TOLE´RIUM
TOLE´RIUM (
Τολέριον,
Steph. B. sub voce: Eth.
Τολερῖνος, Eth.
Toleriensis:
Valmontone? ), an ancient town of Latium, the name of which occurs in the early Roman history, but which appears to have ceased to exist at an early period. Its name is found in the list given by Dionysius of the thirty Latin cities which formed the league in B.C. 493 (
Dionys. A. R. 5.61, according to the Vatican MS.; Niebuhr, vol. ii. note 21): and it is again mentioned among the places taken by Coriolanus at the head of the Volscian army in B.C. 486 (
Dionys. A. R. 8.17;
Plut. Cor. 28).
According to the narrative given by Dionysius, and by Plutarch who copies him, it was the first place attacked by Coriolanus in that campaign, and its reduction was followed in succession by that of Bola, Labicum, Pedum and Corbio.
It is singular that no mention of Tolerium occurs in the narrative of the same operations by Livy (
2.39), and it seems probable that the name of Trebiam, which is found in that author (for which the best MSS. give Trebium), is a corruption for Tolerium, a name otherwise little known and therefore liable to alteration by copyists. (Cluver.
Ital. p. 969; Bormann,
Alt-Latinische Chorogruphie, p. 203.)
The only other notice of Tolerium is found in Pliny, who enumerates the “Tolerienses” among the “populi” of Latium who had formerly shared in the sacrifices on the Alban Mount, but were in his time utterly extinct (3.5. s. 9). We have no account of the period of its destruction or final decay.
The only clue to its position is that derived from the narratives above referred to, and it seems very doubtful how far we are justified in drawing strict topographical inferences from such relations.
It may, however, be admitted as probable that Tolerium was situated in the same neighbourhood with Bola, Labicum, and Pedum; and the conjecture of Nibby, who would place it at
Valmontone, derives at least some support from the circumstance that the latter town stands just at the source of the river
Sacco, called in ancient times the Trerus or Tolerus [
TRERUS].
The name of
Valmontone, is of modern origin, but it in all probability occupies an ancient site: some vestiges of its ancient walls are still visible, as well as some remains of Roman date, while the scarped sides of the rocks which surround it, and render the position one of great natural strength, abound in ancient sepulchres. Gell, however, regards it as the site of Vitellia rather than Tolerium, a conjecture which has also much to recommend it. [
VITELLIA]
Valmontone is 5 miles S. of
Palestrina and about 3 miles beyond
Lugnano, on the line of the modern Via Latina, and 26 from Rome. (Nibby,
Dintorni, vol. iii. pp. 370, 377; Gell,
Top. of Rome, p. 436; Abeken,
Mittel-Italien, p. 76.)
[
E.H.B]
