Nuceria, and was there divided a second time, one branch striking off through Picenum to Ancona ; from whence it followed the coast to Fanum Fortunæ; here it met the other branch, which passed the Apennines more to the north, and descended upon the sea by the pass of the Petra Pertusa and Forum Sempronii. These two roads thus reunited terminated at Ariminum. The following stations, according to the Itinerary of Antoninus, mark the track of the western route.

The eastern branch of this road is thus described

in the Antonine Itinerary.

From Ancona there was a road which kept along the coast of Picenum, and connected the Flaminian with the Salarian way. The Antonine Itinerary divides it into these stations.

The Table furnishes us with some cross-roads through different parts of Picenum. From Septempeda on the Via Flaminia to Asculum, as follows:

SECTION VII.

SABINI, ÆQUI, MARSI, PELIGNI, VESTINI, MARRUCINI.

History and topography of these several people in the order in which they are here placed-Roman ways.

THE Sabines appear to be generally considered one of the most ancient indigenous tribes of Italy, and one of the few who preserved their race pure and unmixed. (Strab. V. 228.) We are not to expect, however, that fiction should have been more sparing of its ornaments in setting forth their origin, than in the case of other nations far less interesting and less celebrated. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, among other traditions respecting the Sabines, mentions one which supposes them to have been a colony of the Lacedemonians about the time of Lycurgus, (II. 49.) a fable which has been eagerly caught up by the Latin poets and mythologists. (Sil. Ital. XV. 545. Ovid. Fast. I. 260. Hygin. ap. Serv. ad Æn. VIII. 638.)

Their name, according to Cato, was derived from the god Sabus, an aboriginal deity, supposed to be the same as the Medius Fidius of the Latins. His son Sancus was the Sabine Hercules a. (Varr. Ling. Lat. IV. 10.)

a In the Eugubian Tables he is styled Fijuvi and Fise Sabi, which Lanzi interprets Filius

Jovis, and Filius Sabi, vol. iii. p. 667.