BALE´SIUM
BALE´SIUM or
BALE´TIUM, a town of Calabria, mentioned by Pliny (
3.11. s. 16), who enumerates the name between Lupiae and Caelium, is evidently the same place which is called BALENTIUM in the Tabula (
VALENTIA in the Itin. Hierosol., p. 609), and VALETIUM by Mela (2.4), all which authorities place it between Brundusium and Lupiae. Its site is clearly identified by the remains of a ruined town still visible near
S. Pietro Vernotico, a village on the road from
Brindisi to
Lecce, about 12 miles from the former, and 16 from the latter city.
The site is still called
Baleso or
Valesio, and is traversed by an ancient Roman road, still known to the peasantry of the neighbourhood as the Via Trajana. Vases, inscriptions, and other remains of antiquity have been discovered here, but the circuit of the ancient walls indicates that it was only a small town. (Galateus,
de Situ Japygiae, pp.73,74; Romanelli, vol. ii. p.79; Mommsen,
U. I. Dialekte, p. 60.)
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E.H.B]
