions of the Umbrian nation, immediately adjoining the Gaulish tribe of the Boii, derived its name from the Sapis, and must have dwelt on the banks of that river.
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E.H.B]
